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For a friend of the family - they want my recommendation. Right now he's using some little 10W thing that came with one of those starter packs. He's pretty good, and is starting to jam with others. It needs to be affordable and decent, basically.

He's probably at the exploring stage, so I was thinking the new Line 6 Spider IV would be cool. It's got lots of models and effects; he can play around and figure out what he likes.

Beyond that, maybe a new Marshall MG? IDK - it has to do metal distortion well, and that's the one thing I don't really pay attention to.

His guitar is a Jackson Rhodes.

vox valvetronix!

(going to get hate for this)
Spider IV
seriously. Mesa emulations that sound perdy good

It's affordable, portable, loud, stays clean, has tons presets, pedalboard option, basic looping, lots of "metal" artists presets, will give him a good idea of what he will want down the line.

Begin the hate all you want but I thing they're great for starters.

milk before cereal and now this?

you're toeing the line haze.

This is kind of a hard question because we're dealing with cheap beginner gear.

I still need to ask what the price range is. The Vox is a little more expensive than the Line 6, but it does sound better IMO. Although, I was really impressed with the sounds I got from the Spider III series.

Any non-digital amps to consider as well?

Bugera 5150? Probably out of his price range fur sure though
fender frontman 212R and a metal pedal?
Windsor?

I don't think your going to get a full blown metal sound without going down the modeling path
if your staying cheap that is

hotrodperlmutter wrote:vox valvetronix!

seconded

2nd hand Peavy bandit

Ok you are in the US, so I don't know about your used options. Over here, a used H&K Attax or Marshall Valvestate would be the way to go for cheap pure Rock Sound. Or maybe some Peavey, but they are ugly and not well built imho. MG Marshalls sound not too good usually, at least the smaller ones. But you can't do too much wrong with a Vox Valvetronix amp. I don't like them, but I admit they are affordable and sound good.

used Peavey head (Supreme, VTM...) & a Crate cab. or a used Peavey combo. or a Peavey Rage 158...

valveking 2x12

used JCM800


fuck it just buy a good amp for rock and quit fucking around

laterallateral wrote:

hotrodperlmutter wrote:vox valvetronix!

seconded

Thirded.

I'm trying to get rid of mine at the moment, but for the price it's a great amp at bedroom volumes and an okay-ish amp at gig volumes. It has a load of different sounds which I found useful until I started to get more into using pedals.

line 6, i also like the mesa emulators equipped with those. maybe a solid state marshall of some sort. my dad used to have an 50wt '85 Marshall 5210 solid state combo amp with Celestion G12M70 speaker. everytime i plugged in at cranked it, it was like a horse kicked me in the nuts! worked great with effects. saw one on ebay not too long ago for like $300ish?

Is the valetronix the modelling thing? Even if it is the Spider will probably be much more suited to what the kid wants.

Line6 amps have always been great for high gain nonsense, it's convincing cleans and breakup->medium gain sounds they're awful at. They get nowhere near a Marshall for example. I would go for the Line6, set it to insane and watch him smile.

if u got the cash go for the line 6 and maybe a cheaper vox to cover the clean sounds. foot pedals rock

He's a 15 year old moving on from a starter pack 10w amp. He doesn't need to start bi-amping. The Spider will do it all fine if it's in budget.

haha srry got a little carried away.

SOMETHING WITH A HEADPHONE JACK THAT ISN'T A MARSHALL MG SERIES.