What Amp/Setup?

burrows

I've been playing guitar since I was 16 (I'm now 35) and I've had my amp, a Peavey Rage 158, since that time. I also have the original Zoom 505 pedal which I used to love, but now it sounds quite dated if you know what I mean.

Over the years I've drifted in and out of playing regularly but I've found myself in a position to play a lot more recently. I've been amassing guitars over the years and I was about to buy another when I figured I should probably think about getting a better amp first.

Due to a small baby in the house a headphone socket is a must, and to be honest this is how I will mostly be playing.

I don't really play any particular style, although I nearly always have some element of distortion applied to the amp and if pushed I'd say rock. I'm thinking that a modelling amp may be the way to go so that I can generally mess about with different sounds and styles.

I have an iRig for my iPhone which is pretty handy, but I just feel more comfortable with physical controls when I'm playing - I just use all the presets in GarageBand and never adjust them because it is too fiddly on the small screen. Maybe an iPad would be a better investment to run the iRig on?

I've been looking at the Fender Mustangs, Vox VTs and Peavey Vypyrs, however I often end up thinking well for €X more I can get more presets and more watts, but I'm not sure if I need them.

I don't have a budget as such, I'm willing to pay for a good amp, but I would want one that will last me a good while. I guess €400 is my upper limit (possibly a bit over) but I'm happy to spend less if it gets me what I need.

If my understanding is correct then my need for a headphone out rules out valve amps, but part of me wonders if a good small valve amp would be a better investment in the long run, and just use it at low volumes?

Would I be better to keep my Peavey (which has a good clean channel) and just invest in some effects pedals?

Apologies for the brain dump but, with all that in mind, does anyone have any suggestions for which direction I should go in? or at least which amps it is worth testing out?

il gatto

I have a Blackstar HT-1R. It's 1 watt (yes, 1 watt) of all valve power. It has an 8" speaker but doesn't sound at all boxy and is the size of a school lunchbox. It has a speaker out which works with4/8/16 ohm cabinets and has a headphone jack with speaker emulation. There's Youtube videos demonstrating it. Sounds good.
It has one channel with two gain stages (not footswitchable though). I set the gain and roll off the guitar volume to clean it up, the old fashioned way. Works a treat. It has decent cleans, but really shines when overdriven. It goes from crunch to Jimmy Page to Slash to almost metal.
I went with the HT-1R over the HT-1 as it has an onboard digital reverb and as I always use some reverb, it saves using a reverb pedal. The HT-1 is around €199 and the HT-1R is around €229. Worth the few quid extra imo.
You can crank it without annoying the neighbours but it's also well able to keep up with a stereo. Much louder than I expected from a single watt. The power valve is actually a second preamp valve. The trade off is the cleans break up a bit early due to the low wattage. You need to balance the master volume with the gain to find a sweet spot. Master volume cranked with gain on zero equals silence.
The eq is a single knob that Blackstar call ISF. It basically sweeps from Fender style on the left, through sort of Voxey to Marshall on the right. I thought it would be limiting, but really works well and I like the simplicity of it. Less fiddling and more playing.
All in all, I love it and it is the amp I use nearly all the time these days.