Lunchbox or modeling within 1000Eur to buy in Europe

Tameroy

Hello guys,
Sorry for the long post , i'm looking for comments- advice - recommendations on my mission:)
 Gear availability ,variety is very hard in Egypt with our economy crisis , i saved and planned to shop for an amp during a trip to Europe soon - planning Italy and Paris , i'm going to do so wihile i have a physical condition in my ankles so i move with pain and using crutches

i'm thinking of a tube lunchbox , for home and possible gigs
Looking for a quality beefy tone for my les paul that works good in low and high gain (like marshalls and friedman).
Essential options:
Fxloop - attenuation - Good marriage to my LP std2016 guitar (that i cannot take to test the gear)
-More than 1ch is important but maybe not a show stopper
Budget not more than 1000 Euro
 i have the following concerns on my mind:

-transportation ( maybe i ask the shop to remove the tubes to be safe during my flight ?)
-Take it as carry on instead of checkin luggage for extra care?
-carry on max allowed weight is 8kg (that will limit some options)
-customs taxes while entering the airport could be crazy , so i prefer not to grab attention (so simple packaging lunchbox might pass) instead of hard case or bigger package
- maybe i shall consider also quality solidstate /digital gear or new tech tubes but  i can't tell if they good enough from recording on youtube
examples : Blu guitar - khan audio -  used positve grid - DV mark 250w pedal amp (anyone has insight on these ?)

Examples of luchbox tubes within 8kg weight n budget:
victory v30 (saw some negative feedback on forums) ,v30 mkii (no much feedback yet)
- sherif 22 (cool plexi but not high gain- would a pedal do the rest of the job?)
- kraken (i love jvm -heard it sounds the same)
-BD or RD (Limited options and not cheap , is it worth it? )

-Orange Brent Hinds ( looks like they sell it more expensive in Paris than UK) i love the percussive tone but worried about  lead tone- (too fizzy ?- sustain - smooth ?  needs a pedal to add to try that)

-PRS mt15 ( not sure of the quality ) sounded like harsh metal and the clean not v special.
-EVH lunchbox (it didn't sound very attractive on youtube but maybe i should try )
-Peavy series, from youtube i felt they aren't beefy enough to play with a band , and i heard more quality in classic then valveking over 6505+
-Maybe a used amp  ?
-i will miss the new Marshall origin20 cause of the weight if i'm going carry on flight , sounded nice but maybe doesn't reach high gain

Many thanks to whoever took time to read all this long story

John_A

I've recently got an Engl Ironball and it's fantastic, haven't tried everything on your list, but I've played a few and the Engl beats them all.  Quite hot rod Marshall in sound, covers everything from clean to very high gain, fx loop, footswitchable gain boost, volume boost, channel and reverb, has an fx loop, a DI out, power scaling and a silent mode for headphones or recording.  Most importantly it sounds fantastic

put one on the try list

Tameroy

John_A said:

I've recently got an Engl Ironball and it's fantastic, haven't tried everything on your list, but I've played a few and the Engl beats them all.  Quite hot rod Marshall in sound, covers everything from clean to very high gain, fx loop, footswitchable gain boost, volume boost, channel and reverb, has an fx loop, a DI out, power scaling and a silent mode for headphones or recording.  Most importantly it sounds fantastic

put one on the try list

Yeah? so it's more than just metal ? i checked net weight 8,5KG .. dunno about the risk to be allowed to take that in my flight ..but anyway ill check it more. . do you like it over the rock and gigmaster ?

John_A

Tried a gigmaster  and thought it was awful, if you get it in the box it should be finechecked in, or get a gig bag £29 from bax and take in on as hand luggage, use the box for your clothes

digitalscream

The Kraken is a brilliant amp - I just couldn't get on with the difference in voicing between the Gain I and Gain II channels. However, I think it's probably still over the 8kg limit.

Unfortunately, the amp I'd really recommend - the Jet City JCA22H - is too heavy, at 9.6kg

John_A

I've owned JCA22H, and it's a great amp, but IMO the Ironball is better by quite some margin

newi123

When you say it needs be less than 8kg to go as hand luggage, is that only for the trip home, or will you fly with it in the future too?

Personally, if it`s only for the trip home, and you`re buying new so it comes properly boxed etc I`d have no issue in sticking it in the hold. It`s not going to get treated any differently than if you had it mailed to you from a shop!

If you regularly need to fly with it I`d seriously look at the DV Mark stuff personally!

Tameroy

newi123 said:

When you say it needs be less than 8kg to go as hand luggage, is that only for the trip home, or will you fly with it in the future too?

Personally, if it`s only for the trip home, and you`re buying new so it comes properly boxed etc I`d have no issue in sticking it in the hold. It`s not going to get treated any differently than if you had it mailed to you from a shop!

If you regularly need to fly with it I`d seriously look at the DV Mark stuff personally!

my final city is Paris , if i buy it there then only to take it home,(didn't get what you mean by the hold) if you mean checkin luggage ,  the proper packaging might raise attention to the customs Taxes at the airport while i'm entering Egypt as i explained
So you have Experience with DV mark , you see it's not cheap with the same amount of their modeling stuff i could get a tube amp so what's your take on that?

Tameroy

digitalscream said:

The Kraken is a brilliant amp - I just couldn't get on with the difference in voicing between the Gain I and Gain II channels. However, I think it's probably still over the 8kg limit.

Unfortunately, the amp I'd really recommend - the Jet City JCA22H - is too heavy, at 9.6kg

Kraken on their website is 8.2 kg   what's your experience with it? i guess it's common that i ch switching needs more tweaking the shared EQ , makes it limited in a way , other than that what do you think ?  
Yeah i noticed jetcity , looks like good value for money but the weight

sgosden

Have had a kraken for a few years, and love it. But I only use ch1. Some sort of tubescreamer pedal infront of it is glorius.

Played a brent hinds terror when testing a guitar, and very nearly got the amp too... so less experience, but also a strong choice.

Mickeyji

If you can stretch your budget a bit, you might try to get a second hand Bogner Atma. Totally awesome amp and it would meet your criteria.

digitalscream

Tameroy said:

digitalscream said:

The Kraken is a brilliant amp - I just couldn't get on with the difference in voicing between the Gain I and Gain II channels. However, I think it's probably still over the 8kg limit.

Unfortunately, the amp I'd really recommend - the Jet City JCA22H - is too heavy, at 9.6kg

Kraken on their website is 8.2 kg   what's your experience with it? i guess it's common that i ch switching needs more tweaking the shared EQ , makes it limited in a way , other than that what do you think ?  
Yeah i noticed jetcity , looks like good value for money but the weight

I loved Gain I on the Kraken - I just couldn't live with the bass cut when moving to Gain II. I did get the details of a mod from The Man Himself which would voice Gain II the same as Gain I (but with much more gain on tap, obviously), but given that it'd kill the warranty I chickened out and just sold it, and bought another JCA22H (which was really the sound I wanted anyway).

Tameroy

Mickeyji said:

If you can stretch your budget a bit, you might try to get a second hand Bogner Atma. Totally awesome amp and it would meet your criteria.

  From the videos it sounded like one of the best lunchboxes , saw few reviews about how versatile it is , doing everything but not really doing any of it glorious. I'd love to try it anyway . Stretching  the budget would be a little too much , id have to travel one city outside my route in Italy as it's the only one i saw used  that i could test and not just order and ship. (didn't find in Paris)  and that would be before i get to test any in my shortlist later.
Still thinking about it
if you have experience with it pls , let me know

Mickeyji

Tameroy said:

if you have experience with it pls , let me know

A friend of mine first had a Shiva and then bought an Ecstacy and I was totally knocked over by how great they played and sounded. So basically, I was wanting a Bogner but had no use for a 4000€ 100 watt head or a combo weighing 35 kilos but when a barely used Atma head turned up for a very fair price here on ebay, I thought why the hell not and bought it on a whim without ever having tried one. It has the trademark Bogner hot-rodded Marshall thing going on but it's also got very, very nice cleans. Switchable power from 1 to 5 to 18 watts and at 18 it's easily loud enough to make itself heard with a drummer. Great amp!

sgosden

digitalscream said:

 

I loved Gain I on the Kraken - I just couldn't live with the bass cut when moving to Gain II. I did get the details of a mod from The Man Himself which would voice Gain II the same as Gain I (but with much more gain on tap, obviously), but given that it'd kill the warranty I chickened out and just sold it, and bought another JCA22H (which was really the sound I wanted anyway).

topic derail - was there much involved in the mod?