suggest a guitar amp for my singer...

John_P

Hi,
The singer in one of my bands is looking for a new amp.  He plays a bit of rhythm guitar on a few songs - we do typical rock covers.
Something that will take pedals for the gain sounds and compete with a loud drummer - budget is only around £200ish for a used amp.

Any suggestions?

ThePrettyDamned

Jet city?

ecc83

Probably daft questions but,..

Why does he want "high gain" for rhythm especially if he has pedals?

Why "compete" with a drummer? Surely so long as HE can hear the guitar he is loud enough?

Then, whilst I am not really sold on the "wimpy amp thru PA" for lead git' I would have thought it fine for rhythm? So, something around 20watts with a line/FX/Emulated out?....Need I say more?!!!

Dave.

Flanging_Fred

ecc83;132843" said:

Probably daft questions but,..

Why does he want "high gain" for rhythm especially if he has pedals?Why "compete" with a drummer? Surely so long as HE can hear the guitar he is loud enough?

Then, whilst I am not really sold on the "wimpy amp thru PA" for lead git' I would have thought it fine for rhythm? So, something around 20watts with a line/FX/Emulated out?....Need I say more?!!!

Dave.

Recommend a Blackstar. You know you want to say it. SAY IT!

G'wan, G'wan, G'wan < /Mrs Doyle >

ICBM

Peavey Bandit

Yamaha B100

Marshall 8080 or VS100R

... or something like that. Solid state, loud, reliable, old, cheap for the quality.

John_P

ecc83 said:

Probably daft questions but,..

Why does he want "high gain" for rhythm especially if he has pedals?

Why "compete" with a drummer? Surely so long as HE can hear the guitar he is loud enough?

Then, whilst I am not really sold on the "wimpy amp thru PA" for lead git' I would have thought it fine for rhythm? So, something around 20watts with a line/FX/Emulated out?....Need I say more?!!!

Dave.

When I say compete - I just mean - can be heard on stage,  we do mic everything and use the PA for FoH volume.
As for gain, I mean that he doesn't need a drive channel - it might be nice but a good solid loud clean sound will be fine.

ecc83

Flanging_Fred said:

ecc83;132843" said:

Probably daft questions but,..

Why does he want "high gain" for rhythm especially if he has pedals?Why "compete" with a drummer? Surely so long as HE can hear the guitar he is loud enough?

Then, whilst I am not really sold on the "wimpy amp thru PA" for lead git' I would have thought it fine for rhythm? So, something around 20watts with a line/FX/Emulated out?....Need I say more?!!!

Dave.

Recommend a Blackstar. You know you want to say it. SAY IT!

G'wan, G'wan, G'wan < /Mrs Doyle >

Well, even tho' I am no longer in their pay one does notlike to be boorish!

And yes, I agree a 50W or better transistor jobby would be fine and not necc' an ID! (tho the 60 would be "IDeal" Boom! Boom!)

Dave

ICBM

I'd have said the ID as well but the budget is £200…

He can have my old Yamaha B100 with replaced Jensen speakers for £150 + shipping if he wants… although shipping it would be a pain .

Flanging_Fred

Peavey Bandit was the first thing that came to mind too. Cheap reliable and sounds good. In not sure I would go with a Valvestate 8080. I had one for years and although not bad I found the clean channel a little bit flat.

bertie

VS100r   and well under budget

thread over

John_P

Thanks chaps, All good suggestions.  He used to have a bandit and I guess we're looking for something a bit different from the typical valvestate/bandit - I lent him a fender twin at rehearsal last night and obviously it sounded great but is way more amp than he needs but something in that direction would great - decent clean, 1x12, maybe valves.  Maybe a dsl combo? -  I'm sure he could add a bit more cash but I doubt we'll get much past 300.

ICBM

John_P said:

Thanks chaps, All good suggestions.  He used to have a bandit and I guess we're looking for something a bit different from the typical valvestate/bandit - I lent him a fender twin at rehearsal last night and obviously it sounded great but is way more amp than he needs but something in that direction would great - decent clean, 1x12, maybe valves.  Maybe a dsl combo? -  I'm sure he could add a bit more cash but I doubt we'll get much past 300.

Avoid DSL combos… unless you get one that's already been upgraded and fixed, they're not that reliable, and you probably won't get a 401 for even £300. The 201 is much less good.

You're actually unlikely to get anything good and valve that's loud and clean enough and also reliable for under £200, to be honest. A second hand Peavey Valve King might be close though.

The Fender Frontman 212R is quite a decent 100W Twin-like solid state amp for under £200, but they do have some reliability issues as well.

timmysoft

Peavey Bandit

jonnyburgo

Bandit, built like a tank and loud as hell and often around £65

ICBM

There are also many versions of them and they're not all the same, so if he's had one before and wants something different, he could.

There are three main 'eras' - old (late 70s-mid 80s - metal knobs or coloured-top plastic knobs), middle (mid 80s-mid 90s - grey/black plastic knobs and either grey/black cosmetics or 'turquoise stripe') and recent (Transtube, late 90s - current). Even within each of those there are at least two different series each.

As you would expect the Transtubes are the most modern and versatile, and as you would also probably expect the older USA-made ones are better built and slightly better-sounding than the current Chinese ones. I like the middle period ones but they can be a bit hard-sounding and are more difficult to dial in than the others. The oldest ones are the most basic and the overdrive is definitely an acquired taste, but the cleans are still very usable.

bertie

ICBM said:

The Fender Frontman 212R is quite a decent 100W Twin-like solid state amp for under £200, but they do have some reliability issues as well.

actually now you say that,  the guitarist mrs bert works with uses one,   he's lucky in that he's not slave to cork sniffing tone machines, and I actually (internally) raised eye-brows when he got it,    OK the music they do is very very 'wedding band'  and doesnt require gut wrenching OD,  but it works very well, sounds better than it "should" and pretty much every gig gets compliments on his work from "normal" punters

JayGee

bertie said:

ICBM said:

The Fender Frontman 212R is quite a decent 100W Twin-like solid state amp for under £200, but they do have some reliability issues as well.

actually now you say that,  the guitarist mrs bert works with uses one,   he's lucky in that he's not slave to cork sniffing tone machines, and I actually (internally) raised eye-brows when he got it,    OK the music they do is very very 'wedding band'  and doesnt require gut wrenching OD,  but it works very well, sounds better than it "should" and pretty much every gig gets compliments on his work from "normal" punters

Youngest Son has a 65 Watt, 1x12, Frontman DSP, which is pretty much a smaller version of the above but with the "Drive" channel replaced by a modelling section with half-dozen perfectly usable amp models and a few digital effects. It's as loud as you could ask for, the clean channel is really rather nice (and while I haven't actually tried it I suspect would be great with an "amp-in-a-box" drive or distortion), and the modelling side is non-too-shabby (the "Tweed" and "Blackface" voicings are actually pretty damned good!) and it cost peanuts. 

Could do an awful lot worse than a Frontman I reckon...

ICBM

bertie said:

ICBM said:

The Fender Frontman 212R is quite a decent 100W Twin-like solid state amp for under £200, but they do have some reliability issues as well.

actually now you say that,  the guitarist mrs bert works with uses one,   he's lucky in that he's not slave to cork sniffing tone machines, and I actually (internally) raised eye-brows when he got it,    OK the music they do is very very 'wedding band'  and doesnt require gut wrenching OD,  but it works very well, sounds better than it "should" and pretty much every gig gets compliments on his work from "normal" punters

They definitely sound better than they "should", and for under £200 new they were astonishing value for money - sadly they seem to have been recently discontinued now though. (Hopefully just a temporary stock problem in the UK, since they're still on the Fender website.)

The faults they have are quite simple - there are a couple of high-power resistors inside which tend to vibrate and crack their connections (easy fix, low cost) and they blow speakers (easy fix, not so low cost) - apart from that they're great. Even the overdrive channel is pretty good.

ThePrettyDamned

I've got a transtube silver stripe bandit with Sheffield speaker.

It's brilliant for me, and the drives are versatile - I can do blues, rock, heavy rock and metal, and the gain boost can help lower output pickups get more filthy.

The cleans are great. A hint of compression and neck single coil and I can get the exact sound of fruaciante on 'funky monks'. Really, really nice. I'm more of a dirt kinda guy, and it's not the best sounding amp in the world, but I think I'd rather have one than most valve amps, because it can get pretty much bang on the gain sound I want.

Edit: the thrash button looks to be a waste when you use it. Try this - high input, gain at 4 ish, lower output pickups and thrash button engaged, mids up, bass and treble to suit. You can pretty well ballpark a really nice, dirty fender amp sound that cleans up great.

ICBM

ThePrettyDamned said:

Edit: the thrash button looks to be a waste when you use it. Try this - high input, gain at 4 ish, lower output pickups and thrash button engaged, mids up, bass and treble to suit. You can pretty well ballpark a really nice, dirty fender amp sound that cleans up great.

The mistake was calling it a "thrash" button. If they'd just called it "mid cut" or even "scoop", it would both correctly describe it and not put off people who don't play thrash from trying it...

ThePrettyDamned

@icbm exactly. It can do that thrashy sound, but that only works on recorded tones where you can mix properly... Kinda cool for bedroom practice of Metallica riffs.

But yes, if it had midi switching, I'd save that as a patch - just a great, slightly overdriven mid scooped tone.