suggestion for a 19" guitar amp?

[earworm]

here's the deal,
my younger brother wants to buy a guitar amp,
i know a guy who sells a marshall 8008,
19" amp with no eq, just volume and two speaker outputs

i'm looking for this kind of thing, but don't know what other brands make these things, i'm not a big marshall fan...
doesn't fender, mesa boogie or whatever company with quality make this kind of amps, no preamps for recording, but to connect to speakers..

second part of my question;

then i'll need a simple, small speaker,
60 watt rms would be fine already,

how easy can i find (around) 60watt speaker cabinets with NO built in amp?
and what are the brands that i should avoid
(like stagg and behringer )

thanks in advance,
a drummer who's gonna shop for guitar equipment

 

[Chill]

Look for the Mesa 20/20, 50/50, and Simulclass...I think it's the 2/95. There are also companies that make solid state power amps for guitar, like TubeWorks (no tubes involved...), and general solid state power amps, like Carvin, Crown, etc. If I were you I'd stick with all tube, and I'd even go with an all tube amp rather than a fizzancy preamp and poweramp setup, but there's probably a reason you want a poweramp...

For speakers, there should be a fair numbeer of 212 cabinets available in your area. If not, try a 412...Marshall, Orange, Laney, Sound City might be available used in Europe.

Or find a Fender Twin with a power amp in, or an Ampeg VT-22 or VT-40.

 

[notCardio]

Ooooh, Sound City....

I haven't heard that name in years. Now, I'm feeling all tingly inside. A Hayman bass and a Sound City stack! Yeah! Now THAT'S what I'm talking' about! 'We're the kings of the party, the baddest people alive...'

Sorry. I had a moment.

 

[earworm]

saw the Mesa 20/20 on ebay this week and made me drewl, or how u say it,
gonna try next weekend to go over to the "big" music store we got here in belgium, test some amps,
sure gonna test some line 6 amps, once heard a real nice one on a live gig,
was a powerful motherf**ker, didn't even have to mic the damn thing !µ

so a preamp is for recording,
poweramp is a 19" head ?
and a head is a real head like the marshall jcm900 stuff?

is there a big difference in character or sound, power between a poweramp and a head? i know heads are big,huge and heavy
if i'm using the correct word here...

now, what about Fender cabinets, would i be fine buying ANY fender cabinet?
the only thing i really care about it that i don't want exessive noise, hissing, humming , cracking,
it doesn't have to sound like God, mesa boogie is too good and expensive but if i had the money i'd buy it and try to become a guitar player myself

my idea for a poweramp is that u can put it in a rack,
connect it to a 19" EQ, amp simulator, reverb,

i don't like ALL IN ONE boxes, but thats me,
my brother on the other hand might be more happy with a simple combo,
but he knows even less about guitar amps than i do

 

[Farview]

You still need a preamp for that power amp. You can't plug the guitar straight into the poweramp. The preamp is what gives you the distortion, EQ, and brings the guitar signal up to line level. The power amp takes the line level signal from the preamp and boosts it up to drive the speakers.

Do not confuse a guitar preamp with a microphone preamp.

A guitar head is a preamp and power amp in one box. A combo amp is a preamp, power amp, and speaker cabinet in one box.

If you get the power amp, you only have half of what you need.

 

[Ed Dixon]

Carvin makes a very good single rack space power amp. Couple that with a Behringer V-Amp pro and a small cabinet and you'll have a good setup.

There are lots of other pre-amp modellers that vary in cost and sound.

Ed

 

[Chill]

With guitar equipment, the preamp generates most of your tone as Farview pointed out, and the poweramp makes enough power to drive the speakers. You will need some kind of preamp to drive the poweramp, and good speaker cabinets make a difference especially at drumset volume levels.

Tube poweramps are going to be about as heavy as heads because they need the big power and output transformers. A rack rig will probably be bulkier and heavier than a tube head because you have all the stuff in the tube head + several other chassis'. You have more flexibility in what's in your rig when you use a separate preamp, effects unit, and poweramp. You may lose some of the feel of a tube amp if you process the signal too much->part of the beauty of a tube amp is it's simplicity.

My general advice about amp stuff is find an amp that does one sound well rather than an amp that does many sounds poorly...a big clean tube amp will usually take pedals fairly well, a big dirty tube amp will sound like the tube distortion we all know and love.