Tube amps on a budget...

thing about those musicmans is that they use a solid state preamp. i know they all don't, but i think the 112rd's did. it uses a pair of 6L6's on the output.

not saying anything bad about them, but it's gonna sound different than a tube preamp section.

i own a 212HD so i know of what i speak. that thing kills on clean tones, but i've never really liked how it breaks up for dirty stuff. my tube screamer never did right. my jekyll/hyde pedal don't sound quite right either.

hit it clean with some chorus and it really comes into its own.

sorry for the long post, just wanted to point out the preamp thing.

success in your quest...

later...
 
e-man said:
thing about those musicmans is that they use a solid state preamp. i know they all don't, but i think the 112rd's did. it uses a pair of 6L6's on the output.

not saying anything bad about them, but it's gonna sound different than a tube preamp section.

i own a 212HD so i know of what i speak. that thing kills on clean tones, but i've never really liked how it breaks up for dirty stuff. my tube screamer never did right. my jekyll/hyde pedal don't sound quite right either.

hit it clean with some chorus and it really comes into its own.

sorry for the long post, just wanted to point out the preamp thing.

success in your quest...

later...
Click to expand...


Thanks for the info, e-man - actually, it's a very long thread and I don't hold it against you for not reading it all since we went WAY off topic, but these amps came up becase we were talking about hybrid amps and I was saying I never understood why you see so many hybrids with a tube or two in the preamp and solid state poweramps, but not the obverse, when personally I've always thought a tube poweramp mattered more than a tube pre. Off the top of my head I could only think of a Marshall built like this, and Obi-Wan
mentioned some Peavey's had been built this way as well. I asked for a couple model numbers because I was curious.

I'm not about to drop my Rectoverb for anything hybrid, because the thing slays, but if I see one of these for cheap I'd be very curious to check one out. :)
 
DrewPeterson7 said:
I'm not about to drop my Rectoverb for anything hybrid, because the thing slays, but if I see one of these for cheap I'd be very curious to check one out. :)
Click to expand...

I see you're in MA. I see the peaveys in the local Daddy's Junky now and then-- if you're near one, check in every so often and you'll probably come across one. They also list some of their chain's stock online on daddys.com.
 
Just stumbled onto this thread...wow.

Talk about an elitist attitude.

I am at the place in my life where I can buy anything I want...and I have. '59 LP Junior? Check. Carr Mercury? Check (as well as a Carr Rambler and El Moto). '56 LP Goldtop? Love those P-90's...

But I do remember a time in my life where I didn't have JACK to spend on this stuff...a time when the bar was lower and I didn't have the scratch to deal with my gear/headstock envy...but I still seemed to be OK with an old Guild S-300 and a Peavey amp.

In addition to the stuff I mentioned above, I have a lot of low-priced stuff that rocks my world. A Danelectro Hodad 12-string electric...a Japanese Squire J-Bass from the mid-80's that cost less than $300 and is riduculous. In the amp world, a Crate Palomino V32H head (going through an old Line 6 1x12 cab that I had lying around) and a little Laney LC15 that cost me less than $200 (with a reissue Jensen speaker) and has some of the best overdriven tone that I own.

Conclusions?

1) As somebody said - what's better than enjoying your $2000 amp? Enjoying your $500 amp, and how much less you paid for it; and...

2) There will always be those in the world who hide behind the labels they wear...

There is so much affordable tube gear available out there...and a lot of it is pretty tight. I spend a lot of money on my Carr amps - it's tone fits my style, and Steve ain't giving them away. But the Laney LC15 is a great example of an amp that gets 75% of a Bad Cat or Dr. Z's tone for 20% of the cost. For those out there who are not working musicians (or have other things they need to do with their money than drop $1200-1500 on a flipping guitar amp), there are other options out there...which is why a board like this exists.

When somebody starts a thread about options in tube amps for somebody on a budget, if you have an option, then great! We'd all like to hear it. If your opinion is that you have to spend a lot of money for an amp (thus rendering any answer to this question into the realm of impossibility), what value is that imparting to the OP?

If you feel that way, state your opinion and then move on. If you continue, then you are just an internet board hijacker...and on a forum that provides valuable information to those seeking knowledge, you are providing ZERO value.

Move on...nothing to see here...
 
with all due respect, nobody is suggesting getting behringer amps or cheap plastic microphones.

there are plenty of real solid "inbetweens" for quality/sound and value.

there are microphones out there that cost half or even third of Shure and are every bit as good and solidly built and will last a lifetime.

However, Shure mics are a bad example. The SM57 and SM58 aren't THAT expensive. If a $100 mic will last 20 years vs. a $30 mic lasting 3 years, it's a no-brainer.

But if my SCXD ($300 retail) will last 5 years (5-yr warranty) and we compare it to a $2000 amp, which will last "a lifetime" (what's that, 30 or 50 years, does anyone know how much they have left?)... then I'd rather buy a new $300 amp every 5 years. Or even every 3 years. But I'd buy new, possibly something even better.

There's plenty of good, solid amps under $500-600. Some way under.
 
i recently purchased a Peavey Windsor 100W head and it sounds amazing....very JCM800-esque for a fraction of the price! ($300 barely used on ebay). only thing is that it has only one channel so you'd have to roll back the volume to get some clean tones, and it does not have built-in reverb, but my holy grail does just fine 8)
 
Marshall and MESA amps (and likely others) started as Fender copies, which gradually altered the needed features. They ended up being "better" for the given applications.

so there's no reason an amp can't be as good or better and it doesn't have to be ridiculously expensive. it can't be dirt cheap due to components and construction, but there's really no magic here.

neither does it HAVE to be made in the US. No magic there either.
 
I love my traynor. i've been loving the discovery of sounds i can find out of it.
its bloody rock n' roll, and its canadian at the ripe age of 40 on the dot if the the serial number is a hint. It only cost me 279.

I'm thinking of swaping out the speaker for an eminence red coat or somesuch like that to see if that adds more flavours to my liking.
 
MatchBookNotes said:
I would almost kill for a good vox tube amp. An ac30 or something, i love them, they sound great to my ears but are way too damn much money. I'm going to uni, so i can't spend money on that kind of stuff... I need a sugar momma!
Click to expand...

The Crate V16/V32 at low gain have a very Vox like tone and at higher gain sound more Marshall like. Either are in that price range especially used.
 
i'll have to put that on a wall or a bumper.

jtees4 said:
I love my Super Champ XD. I planned on hating it because it is not a 100% tube amp, but I can't help it. It sounds downright great!
Click to expand...

me, I planned to like the SCXD, but I like it much more than I planned :D
 
COOLCAT said:
can the kids afford a $1200 amp....seems like a lot. but in hindsight the cheap gear is the waste of money.
Click to expand...
When I was 17, I took out a high interest loan and got a 2204 JCM 800 half stack (and a guitar) - turned out to be a great move (had to bus a lot of tables and play a lot of gigs and bus a lot more tables to pay it off) but.... I had no idea what I was doing, and the fact that I chose an amp that happened to be just what I wound up wanting later (and still have and love today, decades later), was dumb luck - I might have spent almost as much on some crappy amp (or good, but wrong for me) and not really figured it out for quite some time afterward.

So for kids who are a tad smarter than I was (they are in plentiful supply) - that is, smart enough to know that they don't know what they're doing, I can kind of see the point in staying on the cheaper side.
 
bebopdeluxe said:
Just stumbled onto this thread...wow.

Talk about an elitist attitude.

I am at the place in my life where I can buy anything I want...and I have. '59 LP Junior? Check. Carr Mercury? Check (as well as a Carr Rambler and El Moto). '56 LP Goldtop? Love those P-90's...

But I do remember a time in my life where I didn't have JACK to spend on this stuff...a time when the bar was lower and I didn't have the scratch to deal with my gear/headstock envy...but I still seemed to be OK with an old Guild S-300 and a Peavey amp.

In addition to the stuff I mentioned above, I have a lot of low-priced stuff that rocks my world. A Danelectro Hodad 12-string electric...a Japanese Squire J-Bass from the mid-80's that cost less than $300 and is riduculous. In the amp world, a Crate Palomino V32H head (going through an old Line 6 1x12 cab that I had lying around) and a little Laney LC15 that cost me less than $200 (with a reissue Jensen speaker) and has some of the best overdriven tone that I own.

Conclusions?

1) As somebody said - what's better than enjoying your $2000 amp? Enjoying your $500 amp, and how much less you paid for it; and...

2) There will always be those in the world who hide behind the labels they wear...

There is so much affordable tube gear available out there...and a lot of it is pretty tight. I spend a lot of money on my Carr amps - it's tone fits my style, and Steve ain't giving them away. But the Laney LC15 is a great example of an amp that gets 75% of a Bad Cat or Dr. Z's tone for 20% of the cost. For those out there who are not working musicians (or have other things they need to do with their money than drop $1200-1500 on a flipping guitar amp), there are other options out there...which is why a board like this exists.

When somebody starts a thread about options in tube amps for somebody on a budget, if you have an option, then great! We'd all like to hear it. If your opinion is that you have to spend a lot of money for an amp (thus rendering any answer to this question into the realm of impossibility), what value is that imparting to the OP?

If you feel that way, state your opinion and then move on. If you continue, then you are just an internet board hijacker...and on a forum that provides valuable information to those seeking knowledge, you are providing ZERO value.

Move on...nothing to see here...
Click to expand...

First off....

I stand behind my statement, and still insist it has value, adds an option to the question, and is based on experience. It is just as valid as any other posted. Your opinion of "0" value is just that...your opinion.

My view, and statement:
Don't waste your money buying many "cheap" amps till you find the right one. You don't have to spend "$1200", but stretch yourself a bit if you have too, and save a ton of both money, and aggravation in the long run, and avoid flushing the money you spend on cheaper stuff down the toilet.

Example:

bebopdeluxe said:
Just joined the Forum, and I'm late to the thread, but....had an ART Tube PAC for a while, as my tube pre/compressor. First replaced the compressor with an RNC, and just now replaced the mic pre with a Grace 101.

Not a fair fight. :-)

I know, I know...not a fair comparison. $750 for my new set-up versus around $200 for my old ART...just starting out, I thought that the Tube PAC was an inexpensive (read: cheap) way to get some things done. After reading this forum, I do realize that there are other options. Didn't know as much before (thanks, guys). But, as many of you say, YMMV. I'm sure that for some people, in some setups, ART products can work well. It worked fine for me for a while...it was just time for me to spend a few more beans to upgrade - which I think I did.
Click to expand...



Secondly, I don't believe I "hijacked" anything. I simply defended myself, and my statement. So, bl*w me, noob.

BTW...Baiting a thread is the same thing as trolling, newbie. Judge not.
 
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