Vale amp under £450, any suggestions?

Arktik83

OK so I'm sans valve amp now and I'm going to be sans amp as the Blues Cube Hot is going back to Amazon as whilst it's a great piece of kit, just not feeling it's tone at the moment so I'm looking for something valvey.

So far I've looked at a HT5, Laney L5, Egnater Tweaker 15, Blackstar HT1R, Fender super champ X2.  The usual haunts that I have had before and moved on.  

Any other suggestions on a decent valve amp with a good master volume for under £450?  Something not too heavy and not too bassy as I don't want to be making the floor boards rattle. 

I don't need it to do metal, I'd like something with a nice warm clean tone that sounds good at low-ish volumes and takes pedals well. 

I had a Laney Cub 12R and that was pretty fun because of the >1w setting but it sounded decent to my ears in general. 10-12" speaker ideally.  There seems to be a real dearth of second hand non-boutique valve amps at the moment

I don't have a cab so would need to be a combo ideally. 

Cheers!

ICBM

Jet City 20W of one type or another. You'll get a head and 1x12" cab for well under £450 - new - they do make combos but they seem harder to find.

Arktik83

ICBM said:

Jet City 20W of one type or another. You'll get a head and 1x12" cab for well under £450 - they do make combos but they seem harder to find.

Good shout, I had a HV version and a Harley Benton cab and it sounded boss at low volumes. 

Boromedic

This one in the classifieds is a bargain, gorgeous cleans at all volumes and loves pedals:

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/comment/1509314/#Comment_1509314

Cirrus

Thanks @Boromedic ; and you couldn't buy an amp from a nicer guy 

But seriously, pm if you've got any questions about it Arktik83.

Exorcist

I've got a tweaker 15 and can vouch for it sounding great at low volumes, It has a very good master volume with a nice taper. Sounds good clean and fine with pedals (OCD and Suhr Riot), low gain setting with the gain cranked, and boosted with a TS is a very nice thing indeed.

rico

Marshall DSL201 or 401 with a speaker upgrade and some mods to sort out the known issues

ICBM

rico said:

Marshall DSL201 or 401 with a speaker upgrade and some mods to sort out the known issues

401, not 201. The 201 is crap, for two reasons - no OD1 mode, and a very undersized and weak OT which is prone to blowing - or three if you include the shockingly poor stock speaker (which doesn't matter if you're going to change it, obviously), and four if you include the lack of a second speaker jack and impedance selector. It's the same amp otherwise, down to using exactly the same PCB, and is the same size and almost the same weight, so pretty pointless.

It is possible to fit a 201 with a 401 OT which solves that problem, but it involves cutting the chassis so it's not an easy job.

With all the reliability mods these aren't actually bad amps though, I agree.

Arktik83

Thanks for all the input guys!  What about a HT Club 40 Deluxe, Andertons have them at £449?  Any opinions on them?

Dave_Mc

I haven't tried the HTs, but I'm just checking you know that they have a lot of solid state stuff in them? Since you said you wanted a valve amp- they're more hybrid (about 50:50) really.

mattdavis

ICBM said:

rico said:

Marshall DSL201 or 401 with a speaker upgrade and some mods to sort out the known issues

401, not 201. The 201 is crap, for two reasons - no OD1 mode, and a very undersized and weak OT which is prone to blowing - or three if you include the shockingly poor stock speaker (which doesn't matter if you're going to change it, obviously), and four if you include the lack of a second speaker jack and impedance selector. It's the same amp otherwise, down to using exactly the same PCB, and is the same size and almost the same weight, so pretty pointless.

It is possible to fit a 201 with a 401 OT which solves that problem, but it involves cutting the chassis so it's not an easy job.

With all the reliability mods these aren't actually bad amps though, I agree.

I've got a 201 - something blew up (the thing that usually blows up) so got it sorted and re-biased. When I bought it, the speaker had been changed to G12-75 which seems to do the job. And it has spring reverb, which not many (?any other) Marshall combos have. 
I sold it - and after trying Victory v30, v40 and a BadCat Black Cat, I bought it back. I agree the overdrive channel is a bit pants, but the green channel is gorgeous - and if you crank the pre Amp gain, it can get pretty driven, then you can use pedals to make it high gain if that's your thing. 
I think it's a cracking amp, and the 20w let you get a nicer driven sound at lower volumes. 
Nobody else seems to like them much so they can be had for around £200 ish. A lot easier to cart around than my heavy as bollocks jcm800 4104.  

ICBM

mattdavis said:

And it has spring reverb, which not many (?any other) Marshall combos have.

Almost all, up to that era - including all the DSL/TSLs. The first valve ones with digital reverb were the Vintage Moderns.

mattdavis said:

I think it's a cracking amp, and the 20w let you get a nicer driven sound at lower volumes.

The OD1 mode on the DSL401 is actually better for that - the difference between 20W and 40W is marginal. If you've got an efficient speaker in it the 201 is probably as loud as a stock 401 anyway...

I'm really just saying that there are almost no advantages to it over the 401, other than the price (second hand). Marshall could barely make them any cheaper than the 401 - since it's essentially the same amp - so it seemed overpriced new and didn't sell well, hence being discontinued fairly quickly. (Even ignoring the weak OT and the other issues.)

mattdavis

Fair enough. But you've hurt my amps feelings as she says you should apologise.....

ICBM

Well... if you upgrade 'her' with a 401 OT, a decent speaker (done), a bridge rectifier heatsink (maybe done), and bias saver resistors across the MV pot, then 'she' will be just as reliable as a 401 with the same fixes .

Either of them is still better than a TSL122 anyway, of which I am the somewhat less than proud owner .

Voxman

Couple of threads here that might be helpful:
http://thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/104829/best-valve-amp-around-500/p1
http://thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/104996/laney-vc30-212-vs-hot-rod-deluxe-vs-bugera-v22#latest

mattdavis

ICBM said:

Well... if you upgrade 'her' with a 401 OT, a decent speaker (done), a bridge rectifier heatsink (maybe done), and bias saver resistors across the MV pot, then 'she' will be just as reliable as a 401 with the same fixes .

Either of them is still better than a TSL122 anyway, of which I am the somewhat less than proud owner .

That's all well and good. But you still haven't apologised and she's got the right hump now.  I keep asking her if she's ok, and she just says 'I'm fine'. Yep - that bad. 

Ben8010

If you haven't already bought an amp then Fender Blues Jrs are around that price.

They have master volume, are relatively light and portable, play nicely at low volumes, take pedals well and can get plenty loud should you want to.

They're defo worth a look. I know they seem to divide opinion but I really get on with mine.

NelsonP

Leftfield option, but how about this, with a haggle.....
https://www.gumtree.com/p/other-guitar-accessories/mesa-boogie-studio-22-1980-s/1248130280

zepp76

Go on then, I'll be the one to suggest the DSL40C. Just an all round good amp, great crunch channel and if you really want to rock it then switch to the red channels. It's switchable between 40 and 20 watts and has a half decent clean to it. It's rival would be the Fender HRD if you want better cleans but the Marshall pips it to the post when it comes to rocking out.