Help Make Me Loud - Amp Recommendations?

[Kill Me Sarah]

So I actually found a drummer to play music with, and over the coming months I might actually think about doing some open mics or something. So far, I always do all my recording through my Toneport UXII, so I use it's amp models. If I'm going to play with other people (or in FRONT of people) I'm going to need to pick up an amp. Can anyone suggest anything good for a relative noob (when it comes to performing live)? I don't want to get the cheapest thing just cuz it's cheapest, but I also don't want a $2000 Marshall (well, I want one...).

I will probably play primarily acoustically, but even I like to plug in a distortion pedal now and then...

[Billy's Little Trip]

If your looking for a combo, then Fender has a remake of it's old twin reverb for around $1,200 at guitar center. I've seen them for under $1,000. Very nice sound on it's own, but just plug in the FX you're used to. Easy to cart around to gigs and powerful enough for any club.

[Kill Me Sarah]

If your looking for a combo, then Fender has a remake of it's old twin reverb for around $1,200 at guitar center. I've seen them for under $1,000. Very nice sound on it's own, but just plug in the FX you're used to. Easy to cart around to gigs and powerful enough for any club.

That looks tasty, I think a little more that I want to spend still though. A $1200 amp would be more valuable that all the rest of my other equipment combined, I don't want to give my other gear a complex

I'd like to top out at around $500 if possible. Anything decent in that range?

[Billy's Little Trip]

I've also played on the Fender Ultimate Chorus. It is kind of a less expensive version of the original and it's solid state, but only like $600. It sounds really good. But I'm sure you will always pay for the fender name. I've just always had great luck with the small fender tube combos. They always sound great and never break. There are a ton of cheap amps, like Crate. Just go to guitar center and have at it.

edit: I just googled to see exactly how much the ultimate chorus was going for, and I came across one on Craig's list for $300. I just emailed him, I'm going to buy it, lol.

[Kill Me Sarah]

I've also played on the Fender Ultimate Chorus. It is kind of a less expensive version of the original and it's solid state, but only like $600. It sounds really good. But I'm sure you will always pay for the fender name. I've just always had great luck with the small fender tube combos. They always sound great and never break. There are a ton of cheap amps, like Crate. Just go to guitar center and have at it.

edit: I just googled to see exactly how much the ultimate chorus was going for, and I came across one on Craig's list for $300. I just emailed him, I'm going to buy it, lol.

Sweet! I'll give you $200 for it!

[ken]

I'm not sure how loud you want to be. I'll post some recommendations below, but I wouldn't buy any of this new. I would recommend you try to get a tube amp. Start checking Craigslist for a used Fender Twin. You can usually find the reissues around your price range.

Fender Hot Rod Deluxe amp

You can often find the older tweed version of the Peavey Classic 50 cheap used.

Here is some stuff currently on craigslist in your area.

Lunkhead recently bought the 1x12 version of this Marshall Amp

You'd have to get a cabinet to go with this Sovtek Mig 100, but it would be SCREAMING loud.

Oh damn, a used Fender Bassman 4x10 is a sweet amp.

This used Peavey 5150 would be a great amp for shredding. All the hardcore kids use them.

Good luck!

Ken

[Paco Del Stinko]

Ha! I thought of the Fender Twin as well: very versatile and plenty loud. Ken's got some good suggestions up there, it looks like. Tube it up if you can, though, and think about how long you may want the amp, as getting a nicer one now could be all you need for a long time.

[Kill Me Sarah]

Wow, way to go the extra mile Ken That's awesome, I'm gonna look into a couple of those.

Besides tube, can you tell me any other types of specs I should look at when looking at amps?

[signboy]

pff... this is the new age! get the foot controllers for your toneport, and plug your laptop directly into the house sound or some other speakers.

[bz£]

Wow, way to go the extra mile Ken That's awesome, I'm gonna look into a couple of those.

Besides tube, can you tell me any other types of specs I should look at when looking at amps?

Specs are misleading-- try and play through it before buying if you can. Music stores will let you, craigslist folks might not want you wasting their time if you aren't buying. Actually, you should do this anyway, if you're not used to playing through an amp. Go to your local music store and fiddle for a while because it is not the same as running through a POD into your computer, or whatever. Experience will give you a better feel for what you're looking for and what you like.

Vacuum tubes will make an amp more expensive but you might also find that a solid-state amp is good enough for your needs. Don't rule it out just because tubes are cooler (they are).

Probably what you'll want is a "combo," which means the amplifier circuitry and the speaker are in the same box. This is also less cooler than buying the two separately but it is a lot cheaper and more portable.

Anyway, the "specs" don't usually mean a whole lot. Wattage is especially crazy, it has very little correlation with "how loud" an amp actually is. Just make sure that most of the knobs do something when you turn them and that it isn't too heavy to lift.

Amps tend to hold their value pretty well, so if you do buy something and hate it, odds are you won't lose too much if you turn around and sell it later.

[Kill Me Sarah]

Thanks for the tips. I always feel self-conscious testing out amps at music stores because it's not exactly like I can shred or anything, but I guess I should buck up and and do it.

[Märk]

I feel self-conscious testing out amps at the music store, too, and I can shred.

Get a Crate. They're inexpensive, built like a tank, and sound fantastic.

[Dan-O from Five-O]

pff... this is the new age! get the foot controllers for your toneport, and plug your laptop directly into the house sound or some other speakers.

This is seriously bad advice. Just pushing your sound which you haven't discovered yet and are asking for advice on and trusting that "house sound or some other speakers" will be adequate is musical suicide. This is especially true when you consider the multiple gain sources involved in the above setup. (Guitar, TonePort, Laptop, Mixer, and Amplifier to the Speakers)

First, your sound. You need to decide now what you want to sound like. You may not have the chops now, but who knows, in time maybe? Here's a question, do you desire to be a lead player or rhythm? I'll take a stab and say rhythm. So you need 2 basic sounds for rhythm, clean and crunch. Clean sounds something like this where as crunch might sound something like this. You can build on these with your own aforementioned footpedals or by incorporating the POD unit, or both.

Second, the reason most people are suggesting Fender amps are because they are notoriously clean amps, and mostly utilize tubes which do sound better than solid state amps despite anyone's protestations to the contrary. Solid state amps have gotten better with the advent of tube "pre" drivers and such but IMHO, an all tube sound is best. Unfortunately as previously stated, it cost's more money. So what's a guy to do? Well for me, here's your answer. It's only 5 watts but you don't need much more than that right now. You definitely don't need 85 watts of Fender Twin coming at the crowd. My solution is $200 of all tube Fender quality that can be expanded upon with an external speaker or simply used with a Shure sm57 in front of it to avoid that whole nasty running direct thing I advised you against at the front of this post.

To me this a cheap out for you. The only issue you will have is keeping up with the drummer sound wise. You can better your odds of doing this by asking your drummer to play with brushes or maybe even covering his drum heads with some sort of deadening application like towels or something. A quick search of E-Bay shows this amp currently holding at least half of it's original value.

There is so much more I could say but I should stop before I sound like a Fender rep or something.

[Caravan Ray]

Just a thought - but I play open mic nights quite a bit (when I can), and I have no amp. I just roll up with a guitar and plug into whatever is available. Then I get pissed and walk or catch the bus home. Hard to do that if you are lugging a lot of hardware.

[Dan-O from Five-O]

Just a thought - but I play open mic nights quite a bit (when I can), and I have no amp. I just roll up with a guitar and plug into whatever is available. Then I get pissed and walk or catch the bus home. Hard to do that if you are lugging a lot of hardware.

Agreed, but a guitar and a little 5 watt amp not only balances the left to right load, but should also be easy to carry.

Unless he's a complete wuss.

[Caravan Ray]

Just a thought - but I play open mic nights quite a bit (when I can), and I have no amp. I just roll up with a guitar and plug into whatever is available. Then I get pissed and walk or catch the bus home. Hard to do that if you are lugging a lot of hardware.

Agreed, but a guitar and a little 5 watt amp not only balances the left to right load, but should also be easy to carry.

Unless he's a complete wuss.

Yes - and I actually do like you 5W amp suggestion. If I were to decide I needed an amp - that is probably what I would get

[ken]

In general, if you are playing with a band, you want around a 50 watt amp and one or two 12 inch speakers. Personally, I have a vintage Fender Princeton which is 18 watts with one 10" speaker. I can rarely raise the volume above 3 even for shows. Tube watts are louder than solid state watts. I really enjoyed playing Jack Shite's Mesa Boogie .22 Caliber. It had like three channels.

I'm kind of hesitant to recommend this, but since you use the toneport anyway, have you looked into the Line 6 amps? Sure they are solid state, but they are cheap and will probably give you the exact sounds you made on the computer.

Also, if you are the handy type who likes a challenge and is pretty good with a soldering iron, there are a lot of 5e3 kits out there. You could build your own Fender Deluxe clone.

[Kill Me Sarah]

First, your sound. You need to decide now what you want to sound like. You may not have the chops now, but who knows, in time maybe? Here's a question, do you desire to be a lead player or rhythm? I'll take a stab and say rhythm. So you need 2 basic sounds for rhythm, clean and crunch. Clean sounds something like this where as crunch might sound something like this. You can build on these with your own aforementioned footpedals or by incorporating the POD unit, or both.

99% of my songs are written on acoustic guitar. Stylistically, I lean toward an acoustic or clean electric indie-pop sound (dare I say, twee). This is a prime exampleof the music I'm into and where my style has been going lately.

I have a Made in Korea Fender Acoustic-Electric (DG10CE). Whenever I've plugged it into a bigger amp or PA, it's been a nightmare for getting feedback when using the onboard electronics, so something like that 5 Watt might be excellent. I also have an SX solid-body.

[Rabid Garfunkel]

Why's the VOX Valvetronix line left out of this Fender love-fest? Modeling amps with some tube fakery thrown in. Rather fond of my AD50VT.

[Billy's Little Trip]

One thing to add about watts and power. As stated, tube amps and solid state amps measure up different. In my personal experience, it almost doubles. IE: a 50 watt Marshal tube amp is like a 100 watt Marshal solid state. Maybe not double, but it seems like it.

Next. Just because you have a lot of watts, doesn't mean that you need it to be loud. It's there for head room. I personally can't get the sound I like without it, even though I never need to turn up past 4 or 5 at a gig. These days I'm mic'd to the house PA, so all I'm doing is getting my tone, using it as a monitor (my drummer plays loud) and it gives a nice center channel feel/sound to the house system.

[Lunkhead]

99% of my songs are written on acoustic guitar. Stylistically, I lean toward an acoustic or clean electric indie-pop sound (dare I say, twee). This is a prime exampleof the music I'm into and where my style has been going lately.

I have a Made in Korea Fender Acoustic-Electric (DG10CE). Whenever I've plugged it into a bigger amp or PA, it's been a nightmare for getting feedback when using the onboard electronics, so something like that 5 Watt might be excellent. I also have an SX solid-body.

If you want to play acoustic and be heard over a drummer, you may either need an amp designed for acoustic guitar (eg this) or a nice preamp to plug your acoustic into (like a TubeMP) and a loud PA. Plugging your acoustic into any amp that's designed for electric guitars is probably going to result in the same kind of issues you've already experienced at louder-than-drum-kit volumes. If you're playing with a drummer and trying to do the "band" thing, you should maybe focus on figuring out how to translate your music so it will sound good on an electric guitar, and leave the acoustic for solo gigs and recording.

One thing about tube amps is that the sound gets distorted if you crank them way way up. I have that 30-watt tube 1x12" Marshall combo that Ken mentioned, and while it got pretty loud I frankly felt like I couldn't turn it up high enough to be heard over drums and still have the pristine clean sound that I wanted at that volume. So you may actually want something with more watts if you want the sound to stay pristine at high volumes. Ken's tiny amp is insanely loud, though, so maybe there's something wrong with my Marshall, I don't know. I don't really have a lot of experience with tube amps.

[Billy's Little Trip]

So you may actually want something with more watts if you want the sound to stay pristine at high volumes. Ken's tiny amp is insanely loud, though, so maybe there's something wrong with my Marshall, I don't know. I don't really have a lot of experience with tube amps.

That's the watt thing I was mentioning. Also, from what you just said, you may have a bad tube(s) and you might want to get a new tube pack. There are many to choose from. You said that you like the higher cleaner sound, you might want to install a high gain kit. Groove tubes will run you about $100 for the kit, but you can find a good tube pack for about $50.

edit: I take that back. I just googled and found the Groove Tubes for $65.