Cheap cleans?

DrCornelius

An old fender deluxe 85. Can be had used for around £100 and the clean channel is fantastic (the drive channel is horrible though)

ICBM

DrCornelius said:

An old fender deluxe 85. Can be had used for around £100 and the clean channel is fantastic (the drive channel is horrible though)

With persistence I have managed to get usable sounds from the drive channel - but I'm like that . It is very fussy and non-intuitive though.

dindude

If you're playing at home volume levels then a Laney Cub 10 will stay clean and give some of that valve goodness.

JayGee

ICBM said:

EricTheWeary said:

A lot of low end digital ( and some solid state like Fender - don't know about the Princeton Chorus) don't take pedals well as they like to go glitchy with raised levels so you might end up with problems with the FX8.

The Princeton Chorus I borrowed at a gig once and ran my Mesa V-1 pedal through sounded so good I almost went looking for one to buy! Easily one of the best pedal-into-cheap-amp tones I've ever got.

The bigger Fender Frontman (65/100) amps are pretty good too, and dirt cheap with it. 

At the risk of causing apoplexy the bigger (50/100 Watt) Hiwatt Maxwatt series amps make pretty good clean pedal platforms too on the basis of the one which used tom turn up as house amp at a jam I frequent , and again turn up at pocket money prices. You can always take the badge off if you find it too embarassing... :-)

Bowks

A bass amp with some cab simulation on the FX8 would fit the bill.

DrCornelius

ICBM said:

DrCornelius said:

An old fender deluxe 85. Can be had used for around £100 and the clean channel is fantastic (the drive channel is horrible though)

With persistence I have managed to get usable sounds from the drive channel - but I'm like that . It is very fussy and non-intuitive though.

I doff my cap to you sir, I've had a couple now and cant even get close to a usable drive sound out of it. To be fair though stick an OS2 in front of it and it sounds good !

Jalapeno

Marshall MG range - good clean, and excellent pedal platform.

Heard a Line6 Spider at rehersal studio too - not bad for low volume stuff

A Roland Cube (or a pair) would be ideal, as would a brace of powered monitors.

ICBM

Jalapeno said:

Marshall MG range - good clean, and excellent pedal platform.

It's worth mentioning that the *first* MG series - originally badged as Park, then Marshall - and the *current* MG series - now done in the 'carbon fibre' styling - are good, but the one in the middle - the MG-DFX series - is terrible. Not so much because they sound that bad, but because they fry the power modules on a regular basis. They're so bad that I no longer accept them for repair work if this has happened because the result can't be guaranteed - it's an inherent design flaw.

Luckily they're easy to identify - if it has a cooling fan inlet on the back, it's one of the crap ones. This also applies to the AVT series (and the Mode Four) for the same reason. The smallest models in both the MG-DFX and AVT series are actually good though! Because they don't use the fan-cooled power module that the big ones do.

octatonic

Bowks said:

A bass amp with some cab simulation on the FX8 would fit the bill.

FX8 doesn't do cabs.
That is the AX8.

I've got a bass amp and tried running a guitar through it- it is ok, but not good enough for it to be a permanent solution.

thomasw88

Yamaha THR100 -  I've been using that with my FX8 and it works a treat.  Hoping to gig with it actually as well.
   £400 new from Andertons.     

octatonic

thomasw88 said:

Yamaha THR100 -  I've been using that with my FX8 and it works a treat.  Hoping to gig with it actually as well.
   £400 new from Andertons.     

That is a really interesting idea.
I have a little 1x12 that I could even retrofit it into.

thomasw88

octatonic said:

thomasw88 said:

Yamaha THR100 -  I've been using that with my FX8 and it works a treat.  Hoping to gig with it actually as well.
   £400 new from Andertons.     

That is a really interesting idea.
I have a little 1x12 that I could even retrofit it into.

I think its a belting amp.  Trying to give up my reliance on  valve amps and this thing is awemose.  

The clean and crunch channels are superb.  I bought a emininence legend 1218 speaker (which is what they put in to the standard cab) and i'm thinking it might just be loud enough to cope with the  loud drummist in one of my bands).. need to try it at a couple of rehearsals but as I always put a bit of the guitar through the pa as well should do the job.

Plukky

70s/80s Music Man amps - the ones with the solid state pre/valve power.  Great value, great cleans.

ICBM

Plukky said:

70s/80s Music Man amps - the ones with the solid state pre/valve power.  Great value, great cleans.

Not that cheap though, and often need extensive/expensive overhaul work these days. You can easily buy some of the amps already mentioned for less than the cost of a re-cap/re-valve on one of these. They're also rather hard on valves unless you buy very good ones.

jellybelly

For cheap cleans at home/studio, my VHT Special 6 is stinking, especially with a slightly better speaker and valves....