Best affordable 20W to 50W Combo tube amp for Rock/Metal

[Tom Huff]

Re: Best affordable 20W to 50W Combo tube amp for Rock/Metal

Yes and no. The Genz Benz actually can do this fairly well thanks to the tube contour knob (I think that's what it's called, I'm not in front of it now.) Unfortunately there are no demos on their site to showcase the classic gain side of the El Diablo which is quite nice and a little similar to the Black Pearl demo linked above.

The El Diablo does have a lot of nice features and is very versatile. If you have a chance to play one, make sure you do so. It may not be for everyone, especially if you have a preconceived tone in your head before buying. I've owned one for a couple years and there are days I love it and days I hate it. It has a big, fat, thick, warm base tone. And thanks to the controls you can tweak that tone in a number of different ways for different applications. Make sure you like that base tone though as you'll never be able to escape it.

I think the thing about the El Diablo 60 is that it is so variable/adjustable/tweak-able tone wise that people give it a chance at a store and don't in a couple minutes dial in the amp to the sound that they thought they were going to get and determine that the El Diablo sounds wrong and hence they bash it as an expert on the internet...

 

[Iron Horse]

Re: Best affordable 20W to 50W Combo tube amp for Rock/Metal

Hughes & Kettner Edition Tube is worth checking out.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Best affordable 20W to 50W Combo tube amp for Rock/Metal

Bugera V22, $349.

 

[Petrovsk Mizinski]

Re: Best affordable 20W to 50W Combo tube amp for Rock/Metal

have you ever played a marshall haze? the 40 W combo, not the head.

It's a decent classic rock amp, and not a good metal amp on it's own, as the gain channel is too loose in the lows. But a good pedal in front of it will give you some good gain and tighten things up. The el34s tubes naturally put out enough power to make whatever you put in front of it sound huge. From there, you may want to think about the guitar. Maybe a 25" scale with an a8 humbucker. If you can't get some kind of decent metal tone from that I'd be surprised.

That amp gets slammed on for not sounding like marshalls from days of yore but if you approach it unbiased it does have tone to offer.

Marshall have pretty much the exact OPPOSITE of what the OP wants :laugh2:
5150s and Dual Rectos have a bit of a somewhat loose lower mid range happening which is exactly the type of the thing the OP is after and isn't really achievable with Marshall.
That's not to say Marshalls suck or anything, I'm a big fan of a few Marshall tones (Tom Morello, the latest Scar Symmetry album) but they aren't voiced for KSE and Attack Attack style stuff

 

[Petrovsk Mizinski]

Re: Best affordable 20W to 50W Combo tube amp for Rock/Metal

And holy crap.....that's what I didn't think of earlier.
If the OP can't afford a 5150 head and cab, then a Bugera head and cab would be affordable.
A Bugera 333XL on the used market, with a used cab will easily be in his budget.
Throw on an attenuator and it's EXACTLY what he's after in terms of tonality and versatility.
You HAVE to make sure you buy a Bugera made after 2009.
Anything made before 2009 has reliability issues most likely, but those were fixed during 09 and now many owners are happy with them.