What guitar amp should I buy?

[Alex]

Wasn't really sure where this should go, but I thought I'd probably get the most responses in here, so here's where it is unless anyone wants to move it...

Anyway, I want a new guitar amp (having sold my last one, which was, lets face it, nasty). I've got probably a theoretical maximum of £300, but would hope to be spending more like £200-£250, and almost certainly buying second hand. I wan't it ideally to be all valve driven, have an FX loop and external output (this ones a necessity), and at least have a clean/drive channel.

At the moment I am basically thinking of going with a Marshall DSL 401 as I know I really like the marshall sound and they go for about £275 on eBay. Problem is, I don't really know what my other choices are in this area of expenditure, the only other thing I am considering at the moment is saving money by getting a Valvestate amp instead of a proper all valve amp.

Does anyone have any other suggestions? What else should I be looking at on eBay, to see if I can get it cheap? I'm looking for the same kind of tone as Guns 'n Roses, Creed, U2, Switchfoot etc.

[Ramedge]

what size amp is it you want?
do you want a stack
or just a big practice amp/combo?

Laney do some really good valve amps -
Marshall are also quite good, but it maybe worth looking at slightly cheaper makes like ashdown.

[ikonia]

drop the valves, yes they are better but they add a lot onto the budget and the price effects them.

[Kezzer]

I've tried a lot of amps, from the fender series with 6 valves to the transistor state DFX series of marshall. Currently I have one amp, a valvestate marshall. Personally I prefer (by far) valvestate as opposed to sold valve and I hate transistor amps, they have a horrible sound. Don't buy one before trying it, go to a shop somewhere and try out the amps and see what sound you like most. It depends on what style you play mainly in my opinion.

Also, don't worry about a stack, stacks tend to be fads nowadays, people like them 'cause of the look when it fact they can be pretty pointless. A hybrid valve or valvestate amp would be just fine.

The exact model of mine is an AVT-275, over your budget but they do the same range but smaller models for around your budget.

Just checked, you can get the AVT-275 for £375 now, when I got mine it was £600 when they first came out

But yeh, up to you, try them out first, I love the sound of mine compared to most amps

[mmh]

okay...

DONT GO valvestate, and DONT GO DSL combo... both of those amps suck, i have had both... the dsl needs a speaker change to be usable on anything other than clean, the stock speaker just doesnt cut it, it fizzs, then after a speaker change after a few month of use its going to overheat and schorch the PCB.

right... with that amount of money there are a few good options, especially second hand route, the best way to go tbh.

right, my personal fave for that amount, the Peavey classic 30, perfectly loud enough for nearly any situation, dont let wattage fool you, the difference between 50 watt and 100 watt, is not 2x the volume like most people thinkk, its ONLY 3db difference...

dont let wattage worry you, if its all valve and 30 watt, u can crank it til u got nothing left and its always gonna sound good, all the way up, whereas with solidstate or hybrid, u are going to NEED more wattage, not because it'll be louder, but the fact its gonna distort the poweramp in a harsh nasty way rather than a smooth tubelike power overdrive.

the peavey is a nice blend of gained distortion and a nice smooth clean tone. it also comes in a nice tweed covering and looks the business!

right, that not your bag? okay what else do we have:

It would take some shopping around to get for £300, ur lookin more £350-£400, but an amazing amp, would be the fender hotrod deluxe, theyre very nice amps, sparkly cleans and a nice bright overdrive.

Something else to look out for woud be the laney combo GH30 - theyre also nice amps, bit bluesy but can work for anything (our guitarist uses the head version in a metal band) and they should be well within you'r price range.

hope this helps, if u need any more info/help, gimme a shout, amps/fx are my forté.

Ste

[Kezzer]

Makes me wonder what valvestate you've tried then, I know someone who had a JCM-900 and 800 setup and moved to Valvestate due to its amazing tone.

[Ramedge]

The marshall vavlestates arnt great
They say it was a "Valve Pre-amp" - but where?? i seen no valve.

[mmh]

Makes me wonder what valvestate you've tried then, I know someone who had a JCM-900 and 800 setup and moved to Valvestate due to its amazing tone.

ive tried both the older marshall VS series valvestates, the AVT range (worse than the VS IMO) and also the vox valvetronix - not bad, still a modelling amp though, i also tried the laney TF series, which were probably the worst ive tried.

all these amps are mediocre at bedroom levels, but anything over half volume and theyre screwed, the power amp clips terribly.
ive had 3 JCM900's (2 50watt, 1 100watt), which blows the valvestate AWAY totally, ive also had a DSL, TSL, a line 6 spider, and for a VERY short time i had an AVT amp, but they blow chunks, the clipping is terrible.

[Alex]

Thanks for your input so far guys...

Right, I do want a combo, and less than 50W ideally if 'tis to be a valve amp (so I can push the valves a bit for luscious sound).

I've only really tried out the Valvestate ones (which were OK, but not amazing), a Marshall JTM 30 (really nice, but my housemate already has one so I want something slightly different) and a Fender Pro Junior (which I really didn't like at all - I preferred the valvestate one to this tbh).

The Peavey and Laney (did you mean LC30? I can't find any reference to a GH30...) look interesting, but I really do need an external output to a mixing desk, and can't always mic up the amp instead, and I'm not sure these have an external output. A DI out would be by far the best, but am I hoping for too much here? Basically I'd love a Marshall JTM 30 that wasn't a Marshall JTM 30 and had an FX loop and FX mix option, but I can't find one

[Alex]

Actually, looking at the Ashdown Peacemaker series is interesting... thoughts?

[mmh]

theres the LC30... i meant the VC30 though, not GH, ah well.

so u want an amp thats an amp, but not that amp...

hmm...

i guess u want a marshall because u like the way the marshall sounds... hmm... theres not alot else that sounds like a marshall, so, i spose u like the JTM30, u may aswell go JTM30 even though ur friend has one... different players sound different even through the same equipment anyways.

[mmh]

the peacemaker series is a line ive not had much experience with personally. so im not going to give u a judgement on them, as par say u might like them, but have a preconcieved image of what theyre like from me before u use one.

[Alex]

Thanks, thats lots of help. I will shop around and see if I can find one - and I think I'll see if there's anywhere I can demo any of the Ashdown series of amps as well.

Cheers guys.

[mmh]

well, theres a soundcontrol in bristol, and they stock ashdown peacemakers. so in ur term time when u get chance u might wanna check them out there.

[Alex]

Well, I went in today to look at various amps - I'm thinking I might get a Valvetronix 50W combo - it was really nice on loads of different clean sounds, but I dtill want to play around more with the distorted sounds and see what I can get from it "Marshall crunch"-wise. I did quite like the sound of the Valvestate amps, but not for the money when compared to the Valvetronix - the Valvestates were much more expensive and did less. I wouldn't be that convinced by the Valvetronix compared to any proper Valve amp that I've tried, but the 50W (which is plenty loud) is under £200 new which is a real uber-bargain imo.

Just thought I'd post this in case anyone else is looking at amps atm.

[mmh]

they are nice amps, the broadway, a local venue use them for thier jamnight amps, and we have played through them live for jams a couple of times, they work well, but i prefer to have my own amp. but yea, u can get nice sounds out of them, especially at bedroom levels.