amp question

[eric182]

I was thinking about getting a new amp I was deciding between the Marshall VS30R ($260) and the fender Princeton 65 also $280. I play mainly punk and a little bit of metal. I know that the marshall has better distortion but the fender has more watts 35 more! And if i dont like its distortion than i could get a pedal. I dont I cant decide any help will be appreciated.

thanx

[loudnaybor]

If you're mainly doing punk and metal stuff you'll probably end up with a pedal no matter which of these two you pick. I agree with you that the Marshall has better distortion than the Fender but, Marshall valve state amps still don't overdrive as well as Marshall tube amps. I think that, if these are your choices, you'll get much closer to the sound you're looking for with a pedal.
Amp sound is very subjective, not everyone likes the same thing. What I would do is sit down in the music store with both amps and every stomp box and multi effect box they've got and don't buy anything until you find the combination that you want.

[loudnaybor]

Oh, one more thing dude....
Don't be too concerned about those wattage ratings, they can be very deceiving. There really aren't any standards that govern how those numbers are generated.
Different manufactuers use different methods.
I can tell you that a 30 watt Mesa will bury that 65 watt Fender.

[audioforgery]

Loudnaybor pretty much nailed it there - don't pick an amp for the distortion, because you WILL end up will a pedal. I'd say pick an amp for acoustics and clean tone. Get something that will easily get over drums without straining or feedback. (And if you get something heavy, put some wheels on the thing, or you'll have one hell of a backache!)

[Jim Marquard]

So far, I can't disagree with anything said already. I am quite the Fender man and owned a Prinston Chorus and really loved the sound. Especially the clean channel. But I thought that the distortion was pretty cool, too. Got a Peavey Bandit now because I wanted more power. Again, I like the clean channel and the 80 watts is plenty. To be honest, though, I now bypass the pre amp altogether and never use it for recording. I either go through my POD or my ART 2000 Express as my preamp and then patch right into the poweramp in when with the band. When I record, both the POD and the Art go straight into my mixing board. I may patch into an amp from the board if I need to get guitar feedback, otherwise I record without the amp.

Now, why do I bypass the amps preamp? The Art 2000 has a tube pathway and the POD is, well, the greatest little tube-amp similator I have heard for $300. If I were to by another amplifier again, it would definitely be a tube amp. I've been considering a Fender Hot Rod 4x10. But the $750 price tag makes me say I'll wait.

Peace, Jim

[eric182]

I think i'll get the fender princetion65, but does anyone know anything about the crate gfx65 any good?

[Emeric]

Eric,

The last amp I bought was a crate. Crate Vintage Club (lame name). It's a stack, 2 4X10 cabinets, sounds great. Crate makes some excellent guitar amps. Don't think this model is made anymore, but definetly try out some Crate products.

The wattage thing is a good point. I have a trace elliot amp that's rated at 15W and it blasts.

Emeric

[drstawl]

Before you plop your cash down- consider a used amplifier. I've only bought new once, and boy did I get burned! It was a Sound City guitar head. I'll let you guess the name it got after I tried to use it while playing in an electric quartet.

[dmcsilva]

I definitely agree with Drstawl on this. You might should shop around at pawn shops. It may take you a while to find what you are looking for, but it'll be worth it. I was at at one the other day and found a 50 watt Marshall(tube) combo that sounded like a dream for $250. It's amazing what people will give up in a pinch.

dmc