Electric Amp Recommendation, Please

[ohiopicker]

Due to a partial disability, I need the lightest solid state amp with built in effects (reverb, trem, delay).

The drummer has electronic drums, so not real loud. We will be playing driveway parties, moderate size rooms (40 x 30), and bar patios/decks. The other guitarist is using a Katana MkII 50 watt. The bass player is using a small Fender Rumble. The PA system is two 12” speakers for vocals and keyboard only.

Would a Fender Champion 40, or Champion 50XL fit in here? Light weight is the key. Other possibilities?

Thank you!

[Rolph]

Avoid sold state if you can. My Fender rumble died after about 1 month, Fender refused to support it! You need to play them and choose. Good luck.

[Rudy4]

I can highly recommend the Cube EX, it is lighter weight, but may be more than you want to spend.

If you have a store nearby, you might find the Cube Street meets your volume requirements at less than 11 pounds. Don't get too hung up on wattage numbers, the Cube Street kicks out serious volume for it's size. I've used one for outdoor weddings and parties with no problem.

Your "alternative" to solid state is vacuum tubes, and I most definitely wouldn't suggest that. Most solid state stuff is very reliable, and the Fender Rumble amps get extremely high ratings for reliability on Talkbass. I own a Rumble 100 and it is a great bass amp. Rolph's experience would be considered unusual based on the hundreds of PAGES of satisfied Rumble users on Talkbass.

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by Rolph

Avoid sold state if you can. My Fender rumble died after about 1 month, Fender refused to support it! You need to play them and choose. Good luck.

I've never heard of Fender having warranty issues.

I buy most everything from Sweetwater and they handle any issues and extend the manufacturer's warranty by an additional year. I had a problem with a $500 multi-tracker 6 months after the factory warranty expired and I simply contacted Sweetwater and it was repaired free of charge. Otherwise it would have been a very expensive paperweight.

[Steve DeRosa]

A few options come to mind:

• Line 6 Catalyst 60 1x12": 26 pounds, presently $239 @ Sweetwater
• Vox Cambridge 50 1x12": 19-1/2 pounds, recently discontinued but around $350 as NOS
• Quilter Aviator Cub 1x12": 50 watts, 21-1/2 pounds, available in US (tweed/blonde/blackface) or UK (AC30/Top Boost/JMP) voiced versions, $699 street; a bit pricey and you'll need an A/B box and trem pedal (digi-verb is built-in in both versions), but it gets excellent reviews across the board
• Fender ToneMaster Series: single-purpose digital versions of their iconic blacface amps, at half the weight of their tube counterparts; also a bit pricey (starting at $899 street for the Princeton and going up to $1249 for the Super), but one of the local hot pickers where I live swears by his ToneMaster Twin - built-in digital trem/verb (functional on both channels BTW), six different power levels from 1W to 85W, cab-sim XLR out w/volume and ground lift, and at 33 pounds lighter than an all-tube Princeton
• If you're a tubehead at heart the Monoprice 15W 1x12" (FYI a first-version Laney Cub 12 in different packaging) is presently on sale for $199: very popular with the TDPRI crowd as both a cost-effective (and lightweight @ 25 pounds) substitute for the Blues Junior and a mod platform, it's got enough grunt for small- to mid-size rooms/intimate outdoor gigs (with a 1W setting for home practice) - has real tube-driven spring reverb (which can be DIY upgraded with an aftermarket tank for about $30 if you choose) and like the Quilter you'll need a trem stompbox, but for the money I doubt you'll find even a used tube amp with similar features. Here's a link:

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_...saArGzEALw_wcB

Hope this helps...

[BoneDigger]

Originally Posted by Rolph

Avoid sold state if you can. My Fender rumble died after about 1 month, Fender refused to support it! You need to play them and choose. Good luck.

I totally disagree. Most of my amps are SS amps and I've never had an issue. One bad amp doesn't mean the entirety of the SS amps in the world are bad.

In fact, I've had my Rumble for nearly 2 years. Never a single issue.

[BoneDigger]

All of Steve's recommendations here are good. I own a Tone Master DR and a Quilter Aviator Cub. Both are just really good amps. Another to add to your list is the Orange 35RT or 20RT. I own the 35rt and it's a wonderful little amp for under $300. It has a nice clean channel and a very good overdrive/crunch channel as well. The Boss Katana amps are also quite good if you want lots of variety. They can be as complicated or as simple as you want them to be.

[rmp]

Fender has a 5 year warranty I don't understand the poster who mentioned that Fender refused to fix it ?

I've had a lot of solid-state amps as well as tube amps. I've never had any problems with any solid-state amps, and I have been at this a long time. just my experience

Anyway, another vote in favor of a Tone Master.

I have a Blonde Deluxe Reverb, purchased in 2021. It's very light and easy to move (-25 lbs). It sounds great, and I really like the power attenuators on these tone masters, and I use it all the time based on where I am with it.

The reverb and trem are excellent. it does not have delay, but you can find one of those in a pedal format easy enough.

[jonfields45]

My current solution. The Go is in my gig bag pocket and the Alto is ~12 lbs. I’ve lately been gig’ing with the Go instead of my Dream 65. When programing the Go use the 5 band EQ to adjust the bass boost of having an FRFR on the floor. Also useful for max clean volume out of the internal speaker.

My online review:

A Light Weight Fine Sounding Speaker That I'm Using As A FRFR with an Amp Modeler

I've been using a QSC CP-8 for last 5 years with my duo. We use a single CP-8 high and behind for two mics, two guitars, and bass guitar. It works great and can cover large outdoors gigs. For the last 2 years I've been playing electric into a modeler while my partner plays acoustic guitar or bass. My acoustic guitar is currently retired.

But with a modeler in my gig bag (usually a Spark Go these days, but I also have a UA Dream 65), I thought it would be nice to have something lighter for informal jams that could keep up with a drummer. At 25% the price and almost half the weight of my CP-8 the TX308 seemed like a good solution. Its only shortcoming is I need a 1/4" female to XLR male adapter.

Like the CP-8 you need to turn the bass down on your modeler if the speaker is placed on the floor. They are both voiced to be up on a pole. For music listening the CP-8 is slightly better sounding and no doubt capable of more volume. I did stress test the TX308 with bass guitar and it did not buzz or have any other issue. I'm impressed given the light weight and low cost. The overall build quality of the TX308 looks quite good to my retired electrical engineer's eye. If you want to run either speaker from a battery power station, they both draw about 5 watts running their DSP with no sound and are deafening loud at 10-15 watts of power from the wall socket.

BTW, the Positive Grid Spark amps don't like having left and right (tip and ring) shorted together on their headphone output on the way to your powered speaker (sounds bad regardless of how you configure the output with the app, stereo or mono). You need a resistive summing cable for a bullet proof solution into a female 1/4" which might be TS, TRS stereo, or TRS balanced (3.5mm TRS stereo male with ~1K Ohm summing resistors to 1/4" TS mono).

One other small, good thing to report is the handle molded into the TX308 case does not have any sharp edges. One of the nice things about the CP-8 is a great handle which I think matters compared to the sharp-edged molded handle in for example, the Yamaha DBR10. Another more expensive option, the Behringer B208D has no handle at all. If you're looking to travel light and make one trip from the car this stuff matters.

https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=669503

[rokdog49]

Originally Posted by Rolph

Avoid sold state if you can. My Fender rumble died after about 1 month, Fender refused to support it! You need to play them and choose. Good luck.

Was it new? What about the warranty?
Missing information here.

[rokdog49]

Don’t you like the Katana the other guy has?
These are great and would do what you need.
Reverb, tremolo gain and has a line out for a P.A.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/28548751137...Cclp%3A4429486

[Rolph]

Originally Posted by Rudy4

I can highly recommend the Cube EX, it is lighter weight, but may be more than you want to spend.

If you have a store nearby, you might find the Cube Street meets your volume requirements at less than 11 pounds. Don't get too hung up on wattage numbers, the Cube Street kicks out serious volume for it's size. I've used one for outdoor weddings and parties with no problem.

Your "alternative" to solid state is vacuum tubes, and I most definitely wouldn't suggest that. Most solid state stuff is very reliable, and the Fender Rumble amps get extremely high ratings for reliability on Talkbass. I own a Rumble 100 and it is a great bass amp. Rolph's experience would be considered unusual based on the hundreds of PAGES of satisfied Rumble users on Talkbass.

Any solid state amp can fail. I was only surprised a company like Fender won't stand behind their products. Cheapskates! Solid state amps don't seem to last very long, and No One wants nor seems qualified to repair them.

[Rolph]

Originally Posted by rokdog49

Was it new? What about the warranty?
Missing information here.

It was less than 3 months old! They said the warranty did not cover cosmetic nor electronic failures. What else could fail?

[BoneDigger]

"Fender warrants that the Fender or Squier amplifier product you have purchased shall be free of any defects in parts and workmanship if used under normal operating conditions for a period of two (2) years from the date of purchase or initial lease, including footswitches, covers, speakers, cabinets, handles and cabinet hardware, except vacuum tubes are warranted for a period of ninety (90) days from date of purchase or initial lease (“Limited Warranty”). This Limited Warranty applies only to the original retail purchaser or lessee when purchased or leased from an Authorized Fender Dealer and is subject to the limitations set forth herein. IMPORTANT: PLEASE RETAIN YOUR ORIGINAL SALES RECEIPT, AS IT IS YOUR PROOF OF PURCHASE VALIDATING THIS LIMITED WARRANTY."

From this, it appears you should have a 2 year warranty on the amp, with the exception of 3 months on a few items. I'm surprised they refused to offer a fix or replacement.

As for an SS amp not lasting very long, I really am not sure why you assume this is true? Most new tube amps are also using PCB wiring in nature unless you get a high end hand wired point to point amp. I'm really just not convinced that SS amps are less reliable than modern production tube amps. You could argue they don't sound as good, but I have simply not seen any evidence that they are less reliable. I have a couple of cheaper SS amps from the 90s sitting in my shed that work as they always did. I don't use them as they sound horrible, but they work.

[Jeff Scott]

Originally Posted by Rolph

Any solid state amp can fail.

Any tube amp can fail.

Originally Posted by Rolph

It was less than 3 months old! They said the warranty did not cover cosmetic nor electronic failures. What else could fail?

Please post 7ender's warranty policy here, thanks.