Favorite Tube Amp....On A Budget?

[Gypsyblue]

Originally Posted by Hurricane Bob

I need at least 25-30 watts on stage to compete with drums, keys, bass, guitar, and 3 vocal monitors. I use a HD 130 Music Man and run it on low using 65 watts and it sounds great, but is very heavy.

That is wild: needing more guitar volume to compete with vocal monitors.

How did things get so turned around????????

For me, they haven't.

I'm always telling the soundperson to turn that monitor down.

[Hurricane Bob]

When playing big stages at festivals there are always giant monitor fills on the side of the stage blowing you away, plus the blow by of the P.A. The sound man is usually deaf and then there are the upfront monitors. I usually end up turning mine away from me, begging the on stage sound mixer to turn it down. He usually has disappeared by the 3rd song so I go and mix it myself to a reasonable level. That's why I need 25-30 watts of guitar amp.

[blue]

Originally Posted by Hurricane Bob

The sound man is usually deaf

Or just goofy... It's a cliche in the Surf world but it really does happen. Dudes sticking mics in front of reverb tanks

[Gypsyblue]

But...but....but...the onstage vocal monitors are so you can hear the vocals over the loud guitar amps, bass amp, drums and keyboards.

Things really have gotten turned around arse backwards if you have to turn up your electric guitar to "compete" with onstage vocal monitors!

I remember when there were NO stage monitors.

I know what you're talking about though.

People sometimes complain about onstage feedback from their acoustic guitar pickup but my experience is that that feedback that sometimes gives me grief is caused by stage monitors that are turned up to loud or that I have to play right in front of.

Of course you can just pretend you're playing loud:

[Steel and wood]

Once you get past a certain volume, then tone mostly goes out the window is my belief. (You are just dealing with "loud").

[Hurricane Bob]

Playing big festival stages can be brutal, you need to communicate with the on stage mixer and let him know what you want. These guys are deaf and cant understand turning down the side fills. I traveled with a sound man and roadies but always had to deal with the local stage mixer who always was an idiot. When I did a mic check i always held my ears closed with fingers in case of runaway feedback. This idiot mixer at Summerfest saw that and refused to continue until i removed my fingers from my ears.-living with permanent ear nerve damage sucks but I will hold on to whats left.

[choucas09]

I too would like to endorse the Bugera V22. I was pleasantly shocked by how it sounded on arrival. There's a charm running through it from clean to dirty. It makes me feel and play good. Even though I bought it new I had several pedals that cost me more. What a bargain (and looker).

[MattM]

I love my Vox AC15C1. It's 15 watts, but it gets pretty loud. With compression, I can squeeze out enough headroom to play clean with a pretty loud drummer, and it can cause hearing damage with all my ODs running (about 115 dB). If you play in a church band as I do (just a guess?) I can't imagine it would be too quiet for you if set up right. It will be way louder than a 35 watt SS amp.

Be aware that new, one of these would be slightly above your budget, but used would be well below.

[jetcode]

Originally Posted by Gypsyblue

Of course you can just pretend you're playing loud:

Roadie Heaven right there. But note at least 6 power tubes are lit.

Saw Nugent one night (before his head took over) play through a wall of Fender tube amps. It was exceedingly delicious.

I use a Mesa Boogie Heartbreaker configured with 6V6 power tubes for 20/40 watt output. Lots of power and what a sound.

[Duff]

Originally Posted by choucas09

I too would like to endorse the Bugera V22. I was pleasantly shocked by how it sounded on arrival. There's a charm running through it from clean to dirty. It makes me feel and play good. Even though I bought it new I had several pedals that cost me more. What a bargain (and looker).

I never really cared much for my V22.

I got it used on a trade deal and think maybe something was wrong with it.

After a short while owning it I noticed that while playing it there was this ringing sound that would ride on the sustained notes.

It happened all the time, single notes and chords. I replaced all the tubes and the speaker and it actually sounded worse. I put all the original stuff back in and decided not to get it fixed. I wound up giving the amp to a family member that also notices the sound.

I don't think it is worth getting fixed but I guess it could be taken in and checked out. Maybe a good tech could correct the problem with no problem at a reasonable rate.

It's like some people say, when you buy a Bugera you know you are getting a very inexpensive amp, and that can be a good thing and fun, but when they start to go downhill they're not really worth the cost of fixing. Especially at the prices that you can buy brand new Bugera's for now at places like musiciansfriend.com at ridiculous prices for the bigger model heads and combo's, even two by twelve combos for around 200 even.

[turkey_sandwich]

used Deluxe Reverb!

[Duff]

We visited my son and his girl friend in Harrisburg over the weekend. He said he fixed the sizzling sound that would ride on the decay of notes. He said he just tightened everything up, etc. He says it sounds great now. I didn't see it.

So it is a good amp at this point.

[Hurricane Bob]

Tubes can make that sound too, I just played a gig last weekend when during the 2nd set notes decayed all crackling and fizzy. I checked my amp the next day and saw that the V1 tube was fried so I put in a better one and problem solved.