Les Paul (Thanks for the help!)

[RussTCB]

Awesome Russ, nice looking guitar, looks a bit like my old Classic. Now let's get you a nice tube amp.

Funny you should mention that...

I was just talking about needing to do that next. I have a solid state half stack currently, but I'd love to get a smaller tube amp that just screams.

What sort of stuff do you play? 60's/70's classic rock w/ some 80s and bluesy/pop stuff (my guess from your posts )?

You pretty much hit the nail on the head

[classicrawker]

Awesome Russ, nice looking guitar, looks a bit like my old Classic. Now let's get you a nice tube amp.

Funny you should mention that...

I was just talking about needing to do that next. I have a solid state half stack currently, but I'd love to get a smaller tube amp that just screams.

What sort of stuff do you play? 60's/70's classic rock w/ some 80s and bluesy/pop stuff (my guess from your posts )?

You pretty much hit the nail on the head

I have a Gibson GA-5 reissue amp which is a great little 5 watt 2 tube 12AX7, EL84 based amp but sadly they don't make them anymore. They are made hand wired and come stock with a custom 8" Weber ceramic speaker. I got mine off of ebay a while back but they have gotten little expensive, $350-750, now when you can find them. If you want to spend the money I think they are a steal at $350.

Here is a nice primer on small tube amps.

http://middle8reviews.com/top-12-low-watt-tube-amps-500/

You might also want to check out Peavey and Epiphone amps as well. Epi's are a great value for the money but IMHO you need to mod them to get them to sound really good.

Best advice is to check out some you might want to try and go demo them at your local music store.

Good luck in your search!

Edited August 27, 2015 by classicrawker

[OmarBradley]

Awesome Russ, nice looking guitar, looks a bit like my old Classic. Now let's get you a nice tube amp.

Funny you should mention that...

I was just talking about needing to do that next. I have a solid state half stack currently, but I'd love to get a smaller tube amp that just screams.

What sort of stuff do you play? 60's/70's classic rock w/ some 80s and bluesy/pop stuff (my guess from your posts )?

You pretty much hit the nail on the head

I'd recommend taking a look at the Peavey Classic series or the Fender Hot Rod. Both great sounding reasonably priced tube amps that will cover all the listed styles no problem with no pedals. I think Blackstar makes some smaller tube amps, but I don't know much about them. For the most part, for lower budget tube amps: stay away from Marshall. I would however highly recommend the SL5 if you can find one for a decent price.

EDIT: The Marshall DSL5C or DSL15 would be good too! I was mainly referring to the Haze and MA series in terms of avoiding them.

Edited August 27, 2015 by OmarBradley

[RussTCB]

Fuck. You guys are gonna get me kicked out of my house!

I'm sure this is blasphomy, but my current rig is a Line 6 Spider IV head and half stack along with the foot board. It's defintely loud and clear but it's of course nothing like a tube amp. I may even look into just trading the whole rig toward a Peavy Classic, Fender Hot Rod or something along those lines.

[classicrawker]

Fuck. You guys are gonna get me kicked out of my house!

I'm sure this is blasphomy, but my current rig is a Line 6 Spider IV head and half stack along with the foot board. It's defintely loud and clear but it's of course nothing like a tube amp. I may even look into just trading the whole rig toward a Peavy Classic, Fender Hot Rod or something along those lines.

Depends on what you want the amp for? If you want it for just playing around the house or apartment and don't need bells and whistles a small 5 watt amp makes sense as you can get decent overdrive without excessive volume. The Peavey and Fender HR are decent amps but they will be pretty loud and you will have to crank the volume to get any real overdrive.

In addition to the small Gibson I also have a cherry 1975 Fender Deluxe Reverb stuffed with NOS tunes which is a great amp, as it has reverb and Tremelo, but that bad boy gets loud before overdrive starts to kick in so I can only play it when the family is out of the house.

What is your budget?

Edited August 27, 2015 by classicrawker

[RussTCB]

Fuck. You guys are gonna get me kicked out of my house!

I'm sure this is blasphomy, but my current rig is a Line 6 Spider IV head and half stack along with the foot board. It's defintely loud and clear but it's of course nothing like a tube amp. I may even look into just trading the whole rig toward a Peavy Classic, Fender Hot Rod or something along those lines.

Depends on what you want the amp for? If you want it for just playing around the house or apartment and don't need bells and whistles a small 5 watt amp makes sense as you can get decent overdrive without excessive volume. The Peavey and Fender HR are decent amps but they will be pretty loud and you will have to crank the volume to get any real overdrive.

In addition to the small Gibson I also have a cherry 1975 Fender Deluxe Reverb stuffed with NOS tunes which is a great amp, as it has reverb and Tremelo, but that bad boy gets loud before overdrive starts to kick in so I can only play it when the family is out of the house.

What is your budget?

The budget is $0 right now haha, but I would imagine $500 $700 will be where I'm in a couple months or so.

So far, the Line 6 has worked out fine for me because I used to use it just for playing rythym in cover bands. Now it's just used for playing in my basement. I've got a full band set up down there though for whenever musicians happen to be around to we can jam on some tunes. It's worked so far because of all the built-in faux tones. There's usually something decent for whoever gets to jamming on whatever song. Having said all that, it's time has come and gone. I'd much rather get something that's got a great, loud, clear clean tone and throw a pedal or two at if if need be for jamming going foward.

[classicrawker]

Fuck. You guys are gonna get me kicked out of my house!

I'm sure this is blasphomy, but my current rig is a Line 6 Spider IV head and half stack along with the foot board. It's defintely loud and clear but it's of course nothing like a tube amp. I may even look into just trading the whole rig toward a Peavy Classic, Fender Hot Rod or something along those lines.

Depends on what you want the amp for? If you want it for just playing around the house or apartment and don't need bells and whistles a small 5 watt amp makes sense as you can get decent overdrive without excessive volume. The Peavey and Fender HR are decent amps but they will be pretty loud and you will have to crank the volume to get any real overdrive.

In addition to the small Gibson I also have a cherry 1975 Fender Deluxe Reverb stuffed with NOS tunes which is a great amp, as it has reverb and Tremelo, but that bad boy gets loud before overdrive starts to kick in so I can only play it when the family is out of the house.

What is your budget?

The budget is $0 right now haha, but I would imagine $500 $700 will be where I'm in a couple months or so.

So far, the Line 6 has worked out fine for me because I used to use it just for playing rythym in cover bands. Now it's just used for playing in my basement. I've got a full band set up down there though for whenever musicians happen to be around to we can jam on some tunes. It's worked so far because of all the built-in faux tones. There's usually something decent for whoever gets to jamming on whatever song. Having said all that, it's time has come and gone. I'd much rather get something that's got a great, loud, clear clean tone and throw a pedal or two at if if need be for jamming going foward.

If you want something to jam with a band the small amps I recommended most likely will not be loud enough unless miked through P.A. as they are more practice amps.

OB's recommendation of the Peavey or Fender HR makes more sense as you will probably want 20+ watts if you are jamming with a band. I have heard good things about the new Vox reissues, like the AC15, which is in your price range. 15W may be enough for a band jam in your basement.

[OmarBradley]

If you want something to jam with a band the small amps I recommended most likely will not be loud enough unless miked through P.A. as they are more practice amps.

OB's recommendation of the Peavey or Fender HR makes more sense as you will probably want 20+ watts if you are jamming with a band. I have heard good things about the new Vox reissues, like the AC15, which is in your price range. 15W may be enough for a band jam in your basement.

I've never been a Vox guy so I'm a bit biased, but IMO the AC15 won't get you to mid-late 70's (VH, Rush, Kiss, etc.) or 80's (GNR, Crue, etc.) levels of distortion without a pedal.

A Peavey 6505+ (or non-plus) combo can be found on used markets for ~$400. That will cover everything you'd want, and more. My ultimate advice though: try to play as many amps in your budget as possible, and see what you like. I think ZoSo has a Fender HR?

[RussTCB]

If you want something to jam with a band the small amps I recommended most likely will not be loud enough unless miked through P.A. as they are more practice amps.

OB's recommendation of the Peavey or Fender HR makes more sense as you will probably want 20+ watts if you are jamming with a band. I have heard good things about the new Vox reissues, like the AC15, which is in your price range. 15W may be enough for a band jam in your basement.

I've got a PA down there which I could easliy mic an amp through.

I kicked around the web today looking at a bunch of the suggestions you guys have made. So far, I was really digging the Fender Hot Rod suggestion. It's retailing about $700ish, so if I traded my whole Line 6 rig toward it, I could probably land somewhere in the $350-$400 range which would be perfect.

[OmarBradley]

If you want something to jam with a band the small amps I recommended most likely will not be loud enough unless miked through P.A. as they are more practice amps.

OB's recommendation of the Peavey or Fender HR makes more sense as you will probably want 20+ watts if you are jamming with a band. I have heard good things about the new Vox reissues, like the AC15, which is in your price range. 15W may be enough for a band jam in your basement.

I've got a PA down there which I could easliy mic an amp through.

I kicked around the web today looking at a bunch of the suggestions you guys have made. So far, I was really digging the Fender Hot Rod suggestion. It's retailing about $700ish, so if I traded my whole Line 6 rig toward it, I could probably land somewhere in the $350-$400 range which would be perfect.

You could do that.... but I wouldn't personally. Micing an amp adds at least two levels of possible tone alteration: 1). The mic will have it's own EQ curve which will change what you hear through the PA speakers, and 2) the PA itself/monitors will also slightly change the tone. If you're recording or playing live it's often unavoidable, and I'm not really saying that it's a "tone destroyer" to mic an amp , I guess I'm just saying it doesn't make as much sense for impromptu jams/practices. I've had shows that I thought during soundcheck, "wow my amp sounds great in this room," and then when the show starts the monitor sounds like garbage. Maybe it's just a personal pet peeve.

I always always always try to buy used when I can. Most gear can be gotten on CL/Reverb.com in fairly good condition at ~60-70% of its retail price. And if you can deal with some scratches/beat up tolex/or minor technical issues, you find some real steals.

Edited August 27, 2015 by OmarBradley

[ZoSoRose]

Personally, I think you should go with a Vox AC15/AC30, Fender Blues Junior, Fender Blues Deluxe Reissue, or a Peavey Classic series

All stellar cleans that can sound like anything with proper pedals. I have a Blues Deluxe, its great. I wouldn't worry about drive channels unless you want a Marshall or something

Any of the above would be plenty loud for practice/small gigs

Edited August 28, 2015 by ZoSoRose

[RussTCB]

Personally, I think you should go with a Vox AC15/AC30, Fender Blues Junior, Fender Blues Deluxe Reissue, or a Peavey Classic series

All stellar cleans that can sound like anything with proper pedals. I have a Blues Deluxe, its great. I wouldn't worry about drive channels unless you want a Marshall or something

Any of the above would be plenty loud for practice/small gigs

This is probably going to require another meet up at Guitar Center