Join music gear discussions on Equipboard. Talk about guitar gear, electronic music production, get help identifying gear, ask for feedback on your music, suggest ideas to improve Equipboard and more.

Best Value Tube Amps

Reply
W
willstadon|265

I have two amps that I've gotta recommend for anyone looking for great tone at a great value. First any Jet City amp is great for the money. I've got a JCA20H. While it is a simple single channel amp, it takes pedals great. Nice midrange bark and less than $300. (Also, a big plus is that Jet Citymamps are designed by Michael Soldano of Soldano amplifiers). The other amps are Marshall DSL series. I've got a DSL40C that absolutely rips. A total of 4 separate channels. (Actually it's a 2 channel amp with a clean/crunch channel and a lead 1/lead 2 channel, so it's like four separate channels. At $700 it's a whole lot of amp for the money. I was wondering if anyone else has any recommendations for a great value tube amp.

galavanting
galavanting|54

Fender Hot Rod Deluxe III 40W 1x12 Tube Guitar Combo Amp. Glassy clean sound, loud as fuck though. NOT a practice amp by any means. It's not perfect, the casing tends to rattle a bit, and the drive channel leaves something to be desired (takes distortion pedals quite well though). Can be picked up for about $700.

http://i.imgur.com/2E8AnoIl.jpg

eric_b_wood
eric_b_wood|776

Huge fan of the Fender Blues Jr...fantastic sound, decent price-point.

It's only 25 watts, but honestly I've never really had a need to crank it past 4 (and that was with a drummer and several guitarists!). The fact that it lets you attenuate the volume is FANTASTIC. I wouldn't recommend a tube amp without this, especially if you want to get a nice tube OD sound going without blowing out your eardrums!

W
wil|176

2 good value valve amps I can think of are, The Sovtek mig 50 H or a fender bassman from late 60's. The Sovtek is made from old soviet parts and are basically just a modified bassman, the same platform from which Marshalls were born. But they do have their own sound, just try and find out if you like it. The bassmans are great vintage heads at about $500 a pop, again usually 50w but you could probably find a couple of 70's and maybe a 100w, price going up with the wattage, also when you plug a bassman into an old Marshall cab and dime everything, you start to get those plexi-isms. hope this helps

E
emomcparland|3

Kustom makes several price ranges of tube amp from 15w To 500w

saurinlucien
saurinlucien|358
GEAR:
  • Akai Professional EIE USB Audio Recording Interface with Integrated USB Hub
  • Fender Deluxe Reverb II Rivera-Era Combo (1981-1986)
  • Gibson J-45
In reply to galavanting:

You said it all... I own one and feel exactly the same. Its desperately heavy, so not that practical when on tour, and as you said its almost too loud. However, this sounds so amazingly that I just can't give it up.

GEAR:
  • Akai Professional EIE USB Audio Recording Interface with Integrated USB Hub
  • Fender Deluxe Reverb II Rivera-Era Combo (1981-1986)
  • Gibson J-45
iloveduckduckgo
iloveduckduckgo|83

Fender Twin Reverb or bust, at least for me anyway.

kellen2
kellen2|931

I'm guessing that "value" is somewhat interchangeable with "budget-friendly" haha. I second the Blues Junior, although I had the transformer modded on mine. I also think the stock Jensen speaker can be a bit of an ice pick in the ear. The one I had was swapped out for a Cannabis Rex from Eminence. Other amps less than $800 include the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe Western Edition and Orange Tiny/Dark Terror. For home use the THR10 is a fantastic deal. I love the smaller amps, but I do play on a MESA dual recto currently. Spent $1K but feel it was a good purchase. So I guess it's all in the eye of the beholder.

If you're willing to come off the tube amp train there are some very affordable options that sound good in the realm of solid state amplification.

jesseboucher
jesseboucher|149
In reply to eric_b_wood:

Best value Tube amp with same tubes EL34s and 12AX7s, more power (20 watts as opposed to 15 watts) and the kicker less than half the price. What is it, I hear you shout it is known as a Sub Zero 20R here in the UK aka a Belcat 20R in other countries At £299 UK pounds a opposed to almost Twice that price for the Blues Jnr now that is best value! http://images.gear4music.com/media/121413/1200/preview.jpg

Reply