30ish watts amp with a lead boost / channel with marshally drive tones ??

riffpowers

fancying a new amp and wondering what's out there. 
Looking for 30 ish watts , and a lead channel. I like jcm800's and tiny terrors for reference. 
What should I be looking at ?!!

ThePrettyDamned

Orange rocker 30? 

timmysoft

jet city jca22 or 50

ICBM

ThePrettyDamned said:

Orange rocker 30? 

+1

The old model - discontinued but not too rare. The guitarist in my band has one, it sounds fantastic. The lead channel is somewhere between an old Orange and a 2203 and takes boost pedals well, and the clean channel takes distortion and fuzz brilliantly. No FX loop though, if that matters.

JMP220478

JCA custom 22 .. pm me as I might be moving one on 

The_Ethical

If you like the Tiny Terror then why not look at the Dual Terror? I've found mine quite versatile. The only cons are no built-in reverb and no effects loop.
 

welshboyo

Not 30 watts but don't discount a Mesa Stiletto Ace - a lot of amp for the money

Plectrum

Marshall Astoria Dual or Custom.

timmysoft

welshboyo said:

Not 30 watts but don't discount a Mesa Stiletto Ace - a lot of amp for the money

If you use a couple of the switches, it drops to around 30w

the ace is so much better than the deuce or trident

kennedydream1980

Cornford Roadhouse 30

DrCornelius

Check out the Budda Superdrive 30 on here. Awesome rock amp

timmysoft

DrCornelius said:

Check out the Budda Superdrive 30 on here. Awesome rock amp

Yep, I play an SD18 now, best drive sound I’ve ever had. I don’t think it’s great as a channel switcher but as a single channel amp, it’s phenomenal 

57Deluxe

Cornford Roadhouse

rockmonster

Victory?

Twinfan

Mini Silver Jubilee

slate

JMP1 preamp and 20/20 valve power amp - all the jcm800 tones you could wish for and more :-)
(I just happen to have this rig and will be selling it shortly lol)

riffpowers

timmysoft said:

welshboyo said:

Not 30 watts but don't discount a Mesa Stiletto Ace - a lot of amp for the money

If you use a couple of the switches, it drops to around 30w

the ace is so much better than the deuce or trident

I had the deuce briefly and although it was fantastic quality and had everything I needed I found it a bit too fiddly (too many knobs and switches ) , I didn't warm to it particularly and it had a lot of glass in there !!
it did however have everything I needed on paper. .
did they make the ace as a head or just a combo ???

riffpowers

ICBM said:

ThePrettyDamned said:

Orange rocker 30? 

+1

The old model - discontinued but not too rare. The guitarist in my band has one, it sounds fantastic. The lead channel is somewhere between an old Orange and a 2203 and takes boost pedals well, and the clean channel takes distortion and fuzz brilliantly. No FX loop though, if that matters.

I was worried that these amps might me a bit dark sounding , although your description makes it sound perfect !! 
Fx loop doesn't matter to me , but I could do with sometime that has a boost for leads. 

ICBM

riffpowers said:

I was worried that these amps might me a bit dark sounding , although your description makes it sound perfect !! 

No, they sound like a real Orange, not like these dark, middy, muddy things they make so many of now . The best-sounding modern Orange by a mile.

riffpowers said:

Fx loop doesn't matter to me , but I could do with sometime that has a boost for leads. 

But that could be a problem - they're cathode-biased, and inherently quite compressed... so when they're at high volume they don't get much louder with a boost in front.

Faff

Can I refer you to my Orange TH30 Combo for sale in Amps£ A Great no nonsense workhorse. Solid and reliable. As it happens, I'll be near Durham and I can deliver it this Saturday!

Moltisanti

If you mean a volume boost for leads, hardly any amps have one (Friedman Phil X does), but anything with a proper FX loop (Metro) will work with an EQ (but we've all explained this to you 500 times and here we are... )

My suggestion to you is this - Buy a Friedman Pink Taco or Dirty Shirley Mini from an online store, you then have 7 days to try it to your hearts content, and you can send it back for a full refund if you don;t like it.

They sound fantastic, are very fun to play, have proper FX loops so will take a lead boost pedal no prob, and they clean up brilliantly with your guitar's volume knob.

ICBM

Moltisanti said:

If you mean a volume boost for leads, hardly any amps have one

Actually most modern Mesa amps do, as well as the Marshall JCM900 SL-X and High Gain Master Volume.

Twinfan

The Mini Jube has a lead boost too, if you use the rhythm clip on the clean channel.  That's how I run mine (dirty plus lead) and it's how Marshall designed it.  I run the master at around 5, lead boost around 8 and for pub gigs it's perfect.

If you want Marshall gain tones at sensible volumes, plus a lead boost, it's absolutely perfect.  I can't praise it highly enough.

TTBZ

My problem with using it like that is the amp just sounds grainy, weaker and less punchy with rhythm clip pulled. I can't seem to eq it to sound as good as when I'm just using the lead channel with rhythm clip off.

Twinfan

It's a very sensitive EQ and everything affects everything else when you change something.  It's worth persevering with and finding a setting that works.

I'm using the head and matching 2x12 and a real key for me is to always have the bass on 10 and the presence on at least 7 to get the amp opened up.  It's a bright amp, just as a Marshall should be 

Kristo

If you are near Suffolk you are welcome to come and try my Bluetone that's up for sale in the classifieds. Great sounding Marshall based solid state combo, with boost available by adding a footswitch.

Collings

TTBZ said:

My problem with using it like that is the amp just sounds grainy, weaker and less punchy with rhythm clip pulled. I can't seem to eq it to sound as good as when I'm just using the lead channel with rhythm clip off.

Yes thats what i found. I had the Jubilee Mini and currently an original Jubilee and i find the tone on the boost channel is far better when the clip is not engaged. Also to use the clip on the normal channel i have to eq it in such a way that the boost channel suffers. They are great amps but work best for me as a single channel amp. Which in effect they are really.

paulphoenix

My first real  valve amp was an ENGL gigmaster 30. it has a footswitchable gain boost, mid boost and master volume boost. The lead channel can get pretty gainy but it's not your typical ENGL high gain metal amp (the clean channel is pretty nice too).

I still have it, but I don't really use it anymore, so I could be convinced to part ways with it. 

ICBM

Collings said:

TTBZ said:

My problem with using it like that is the amp just sounds grainy, weaker and less punchy with rhythm clip pulled. I can't seem to eq it to sound as good as when I'm just using the lead channel with rhythm clip off.

Yes thats what i found. I had the Jubilee Mini and currently an original Jubilee and i find the tone on the boost channel is far better when the clip is not engaged. Also to use the clip on the normal channel i have to eq it in such a way that the boost channel suffers. They are great amps but work best for me as a single channel amp. Which in effect they are really.

Yes, they are. From memory the two modes engage different clipping networks, but it’s all on the same single audio path - hence why they affect each other.

Collings

ICBM said:8

Collings said:

TTBZ said:

My problem with using it like that is the amp just sounds grainy, weaker and less punchy with rhythm clip pulled. I can't seem to eq it to sound as good as when I'm just using the lead channel with rhythm clip off.

Yes thats what i found. I had the Jubilee Mini and currently an original Jubilee and i find the tone on the boost channel is far better when the clip is not engaged. Also to use the clip on the normal channel i have to eq it in such a way that the boost channel suffers. They are great amps but work best for me as a single channel amp. Which in effect they are really.

Yes, they are. From memory the two modes engage different clipping networks, but it’s all on the same single audio path - hence why they affect each other.

Yes thats my understanding. The boost mode/channel always has its diode clipping engaged and in the clean mode the rhyhm cipping is switchable from the front panel but as its essentially the same signal path.

fastonebaz

How about the Laney GH30R, sounds amazing here: