Need suggestions for under $600 amps
- Thread starter Pecan
- Start date
That90'sGuy
DyzaBoyzologist
Re: Need suggestions for under $600 amps
I think the Fender Hot Rod series, Crate V30 (or V32 Palomino like I own), or Peavey Classic 30 would be a good way to go. They're around the right range for the audience you're playing to and they all have a clean and overdrive channel.
I've played all 3 and I walked out with a Crate V32 Palomino. The cleans get very chimey and vox-ish and the overdrive gets a really great classic Marshall tone. The Fender Hot Rod Deville has some good classic Fender cleans, but the overdrive is very harsh. The Peavey Classic 30 gets decent tones, but I've found the cleans to be a bit bland and the overdrive to be a little rough (keep in mind, I love that classic rock crunch). The Crate was the very first amp I could pick up and think it was a $2000 boutique amp because the quality of the sound was there (no big sacrifices like you get with most lower priced amps).
Tone is so subjective, but if you like Vox or Marshall sounds, you owe it to yourself to give it a try. As much of a gear snob as I am, I love this little $500 amp and I've been using it live with no hesitation. It survived a bad car accident with a huge gash in the side of it and it still performs flawlessly (hasn't let me down yet). All in all, I've gotten more than my moneys worth out of it.
I think the Fender Hot Rod series, Crate V30 (or V32 Palomino like I own), or Peavey Classic 30 would be a good way to go. They're around the right range for the audience you're playing to and they all have a clean and overdrive channel.
I've played all 3 and I walked out with a Crate V32 Palomino. The cleans get very chimey and vox-ish and the overdrive gets a really great classic Marshall tone. The Fender Hot Rod Deville has some good classic Fender cleans, but the overdrive is very harsh. The Peavey Classic 30 gets decent tones, but I've found the cleans to be a bit bland and the overdrive to be a little rough (keep in mind, I love that classic rock crunch). The Crate was the very first amp I could pick up and think it was a $2000 boutique amp because the quality of the sound was there (no big sacrifices like you get with most lower priced amps).
Tone is so subjective, but if you like Vox or Marshall sounds, you owe it to yourself to give it a try. As much of a gear snob as I am, I love this little $500 amp and I've been using it live with no hesitation. It survived a bad car accident with a huge gash in the side of it and it still performs flawlessly (hasn't let me down yet). All in all, I've gotten more than my moneys worth out of it.
Last edited:
bert123
New member
Re: Need suggestions for under $600 amps
I'm a happy Classic 30 owner. It meets my needs - volume(too much maybe) and tone (classic rock).
30 tube watts - I can barely turn it up to 1 to practice with it before family complains.
I started playing with a high school garage band and the high school stage(jazz) band using a cheap 30 watt tube amp. It was loud enough for school auditoriums.
Didn't know what was available in OZ so I hadn't read the thread yet. But you ask specifically about my amp. New the Classic 30 is about $US550 in the US. Used they seem to be going for $US300-400. I don't know about the market in Australia. When I toured there in August I was surprised to learn that for a country the size of the US you only have a population of 21 million people. So based on the gear prices (seemed to be 25% to 100% higher) I saw when I popped into a few music shops, $450 is probably a reasonable price.Pecan said:
I'm a happy Classic 30 owner. It meets my needs - volume(too much maybe) and tone (classic rock).
30 tube watts - I can barely turn it up to 1 to practice with it before family complains.
I started playing with a high school garage band and the high school stage(jazz) band using a cheap 30 watt tube amp. It was loud enough for school auditoriums.
