New first tube amp for guitar

Re: New first tube amp for guitar

I've owned or extensively played these:

The VHT and Ibanez are both basically mini Fenders with a boost mode so if you don't want Fenderish I'd scratch those. I love both but they are not what you describe.

The Egnater Tweaker (sitting right next to me) is I'd say smack dab in the middle of everything (lil bit of marshall, lil bit of fender, lil bit of modern stuff) with very prominent grainy midrange as is Egnater's signature, at least to my ears. The different tone switches are fun to play with but you can tell its the same amp.

Blackstar HT (just sold) series is like marshall thru an EQ with most of the top end clipped off and the lower mids cranked up to distort. You can plug these into a mixer and this may be what a lot of younger people think of when they say marshallish (boosted & modded 800s/900s/2000s, not old jtm 45s). This seems to be the one that fits your requirements.

Laney Cub 12 is where you start actually getting close to old school marshall imitation. It has that bright and sometimes harsh top end of a small marshall at lower vols and can do ac/dc crunch once you crank it up. I think the harshness could be tamed with the proper speaker.

If volume constraints arent a problem or you dig using a boost pedal Marshall class 5 sure sounds marshallish. It has a lot of practicality issues given the lack of features and narrow volume sweet spot but, but 1 chord and you know you're hearing marshall.

I never really got into jet city stuff (just sold). Owned a 50 watter and it just sounds too preamp biased/fizzy for me. People say they can do jcm 800 tones but i dunno what jcm 800s those dudes have played... sounds totally like an ultra saturated stiff 5150 style amp to me. The vintage version of the 20w is mucho better but has it's own unique sound. At the price I WANTED to love these... There's a youtube vid shooting out a Bugera v22 and one of the jet city combos that sums up my own experience. Fizzy ultra compressed saturation (JC) blown away by clear dynamics (V22).

The Jet City JCA-20/22 are based on the Soldano Hot Rod series, so they're very much a preamp-centric tone. The vintage (JCA-20) is sort of JCM800ish, but the frequency response is a bit different. The two channel (JCA-22) is very much like a 5150 or Rectifier.
 
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