New Amp on a budget

0utshined

I'll be starting to play with a few friends shortly so I need to get myself a new amp. I've got a few pedals already so the most important thing would be the clean sound but it'd be nice to get a good crunch form the amp.

At the moment I'm just playing at home and using my Micro-Cube which is great so I was looking at getting it's big brother, the Cube 60. My budget is about €400 to €450 so I was wondering has anyone else got any suggestions or would you just go for the cube?

jcoote

cube is good but ...

this or
heard good tings about this

I've the spider and i love it!
It's not just fot hravy stuff, i don't play any metal at all and i still get great tones out of it. Altough that Hughes&Kettner is quite tastey too.

0utshined

That Spider does look good alright and I like the reviews on Harmony Central.

I'd be using it for a mix of things from The Smiths to Bad Religion to Iron Monkey so do ye reckon it could pull that off?

It does Metal, very very very well. And it does Blues well, soft rock sounds good, but the clean's not amazing.
with a bit of fiddling you can get some very varied tones. In essence it's 12 amps that you can play around with!

Doctor J

Get into town and try a load of Fenders, then check out the prices abroad. If the gain channel isn't good you can always use a pedal but if the clean channel is gash then there is little you can do (and a lot of Fenders have truly excellent gain channels too) and there are loads that would come right into your budget.

0utshined

Is it a passable clean? What are you playing through it?

0utshined

Yeah that was my thinking Doc, the clean sound would be the most important. I'll try and get into this weekend to try a few out. Being honest I suppose I could put another couple of hundred to it if I had a quiet weekend or two so could go for something a bit dearer, maybe €6-650 but would that make much of a difference?

epiphone les paul standard and now a beautiful Fender Telecaster Thinline.

The "Clean" isn't fantastic, but i've found much much nicer clean tones on the other Models on the amp, for instance the "red twang" with very low gain is lovely.

Karl Hungus

You could try this?

Doctor J

Ancient1 did the Fender trek last weekend and he was blown away by the Hot Rod Deluxe, I think. He should be along to fill in here shortly.

Ravelleman

Doctor J wrote:

Ancient1 did the Fender trek last weekend and he was blown away by the Hot Rod Deluxe, I think. He should be along to fill in here shortly.

I'm thinking of pulling the trigger on a hot rod deville or deluxe sometime soon. It doesn't have the best overdriven sounds but with those kind of cleans it's the perfect platform for a tube screamer. They can be kinda expensive though...

Ancient1

Deleted User wrote:

I've the spider and i love it!
It's not just fot hravy stuff

Don't get excited, Emmet, it affects your spelling

Anyway, that's some brainwave we're on Doc

Outshined, you should take your time choosing an amp - do your homework, read up on it as much as you can and narrow down the search to about 5 amps you would consider. Personally i think you can do much better than the Spider. It's probably a good amp as the guys say, but you can get something much much better if you look in the right places.

I was agonizing over three Fender amps until i plugged into the Hot Rod Deluxe. It's mind blowing, i was in seventh heaven playing that baby. It's incredibly powerful for 40 watts (1x12). In fact it's so loud that you can easily gig with it - if not, then you need to fire the drummer. You won't be playing stadiums so this will do you volume-wise, if you don't believe me try one out for yourself. I read the entire 36,000,000 posts on the Deluxe on the Fender Forums - and it's one big thumbs up from everyone.

The clean channel is all Fender - that Fender magic. The amp starts to break up nicely around 4, and you can go nuts on the OD channel (granted, no death metal, but hey, it's a Fender).

They're retailing between 900-1000 in Ireland, but you can get a brand new one for 650 from Germany (and about 40 on top of that for shipping). Dunno if you can push your budget that far, but it's worth it.

david

Yeah I HIGHLY recommend the fender HRD. But, if you want hi-gain too, check out the ENGL thunder 50 at €750 if you can save a little longer. I just got mine today and I am AMAZED. The only thing that disappoints me is the universal gain control for clean, crunch and lead. I set the gain at halfway, and the clean channel breaks up at about 10-11 o clock master volume. With gain at halfway, I get really great dreamtheater style distortion and nice sharp, cutting, punchy cleans. Did I say that this is a LOUD mofo at only 50w and 1x12 too.

Ancient1

freakonaleashx wrote:

The only thing that disappoints me is the universal gain control for clean, crunch and lead.

It's too soon for you to be disappointed in anything, imo. You only got it today so you need to spend some time with it and fiddle with it. I'm sure you'll learn to like much more about it.

david

Ancient1 wrote:

It's too soon for you to be disappointed in anything, imo. You only got it today so you need to spend some time with it and fiddle with it. I'm sure you'll learn to like much more about it.

Yes its the most amazing amp i ever played. Very trebbley though. I think thats the V30 speaker and open back cab though.

0utshined

Guys, thanks for all the suggestions so far. I'll try out a few of those to see what they're like. I don't want to get something that I'll regret in a few months time so Ancient1 is right, I should check out a lot and narrow it down from a large base. I guess I could stretch a bit further for the right amp it'd just mean delaying getting it for a few more weeks.

humph

if you can get a peavey classic 30 , youre sorted.
great for blues and rock, probably not great for metal though.
good clean and dirty.
im sure you can pick one up second hand for 500 euro.

fitz

Fender Blues Junior will cost you even less than the HRD, and it's a little beauty of an amp too.

Ancient1

True, the Blues Junior is top of the line, but again, you'll be paying through your ass in Ireland. I think they're going for about 500 in Germany.

Edit: Fitz, i was raging when you sold yours. I guess you were offline for a while and Eoin Madsen said i was too late I was heart broken

JMArr

I would say try try try before u buy..go into the music shops in town and try a load of different amps and then take your time testing each of them see what appeals to u...I'd spend a few hours testing over the course of the day (dont be shy about it your spending half a grand after all)...then check reviews on harmony central for the ones you're interested in .If you want some versatility I'd say CUBE 60 or Fender Princeton 65 DSP for on board fx to colour the sounds ..if you're not too focused on getting a tube amp...

david

Do you need hi-gain? Do you need effects?

0utshined

The Blues Junior looks good but it's only 15W and I'd be playing with drums and a bass so don't know if it'd be loud enough. I don't need any effects on the amp. They'd be nice and all but I have a Multi-FX unit and a couple of pedals so it's not a neccesity. Really the main thing would be a good clean sound and loud enough to play with my mates. Good call on Harmony Central as well, I've been checking out the reviews there.

JMArr

what kinda guitars do you have btw? might have a bearing...

0utshined

At the moment my electrics are a Gibson Flying V and a Squire strat.

david

Save for an ENGL combo. The clean channel breaks up though. So at band volumes the clean channel sounds kinda franz ferdinand if ya get me.

Ancient1

The clean channel breaks up though. So at band volumes the clean channel sounds kinda franz ferdinand if ya get me.

Which is not always a bad thing, depending on at what volume your amp begins to break up. It that's a problem you could always try to increase the headroom by swapping the valves for less high-gain ones.

david

Yeah I know... valve breakup is sweet. I think the stock ENGL valves are supposed to have loads of headroom though

fitz

I've gigged in the past with a blues junior and it's plenty loud, trust me.
Check one out, see what you think.