Best Combo Amp for Under $300?

[Outlaws]

Let's see you show up on stage with a little tweed P.O.S. that you can fit in your back pocket. You'll get laughed off the stage by the sound technicians.

Besides, I just played both the Blues Jr. and the Pro Jr. at Guitar Center and they souned like absolute crap to me. They were way too mid rangey and had little to no low end. The highs were almost unbearable. They're loud enough, alright. But not where it counts.

I might own one if I needed a practice amp. That's about it.

Your sir a an obvious noob. You have never gigged before in your life. You are probably not even in a band. Infact I know you have never gigged in your life because 'sound engineers' will cring at you playing balls to wall with a 100 watt Marshall half stack in a tiny bar room before they will laugh at a nice small tube combo.

But then again you are loking for a <$300 solidstate amp for gigging, so obviously you must be a struggling musician.

I told you flat out it wasn't gonna be the right amp. But no low end? You even ever played with a bass player before? You can't complete with each other, you need to comlpiment one another. Being able to hit subsonic frequencies should be avoided. There is nothing wrong with some 'punch' to the sound, but a Mesa Triple Rec can produce shit that will just put you and your imaginary bass player friend in a constant stuggle for who is the bass player in this fictitious band.

 

[Codmate]

Let's see you show up on stage with a little tweed P.O.S. that you can fit in your back pocket. You'll get laughed off the stage by the sound technicians.

Besides, I just played both the Blues Jr. and the Pro Jr. at Guitar Center and they souned like absolute crap to me. They were way too mid rangey and had little to no low end. The highs were almost unbearable. They're loud enough, alright. But not where it counts.

I might own one if I needed a practice amp. That's about it.

ROFLMAO - please tell me this is a wind-up!

 

[astoebe]

Screw that! Those amps look like shit! I said I wanted something loud enough to cut through drums... Not something to laugh at. C'mon. This has to be a joke, right? How the hell can they get away with charging $300 for 15W and a 10" speaker? Who cares if it's a tube amp?!

The FM212R has 100W and 2 12" speakers! And for $300! Sure it's not a tube amp but I didn't say I wanted one in the first place.

for one thing, tube amps are louder with lower wattage....for another thing they sound better (this is opinion but for pure tone i think it's fair to say that those who know what they are talking about will always prefer a tube amp).

there is way more to buying an amp than the wattage and the number of speakers.....if all you want high watts and speakers buy a cheap PA system and run your guitar through it.

on another note, since you will be running through a genx2, your tone will primarily be formed by your processor, so the type of amp may not matter as much...

edit: i second the post about saving another 100$...why not save a little more and buy a good used tube amp like a twin reverb or something like that. a little patience and much more satisfying results

edit #2: if you are using an effects processor you won't be getting the clean sound of the amp (you said you like fender clean tones)....and the fender clean tones people like are their TUBE amps, not solid state (there are many problems with statements made in this thread)

 

[omtayslick]

Another possibility is the cube 60.

Very impressive little amp. Just picked one up today. Covers a lot of sounds well. Great clean tone.

 

[Karmadog777]

heh heh Imaginary bass players are awesome! I have one,we constantly struggle for the bottom end because I got a big ol crunchy tube works amp and my bass players amp is
uhm imaginary


Get ya a big Ol Tube Works amp off ebay I got a 2X12 100 watt combo for
$177 and it sounds like 2 grand worth of Mesa

actually the output wattage isnt listed,the owners manues Warns that it can easily produce in excess of 100 watts

(seriously check out Tube Works reviews on harmony central,they are awesome amps)

 

[Niimo]

Screw that! Those amps look like shit! I said I wanted something loud enough to cut through drums... Not something to laugh at. C'mon. This has to be a joke, right? How the hell can they get away with charging $300 for 15W and a 10" speaker? Who cares if it's a tube amp?!

The FM212R has 100W and 2 12" speakers! And for $300! Sure it's not a tube amp but I didn't say I wanted one in the first place.

wow man thanks. reading your very obvious ignorance made me feel alot better about wasting these pros time with my questions.

and i quote:
Let's see you show up on stage with a little tweed P.O.S. that you can fit in your back pocket. You'll get laughed off the stage by the sound technicians.

Besides, I just played both the Blues Jr. and the Pro Jr. at Guitar Center and they souned like absolute crap to me. They were way too mid rangey and had little to no low end. The highs were almost unbearable. They're loud enough, alright. But not where it counts.

I might own one if I needed a practice amp. That's about it.


crazy thing about those knobby things, is they move! cut what you don't need. i just really think your just looking for LOUD, few more years i think you'll be a little more receptive to a "whimmpy 30 watter with a dinky 10 inch" properly miced through your pa to get your volume.

 

[bongolation]

Maybe a Vox AD50VT would be also a good choice?
Its a hybrid amp, wattage controable, and very nice preset...-->very verstile

As much as I want to like these cheap Vox amps -- and I really do -- I'm tired of them breaking my heart.

The AD**VTs have a pretty bad reputation for circuit reliability on every forum I've checked. I wanted to get either an AD30VT or an AD50VT, but after a couple of dozen stories of all sorts of different fatal circuit problems, I blew them off. Too bad, as the demos on the Vox site sound fabulous...but don't ALL demos on manufacturer's sites? I've never been able to duplicate them with the products after I've bought them. Hmm...

I bought a little Pathfinder 15R for a low-volume studio amp and the thing was so noisy I couldn't use it, right out of the box. It went back the next day.

Tonight I bought a new (non-digital) Vox VR30R and it's the same thing -- noise.

Bottom line seems to be that these amps, despite the venerable Vox name, are nothing but more bottom-of-the-barrel Chinese gear made from dirt-cheap, noisy passive components for kids and beginners who don't know quality amps from junk.

 

[jimistone]

wow man thanks. reading your very obvious ignorance made me feel alot better about wasting these pros time with my questions.

and i quote:
Let's see you show up on stage with a little tweed P.O.S. that you can fit in your back pocket. You'll get laughed off the stage by the sound technicians.

Besides, I just played both the Blues Jr. and the Pro Jr. at Guitar Center and they souned like absolute crap to me. They were way too mid rangey and had little to no low end. The highs were almost unbearable. They're loud enough, alright. But not where it counts.

I might own one if I needed a practice amp. That's about it.


crazy thing about those knobby things, is they move! cut what you don't need. i just really think your just looking for LOUD, few more years i think you'll be a little more receptive to a "whimmpy 30 watter with a dinky 10 inch" properly miced through your pa to get your volume.

If you want the big and bad look....you can make dummy speaker cabs out of cardboard boxes, paint them flat black, glue speaker mesh on one side, and stack about 10 behind you.....mic the "whimpy 30 watter" through the PA and blow it out.

You have an impressive "wall of sound" behind you (that makes many in the crowd go "WOW...look at all those speakers!!! These dudes RAWK!"


Just be sure that when you pack up at the end of the night...you don't carry 4 of the dummy speakers at a time to the van.....it would blow the illusion.

You can't buy tips like this man...this comes from tried and true experiance of playing in the 80's hair band era.

 

[CoolCat]

Kiss did get noted for having FAKE Marshall cabs in the 70's but they were theatrical anyway and the crowd was 12-14yr olds. But it was a great show, paper confetti and boooms and wall of fake marshall cab's and lots of Hairspray!!




Blues Jr.
Clapton's used em and others is what i've heard, and is on the new DVD...blues jr. with a mic'd cab.

of course they mic the amp thru the pa for live gigs?
but any serious band would be doing this....you have to have a sound man out front?
you can't have the guitarist standing right in front of his amp making the volume tweeks for the room???

skeptical??
did Clapton get paid for using this little Fender? who knows?...proabably.
Instant Karma is better known as a Nike comercial, than Elephants Head Band.
The Beatles, according to the pics I see used Fender in Abbey Road almost all the time? Vox were on stage, marketing, and no one could hear them anyway.
The power of Marketing.

what does Fender mean anymore?

i guess everyone is a guitar player these days, with Walmart,BestBuy,Target .......
instrument sales must be thru the roof...

Proof is their openning up shelf space for this Music stuff.
Shelf Space= Holy Grail in sales

Manager in GC here said they'll start dropping the cheap lines and go to a more mid to higher end gear.....i guess they don't want to compete with the new WalMart-Target-BestBuy / Fender and Gibson lines.

yeah, thats funny... Fake Empty Cabs!! the roadies will love them!!

there is that strange audio jargon with headroom and db's where 15watts is quality & louder than the cheap piece of crap 500watt chip amp.

 

[Jer!]

I tend to get very sceptical when anyone starts saying they /need/ something more than 50W. If your doing a gig where more than 50w is required then you are going to be miced up anyway. Just because there are so many bands out there hauling enough kit to deafen a stadium in to tiny bars (and then turning their monster stack down to 2 where it doesn't sound as good as it could) doesn't mean you have to join them, and in any case 10" isn't anything to be ashamed of

 

[STAT1STICK]

Your sir a an obvious noob. You have never gigged before in your life. You are probably not even in a band. Infact I know you have never gigged in your life because 'sound engineers' will cring at you playing balls to wall with a 100 watt Marshall half stack in a tiny bar room before they will laugh at a nice small tube combo.

But then again you are loking for a <$300 solidstate amp for gigging, so obviously you must be a struggling musician.

I told you flat out it wasn't gonna be the right amp. But no low end? You even ever played with a bass player before? You can't complete with each other, you need to comlpiment one another. Being able to hit subsonic frequencies should be avoided. There is nothing wrong with some 'punch' to the sound, but a Mesa Triple Rec can produce shit that will just put you and your imaginary bass player friend in a constant stuggle for who is the bass player in this fictitious band.

Excuse me? I've been in a band for more than 8 years! I know exactly what it's like being on stage. One of the main reasons I want a loud amp is so that I don't have to rely on the sound man. There have been too many times that he has fucked up our set by turning the bass way up and the guitars way down... Or maybe he'll forget to turn up the guitars all together and you try to play your opening song and nothing comes out in front.

In short... I don't trust people with my sound anymore. No one knows what I want my gear to sound like except for me and if that means that I have to tell the sound man to fuck off, then so be it. I like the Fender brand an all (I played out of a Bassman 10 for 5 years) but now that I think of it, they just don't suit my style of music anymore.

And yes. I know about complimenting the bass guitar. But that doesn't mean that I have to cut out all of my bass.

Also... Yes! I am on a budget! If I had enough money I'd go out and buy a Mesa Road King and we wouldn't even be having this discussion.

I don't see why you guys are getting all bent out of shape for, anyway. It's just my opinion! And since when was it okay for punishing someone for their opinion? It's not like you work for Fender, right?

Anyway, I guess you really don't need to understand.

BTW... Wether you want to believe it or not, we're all struggling musicians. Yes even YOU! Put it this way... If you're reading this, you're a struggling musician. If you weren't, you wouldn't have to check this forum for advice on ANYTHING! You'd have people to do it for you.

In the end... We're all in the same boat. We just have different destinations.

 

[gbondo9]

chin up kiddo....they're just fuckin with ya....

except for that Outlaw character...I think he genuinely hates you....

Just kidding (sort of).....

anyway..

The anonimity of the internet makes everyone a little less civil, so just ignore the haters, and realize that you too have said some stupid things, and we'll all log off happy...

In the meantime, if you ignore the petty jabs..you will see that there have been a lot of great suggestions made so far...in an attempt to help you an answer your question...

Todd

 

[gibsonguy09]

fender FM212R sound nice live adn can keep up with a drum set

 

[bongolation]

did Clapton get paid for using this little Fender? who knows?...proabably.

FMIC management has told me that they never pay artists for endorsements, "Artist Model" FMIC gear, etc.

Sometimes they send percentages of sales of an artist-endorsed instrument to a NPO of the artist's choice, but supposedly no artist ever gets paid anything.

True? I dunno, but that's their story and they're sticking to it.

 

[astoebe]

Excuse me? I've been in a band for more than 8 years! I know exactly what it's like being on stage. One of the main reasons I want a loud amp is so that I don't have to rely on the sound man. There have been too many times that he has fucked up our set by turning the bass way up and the guitars way down... Or maybe he'll forget to turn up the guitars all together and you try to play your opening song and nothing comes out in front.

In short... I don't trust people with my sound anymore. No one knows what I want my gear to sound like except for me and if that means that I have to tell the sound man to fuck off, then so be it. I like the Fender brand an all (I played out of a Bassman 10 for 5 years) but now that I think of it, they just don't suit my style of music anymore.

And yes. I know about complimenting the bass guitar. But that doesn't mean that I have to cut out all of my bass.

Also... Yes! I am on a budget! If I had enough money I'd go out and buy a Mesa Road King and we wouldn't even be having this discussion.

I don't see why you guys are getting all bent out of shape for, anyway. It's just my opinion! And since when was it okay for punishing someone for their opinion? It's not like you work for Fender, right?

Anyway, I guess you really don't need to understand.

BTW... Wether you want to believe it or not, we're all struggling musicians. Yes even YOU! Put it this way... If you're reading this, you're a struggling musician. If you weren't, you wouldn't have to check this forum for advice on ANYTHING! You'd have people to do it for you.

In the end... We're all in the same boat. We just have different destinations.

you asked for advice....people gave it to you. maybe not in the most civil manner ever, but if you ask for it don't complain. and there has been alot of good advice given here. realize that while everybody on here may not be professionals (however there are some that are), most probably have a heck of alot more experience than you. and i still maintain that a small tube amp is so much better of a buy than a 300$ 100watt solid state......and i also maintain that you need to be patient and save more....you might not like to hear that but it is the best thing to do in your situation. if you have a job i'm sure it will take little time to save just a little extra

ps-i play out of a 1956 fender bassman combo amp (dual rectifier 4x10) i just wanted to tell you that

 

[Codmate]

It was the suggestion that a sound engineer would laugh at a small tube amp that made us laugh at you STAT1STICK!

Most sound engineers *prefer* a quieter sound on stage. It makes it much easier for them to do a good monitor mix, and if the venue is small, a better mix for the audience too. If the PA and monitors are fighting a back-line with 100W guitar amps it's really tough for the guy at the desk.

The gigs with the worst sound I have heard seem to corrolate to the gigs with the loudest back-line...

 

[CoolCat]

One of the main reasons I want a loud amp is so that I don't have to rely on the sound man.

There have been too many times that he has fucked up our set by turning the bass way up and the guitars way down... Or maybe he'll forget to turn up the guitars all together and you try to play your opening song and nothing comes out in front.

.

interesting re-read...sounds like you and the soundman got some work to do, no matter what amp you or the bassist gets. maybe an SPL meter, setup up the instruments would help him.

i just don't get it tho, it would be extremely hard for you(guitarist) to adjust the volume on your amp as you are standing in front of it? the bass player is on the other side most likely....hearing about 25% of your sound...and you his.

i recall our sound dude, who was sitting on the opposite side of the stage
by the bass cabinet.
he ran over in the middle of a song and cranked my amp up so loud I couldn't hear the rest of the band!

he told me later he couldn't hear me at all....

Drunk Soundman bar gig story #222001

 

[LI_Slim]

I'm $19 over the limit, but...

Pignose....

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=guitar/search/detail/base_pid/489052/

 

[STAT1STICK]

Update!

Well, I finally bought an amp. I decided to go with the Behringer GMX212. I have to say that this amp is pretty sweet. It has tons of features and it sounds really good. I mean... A lot better than I expected. The clean sounds are a little quiet but I have set them to my liking. The distorted sounds blow me away! I am so impressed! On the settings I have it on, it sounds like Daron's dist. from System of a Down.

The footswitch that came with it is very sturdy! It weighs about 3-4 pounds! I have no fear of it ever breaking.

The built in effects processor isn't bad but it's not great. I like the sound it can produce but the functionality is sub par. You can't switch through the presets with the footswitch (you can only turn the effect on and off) and you can't edit them, either. But they sound pretty decent, anyway. It has a built in tuner that comes in handy. The EQ controls are pretty responsive and work like they should.

It has lots of ins and outs in the back. I still haven't figured out what they're all for, yet. But, it only has one in on the front which could be a problem for some people but not me.

One last thing... It's loud! It has 120 watts! when I crank this thing up, the sound doesn't lose clarity or start to distort... It stays clear and audiable.

I would definitely recommend this amp to anyone on a tight budget. You will get your money's worth and then some!

 

[Outlaws]

Well, I finally bought an amp. I decided to go with the Behringer GMX212. I have to say that this amp is pretty sweet. It has tons of features and it sounds really good. I mean... A lot better than I expected. The clean sounds are a little quiet but I have set them to my liking. The distorted sounds blow me away! I am so impressed! On the settings I have it on, it sounds like Daron's dist. from System of a Down.

The footswitch that came with it is very sturdy! It weighs about 3-4 pounds! I have no fear of it ever breaking.

The built in effects processor isn't bad but it's not great. I like the sound it can produce but the functionality is sub par. You can't switch through the presets with the footswitch (you can only turn the effect on and off) and you can't edit them, either. But they sound pretty decent, anyway. It has a built in tuner that comes in handy. The EQ controls are pretty responsive and work like they should.

It has lots of ins and outs in the back. I still haven't figured out what they're all for, yet. But, it only has one in on the front which could be a problem for some people but not me.

One last thing... It's loud! It has 120 watts! when I crank this thing up, the sound doesn't lose clarity or start to distort... It stays clear and audiable.

I would definitely recommend this amp to anyone on a tight budget. You will get your money's worth and then some!

A MIDI pedal will allow you to control your effects much more deeply. Also, you can edit your effects...I dont' get what you mean....there are 99 user presets, that is for storing your edited effects. You might wanna read the manual.