Quote:
Originally Posted by drive-south
Sometimes you can find a Gibson electric in this budget but it seems rare...
|
Not as rare as you think:
http://www.sweetwater.com/guitargall...ZSI6WyI5Il19fQ
$350 on coupon day will get you a Bugera V22 1x12" combo at you local GC/Sam Ash or online; while these are
great little amps right out of the box, they really come alive with a few minor DIY tweaks (new tubes - the POS $1.29 Chinese tubes are the weak link in this baby - replacement speaker, etc.). I upgraded mine with a set of Soviet-era mil-spec power tubes, matched-triode preamp tubes, a mild rebias job (if you value your butt don't do this unless you know what you're doing), and an Eminence Swamp Thang speaker; for a net investment of ~$500 (still within your budget) I've got a tone-clone of the old '60s Ampeg Gemini II/B-12XT New York studio "key club" amps that'll put out "big clean" sound for days, hang with my '65 Super RI volume wise (I've used it in a 650-seat auditorium with no problem), give me Beatles "NME '65" Vox AC-50 chime and "brown" Marshall crunch tones when I kick in the mid-boost and/or OD - and still power down to bedroom levels with the pentode/triode switch. I figure if you're a real tonehead, you'll wind up with a low/mid-powered tube amp sooner or later - why not start off on the right foot...