[AEngland77]

So ive got about 500 to spend on a new amp or save it up for a really good laptop pc. The pc can wait a year because i dont go to college for awhile now. So i wanna spend my 500 and im looking at a new amp. How do you know when you need/want/desire a new amp? Atm i play on a tiny little marshall amp that imo sounds like a piece of crap- it kinda makes me feel bad to play because people hear it buzzing and fuzzing and they might not think i sound very good. My friend says that crate is the way to go in terms of an amp. I am a beginner and please tell me if i am jumping the gun when it comes to getting new equipment, But i have heard people that have played alot longer than i have and they aren't that great.

Thanks,
Aubrey

[chuckswood2001]

if u dont like the sound of ur present amp then its prob time to get a new one, take ur guitar to a shop and try it on diff amps until u find one that sounds good to u, 500 gives u a lot of choice, there are good amps for under 500, and amps that are over 3k, ur the one that has to be happy with it, so try some amps out and see what u like


Chuck

[allthumbs]

The first thing you need to decide is tube or solid state. A sweet tube amp in your price range would be a Fender Blues Junior. 15 watts. Small enough for a bedroom amp but, large enough to gig with in a small club.

[allthumbs]

Take a look at the Roland Cubes. 20, 30, and 60s. My friends love them. The 60 has enough going for it that you could gig with it unless you really needed LOUD.

[coldethyl]

May cost you an extra 100 bucks but it's a great little amp with loads of grunt.

I'm talking about the 40 watt Fender Hot Rod Deluxe tube amp.
Here's some info on it:
Buy Fender Hot Rod Deluxe Amp online at Musician's Friend

[krissovo]

Originally Posted by allthumbs

The first thing you need to decide is tube or solid state. A sweet tube amp in your price range would be a Fender Blues Junior. 15 watts. Small enough for a bedroom amp but, large enough to gig with in a small club.

2nd the blues junior, its a great amp. You could look for one on ebay that has been "moded" (search google for explanation).

Great classic rock and blues tone and takes extra pedals well.

[krissovo]

Originally Posted by allthumbs

Take a look at the Roland Cubes. 20, 30, and 60s. My friends love them. The 60 has enough going for it that you could gig with it unless you really needed LOUD.

2nd these as well, would be a better option if you want to play through headphones or record and have a greater variety of tone. Basically you can play almost everything with one of those.

Also worth a look is the VOX AD30, the best tone of solid states IMHO but its difficult to dial in a great tone.

[Stratrat]

+1 on the Blues Jr. or Roland Cube series. Both very good amps.

A lot of the choice will depend on what kind of music you intend to play, though. A metalhead will want an entirely different amp than a blues/country player, or a jazz player, etc.

Don't forget to consider used amps, too - you can pick up an amp that would otherwise be out of your budget range if you can find a good deal on a used one.

[AEngland77]

...could someone tell me the difference between a tube amp and a solid state amp?

[allthumbs]

Tube amps are louder for the same wattage as a solid state. They have a warm organic tone that solid state amps are trying to emulate, some better than others. High end Vettas come close.

[Stratrat]

Originally Posted by AEngland77

...could someone tell me the difference between a tube amp and a solid state amp?

Over-simplified answer - Tube amps use tubes in the pre-amp and power amp sections to amplify the sound. Solid-state amps use transistors. As AT said, tube amps tend to have a "warmer" tone, but solid-state technology is getting better and better at emulating it. A true "tube snob" will tell you that solid-state will NEVER sound as good as tubes. I'm not quite sure that I can go that far. There are some pretty nice-sounding SS amps nowadays.

[AEngland77]

Well I finally took my Epi les paul to the shop to have a broken tone nob replaced/new pots put in, so my next step is buying an amp. I got a "raise" in my pay so i now have 600 big ones to spend on guitar gear... maybe not all of it- I'm looking at a 250-350 price range for an amp, but if i decide that the amp is worth it ill be willing to shell out a few more . Thanks for answering my question btw..

[dejankuki]

You can look also this amplifiers.

Alesis Wildfire60

Randal RG50 or RG75

or Peavey envoy.

Those amps are not very expensive, they are not tube amplifiers but they work very good, and for instace alesis have built in guitar processor.

Or even line6 flextone

[SlickCat]

Here is the advice I give anyone who wants a good amp but really dont know what type to buy.
Get a Vox modeling amp. The Vox emulates many different classic amps. It sounds great. After you play it a while you will see which modelled amp settings you like and use the most. (Then...go buy the real thing.)

[Stratrat]

Again - what kind of music are you going to be playing?

If you want to go solid-state, I'd agree with Slickcat on the VOX, and also add the Roland Cube series into consideration. Both are modeling amps and will give you a lot of different sounds. If you want to go tube, stretch your budget about $50 and get a Fender Blues Jr.....but if you're going to be playing heavy stuff (metal, etc.), you'd probably want a multi-fx of some sort to go with the Blues Jr. to get those sounds. It's a great classic rock / blues amp, but it doesn't do high-gain metal sounds without some help.