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I need some help looking for a new amp to buy for use with my band as I'm playing through a crap solid state thing at the moment which sounds awful.

Anyway, I'm looking for something that's all valve and good enough to stay clean when pushing it in a room with a very hard hitting drummer; I also want to be able to use it for gigs. The cleans are important as I don't like any drive coming from my amp at volume, I get all my distortion from my pedals. Saying that, a little bit of breakup at the top end of the spectrum is fine and hopefully I could control this with picking dynamics.

I was looking at the twin reverb but I don't know if this will be overkill. I'm kinda new to valve amps in the sense that I've owned only small 2/5 watt amps for home use. I'll mainly be using my Jazzmaster and my Mustang, both with typical pickups for each guitar, although replacements.

I have about £400 to spend and would like some change if possible.

My recommendation would always be for a Marshall JVM series combo. Seriously all the amp you'd ever need, lovely cleans through to pretty great Marshall overdrive. You might just get a 50watt combo for £400 on gumtree or the like.

Marshall ≠ cleans.

Peavey Classic series would offer you valve cleans for that sort of money, though.

Peavey Classic.

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Probably one of the best investments I ever made back in t'day and all that. Even though I have two "better" (as in, more expensive *SNNIIIIFFFFFF*) I'm not willing to sell it to you because I still love the damn thing like a limb. Plus the reverb is broke and I keep meaning to fix it.

I bought mine for £200 on eBay. The guy was selling it because he bought two because he thought a single 30 watt amp wouldn't be loud enough. I lol'ed. And clicked the Buy it Now around five minutes after the auction had been posted. Then scrounged around for the money like mad. That was around ten years ago. They've shot up in price, but here's one for £300:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Peavey-Classi ... 1c41257a48

Cheers guys. Been looking at reviews of the peavy classic and it seems right up my street.
Gonna throw an offer on that auction you linked me to Eric, thanks. If you change your mind about selling yours though, let me know, I don't use reverb anyway

Neither do I, but I accidentally broke it while performing another repair on it (the handle popped off... not bad for a 20-year old amp that hasn't been otherwise serviced in over a decade at least), so it's sort of a matter of pride that I fix it, really.

The one I linked looks similar to mine, before they made the Peavey logo harder to remove by incorporating it directly into the chassis. But mine was a really, REALLY old one, with no tube guard at the back. If you're lucky, that one will be a more recent late 90s/early 2000s one with the nice metal guard across the tubes.

The introduction of the Classic series is quite interesting. Originally they were a hybrid amp in the 70s and morphed into the all-valve classics in the late 80s, I think. It really battered other manufacturers on price. Very few other companies really produced an affordable all-valve amp at the time with a similar look and features. The Fender Hot Rod series, for instance, was launched a good few years later in the mid-90s. Even though the Classics ape old Fender amps from the 50s and 60s, the Hot Rods were effectively hopping onto the Classic bandwagon.

Plus, for people that give a shit, Classics have always been, and still are, produced in the USA.

JOIN THE CLASSIC CREW, YO.

Peavey or Laney or summink, because I don't think you can get any decent Fender amp for £400 that does what you want.

Laney vc30... I have the vc15 as the 30 was too loud for my needs, but the one I played was a lovely amp.

timhulio wrote:Peavey or Laney or summink, because I don't think you can get any decent Fender amp for £400 that does what you want.

Thinking the same, there are some great fenders out there but they are a bit spendy. Are you after a combo or head/cab? Look at some laney heads out there.

I know it's not valve but also some H|H Electronics amps worth checking out

I could probably wait another payday and add a couple of hundred on top if necessary, if I can get something more suited to what I need. I would prefer a combo too.

All suggestions welcome. I was thinking of a Fender twin reverb because my friend has one and it's amazing. However, they're stupidly heavy and he never gets his past half way.

How about THIS?

Edit: oh, just noticed your location. Bit of a trek to Folkestone...

That's a great price for a Deluxe, less than a Twin would cost! Grab it if you can get down there.

benecol wrote:Marshall ≠ cleans.

Nah mate, most of the post JCM900 stuff has great cleans, depending on the model.

Really impressed by the Laney LC50 I heard on tour once (I was bassing, but help set up the amp etc); took pedals great, not too pricey on these shores. Might pick one up someday.

The clean channel of my old DSL401 was pretty good actually for small gigs, especially for on-the-edge-of-breakup blues, and a quick look on the 'bay suggests that they go for around the £400 mark used. Sadly I had to find it a new home during a house move last year so it's no longer mine to sell.

As far as reliability goes though, you might be better off with a new/nearly-new Peavey or Laney rather than a Marshall that's been around the block a few times. The 401's reliability was a chronic cause of worry for me.

timhulio wrote:That's a great price for a Deluxe, less than a Twin would cost! Grab it if you can get down there.

This. Tempted to jump on it myself.

Doog wrote:

benecol wrote:Marshall ≠ cleans.

Nah mate, most of the post JCM900 stuff has great cleans, depending on the model.

+11

My old 50-watt 900 dual reverb has great cleans to be honest, plus the reverb tank... I don't really use it for anything else, it's dirt is a bit crap and my other Marshalls, well, ≠ cleans.

So I bought the classic 30 that Eric linked to above these posts. It sounds great at a decent room volume but the real test will be tomorrow when I take it to practice.

You can get an evil twin for £350

best bang for your buck

Excellent stuff.

Coincidentally, I also noticed this on Thomann today: http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_vt_30_tw.htm

Basically a Harley Benton take on the Classic 30. Crazy.

I used it yesterday for practice and it was loud. However, I'm getting break up with the "normal" volume at around 4. I was using my Jazzmaster with a 62AVRI neck pickup and a duncan hot in the bridge. Surprisingly I was having more issues with my neck pickup than my bridge. It does sound great though, I think it's just a case of getting used to putting more dynamics in my picking/strumming as it's really responsive to pick attack.

Next time I'll get to crank it is next week so I'll have a play with the EQ and see what happens.

I also had issues with my IC Muff. Since repairing it, at full volume it's actually slightly quieter than my clean signal. Although that's another issue all together.