Clean combo amp suggestions

Purge

Purge

Traitorous Usurper
I know, I know...Roland JC 120. However...I don't have 900 bucks and I'm horribly impatient, so I'm looking for the next best options out there. I've got around 500 left on the ole GC card, so there's my limit.

Requirements: stays clean at decently high volumes. 2 speakers would be nice, but meh...not that necessary, I suppose.

And that's it. I'm one of those weird guitarists who wants his sound to come out of his pedalboard rather than the amp, so I'm not even looking for a bunch of features. (even though Line 6 might even be one of my better cheaper options.) All the bells and whistles will be coming from the GT-6.

Anybody got an amp that they're in love with?
 
Purge said:
I know, I know...Roland JC 120. However...I don't have 900 bucks and I'm horribly impatient, so I'm looking for the next best options out there. I've got around 500 left on the ole GC card, so there's my limit.

Requirements: stays clean at decently high volumes. 2 speakers would be nice, but meh...not that necessary, I suppose.

And that's it. I'm one of those weird guitarists who wants his sound to come out of his pedalboard rather than the amp, so I'm not even looking for a bunch of features. (even though Line 6 might even be one of my better cheaper options.) All the bells and whistles will be coming from the GT-6.

Anybody got an amp that they're in love with?
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I bought my B52 (100 watt 2x12 tube combo) for the Poor Man's Mesa type heavy sounds--but I'm still amazed by the cleans! With miles of headroom and no breakup on the clean channel. In fact one of the amps complaints is that you CAN'T breakup the clean channel to get those Fender-y tones, but I do fine with a gain channel dial back or a pedal. I used a lot of effect (verbs, chorus, delays) with clean stuff, and it doesn't disappoint.

The 2x12 might be a tad beyond that $500 (I paid $750, and though they've come down, I don't think they're down to $500) but they've got a 1x12 that I actually wish I'd bought. The 2x12 is just way more than I need and hauling the weight isn't worth it!

Good luck on your quest...
 
WhiteStrat said:
I bought my B52 (100 watt 2x12 tube combo) for the Poor Man's Mesa type heavy sounds--but I'm still amazed by the cleans! With miles of headroom and no breakup on the clean channel. In fact one of the amps complaints is that you CAN'T breakup the clean channel to get those Fender-y tones, but I do fine with a gain channel dial back or a pedal. I used a lot of effect (verbs, chorus, delays) with clean stuff, and it doesn't disappoint.

The 2x12 might be a tad beyond that $500 (I paid $750, and though they've come down, I don't think they're down to $500) but they've got a 1x12 that I actually wish I'd bought. The 2x12 is just way more than I need and hauling the weight isn't worth it!

Good luck on your quest...
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Awesome, I never would've even thought of B52. Thanks for the suggestion, it sounds exactly like what I've got in mind. I'll go check 'em out.
 
mikemorgan said:
Those solid state Fender 212's work very nicely behind effects, FMR212 I think.
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Fender and Line 6 were what I was initially thinking. I had a Fender Princeton Chorus at one point...and I gave the damn thing away, thinking that my new cab setup made it obsolete. Boy, that was stupid...:o
 
Never found a fender amp that ive been completely happy with....

Line 6 are reputedly very good, a few friends have them, and are happy with them.

Ive always used Marshall though, never been unhappy, even with the small stuff.
The g50 rcd was nice and clean at low volumes, but struggled a bit in a gig situation. Good price though, they do a 100 watt version too, which I got when I "downsized" from my stack.
 
Mr Fruit said:
Never found a fender amp that ive been completely happy with....
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I have. I found a slightly modded (coaxial wiring to and from the front plate and a K130) 1964 Deluxe Reverb, and it's the perfect mate to my old Strat. For me, anyway; YMMV.
 
I've thinned down to 3 amps, A Mesa Tremoverb Combo, a Fender Princeton Chorus and an Epi Valve Jr. through a custom built 112 cab.

Of the three, The Mesa usually wins 90% of the time, but she cost a fortune. The Princeton Chorus has superb cleans and even has a little mean streak on the gain channel. Picked it up on eBay about two years ago for a little over $100.00. If you can find one, I wouldn't think you'd be disappointed.
 
Yep, Id agree with the boogie all day, but as you say, his 500 will probably not buy one unless he gets really lucky.

Good score on the princeton, at $100 id be tempted too.:)
 
I spent 10 years with a Fender Princeton Chorus red-knob and I can't say that its cleans were all that good. I always thought that my Les Paul just sounded dead and flat on a clean channel until I bought another amp. Turns out the clean channel on my Princeton Chorus was just dead and uninspiring.

The Epi Valve Jr. is an awesome little amp, but clean headroom isn't really something its known for. Once you start turning it up loud enough to compete with a drummer, you're in overdrive territory. Maybe through a 4x12 you can get enough volume out of it before it breaks up since it'll be pretty loud.

The Mesa would definitely win out but yeah they're so damn pricy. Worth every penny from what I understand, but most of us amateurs don't have the cash to buy one new.
 
WhiteStrat said:
I bought my B52 (100 watt 2x12 tube combo) for the Poor Man's Mesa type heavy sounds--but I'm still amazed by the cleans! With miles of headroom and no breakup on the clean channel. In fact one of the amps complaints is that you CAN'T breakup the clean channel to get those Fender-y tones, but I do fine with a gain channel dial back or a pedal. I used a lot of effect (verbs, chorus, delays) with clean stuff, and it doesn't disappoint.
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I have this amp as well (paid $500 for it the other day) and I am very happy with it. The cleans are very nice and the dirties are tight and decent. I threw an sm57 in front of it and got a very good clean sound and a decent dirty sound without tinkering at all. I'm looking forward to experimenting to get some good recordings out of it.

Would highly recommend it to anyone looking for an amp on a budget.
 
AGAIN VOX AC 15..........the roland cubes are junk, 90% of all solid state amps are junk, brittle, thin, tiny, not clear, clean or warm.

if it doesn't have tubes, it ain't gonna be smooth.

you can get an ac 15 cc with a waldorf for around 500...dime the master, gain till 4 and you're still clean, good chime, nice harmonics, decent verb, great tremelo....but high outpu groove tubes and you got even more head room
 
iownrocknroll said:
if it doesn't have tubes, it ain't gonna be smooth.
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I don't think that's true when we're talking about clean channels. With distortion, I'd agree. But a lot of solid-state amps are capable of generating nice, smooth clean tones. And I've read a lot of good reviews about the Roland Cube series. Actually, yours is the first negative review I've read about them.
 
Roguetitan said:
The Roland cubes have good clean channels IMO.
YMMV
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I have to agree with the Cube. Roland also made the VGA series of amps that were really nice. I've used a friends VGA-5 quite a bit and loved it. You can find them used fairly often at a good price.
 
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