Amplifier Upgrade Advice (from 8W GA-10)

[BaLdMoNkEy]

Could anyone give me any advice on what amp would be good for me? I’m looking at and around the £200 (will go over if it is overly worth it) price point (about $350) but I am aware I am only really going to be able to afford a solid state combo with this amount (duh )

My current amp is a Yamaha GA-10 (link), which does not exactly offer too much in the way of tone/power.

I currently play lots of metal, blues etc but try to substitute power chords for good riffs, so I would guess I am looking for good clarity even under distortion? (All this is so dam confusing ) I'm not too bothered about effects really (as I have a few pedals about the place), but reverb would be nice, and it’s always fun to play around with strange funky effects

My pups: Bridge: BL L-500XL, Neck: SD 59' neck

I was going to buy a Marshall MG50DFX, but after reading about how bad they are from some people I got a bit nervous

Thanks in advance for any help; I truly know nothing about this stuff.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I guess I am looking for around 50W output as I have read in so many different places that this would be exactly what I need (seeing as I still play at home a lot but am beginning to perform more regularly).

 

[msplines]

Re: Amplifier Upgrade Advice (from 8W GA-10)

I think you're going to have to plague a couple of music shops for a while and give things areal try out. You may have got the impression that most of the regular contributors here are valve amp heads and I think that's not too far off the troof, so yer on yer own matey.
Try the reviews on harmony central to get an idea, but really the only solution is ter thrash 'em in the shop 'till they give you what you want to make you go away!
Good luck

 

[BaLdMoNkEy]

Re: Amplifier Upgrade Advice (from 8W GA-10)

aha, maybe hav found what i am looking for...

Vox AD50VT/AD60VT

Does anyone have any idea of if these amps are good? The reviews seem to say so... Does anyone know the difference between "VT" and "VTX"?

Thx anyone

EDIT: yeh, i noticed that lol. Truthfully I knew that I wouldnt get too much of a response here because of all of the valve users (I posted solely because I know they allow users to delete their own threads).

What you said is completely understandable but doesnt anyone find that on harmony central most of the reviews are just product praise and almost no bad points? I guess this is because people on there are nearly always upgrading from older hardware, and not many people want to spend $1000s of dollars on lots of amps of the same power and spec just to compare them.

Back to me not knowing anything about amps however, does anyone have any links to a guide to amps in general? I mean one of those super easy to understand, designed for idiots who have never even heard of an amp, guides. I really want to learn about amps but at the same time i dont want to pester already busy forum users.

If not no worries, ill just trawl through google a bit like i should do.

TIA