Originally Posted by HesNot
Didn't think my first post here would be in an electric thread - but there it is! As a primarily electric player through the years and new (again) to acoustics this seemed like a place to add value rather than soak up info (which I've done plenty of lurking). Anyway ...
As others have noted it can be daunting these days - the quality and variety of options, at all price and wattage and size points, is nothing like when I started playing XX years ago. Not to mention the myriad digital options/variations/hybrids, etc... to cloud the waters. Just watch rig rundowns on Premier Guitar for awhile and you'll see there are many many paths to the Kingdom of tone (albeit since they are all pros the cost of entry may seem deliriously high but the basic principles apply in the affordable world as well).
It sounds like you're after an "old school" approach of a tube amp and guitar and maybe some pedals. So we'll leave out digital modelling - amps and simulators for the moment. As I hear you - not gigging (maybe yet) so no need to keep up with a drummer, lower volumes that sound good are a priority, you want a range of tones available from clean to some gain (maybe not modern high gain but a good crunch).
Still there are decisions to make and a variety of very deep rabbit holes you can find yourself lost in (check out That Pedal Show on youtube - really knowledgeable guys and I've learned a lot but they dig deep - real deep).
Volume is perhaps the easiest to solve - if tube keep the wattage to 5 or less and you'll have the ability to generally drive the amp to satisfying results without shaking the walls. I have a 5 watt Jet City head that has a 2 watt attenuator that through a 1x10 cabinet will work up quite a sweat at low volumes. I tend to prefer a master volume setup to provide the widest range of tones at lower volumes but that is not absolute... which leads to the more complicated decisions.
Range of tones. There are a lot of options and some depend on how you want to achieve them. My Jet City for example - is a single channel amp - capable of a pretty wide range of sounds from clean to pretty high gain and points in between - but by itself all this requires fiddling with knobs and switches to get the different sounds. When I'm practicing this is not much of a problem really - but in a situation playing songs with others or in front of people this is somewhat less practical (unless you're Neil Young and you have a custom servo motor device to fiddle the knobs for you to preset levels!).
Pedals are, at least with respect to boosts, overdrives, distortions and to a lesser extent fuzzes, a means to achieve different overdrive sounds at the touch of a footswitch rather than fiddling with the amp controls (or in non master volume amps without having to crank the volume to impractical levels). Some do this via diode clipping of various sorts - some do this by boosting your signal into the front of the amp thus pushing the amps natural overdrive - or a bit of both at the same time. While this might seem like a compromise for convenience - that's not entirely true as many players have achieved classic sounds with this approach. Certain pedals are famous for good reason, Tube Screamers and the Klon Centaur (along with the myriad Klones) jump to mind. They impart tonal qualities of their own which are often very desirable.
Channel switching amps achieve a similar result through a different path - combine two separate channels in one amp - one typically a clean channel and one a gain channel (although this is not universal) which gives you the ability to change from a clean to a crunch with the press of a switch like an overdrive pedal - but it's the amp doing all the work. I can't think off the top of my head of a lot of channel switching 5w amps other than the Blackstar HT5 but that is one if this is the path you choose. I have a Blackstar HT40 as my "main" rig but it is loud and even with a master volume somewhat fidgety to really get "bedroom" levels. But channel switching is a nice feature particularly in a band setting, but as already noted, not essential. I find it interesting how many players have channel switching amps that particularly in live settings stay in one channel pretty much all the time and tone shaping takes place elsewhere - John Petrucci springs to mind as a player who very much uses all three of the channels in his signature amp but lots of guys find a good amp sound they like and use pedals to provide boost or overdrive.
All this is really about clean to gain variations. Pedals obviously do a lot more from compression to modulation (wah, chorus, vibrato, tremolo, etc...) to time based effects (delays, reverb, etc...). Other than vibrato and tremolo which may be built into some amps, Fenders most notably and famously, and chorus (in the Roland Jazz Chorus amps) you'll have to use a pedal to achieve these effects if you want them available. They come in a dizzying array of flavors and designs and circuits (analog, digital and both). You'd asked about pedals in the front of the amp versus an effects loop if it has one and the conventional wisdom always seems to be compression, drive and usually wah into the front, modulation and time effects in the loop, but plenty of players ignore this convention in no small part as there are plenty of great amps that don't have effects loops - there really isn't a right and wrong answer.
But what kind of clean and what kind of gain do the amps get on their own? And that is a whole new chapter - based on all the variables mentioned thus far from the circuit design, to the type of tubes used (preamp and power) to even the brand of tubes, to the design of the cabinet (open/closed) and perhaps the most important part of the puzzle at least to many, what kind of speaker.
As you've already noted - different amp designers and makers have at least "trademark" sounds which are connected to the choices they make in these variables. But even that gets a bit cloudy as Fender has at least three trademark tones over the years, tweed, blackface and silverface. But in very very broad generalizations Fender was/is known for a more mid scooped sound, and higher headroom sparkling cleans. Marshall is known for a less mid scooped sound and their famous crunch tones. Vox for low mid scooped sounds and hallmark breakup. But of course these are generalizations. Marshalls can get lovely clean tones, as can Voxes. But regardless some amps are designed to break up earlier than others. As someone else noted, I had a Fender Twin Reverb years ago and it would peel the paint off the walls and never even hint at breaking up. There are also some jack of all trades amps - I think Blackstar tube amps fall into this category - at least the one I own (HT40) and have played (HT5) attempt to provide a pretty wide range of tones. I don't know that any of the voices on the HT40 are as distinctive as a Twin Reverb or a Vox AC30, but they are all good to very good and cover a wide number of bases.
One reason digital modelling became so popular even at the pro level - is the ability to have access to a huge number of these variations and variables without having to own 15 amps and/or cabinets and a wall full of pedals to achieve them. I have a Line6 Firehawk and a Marshall Code25 and can attest that the HD models in particular in the Line6 and most of the Marshalls models sound awesome - but for me at least - an old guy who is tech savvy I still sometimes just want to play and the tweaking of models has proven to be a bit of a downer. But that's another discussion.
None of this touches on guitars or pickups of course which obviously impact that sound. The one thing I will throw out for consideration is regardless of the guitar/pickups - particularly with a tube amp - do not overlook the importance of the volume and tone controls on the guitar itself. I was not always attuned to this - but in a good electric they add a whole range of possibilities when you use them and don't just stick to wide open all the time. Particularly volume - roll the volume back and you clean up an amp about to break up very easily.
So if that doesn't cloud the waters enough I'll try to throw out some clarifying ideas. Pick a path and go for it. Pick a nice clean low watt amp and get some pedals. Pick an amp with more tones at your disposal and fewer (if any) pedals. Much like acoustic guitars it seems - you'll likely spend some time discovering what really works for you and what doesn't - thankfully you can sell/trade your way around to other solutions. You don't need to go the boutique route to get great sounds. Tons of pros using Fender Deluxe Reverbs, Blues Juniors, Bassbreakers and Blues Devilles, although most (other than the Bassbreaker 7) might be more volume than you need.
There are a ton of great options in the small amp world these days - something like the Blackstar HT5 is probably as versatile as you'll find and it will give you a good clean and a very good overdrive to play around with to see where you spend most of your time. Or a Fender Blues Jr. for great cleans and while probably more volume it has a master and would be a good pedal platform at low levels. But there are no bad choices really among the main options - look at the used market as well and make a choice and dive in.
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