Good amp for under 400$
 

Well, I'm in need of a new amp and I figured here might not be a bad place to ask for some advice. My only real requirement is that it's loud enough to play with a band and has good distortion. I know that's pretty vague, but hopefully it's enough to get the ball rolling.

So yeah, if you have recommendations I'd love to hear them.

amps are really costly, so practically you're not going to get a very loud one for $400. I know Vox has a pretty good 23 Watt amp that you'll get for under $400, and the effects are pretty nice. obviously it's not too loud, but depending on the type of music you plan to play it could be fine.

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Peavey-V...93-i1413609.gc
good amp, good deal, and that one's definitely loud enough for ya. I know peavey has some other good tube amps that you'll get for a good price. Plus Sonic Youth use peaveys.

if you can find a good deal on one that's in your price range, a Fender Blues Jr. would also be a logical choice

I play out of an awesome Behringer amp. It was only $200. It's lasted me 4 years and many live shows. Check their website.

I use a Behringer which cost about $230 AU, but it's only 30 watts, which is loud enough for me since I still don't have a band. And it's got my favourite flange effect.

I think we might have the same amp! Is that the one with 100 built in effects? I love the weird ass pitchshifter effect on it.

It might be the same, though I think mine only has 99 effects. Maybe it has 100, I'm not sure.

4 hundred bucks, good luck... one solution:


if you are playing live then get the engineer to mic it and put it back into your monitor send. if in a rehearsal room you can do the same thing.

almost like friendly fire or fresh frozen

Check your local pawnshops like Superpawn often; You NEVER know what they'll throw out, and since often they have people there that have no idea what they're talking about, it's cheap. My brother recently bought an out of print Squire Champ amp that sounds great for only $50!

Just keep the receipt in case you end up hating it. If they give you shit about returning it say the tubes (Get a tube amp definitely) are battered and buzz too much when playing. Their inexperience and lack of knowledge will help you.

~Jeremy~

Or jumbo shrimp? It's a reliable, loud, great-sounding amp. For cheap. What more needs to be said?

I have a marshall amp and it's horrible.

Avoid Marshall.

Unless you like horrible clean sound and distortion that always sounds like thrash metal regardless of how much gain you put on.

Good Marshalls exist! You just can't get them on the cheap.
I was completely anti-Marshall for years until I played through the one I have now. I'm glad I bought it when I did, too; I could never even remotely afford this thing if I were to try and buy one now.

The Music Man 212 from the early 1970s can often be purchased for less than $400.00. They have solid state preamp, which people seem to think is less desirable, but they have tube output and at 130 watts they are (I think) just about the most powerful combo amp ever made. Personally, I think they sound better than a Fender Twin Reverb.

I think I might have to check out that peavy. I went to guitar center the other day and the only peavys they had were solid state ones, but I might be bold enough to go for one of their tube amps on a blind buy.

Is the valveking any good or should I just go for the vypyr?

Also, I'll probably stop by my local pawnshop sometime this week and see what they have there.

You can often get Fender Silverface amps for under 400. They are Fender amps from the 70's and are often considered not as good as the 60's models, but they're still good handmade tube amps. One of the downsides is that they don't distort and are usually really loud. But they do have master volume to turn it way down, and you can always just use a fuzz or overdrive pedal.

I'm gonna give this just one more shameless bump before it dies.

The Peavey Windsor is a good all-tube option and incredibly good value for money.

http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/p...ack?sku=485059

http://reviews.harmony-central.com/r...+100+Head/10/1

I would go with a used Fender, like a Deville or something. You can get a good clean sound and then add whatever pedals on top to get the sound you want.

Aren't the Fender Hot Rods meant to have quite bad distortion channels?

^^ i own a Hot rod. The footswitch bugs me a little but the sound is really great. Mind you, i don't use that much distortion . I never pleay it above 3 and it goes uu to 12...