What amp do us peasants play our SE's through?

[dogrocketp]

I got a used 2 channel 30. It's my fave when there aren't any stairs. Otherwise, it's a Tech 21 Trademark 60 for 16 years. It's a great grab and go amp.

 

[Glide-bpm]

1. Custom point to point wired/rebuilt Plush 3000G and a ton of pedals. Really really really nice
iron in this amp. Transformers are VERY high grade! :

2. Custom built (RickTronics) 50 watt head. One Fender-ish channel, One Master Volume ONLY channel (no tone shaping).
Probably the best sounding amp I've ever owned (and I've owned and played through a LOT of VERY nice amps)
Don't laugh at that cab... it's one of the original Blue Voodoo cabs with V30's (not Chinese) and sounds
SWEET... well broken in over the years. SE Orianthi before I modded it to MannMade trem and custom
Pure Wound www.zhangbucker.com pickups.

3. What I use 95% of any playing time anymore... I NEVER thought I'd go digital
(had Kemper, Axe II, and Helix all at the same time. Sold Kemper and Axe eventually).
Now have a Helix LT for hot swap backup.

 

[ViperDoc]

I’m all about the clean amp and pedals thing!

I hear you. I've been rocking a Dr. Z MAZ 18 NR at the office with a boost train in front of the amp. Sounds amazing.

 

[MistaSnowman]

Boss Katana 100 1x12.

 

[shinksma]

Couldn't agree more, great advice. I toted around a first-gen Hot Rod Deluxe on and off for 20 years, same approach but with a halfway usable drive channel for some material, and a wee bit more headroom than its little brothers. Great glossy clean channels on those suckers for the price point, they always cut through like a champion, but still sound pretty fat and warm at low volume. They're also so ubiquitous on the used market you can scoop and score.

I played a (first gen) HRDX for about 20 years too before finally taking the plunge into PRS amps. Indeed, it is a great clean channel platform for pedals - and I would use the lead channel when I wanted to do some Neil Young muddy-springy stuff. I still use it - I just swapped it out for my HXDA to use as my jamming-with-band amp, but may swap the HRDX back in: the HXDA is great for certain tones that I like to mess around with on my own, but with the band I am usually leaning more towards getting the sound I need from the pedals into a clean amp. The HXDA works at low gains, but that kind of defeats the purpose of that amp, eh?

But the PRS amps are really nice sounding, and it looks cool with my HXDA on one side of the pool table room, and the Sweet 16 on the other...

EDIT: fixed a typo. HXDA and HRDX have way too many letters in common.

 

[g.wizz]

although I have a Mark v 25 head but I play the Hotone diamond 5 watt mini solid state amp

 

[DuncanCE22]

Blackstar HT5 or a marshall code, or if I'm round my brothers a 100w Marshall, or if I'm round a mate's that I normally jam with, an AC30, Fender Bassbreaker or Boss Katana. Basically anything that sounds good.

 

[Smitty]

Mostly a Peavey classic 20 head at 1 watt with the classic channel cranked. Not bad at all, especially at it’s price point.

 

[benh1972]

I have multiple budget guitar & amp syndrome.
I play all my guitars through the same amps.
Obviously not all at once.

Most days I use a Vox Mini 3 GII - because I live in a unit complex with plasterboard (think drywall) between my place & my neighbour, who foolishly doesn't have carpet.
It's a little 3 watt modelling amp, but it packs a punch & is light & easy to carry around, or pop on the coffee table, still leaving room for a cup of tea or glass of beer.

On weekends when I jam with a friend/neighbour, I use a Vox AC4C1.
I also have a Vox VT20X, Fender Frontman 15G, & a big old Crate G60XL with Celestion speaker - this is the old style made in USA amp with made in UK speaker.
They don't make them like this anymore; very much like the old school Peavey Bandits from the late '80s to early '90s, as it was made in the same era.

I do have a Vox Amplug, but that's tedious to use, as is my BR80.

So in order of preference, ignoring the troublesome neighbour, it's the Vox AC4C1 for that real tube tone.
The Vox mini for convenience,
The VT20 for versatility,
The Crate for it's 60 watts of grunt,

& the Frontman if I just feel the need to try something different to get out of a tonal rut.
I need to use pedals with it, or it sounds like a phone book going through a band-saw on the dirt channel, & has a clean over sanitised sound clean.
So it's clean with a bunch of effects if I ever bother using it.

 

[elvis]

The Peavey bandit - who didn't have one of those?

 

[László]

The Peavey bandit - who didn't have one of those?

I didn’t. I always bought good amps.

 

[JKM]

I don’t understand why anyone would play a piece of junk amp with a nice guitar like a PRS SE, when the PRS Sonzeras that are available are such terrific, reasonably priced, amps.

And they’re the real thing.

...magician, not the wand(s). Your criteria for junk is anything under a certain price point or solid state I’d guess. Foolish.

 

[Deleted member 5962]

I didn’t. I always bought good amps.

I started playing guitar at 15. My income level was perhaps less than yours when you started playing. But I loved it and was happy, no matter what I was playing. YMMV.

 

[László]

I started playing guitar at 15. My income level was perhaps less than yours when you started playing. But I loved it and was happy, no matter what I was playing. YMMV.

I got my first amp at 16. An Ampeg Reverberocket 2. Used it with a combo organ and guitar later. I had no income level other than meager gig or summer job $.

 

[László]

...magician, not the wand(s). Your criteria for junk is anything under a certain price point or solid state I’d guess. Foolish.

Making assumptions about someone you don’t know, and have no experience with, might not be the wisest thing.

 

[Lee B.]

The Peavey bandit - who didn't have one of those?

Not exactly that Peavey amp, but my first amp was one of those little 10-watt Audition Chorus models with the twin 6" speakers. I remember it only sounded good with the chorus on, lol. Probably my fault, I approached it like a boom box when I was fiddling the knobs. Plus, I didn't really stick with the free lessons a teacher at school was giving on the side, so I really, really stunk and was learning everything the hard way after trying everything the wrong way first.

My guitars are core models, but I got them used so they only set me back a total of about $2,500 or so. These instruments seriously leave me with no excuses, which is making me practice a lot more and actually try to learn all that boring basic stuff I skipped over in a huff back when I was young and impatient. I agreed to cut off my gear GAS for a couple years in exchange for getting my SC250. Call me a churl, in the sense of being a landowning peasant. I currently have a Yamaha THR5 modeling practice amp and an Egnater Rebel 30 Mk II head running through a 1x12" Eminence Legend cab.

My Yamaha THR5 has a ridiculously nice fundamental tone and behaves quite amplike with the way it responds to the volume knob, but pedals muddy it up pretty quickly. It's pretty much my current go-to at home, but I miss being able to easily tweak effects. For example, its delay is actually really good, but all the controls are compressed into a quarter-sweep of one very touchy dial unless I go to the trouble of USBing it to my laptop to access the rest of the dials.

My Egnater Rebel 30 has an idealized Fender Deluxe sort of clean fundamental running through the 6V6s with the attenuator off and can cop a decent Marshall imitation on the lead channel running through the EL84s, but it is just too damn loud to dial up at home to 3 to get the power tubes breathing, let alone its 5-7 sweet spot. I don't consider this to be the amp's fault; my space is simply far, far away from ideal. The Egnater has onboard attenuators; however, they just lower the breakup point, they don't cut the level one bit. To my ear, it sounds mildly unsatisfying through the direct recording out. Running direct, I have to add compression and a light dose of overdrive to fill it out clean, and overdrive or a dab of distortion or fuzz to fill it out harmonically on lead. That's not so bad, but it renders time-based effects kind of muddy-sounding compared to what my rig can sound like when it is breathing properly through a broken-in Eminence Legend.

I'm thinking of swapping the Egnater head for a used Marshall Class 5 combo the local GC just got in. That should tide me over a couple years until our oldest graduates college and I can splurge on a Carr Mercury V (or a similar PRS model should one exist by that time, I dig Doug Sewell's amp voicings but the current PRS offerings are just way too much amp for my townhouse). That amp would probably disqualify me from any sort of claim to peasanthood, granted. But then I'd be pretty well set, an extra small combo in case someone comes over, and the possibilities of setting up a stereo or switchable clean-dirty rig.

 

[Deleted member 5962]

I got my first amp at 16. An Ampeg Reverberocket 2. Used it with a combo organ and guitar later. I had no income level other than meager gig or summer job $.

Edit: (#2) After two edits, I decided to take say nothing at all. For now. My problem is, I still have a little too much jock in me to just keep biting my tongue.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

Edit: (#2) After two edits, I decided to take say nothing at all. For now. My problem is, I still have a little too much jock in me to just keep biting my tongue.

Do you even lift, bro?

 

[Deleted member 5962]

I work out 4-5 times a week... but somehow I'm not thinking that's what you're really asking.

 

[JKM]

Making assumptions about someone you don’t know, and have no experience with, might not be the wisest thing.

Informed assumption, actually. You posted in the solid state amp thread. My issue is the piece of junk comment, and I stand by my original post. Would you sound like yourself through a Roland cube? I hope so. I know I would. Same with a matchless or a bogner. Playing well doesn’t necessitate a substantial investment. To suggest anything below a true tube amp is an insult to a PRS SE is ridiculous.