Vox? Marshall?

fraser · Post by **fraser** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 9:18 am

My brother is now selling his amp and speakers, so I'm in the market for a new amp. I have a Fender Squire if that means anything in this decision. I've played on a friends Vox amp, and I think it was an AD30VT, not sure though.

I've also seen another friends Marshall, which sounded pretty good too, but I didn't get a chance to play on it myself. So I just wondered what everyone's opinions would be on what would be the best amp to get, or what brand to get for under around $400-450.

Thanks.

Post by Bg » Wed Jan 24, 2007 9:21 am

Do you want gigging or practicing?

This is nice

http://nzguitars.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... 626#117626

Got to love valves

Rog · Post by **Rog** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 9:42 am

Fraser, my personal opinion would be to steer away from Marshall, particularly the cheaper ones.

jimi · Post by **jimi** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 11:45 am

Nothing wrong with a 2nd hand marshall valvestate for that sort of money. Its a good amp to learn on (and even gig with) when your budget doesnt extend to buying a valve amp.

Marshall Valvestates, Peavey Bandits and Fender Rock Pro's were all staple student amps in the mid 90's and I suspect the ones that didnt get set on fire are probably still going strong.

r4nd0m · Post by **r4nd0m** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 12:01 pm

Pignose 7-100 are great!

sambrowne · Post by **sambrowne** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 12:59 pm

recycledpet wrote:Nothing wrong with a 2nd hand marshall valvestate

I disagree. They are pieces of shit.

I'd hold out for a Fender Blues Junior, a Laney LC15 (doh!), something like that - small, well known brand, valves. OR the one exception would be a Tech21 Trademark 60. Not valve, but these are AWESOME amps, as good as any tube amp around that price point. Expect to pay $600 for one. they come up from time to time. Wish I'd kept mine now (I sold for $600 a few years ago).

If you want that Marshall sound for cheap, I'd go for their very good AVT series - the valvestate stuff is just nothing on these. OR consider the Vox valvetronix amps - the bigger, the better, as you'll want plenty of headroom. There's a nice 50w one on TM for $500 - that would be a good buy.

Optimus_prime · Post by **Optimus_prime** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 1:07 pm

I'm not a tone snob

I just play one on TV

b · Post by b » Wed Jan 24, 2007 1:11 pm

I agree with sambrowne here - valvestate's are crap - may as well plug into your home stereo...Vox VR30's are $400 something or a Valvetronix would be good....Laney valve amps are pretty good for the $ too..

slash-ed · Post by **slash-ed** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 1:11 pm

sambrowne wrote:
recycledpet wrote:Nothing wrong with a 2nd hand marshall valvestate
I disagree. They are pieces of shit.

If you want that Marshall sound for cheap, I'd go for their very good AVT series - the valvestate stuff is just nothing on these.

I've jammed on quite a few AVTs that, shall we just say, sucked balls.

On the other hand I've used one or two MG100s that were crushing.

Marshalls vary.

DaNextSlash · Post by **DaNextSlash** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 1:22 pm

Peavey Bandit if you want SS. Lots of options if you want Valve.

zdali · Post by **zdali** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 1:50 pm

IMHO, Marshall valvestates are highly overrated. Personally i'd go for a Valvetronix, and from that range an AD60VT or AD120VT. Couple of those i've played vere pretty good once you dial in the knobs. AD50VT and AD100VT fall in the same category as Valvestate.

On the tube front, i reckon you can't go wrong with Laney LC15 or LC15VC.

Or you could hang out on trademe for a rockit/jansen/holden/gunn valve amp which would be both louder and have better tone than the valvetronix/valvestate (YMMV, IMHO etc).

Another line to check out could be Line6 Spider2 series. Those seem to be able to dial in a large range of different tones and sound reasonable.

Rog · Post by **Rog** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 1:52 pm

Marshalls vary.

Indeed they do!!

I've used great ones and crap ones of the same variety. Hence my comment to steer away from the (unless you can try first, of course).

slash-ed · Post by **slash-ed** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 1:53 pm

I think this is probably true of many amps these days though. I count myself lucky that the amp I bought sight unseen was pretty alright for my usage.

jimi · Post by **jimi** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 2:10 pm

on the marshall front my school had an 80watt valvestate combo that was the absolute bee's knees when I was at school. For playing metallica covers that thing was awesome. Guitarist in a band I played in at otago uni had one as well and it had a decent distortion and was loud enough for gigging places like the Empire and the Crown. Admittedly back then ('94/95) I didnt know better, but people with Marshall Valvestates were definitely cooler than the Peavey Bandit crowd, and fender amps were only for sissys who didn't play with distortion

More recently I've gigged with a guy using an AVT150 head into the Behringer Quad. Cheap rig, but it did the job, and sounded pretty good - better than I would have given it credit for prior to hearing it.

All comes down to what you are looking for, and on a budget while a valvestate marshall might not have that studio tone, its a decent enough amp for jamming with your mates in the garage and loud enough for a small pub gig. The end of the day 90% of your tone comes from your fingers anyway right?

Don't start thinking I'm trying to suggest they are the pinnacle of tone or anything, I'm not. I'm just saying for a cheap amp, they're loud, pretty solid, have 2 channels where 1 is clean and 1 goes crunch, and thats most of what you need from an amp.

Optimus_prime · Post by **Optimus_prime** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 2:12 pm

Of all the amps I've ever played
the best was my fender 80's h.o.t amp

I've played valve amps before and they
didn't feel very fun, kinda sterile or something

solid state is crazy
I'm normal
but
I like crazy sometimes
splash