Best All-Around Guitar Amp ~$1000

[Cowbell Anarchy]

According to the guitargeeks site, Alan Sparhawk of Low uses a 60s Fender "Vibroverb". Never seen one of those. So anyhow, my friend is out of town for awhile and allowed me to sort through and test amps from his modest collection. Today I brought home a Fender Deville to try. I really love the clean sounds and that long plate reverb, but the dirty channel doesn't seem to break up now matter how hard you push it. And it gets pretty super loud. I guess you could get some nice pedals and run it through? But yeah, I'd still feel like I was missing that tube amp distortion option.

[weatherbox]

I once had a HR Deville, and I, as did many other people I know who owned them, had problems with it crapping out. If the amp in question is from the Hot Rod series, I'd be wary.

[getreel]

Twins aren't nesscessarily that loud. I like the headroom it has. Sure, it can get very loud but it sounds just as good and tubey at lower volumes. I like the headroom and spanking clean tones you can get. I play alot of funk though so clean headroom before the amp overdrives was important to me. That why I have a silverface that doesn't have a blackface mod. The 85 watt blackface Twin will break up more at less volume. Don't get me wrong though; it will crank like a Marshall if you use something to push it. I have a Fulltone FDII custom cream and a Maxon OD-9 I use for various levels of gain. The Twin handles all of them like a pro! Even if I turn all my OD pedals on at once! It seems to sound just great no matter what you throw at it. Other lower wattage Fender ampo are also a good choice like others have pointed out. Personally I'd rather have the option of being very loud if I want than having a guitar rig that is limited in volume.

[jmoose]

Those Fender Hot Rod's have a pretty weak dirt channel. Overcompressed, flabby, muddy and overall, just not that cool.

I don't know if I could really vote ANY Fender amp as most versatile even though they're all great in their own ways. Something like a Twin or a 4x10" Super Reverb have MILES of clean headroom & won't distort until they're dimed.

By that time you'll have been long nailed to the back wall by the sheer volume of that clean sound. And by the time it DOES distort, you probably wouldn't dig it very much anyway. Pedals are your friends.

If you're dead set on the Fender thing I'd go small...Pricetons, Champs, maybe a Vibrolux but really they're all one or three trick ponys.

If your after "versatile" then I'd check out the PV Classics, Rivera, man...what else is out there now? Something with two channels that don't suck and has 'verb covers my definition of "versatile"

I dunno. Play a bunch of amps until you find the one you like and buy that!

[douglas baldwin]

Good advice from all so far. I'd look for some of those slightly "off" models from the 70's-80's that can be had for $400-$600, leaving you some scratch to upgrade tubes and speakers. I've owned a Music Man RD-50 forever. It rocks my universe for power, tone, and portability. Another sleeper is the Acoustic G100T, which looks like a Mesa Boogie MKII knockoff, right down to the natch'l oak cabinet. I've had one for about ten years now. It too rocks my universe. And speaking of Mesa Boogie, watch out for some of those discontinued models. I just sold my Heartbreaker on eBay for $750 plus shipping. You can find their Subway series, Blue Angels, Nomads, etc. for nearly dimes on the dollar.

And, dude, a couple of good overdrive/distortion pedals will double or triple your tones. In my collection: ProCo Rat (not the Rat II or the econoRat!), Jeckyll and Hyde Overdrive, Mesa Boogie V-Twin preamp. TS9's are nice, too.

dB

[bocmaxima]

I agree with the Twin Reverb sentiment, however I would suggest getting a later model one. I have a silverface model from like '68, and it is the most finnicky amp I have ever seen. Some days we cant even use it cause it doesnt want to cooperate (after warming up), and some days it is rarin to go after 10 minutes. I don't get it.

[Dubious]

personally im of the opinion that the small fenders are definatly the way to go.. Princeton esp... but even these are going for too much dough if you ask me...

for a 1000 (or any budget) id look into some tube PA head conversions.. there's loads of brands to choose from on the bay.. handwired, military grade overbuilt beasts that usually cap out at around $100 - $150... you can easily score 4-5 of them.. get a couple differant flavour cabs and have more tones than you know what to do with.

[SonicDave]

Hey guys.

I'm in the market for a new guitar amp, Also, my budget is $1000.

Can'[t understand all the vintage twins! Where are you playing out? If you start playing a twin at breakup then you are going to get tossed from most of the clubs and your bandmates will be doing it for the barkeep. And a Princeton? by the 3rd set you'll be wishing you had a crate with a master volume. All this vintage stuff is crap for playing out, unless you have evolved your playing style and the amp in the same venues over many years. A vintage tube amp has one voice and one volume. If they don;t match perfectly, you are done. You could of course use a pedal board and etc. but this is not a discussion of pedals and effects.

My humble advice is to get a VHT amp. Go for the el84's if you likee that flavor. That'[d be my choice. Plus you can call Steve Fryete and chat with him if you want a new one. And this is a gearhead board so you dig getting to chat with the owner. (or at least you used to be able to. I bought mine bout 5 years ago). You get cool colors and maybe more importantly, you get a nice choice of distortion and volumes. Makes it real usable. And you can record that thing in glory. You don'[t drive to the gig in a 45 year old car do you?

For the love of god, don'[t get a twin/super. You'[ll think youre cool and so you'll be dragging that damn heavy thing around with you till you finally give up and then youll buy a pod and run it through the board. And then you'll get married and get a job selling floor tile. And then, well, it's too horrible to think about.

[curtiswyant]

Hey guys.

I'm in the market for a new guitar amp, Also, my budget is $1000.

Can'[t understand all the vintage twins! Where are you playing out? If you start playing a twin at breakup then you are going to get tossed from most of the clubs and your bandmates will be doing it for the barkeep. And a Princeton? by the 3rd set you'll be wishing you had a crate with a master volume. All this vintage stuff is crap for playing out, unless you have evolved your playing style and the amp in the same venues over many years. A vintage tube amp has one voice and one volume. If they don;t match perfectly, you are done. You could of course use a pedal board and etc. but this is not a discussion of pedals and effects.

My humble advice is to get a VHT amp. Go for the el84's if you likee that flavor. That'[d be my choice. Plus you can call Steve Fryete and chat with him if you want a new one. And this is a gearhead board so you dig getting to chat with the owner. (or at least you used to be able to. I bought mine bout 5 years ago). You get cool colors and maybe more importantly, you get a nice choice of distortion and volumes. Makes it real usable. And you can record that thing in glory. You don'[t drive to the gig in a 45 year old car do you?

For the love of god, don'[t get a twin/super. You'[ll think youre cool and so you'll be dragging that damn heavy thing around with you till you finally give up and then youll buy a pod and run it through the board. And then you'll get married and get a job selling floor tile. And then, well, it's too horrible to think about.

A Super is nothing! I see idiots all the time lugging half-stacks to bar gigs where they'll play all night to 10 people. As a matter of fact, an old Bassman head and cab would probably be perfect, doncha think?

[Randy]

As a matter of fact, an old Bassman head and cab would probably be perfect, doncha think?

Another Bassman fan here.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I am constantly amazed at the variety of tones you can get out of a Bassman head. The tone controls work. Also, a splitter with a bypass can set you up with a nice and creamy almost Marshall-like tone when you drive both channels hard. It is a loud amp, but if you need to play quiet a volume pedal and distortion box will allow that to happen. Plus, it's easy to fix if it breaks (which is seldom.)

another plus- since it's a head, it is easy to carry.

[sonic dogg]

With yer pedal collection I would stick with something that is absolutely pure clean. And then you mentioned the Vibro-Verb. Hard to find and expensive when in good condition, but these are the real deal. A Vibrolux is a nice small Fender amp that doesnt get real dirty but chimes like a mutha! No one has mentioned the Ampeg reissues. The JetII and the whole line are smooth. Silky highs and reall honest lows. The distortion channel is real nice. The all-tube reissues BTW not the hybrid thing.

You could just save up a bit more dough and get a real hand-built boutique amp....BadCat, Bogner Metroploitan, Carr.....something like that.

[inverseroom]

You'[ll think youre cool and so you'll be dragging that damn heavy thing around with you till you finally give up and then youll buy a pod and run it through the board. And then you'll get married and get a job selling floor tile. And then, well, it's too horrible to think about.

The words "stunning debut" come to mind. Strong post, SonicDave.

My current live rig? Into the board. With a $99 Zoom G2. But then again I'm playing "experimental" music.

And in the studio, a 1964 Epiphone Pathfinder, which is awesome, but I wouldn't suggest gigging with.

[AstroDan]

I think it's the current sensibility that an amp must break up that makes Twin's such a good deal right now. Breaking up a Twin is just a bad utilization of that amp. It's great because it's high headroom is prime real estate for all the wonderful pedals available today to put in front of it.

It just seems wiser to pay around $500 for an all tube, point-to-point amp that can double as a public address system (if needed or if not needed) than pay twice that much for a lunchbox sized amp that, admittedly, sounds great dimed, but can probably be reasonably mimicked with one of the billions of thousands of pedals floating around today running into a Twin.

Of course, my opinion will change when I am no longer able to walk from carrying my '73 around town for another decade...

[Cowbell Anarchy]

Thanks for all the input, guys! I think I may have to delve further into the world of quality pedals via that awesome pedal thread that's floating around on the board. All of mine sound like shit, no matter what amp I run them through. I got them at yard sales in Tempe from starving media arts students, maybe they're just broken and I could fix them if I was more tech savy/smart. I like the idea of an amp that's just pure clean glistening headroom, but something inside me melts when I hear a snarling lead that's all amp. The search continues.

[curtiswyant]

I'll tell ya my opinion...
No pedal...EVER...is going to get the sound of a cranked tube amp. I heard one of the new Traynor amps and they sound fantastic! Riveras do the Fender/Marshall thing too.