Best Amp for under £1000

menamestom

+1 on the HRD.

2nd hand MJW

Loads of options.  Depends if you want a killer base tone to work from and add from there or one amp that does everything, like the Katana.   The Katana is great but I'd rather have a good valve amp and 1 or 2 pedals.

stratman3142

I like my Roland Blues Cube Artist 1x12.

I actually prefer it to an HRD, which I was using previously. It's also a lot lighter and has a usable overdrive sound. Although, for live, I use it clean with pedals.

Musicman20

I was gonna suggest this:

http://www.richtonemusic.co.uk/products/fender_68_custom_deluxe_reverb.asp?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Shopping&utm_term=1102300343257&utm_content=Catch All

...with pedals. BUT...it has increased by about £350 since I bought mine a few years back.....heck.

djab1111

Hi guys

Basically i have a budget somewhere between £500-2000 for an amp and pedals

I am an aspiring professional guitar player and i wish to be able to replicate many sounds with the amp i buy

Im not sure whether to go with a fender or vox (amps with famously good cleans) or to go down the marshall, victory, mesa boogie route. 

I have heard a lot about the mesa mark v but this is gonna be too much
A similar amp that has these sorts of wishes....
-nice clean channel
-multiple drive channels (modern / vintage - voicing switches)
-Something that could cover anything between rolling stones, hendrix, van halen, alice in chains - and also would be of use in a cover band or something playing funk or soul etc

i know these are a lot of requirements
im not sure whether to get a fender 68 reverb or a vox ac 15 or something and get the heavier overdrive sounds using pedals like the tube screamer, friedman be-od and the evh overdrive  OR to get a marshall or something

any ideas? 

TTBZ

Maybe not quite what you have in mind but if I was starting from scratch with a budget like that I'd at least try out a Helix (the new LT and a 2nd hand powered speaker should be in budget) or maybe the Yamaha THR100HD. They'll be more versatile than most amps and the flexibility of the Helix looks amazing plus I've hardly heard a bad review yet. If youre an aspiring pro musician it would make sense as well - the ability to have all your sounds at your feet and plug into anything.

The THR appeals more to a simpleton like me but the Helix really does seem awesome. If you definitely want a real amp then a Marshall JVM could be worth a look. 

ThePrettyDamned

Yeah, if replicating tones is your bag (I assume your in a covers band?) then you won't go wrong with a helix or Kemper. Brilliant for recording and pretty excellent for live. Saves lugging a load of gear around and you'll get all the rigs you need. 

Failing that, you could do a lot worse than a Laney vh100r. They're available for a good price second hand and are brilliant sounding with four channels. But then you'll need a cab, a pedalboard and pedals to cope other tones... Which brings us back to a helix. 

Musicman20

Hmmm....Boss Katana 100 (SERIOUSLY GOOD AMP!) and save the cash for lots of amazing pedals.

I use the Katana at home and I'm VERY impressed with it. Totally clean to full on...takes pedals, has good Boss effects built in, great build quality.

Marshall

"I'm going to go against the grain and say don't get a HRDx - I mostly hated mine."

I'm with TTBZ on this one - IME, sterile to the point of completely frigid! But then I guess perhaps that's the point - completely blank canvas for your pedals. Again, IME the drive channel is utterly hideous and unusable which I assume is why all the fans say they never use it -> clean channel for everything...

As others have pointed out, with a budget this size a very wide and open (and therefore difficult!) question to answer - and nice problem to have I might add! To begin narrowing down, start by answering the fundamental questions such as:

• How loud do you need to be? e.g. how big are the venues going to be? How loud is the rest of the band esp. the drummer?

• Do the other players use onstage amplification, fold back monitors, straight to PA with in-ears, etc?

• Are you more of an old-school analogue guy or modern digital type? 

• Does weight matter to you or will you have minions to do the grunt work?

• Will you need to use it for recording/studio work at some point?

• Exactly how versatile does it really need to be? 

These are just some examples and I've no doubt I missed some obvious ones, but hopefully you get the idea! If modern/digital is not anathema to you and you're not the type who simply must be moving serious air onstage, as others have pointed out, there are major advantages to having a very lightweight/compact rig that acts more like a Swiss army knife. Should you ever find yourself working with FOH guys you'll have a much easier ride of it as well! 

Good Luck!

ICBM

Marshall said:

"I'm going to go against the grain and say don't get a HRDx - I mostly hated mine."

I'm with TTBZ on this one - IME, sterile to the point of completely frigid! But then I guess perhaps that's the point - completely blank canvas for your pedals. Again, IME the drive channel is utterly hideous and unusable which I assume is why all the fans say they never use it -> clean channel for everything...

I like the drive channel - possibly more than the clean channel, which is perfectly usable but lacks character. The drive channel sounds great… because it sounds like an overdriven Fender. It does not sound like a Marshall/Mesa/Peavey/whatever 'normal' dirty amp - what it does is sound almost exactly like a Fender Tweed Deluxe, if you set it up right… and yes I have A/B'd this directly. But you can turn it down too.

Oddly enough the Blues Deluxe has a better clean channel but not quite as good a drive channel, unless it's turned up loud.

stratman3142

In defence of the HRD,  I gigged with an HRD3 for about 4 years and I found the clean channel to be  a good blank canvas for pedals. But I didn't like the stock speaker so I changed it, firstly to a Celestion V30 and then a Celestion V type, the latter of which worked best for me, which was influenced by the fact that the Mike Landau used V type Celestions.

The drive channel really wasn't to my taste and I never used it.

The differing opinions probably emphasise the fact that it's necessary to check the amps for yourself because we all have different tastes. Plus listen to guitarists who have a sound that you like and then check what gear they're using.

Teetonetal

Placidcasual79 said:

Get a Roland JC120 - totally solid and reliable, clean and chorus straight out the amp will cover your clean/funk stuff - then use pedals for your drives and distortions - the Roland is a great pedal platform and you'll have change left over from £1000 for a few nice pedals

Have you ever had to use drive pedals with one? A challenge.

thomasw88

Yamaha thr100 are not loud enough for live although you can di it to desk

Quilter pro block sounds as good if not better and is loud enough.

Valves Hughes kettner 2nd hand are very well priced

daveyh

ICBM said:

Marshall said:

"I'm going to go against the grain and say don't get a HRDx - I mostly hated mine."

I'm with TTBZ on this one - IME, sterile to the point of completely frigid! But then I guess perhaps that's the point - completely blank canvas for your pedals. Again, IME the drive channel is utterly hideous and unusable which I assume is why all the fans say they never use it -> clean channel for everything...

I like the drive channel - possibly more than the clean channel, which is perfectly usable but lacks character. The drive channel sounds great… because it sounds like an overdriven Fender. It does not sound like a Marshall/Mesa/Peavey/whatever 'normal' dirty amp - what it does is sound almost exactly like a Fender Tweed Deluxe, if you set it up right… and yes I have A/B'd this directly. But you can turn it down too.

Oddly enough the Blues Deluxe has a better clean channel but not quite as good a drive channel, unless it's turned up loud.

Yeah, I had a HRD and had no problem with the drive channel, liked it too as it was exactly that, an overdriven Fender. I couldn't see why people react against it unless They do seem to expect it to sound like a Marshsll.

TTBZ

I should have given the drive channel more of a chance, to be fair I thought it was alright if you eq'd it for that rather than the clean and boosted with a tubescreamer to tighten it up for heavier stuff. I had mine before I discovered to joy of cleaning up with the guitar volume so I wanted it as a channel switcher I guess. I'm always more partial to marshall tones though.

stratman3142

daveyh said:

Yeah, I had a HRD and had no problem with the drive channel, liked it too as it was exactly that, an overdriven Fender. I couldn't see why people react against it unless They do seem to expect it to sound like a Marshsll.

I didn't expect it to sound like a Marshall, but it still wasn't a sound that worked for me.

And I really like some of the classic Fender overdrive sounds I can get from the Fender 2 collection from the Amplitube ampsim. The HRD drive didn't sound anything like that to me. But it's just down to personal taste.

Whereas the HRD clean channel can sound great with the right speaker.

mudslide73

I've had a JC120 and a HRDv - The JC120 can sound a bit more convincing by mixing the on board drive with pedals but this very much reduces the flexibility. The Hotrods do respond to a speaker change (I tried V30s, G12Hs and Weber 12f150s) but they couldn't really do what I needed. The clean sound with the Webers was very lovely though.

BBBlues

Fender type cleans amp + stomp boxes would be my choice. Deluxe reverb or twin + boost, a TS type pedal and MIAB that all stack well. Throw in a delay pedal with pre-sets and maybe a some mod options and you're set.

Cacofonix

djab1111 said:

Hi guys

Basically i have a budget somewhere between £500-2000 for an amp and pedals

I am an aspiring professional guitar player and i wish to be able to replicate many sounds with the amp i buy

Im not sure whether to go with a fender or vox (amps with famously good cleans) or to go down the marshall, victory, mesa boogie route. 

I have heard a lot about the mesa mark v but this is gonna be too much
A similar amp that has these sorts of wishes....
-nice clean channel
-multiple drive channels (modern / vintage - voicing switches)
-Something that could cover anything between rolling stones, hendrix, van halen, alice in chains - and also would be of use in a cover band or something playing funk or soul etc

i know these are a lot of requirements
im not sure whether to get a fender 68 reverb or a vox ac 15 or something and get the heavier overdrive sounds using pedals like the tube screamer, friedman be-od and the evh overdrive  OR to get a marshall or something

any ideas? 

Mesa Nomad 45 for versatility of that kind.  Mine's for sale but as a 4x10 it's a bit cumbersome to lug around.  There's usually a 1x12 knocking about and prices are good.

ChrisCox1994

If you have to have drive from the amp (pedals are SO good these days - and helps when using hired in / shared backline as certain gigs!) then theres loads of reasonably prices options that people have come up with already.

Mesas are dead cheap for what they are 2nd hand, but for the range of tones you're wanting to achieve a good powerful clean platform with a few choice pedals would be the most cost effective and versatile setup I'd say.