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Could anyone recommend me a tube amp that would keep up with a band situation without being mic'd up?

I have a line 6 spider III at the moment and its horrid.

My budget is about £650 - 700, but i have NO experience with tube amps, and i live miles away from the nearest store, so trying amps out is difficult.

Any help is appreciated.

You need to tell us about your sound and what you want. Line6 Spider isn't really a clue given how versatile they are.

At that price, you really have quite a lot of choice.

Corax, what type of music does your band play and what type of sound you trying to achieve? Are you wanting to run pedals through it? Do you need fx loop, reverb, etc?

I would say look for something that is 30 watts tube and above...

I have a Peavey Classic 30 so that would be my recommendation .

I am also very tempted to buy the new(ish) Orange Dual Terror Head. Take a look at that too.

What sort of band do you play in ? and what sort of venues are you playing ?

What wattage was your solid state Spider ?

Peavey Classic 30 and Peavey Delta Blues are obvious choices.

And the Dual Terror is a good idea too, provided you don't mind lugging around a cab.

You could get a half stack for that money, especially if you don't mind looking second hand. There really is sooo much you could get.

Ah, sorry. We play Mogwai influenced stuff, bugger loads of fuzz, delay and reverb. I'm not that interested in a loop as i probably wouldn't use it anyways. On board effects wont be used.

My spider is 150 watts as it was down in price to the same as the 75 watt in a sale, so i thought i may aswell get the bigger one.

Fender Super 6

I was gonna suggest an Orange Tiny Terror and a 2x12 of some sort until I saw that your old amp is 150w. I'd suggest looking at something with only one channel though if you use a lot of fuzz pedals, no point having a gain channel really. That's why I like the TT.

yeah but on the other hand, two channels for this sort of stuff combining clean with fuzz parts the quiet loud thing, on the gain channel you can have fuzz topped distortion too

maybe if you invest in a nice head and for budget reasons get a cheaper cab you can always upgrade the cab later and if you're really happy with the top you're settled, downside is size but you have lots more combination options.

though single channel bassmans take pedals well if you can find one for a good price i'd consider that an option. look at how you use your current amp, is the gain channel a must or not etc. going for a valve amp (and it also depends wether you're using a cab or combo, amount of speakers etc) i'd say 30w is fine but then some are louder some are more quiet. are cleans at high volume a must ? stuff like that. a valve amp of 50w is gonna shine more than one of 100w because you can push it a bit more. unless you want insanely loud music though, then 100w amps shine too just as long as you can push them a bit and not use them with the volume knob never past 1

Corax-rg wrote:Could anyone recommend me a tube amp that would keep up with a band situation without being mic'd up?

...

My budget is about £650 - 700, but i have NO experience with tube amps, and i live miles away from the nearest store, so trying amps out is difficult.

That covers an absolutely enormous range of amps. You're going to have to describe some idea of what you want to get any useful suggestions. That means EQ (some amps don't have a middle control for example), reverb, number of channels (depends on your FX setup) and generally your desired sound.

If you can't describe it too well some youtube clips that show the sotrof tone you want fairly clearly will do the job if you describe a few of the basics like if you want reverb or not.

Corax-rg wrote:On board effects wont be used.

So you don't need an amp with a good overdrive channel?

quad reverb

Orange Rocker 30, i've got one and I think it's great. Set the dirty channel just below break up and crank the volume, I play mine on a quarter of the volume through a 1 x 12 and it can compete with a very loud drummer easily. It also takes pedals really well. I got my head version of the amp for £420 second hand and the 1 x 12 cost me £90 + £50 to replace the speaker with a Vintage 30, but then I sold the old speaker for £20 - so you will have plenty of change in your budget for some awesome pedals to run through it.

Freddy V-C wrote:I was gonna suggest an Orange Tiny Terror and a 2x12 of some sort until I saw that your old amp is 150w. I'd suggest looking at something with only one channel though if you use a lot of fuzz pedals, no point having a gain channel really. That's why I like the TT.

150 watts solid state is not 150 watts valve

i use an orange rocker 30 too and it's good with pedals yes. mine goes through an ampeg svt 410 though but for mogwai type stuff it'd be a pretty good choice, be warned there is no eq for the clean channel though only a volume knob, hate it or love it for its simplicity. gain channel gets very high gain more modern than old orange, lacks a bit of warmth tbh but depending on the cab you can play with the sound too (using a 12" speaker will make it sound less harsh etc). no reverb, simple and good if you use pedals and want an affordable loud enough valve amp.

BacchusPaul wrote:

Corax-rg wrote:On board effects wont be used.

So you don't need an amp with a good overdrive channel?

Considering has a line 6 spider we can safely assume he means stuff other than overdrive and reverb.

Mogwai use Marshalls, IIRC.

What's your price range look like? If you need to get in on the cheap, I'd suggest looking at the Bugera 1990 for mogwai type stuff.

I've played on the one at my local GC like 50 times. I love the sound of it, but can't justify it in any way. I think it's based on the JCM 900.

I went from a 30w Spider 3 to a Fender Bassman and 2x12 cab and theres no looking back. Clean sparkle, just enough headroom for pure clean and breaks up on its own in just the right spot for me. It takes pedals exceptionally well, especially my delays and reverb. Loves the OCD and fuzz.

A friend of mine has a Rocker 30 that he uses through an orange 2x12 open back cabinet. The gain channel is great but its VERY high gain for my tastes, like kim said its more of a modern sound than that classic orange crunch i was expecting. The clean channel also isn't great on its own in my opinion. I'm too used to the Bassman's cleans that the Rocker 30s just sounded flat. HOWEVER I threw a Dano Fish N Chips EQ in front of it and it was right up there with my bassman.

The Rocker is a great amp, not for me, but i can't deny the facts.

DO AN PS400 !!!!