? Advice for buying first tube amp

[LDSGuitar]

I have been playing guitar for about four years now, and I'm considering buying a good tube amp for jazz/blues. Any suggestions for amps that sound good and get pretty loud while staying clean? Also, any suggestions for auditioning amps at the store would be appreciated.

[ManInTheBox]

For clean sounds, I am a Fender fan. I don't think anything touches them. Vox has a good following also, and some people really like the clean sounds of the early Marshalls. So you are really on your own. If you have a particular hero, with a particular sound you are after, then getting a setup similar to his, would be a good start.

As far as checking one out in the store, look for what you want. By that I mean, if you want a clean amp at loud volumes, turn them all up, and play till you hear what you want. If the store owners don't like you playing that load in thier store, go somewhere else. Or just try not to do it during their busiest hour.

[Wewus432]

I will tell you of an inexpensive but great sounding tube amp. It is called the Crate Vintage Club and is known hereabouts and also over there. It has a great clean sound and also a great crunch sound, very under rated and great tube sound. It uses EL84 tubes, the same as a VOX, I so believe. Ye shall find these amps and yeah they shall sound good and they may cost perhaps 300 of your dollars in good used condition. Ye verily.

[Dave da Dude]

I just checked Musician's Friend and the Crate site. I thought I made a mistake buying the used Randall I just bought.

 

The small Crate (5 W, Class A) is $280; the mid Crate (30 W, Class A) is $530; the big Crate (50 W, Class A/B) is $630.

 

$300 is good only for a practice amp!

[Wewus432]

I just found the AMP I was talking about for $275.00 dollars on an E-bay BUY IT NOW deal. Told ya. Here's the link: http://cgi.aol.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=879779395

 

If you are looking for an amp and you have the money, BUY that sucker RIGHT NOW!

[Wickerman]

My personal favorites are Carvin's Bel Air and Nomad, Peavey's Classic 30 and Classic 50, and some Fenders. Crate's Vintage Club is okay but you can really do better easily. Vox are also great but are still over a grand used, I don't know what you're price range is but that's usually pretty high for most people.

 

When trying things out in stores, first off, ask a salesman (or better yet, a manager if you know the people) if they'd mind you turning it up. Explain that you're actually wanting to buy an amp, not just playing around. Also, it's always good to ask someone you trust to come along and ask a salesman you feel is honest who would be the best person in the store to talk to about tube amps. Then, try a bunch out. It's best if you bring in your own guitar too, most places won't mind as long as you check it in at the front desk. No other guitar will sound the same and tubes are touchy. Small differences in a guitar's tone and output signal are much more noticeable in tube amps than in SS. Also, with some higher output pickups, you may need to turn down you're guitar's volume control to keep the amp cleaner. Then, check out a lot of amps. Check clean tone, see how versatile the eq is, see how it sounds at all volumes, check the gain and see how smoothly it breaks up, ect. I play a lot of jazz and blues too and quite a few amps I tried went from clean to very harsh, VERY distorted overdrive with no middle ground. No blues tone where the amp is just starting to break.

 

I settled on Carvin's Vintage Tweed series. (Bel Air and Nomad, same exact amp, just in 2x12 and 1x12 combos) The clean channel is VERY rich and stays clean at high volumes and doesn't get muddy, the dirty channel can go from spanky clean to metal type distortion and everything in-between. It's got GREAT blues overdrive and some especially nice reverb. A surprisingly great deal for what you pay.