First tube amp advice?

B

Benthedemon007

New member
I don't have anything other than a fender frontman, so I've been gigging with my bassists spare Mesa Rectifier something or other but he has been telling me to get my own amp and I don't really like the amp anyway. I want a tube, vintage-sounding, preferably British 50-100 watt, that is great for southern rock, classic/psychedelic rock, and hard rock/metal (our band is kinda like The Sword if you've heard of them). It can't be too much more than $1000 used, and it would have to have a good master volume for home practice. I'm mostly looking at Marshalls and Oranges, but I have literally no idea where to start. Please help!



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Re: First tube amp advice?

If you're looking at Marshall and Orange I'd say you're starting exactly where you should be starting! Trust your ears and bring your own guitar to audition amps.
 
Re: First tube amp advice?

British vintage for classic rock to metal...sure sounds to me like you need a Marshall!

Are you looking for a Stack or a Combo?
 
Re: First tube amp advice?

Yeah, your looking at non master volume Marshalls and JMP era master volume Marshalls with these genres. The main problem you will encounter, besides finding examples not too expensive, is that you probably won't be able to play them loud enough.

Some alternatives that can deliver the goods at reasonable volume:

Marshall Vintage Modern. These are available on the used market for under a grand.

Orange amps. These have high gain and master volumes.

Fender Bassbreaker 45. This amp circuit is much like the 50 watt Marshalls that Duane Allman used with a JTM45/Tweed Bassman preamp and with EL34 power tubes. Duane ran his amps loud. This Fender can be turned down to 1 watt, though.

Marshall Silver Jubilee amps. Jubes excel at these mid gain tones, and up through Warren Hayne's style high gain tones.

Another possible alternative are the Marshall JMD hybrid tube/modelling amps. These amps provide a range of GOOD sounding preamp models that cover these genres well and use EL34 tube power amps. And these amps are not expensive on the used market. These amps sound good at low volume or as loud as needed.
 
Re: First tube amp advice?

One word.. Splawn..
The Quick Rod is my favorite and one of my favorite amps of all time next to a Soldano Decatone..
 
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Re: First tube amp advice?

Used Peavey Windsor half stack...got mine for $350 for the head and the cab. Don't believe the haters...it is glorious.

Hint: plug into low gain input for low noise, Marshall JMP master volume tone.
 
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Re: First tube amp advice?

"British 50-100 watt" and "good master volume for home practice" don't really go together. A high wattage tube amp at low volume is no fun. You don't get the amp doing what it's meant to to do.

I'd recommend you separate those 2 requirements out and spend most of your budget on the first one. For the second one, just get any number of Orange or Marshall amp-in-a-box pedals to go into your Frontman.

For the first, for your budget, determine if you want sharp high-mids British (Marshall) or fuzzy low-mids British (Orange). That's a slight overgeneralization (pre-plexi Marshalls don't sound as sharp), but will be true most of the time. To my ears, The Sword have that stoner thing going on, so if I wanted to cop that vibe, I would look at Orange first.

Marshall DSLs, the newer ones (100W head in your case), are killer amps for the money and fit in your budget. It's also hard to go wrong with the current crop of Oranges in your desired wattage range. The Orange forum is a good source of info about specific models.
 
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Re: First tube amp advice?

Look at a Marshall JVM210H or JVM410H. They are a bag full of tricks. They sound good at low volume to boot. It will meet all of your needs without having to have a bunch of pedals which will save you money.
 
Re: First tube amp advice?

My favorite Marshalls are the DSL 50, the Silver, and the Vintage Modern. I like the DSL401for a small combo. The TSLs can be good, or not...depending on who you talk to. I owned some vintage 800 Marshalls and BF Fenders years ago, but sold them all after I bought my first Mesa amp. Been using Mark Series amps for almost 25 years, and couldn't be happier with my tone.

Still, there's something to be said for a cranked Marshall. Splawns are killer; a friend has one. I like Kracke, he builds up in Seattle.

Bill
 
Re: First tube amp advice?

Man, I just wrote a loooonnnnggg winded discussion about high wattage vs low wattage amps and accidentally deleted it. So this is a short version...

A 100W AMP DOES NOT MEAN THE AMP IS ONLY LOUD! It only means the 100W amp will get louder compared to an amp with a lower wattage.

There is only a 6dB difference between a 100W and 25W amp. A 6-10dB difference is perceived to the ear as half volume. So a 25W amp will ONLY sound ~40% quieter compared to a 100W amp AT MAX VOLUME.

This is a good short article to read: http://www.gmarts.org/index.php?go=216. For a quick reference between wattage vs dB scroll down to the graph.

In saying all of this I am just a home player and have a 100W amp (JVM410H) that sounds good at a lower volume. I did my research before purchasing the amp and decided upon this due to the good sound at a low volume, no need to buy pedals for the sound I want (has great clean's, distortion, and reverb. It does come with the standard pedal that controls all of this), and many more bell's and whistle's (MIDI control, FX loops, and an emulated line out). You can use the emulated line out for recording and listening with headphones which is a BIG plus for home use.
 
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Re: First tube amp advice?

You can certainly run a high wattage tube amp quietly. It would be at like 0.1 master volume level at home. What that means is that all your gain is coming from the preamp stage. If you can get the tone/feel you want with those settings, cool.

I like to be able to crank the master volume and experience power amp distortion. To me, that's where much of the magic in a tube amp is, where the tube "feel" is. That's why for home use, I love little tube amps (below 5 watts). Of course, speaker/cab size/type will also factor into the experience.

Ideally, I want each piece of gear do the thing it's best at doing. Whenever I've played higher wattage tube amps quietly, that's using half the amp, and I feel like that's a waste. It would be like buying a Ferrari and using it as an everyday commuter car. Sure, it can do it. But that particular object is meant to be unleashed and run wide open.
 
Re: First tube amp advice?

Boogie Bill said:
My favorite Marshalls are the DSL 50, the Silver, and the Vintage Modern. I like the DSL401for a small combo. The TSLs can be good, or not...depending on who you talk to. I owned some vintage 800 Marshalls and BF Fenders years ago, but sold them all after I bought my first Mesa amp. Been using Mark Series amps for almost 25 years, and couldn't be happier with my tone.

Still, there's something to be said for a cranked Marshall. Splawns are killer; a friend has one. I like Kracke, he builds up in Seattle.

Bill
Click to expand...

Did you mean to say "crack"???

j/k!

Never heard of them, but did a goog search.. will have to check out some utube vids when I get the chance. Since you mentioned right after Splawn, Im assuming these are in the same Vein? (pun attempted, and serious question..)
 
Re: First tube amp advice?

Is the Rockerverb 50 Mki as good as the mkii and mkiii? It's much more affordable.


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