On Guitar Amps

liquidlogan

So I finally (hurray!) decided to take the plunge and buy myself an electric guitar. I've decided upon an Epiphone Les Paul Standard (I'm still trying to decide whether or not for an extra 70 bucks I should get the herritage sunburst vs. the black for cheaper, but that is another matter).

Now, I've neglected doing as much research on amps as I have on guitars. I don't need something spectacular (I'm not going to be playing any big live shows in the near future), but I have tested some amps out in store.

Most of the music I play tends to be classic rock stuff, some Beatles stuff, the Doors, and (of the more modern stuff) anything from Nirvana and Soundgarden to Radiohead. The Smiths and The Cure are always welcome as well. I tend to like the sound of clean guitars more so than crunchy metal stuff (although the option for some degree of distortion would be welcome). I'm not sure if I'm asking for too much but thats where you guys come in. Also, headphone output is a must.

The first AMP I tried was a Marshall 15w amp and, it has to be said, I hated it. It sounded hollow and tinny and, quite frankly, I was underwhelmed. Then I played around with a 50w Vox amp (I believe it was the AD50VT) which, if I am to understand correctly, it is a hybrid amp with both tubes and solid-state components. To be quite honest, I liked the sound of it a lot. As point of comparisson, I also tried the Vox 30w model and was relatively underwhelmed (but it might have been the setup, I'm not sure).

Now so far I've only tried out Vox amps (and a more expensive Marshall that I could never afford), but I'm open to suggestions as I really am not 100% sure what will suit me. I know I want something I can grow in to as I can better, which is why I liked the idea of the AD50VT. But again, I'm definitely open to suggestsions. My budget is around 500 in Canadian funny money but I can swing more if I feel the value is something worthwhile.

Edit: Also, I'm not a shredder so lets get that out of the way. I don't plan on lighting my guitar on fire. I basically play rythm guitar most always along with vocals.

TL;DR: I need a good amp. Help.

Mishra

The Fender blues Jr is a great amp for about $450 new. I got my Mesa Boogie Nomad 45 for about $600 used though it was a bit of a steal

romanqwerty

If your looking for something cheap, i got a fender squire amp (15w) with my first electric guitar ( also a LP). It was 110$(AUD) but well worth it. While i never turn it up very loud,(i live in apt and have neighbors) it will go quite loud. More importantly it has all the things i need in an amp, (good sound quality, a seperate channel for overdrive, more knobs then i know what to do with :P ....etc) Very good amp for the money. I dont have any pedals though so i dont know how that sounds with any and i have noticed the overdrive sounding rough if the bass is turned way above the middle and trebble.

tldr: (try a fender squire, i love mine).

Pheezer

romanqwerty wrote: »

If your looking for something cheap, i got a fender squire amp (15w) with my first electric guitar ( also a LP). It was 110$(AUD) but well worth it. While i never turn it up very loud,(i live in apt and have neighbors) it will go quite loud. More importantly it has all the things i need in an amp, (good sound quality, a seperate channel for overdrive, more knobs then i know what to do with :P ....etc) Very good amp for the money. I dont have any pedals though so i dont know how that sounds with any and i have noticed the overdrive sounding rough if the bass is turned way above the middle and trebble.

tldr: (try a fender squire, i love mine).

It's like you didn't even fucking read a word he wrote. Bravo.

It sounds like the OP has learned a preference for tube amps. Tubes are nice. I like them. The problem is they cost more and if you're moving your amp around a lot you're going to have to replace tubes more regularly than you otherwise might and no matter what, tube replacement will always be an ongoing cost.

I typically suggest staying right away from a lot of the obvious brand names. You'll find typically that you pay a lot for the Marshall, Fender, Mesa Boogie and Gibson names and get an amp that a manufacturer like Crate, or Vox, or Peavey might be able to sell you for a decent chunk of money less. I also personally really don't care for Line6 but that's up to you to discover for yourself.

Part of it really does come down to money. I'd strongly suggest looking around for something used if you have the cash as you'll pay more or less what you'll be able to sell it for later on in life. That's really nice. To this end, it's important to go out and try out a wider variety of amps/manufacturers than you otherwise might just so that you know whether or not it's going to be worth it to drive out to check out that used amp on craigslist. I'd also suggest touring your local pawn shops.

Test everything thorough on used gear, and flick the knobs left and right. If you get static, the pots are dirty and it's probably just a matter of blowing them out with compressed air, but you can insist that the pots are "no good" and get maybe $20 or $50 off the price to have them taken care of "by a professional" (note: It's pretty fucking easy to blow compressed air into a potentiometer). It's a bit of a dick move, but you really might end up getting the pots serviced by a real pro and anyhow, pawn shops typically have it coming.

shutz

Since you're going to be playing some pretty varied stuff (going from The Beatles to Radiohead) you might want to look into getting a cheaper amp and investing on a multi-FX unit. In that case, make sure the amp's clean sound is as transparent as possible (meaning that it doesn't color the sound too much, just reproduces whatever your guitar or fx unit outputs. There's also some good amps that have an integrated multi-fx unit (Line-6 amps, for instance, usually contain the same processors and effects they put in their standalone "POD" units, but there's others.)

Solid-state amps and multi-fx units won't ever give you as much warmth as a real tube amp with a retro-sounding spring reverb, but the trade-in comes with versatility and consistency (it will always sound the same, whereas tubes can sound different from time to time.)

If you're not going to be playing live or practicing with a full band, you don't really need anything more than 30W. Any more, and you won't be able to use it at a lower volume at home when practicing. Get a practice amp, and when you get your first live gigs, rent some bigger amps, try different models from gig to gig, and then buy the model you liked the most.

Of course a 15W amp will sound tinny, especially if you try a 50W amp right after. The bigger the amp, the deeper it will sound. When trying amps out, play with the tone controls until you get the sound you like. Stores will sometimes set the cheaper amps to really bad settings, and set the bigger amps up better, to convince you to spend more. And since more "clueless" beginners will try the cheaper amps, they will also play with the tone controls to the point where the amp will sound shittier than it has to, while more seasoned musicians won't waste time with the cheaper stuff, and try the better stuff (in the process, setting them up better.)

There's also the question of which amps sound better with your guitar. A friend of mine has a Fender Mustang that has this shimmery, very tinny, treble-y sound. That guitar tends to sound better when the amp is good at reproducing that shimmery sound, otherwise it devolves into a tinny-sounding mess.

Your Epiphone will probably have a deeper sound, though.

Pheezer

Multi effect pedals are horseshit and always sound like multi effect pedals. Don't waste your time on them.

You don't even need a wide range of effects anyhow, and a mid-range tube amp will be able to produce a wide, wide variety of tones. The only thing you won't get out of one is a really crisp sounding crunch but you're not going to be covering a lot of motley crue anyhow, now are you

Buy used, get a decent brand and don't spend too much money on name alone. Marshall hasn't even made an amp worthy of their reputation in a decade anyhow.

Murago

Vox AD30 - 2x12 combo amp. I had this baby for just about a year. It made my ears happy. It's got everything you need right there for effects, and if you like changing effects quickly, pick up the footswitch selector. Its probably one of the best amps i've heard reproduce tube like qualities. Great for the kind of music you are looking to play.

Quirk

Depending on where you are, there might be decent amps which sell for less because they're local or whatever. For example here in the UK Laney amps tend to be cheaper than other places because they're made here and whatnot. Pheezer seems to know what's up though, brand doesn't always mean its good.

If you're looking for a slightly cleaner sound maybe look into some or the smaller Orange amps, they tend to sound very nice to me and don't seem to be ridiculously priced

liquidlogan

Thanks for your help everyone.

I was actually hoping to be able to find a nice Vox amp used and the AD30 and AD50 seem to be right up my alley. I'll definitely look into Peavy and Crate. I kind of passed them by without a thought but I'll take them into consideration.

About Line 6. I got to play the 75w Spider III amp and, although it was fun to play with the amp models, it did seem a bit overpriced compared to other amps (omg led lights and a tuner! lets charge more) My friend, who may or may not be correct, was telling me that in his opinion line 6 is far to crunchy for the stuff I want to play. In his words, "you don't want to shred, so why buy a shredder's amp?" Is there any truth to that opinion in terms of line 6? Also, out of curiosity though of course I'm going to go give it a go before I make my final decision, why weren't you fond of the Line6 series?

Edit: I'm in Toronto and, quite frankly, I'm not sure if that means much in terms of cheaper amps (other than taking advantage of the parity with the American dollar)

Quirk

The Problem with line 6 typically is it's hard to get a decent clean or jangly tone out of them (at least in my experience) which it seems you'd want, so I'd avoid them

Pheezer

Actually I'd strongly suggest looking at the larger Traynor models. Traynor is based in Ontario and makes some decent amps, and you should get a good price on them based on locality. You'll definitely want to buy a larger one, their practice amps are underwhelming, but with a bit of headroom you can get a really nice tone out of one (although I'm not sure they make tube amps).

Line6 is basically crap. They're trying to replicate better amps with digital effects, and at higher volumes it falls apart really badly. You can tell the difference easily. Don't spend extra money on something that's trying to sound like fundamentally better hardware than is contained in the Line6 unit. If you want something that can switch styles and you're recording a record that you're just going to fuck with and pitch correct and quantize anyhow, you've got nothing to lose. But if you've got a pair, get a real amp. Also they do a MUCH better job of emulating solid state amps than tube, and as a result you can expect shredders to use them much more often because that's what the shredder sound is.

I would basically suggest that you keep shopping around until you find something that you love, and check Craig's list and so forth for your area and for some of the American cities across the border. Might be worth a day trip to save a hundred bucks, right?

Dehumanized

Try out the Peavey Classic 30 if you can find one. It's pretty inexpensive for a tube amp and sounds fantastic.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Peavey-Classic-30112-Tube-Amp-Combo-?sku=481014

I purchased one a few years back from a local store at $400 plus sales tax. Only real complaint I could possibly lodge about it is that it lacks seperate EQ controls for the clean and overdriven channels.

Vater5B

Pheezer wrote: »

Multi effect pedals are horseshit and always sound like multi effect pedals. Don't waste your time on them.

THIS x1000.

Same for modeling amps.

liquidlogan

Vater5B wrote: »

Same for modeling amps.

Well, pedals were never even included in the mix at this point, especially not a multi-fx pedal so thats not a problem.

Is your basic complaint the standard, general criticism of modeling amps? How modeling amps are never going to sound like the original amp they attempt to replicate because of obvious speaker configrations and so on?


I'll add Treynor to the list of stuff to check out at the shop. Thanks for that.

Monger

liquidlogan wrote: »

I was actually hoping to be able to find a nice Vox amp used and the AD30 and AD50 seem to be right up my alley. I'll definitely look into Peavy and Crate. I kind of passed them by without a thought but I'll take them into consideration.

Honestly? I've never heard a low end Peavy or Crate that didn't sound like salty ass, though I don't recall ever hearing a low end tube amp from either. Their higher end tube stuff sounds much better, especially considering how much cheaper they are than something from Marshall/Fender/Mesa.

liquidlogan wrote: »

About Line 6. I got to play the 75w Spider III amp and, although it was fun to play with the amp models, it did seem a bit overpriced compared to other amps (omg led lights and a tuner! lets charge more) My friend, who may or may not be correct, was telling me that in his opinion line 6 is far to crunchy for the stuff I want to play. In his words, "you don't want to shred, so why buy a shredder's amp?" Is there any truth to that opinion in terms of line 6? Also, out of curiosity though of course I'm going to go give it a go before I make my final decision, why weren't you fond of the Line6 series?

Yes and no. Modellers tend to have a kind of cold, sterile, harsh sound to them on account of being digital. That complements technical metal because it's very clear. Same rationale for EMG pickups, actually. It's completely not what you're looking for.

Multi-effects are kind of the same way. They're good for playing around with if you have no idea what you're looking for, but aren't really that functional.

Like somebody mentioned earlier, every amp reacts differently to different guitars, so the best thing to do is really take yours up to your local Guitar Center/whatever (or find one in the store) and try it through everything. IIRC, a Les Paul is going to react better to a deeper/fuller sounding amp, like a Mesa or an older Marshall. Most Fenders are probably going to be a bad idea.

As for recommendations... The Fender Blues Jr. is good for just about anything. Someone mentioned Orange amps, which are awesome and one of the smaller combos would be good to try out. Most any Vox is a good idea. Their hybrid modellers are great, actually. The tubes actually avoid that-modelling-sound very well. Cheap, too.

My amp is a Marshall DSL 401 and I love it with all of my soul. May or may not be your preference.