Good blues - blues rock head that takes well to pedals?

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BluesGuyJ

New member
Hey guys,

While I love my Vox AD120vtx, it is too complicated for me to gig with and costs too much to setup for channel switching.

I am looking for a good tube head that can give me either a good basic, thick clean tone that I can fancy up with OD and dirt boxes and that has an FX loop or a 2 channel amp that has a good thick clean tone and dirt channel that I can change around with OD/Dirt boxes as well as an FX loop.

I really like Joe Bonamassa's tone, but I know he uses an assortment of high end tube amps. The main thing I like though and I see myself useing is his setup style. I am looking for something that can give me a good semi over driven clean tone that tightens up and gets gnasty with some different pedals in front of it. I am basically looking for something a little vintage and a little modern along the old school Marshall tones. Nothing more than 50 watts.

Any suggestions?
 
Re: Good blues - blues rock head that takes well to pedals?

The other guitarist in my band plays through a "red knob" fender twin combo amp (90 watts i think...). I think the red knob fenders were made in the 80s or 90s, not sure. Anyways, this amp produces very nice, thick clean tones. For distortion, he uses a Boss distortion pedal with some mod to make it sound like a Marshall. His distortion reminds me of a JCM800 due to the Fender's beefiness. IMO, he gets excellent tone from this setup. He bought the amp on Ebay for about $400.

Hope this helps. What you described just really reminded me of my band mate's tone.

Edit: BTW this amp does have two channels. The guy also uses an overdrive pedal for soloing and sometimes by itself. The overdrive also sounds good. I think this amp is very receptive to pedals.
 
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Re: Good blues - blues rock head that takes well to pedals?

Classic 50 head if you're on the cheap, or a Mesa Recto-verb if you want to spend a bit more.
 
Re: Good blues - blues rock head that takes well to pedals?

A Fender Bassman would do. You don't need a blackface model, a 70s silverface will work nicely.

The Classic 30 and 50, as mentioned above, would work well also, and they should be cheaper.

I was using a 68 Bassman head w/a 2x12 Sonic closed back cab loaded with Eminence Red Coat Private Jacks (Greenback clones), and it was killer for blues and blues rock. That was w/a range of gtrs/pups that went from vintage single coils to the Duncan JB. I usually plugged straight in, but it also took my RI Maxon 808 OD very well.
 
Re: Good blues - blues rock head that takes well to pedals?

My favorite cheap amp head: A used Peavey VTM 60 or VTM 120. An excellent amp to run with pedals; very reliable; and often available dirt cheap.

Bill
 
Re: Good blues - blues rock head that takes well to pedals?

I would go for a good clean to slightly broken up amp and use dirt boxes for the rest....look for an old Bassman, tremolux, or similar used Fender head and get the real deal on the cheap.
 
Re: Good blues - blues rock head that takes well to pedals?

An FX loop is a big plus though and those older Fenders just simply don't have that? Do Fuchs have thick cleans? My budget is pretty much $1,500. I am selling off the SG and just inherrited $1,000, so I can easily spare $1,500.
 
Re: Good blues - blues rock head that takes well to pedals?

BluesGuyJ said:
An FX loop is a big plus though and those older Fenders just simply don't have that? Do Fuchs have thick cleans? My budget is pretty much $1,500. I am selling off the SG and just inherrited $1,000, so I can easily spare $1,500.
Click to expand...

$1500.00?!!!!!!!!!!!!! I would look into something used that is top of the line or look into getting a head built to the specs you want.
 
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