Heya guys,

Just thought I'd ask what would be a good amp to get for a budget of about RM1500?

I'm partial to Fenders right now coz my Frontman 25R sounds amazing with my Strat on the clean channel.

That being said, I'm curious to know what you guys think of other amps for about RM1.5k . . . to be mated with a Strat though . . .

Vox? Hughes & Kettner? Marshall? Mesa Boogie? Fender? Line6?

Cheers!

Save up and get a good tube amp.

like what led zep said.... save up
blues junior is good...probably the cheapest in the fender tube range... nice break up tones but it probably breaks up too early... hard to get a decent loud clean tone

the deluxe reverb is a good one too.... instant SRV lenny with a fender strat

Yes, I believe getting a tube amp is basically the idea.

Like I said in my original post - which? What constitutes 'good'? Which do you prefer? Why?

I've tried a Vox AD30VT and while it was warm and stuff, it didn't sound as good as the Frontman.

Hmmm . . . deluxe reverb - that'll cost a pretty penny . . .

Line 6 Spider II... Good amps

everyone has got different preferences.... theres no say on whats good and whats not
i personally like amps that have good chimey cleans..... well thats just me
honestly... you cant judge an amp without trying it
reviews are there to guide you on the technical stuff like the problems and such

the vox ad series is great imo... the cleans alone is worth the price... try it again... im sure you'll find that its more capable thana fender frontman
if not try the roland cube... shouldbe pretty similar to the frontman

10 minutes in the guitar store won't show you anything. It's only when you play it at home and bring it to gigs that you discover how good (Or bad) an amp is.

A good tube amp is an amp that produce the sound that you want and solid in terms of construction etc.

personally i'd stay away from line 6 amps. To me it's a waste of 1.5k.
No offense to line 6 users though.

Thanks for singling out which to take note of.

YES. Every amp has their own characteristics and their own strengths - hence why I asked the question of 'which amp, and why you guys like them'.

With a whole plethora of amps to choose from, it would take a long time for me to try them all. With recommendations, that sorta gives me a shortlist.

I have that Vox sitting in my living room right now, next to the Frontman and a Kustom. I don't believe that constitutes 10mins in a guitar store. The Vox belongs to a mate of mine who has graciously loaned it to me for me to get a feel of it.

I've been playing all 3 for a week now.

well there isnt really alot of amps to choose from in KL tbh
all it takes is 2 or 3 weekends

Alright, my bad then.

You could drop by CK and check out their AC30CC, or try to hunt down a 2nd hand Peavey Classic. Not sure if anyone here still brings in Peavey amps.
Likewise you could for a Blues Junior or a Reverb... I'm not too sure if the new models sound as good as the old ones, but they're definitely worth checking out.

well, theres also roland, which has always been famous for its clean sounds.

Ok, thanks for the suggestions . . . the AC30CC does sound interesting . . . just saw the demo video as well. Wonder how much it costs.

Thanks again!

Second Everdying's comment, check out the Roland JC amps too, you can find them in JS Music. They're SS amps tho.

The AC30CC got a pretty good review from Guitarist, however since it's being made in China, there might be some quality control issues... other than that it should sound as good as the AC30s made in the 70s.
It's about RM4k-5k in CK Music... wayyyy overbudget. The AC15CC's about RM2k+ iirc. Only rough estimation, so give them a call to double check.

screw the chinese ACs
try to turn the volume up without you guitar plugged in and you can listen to the hiss due to the not-so-good wirings of the components

i've tried a frontman 15R in my campus music room.. and my friends complained why it sounds so horrible (trashy, muddy, etc) compared to my VOX ad30.

just my 2cents. i'm a vintage blues player, so it could just be me...

The 15R sounds pretty different from the 25R, dude.

Also, it depends on what guitar you're playing it with. My mate's LP Standard Premium sounds horrible through the Frontman and better through the Vox.

The Strat sounds better through the 25R than the Vox.

This post has been edited by Diazepam: Aug 28 2006, 07:11 PM

Don't knock this....... but have you tried out the Marshall AVT150x??? I dunno.... could be your taste.... it was mine.....

If you dress well and carry your guitar in a respectable case...... Bentley would let you test the amps..... They let me....

And like led_zep said...... he tried it out with a strat (I think) and it sounded like crap...... but pushed through my Modded ZW Les Paul and my ZW-44 Over drive..... it sounded DAMN good..... classic JCM800 tone with even more bite thanks to my ZW-44.....

yeah.. it's me

i'm afraid i'm not a very good metal player

Anyone tried Peavey ValveKing?

i didn't try the valveking...
for cheap tube amps, have your try asking CERIATONE ? they can build you a 5 W amp for not much... you have to buy a cabinet though. Ceriatone is based in Malaysia, and they're building great tube amplifiers (replicas). I don't know why someone living in malaysia would want to buy anything else than this brand

Few weeks ago, in new york, I tried a THD Univalve (only ONE single small tube inside), and the sound is great (silky, smooth, dynamic, amazing, from super clean jazz to heavy AC DC rock) and freaking LOUD (you can't believe how loud is ONE tube through a 4x12 cabinet). And it is not that easy to drive into "crunch" territory ! I would have thought that a 5W would breakup at low volume, making it impossible to have clean sound at loud volume...
but I had to "hotplate" it to 75% before being able to crunch it at a bedroom-compliant volume (my threshold : wall shaking !). And the clean volume can be very very very loud (my threshold : each string picking creates a "pressure bullet" in my ears).

So my next amp will be a 5W tube amp, through a 2x12 cabinet... yummy yummy. I don't understand why anyone would want more wattage from a tube amp, unless planning to gig in big halls... (well, 5W amp can be connected to a power amp, in case...)

http://www.thdelectronics.com/products/univalve.htm
http://www.ceriatone.com/
http://202.186.86.35/audio/story.asp?file=...a&sec=audiofile

That is so true about tube amps. I can't get good tones when i practice in my room. Only at gigs. And even then it's not on at full volume because sometimes i get the feeling that the cabs are going to blow (although the cabs are rated 400W). So 5W is more than enough really.... Many people who convert over to tube amps are most of the time quite surprised at the volume they churn out being rated lower in wattage than the SS amps.

A 5W tube beats a 15W SS anytime in every way....Tube always beats SS anyway... * Diehard EL34 fan*

Unfortunately, low-wattage tube amps are in scarcity here in Malaysia. I really wanna try the 18-watt Marshall amp from Ceriatone but where am I gonna get the tolex casing and appropriate cabinet? They're rather expensive so I guess it's out of the equation for most of us.

As for the low-end tube amp range, damn... I don't think I've seen the Epiphone Valve Junior or the 15-watt Laney tube amp locally. Let alone a THD.

Even in large arenas, you could always mike up the amp. We all know Yngwie uses a Marshall MG15CD behind the walls of Marshall. Hey use common senselar, if he were to spend so much on cabinets alone, how is he gonna fund his donut-fest?

why you need 5W?
little lanelei tube amp is only 1/4W and it rules.
the day i see one in malaysia...is the day that that person gets robbed by me
but it retails at USD329, and is completely hand assembled point to point wiring etc.
one 12au7 and one 12ax7 drives it.

0.25W with two tubes ? is it possible ? do you have a picture of that amp ? (i'll check it out on google later)

ceriatone amps are about 400 USD, which is 1600 RM.. and that's for a 18W. If you ask them for a 1W or 5W simple class-A tube amp, it'll cost much less than this. Seems like they can custom-make any amp..

And the cab... yeah, well, either you build one yourself, or you can buy one in bentley, or whichever.. no ? I'm not saying it is the cheapest solution, but it is the cheapest solution if you want to buy a brand new top-sounding tube amp in malaysia.

The Laney 15R (15W tube amp) costs about 2000 RM, no ? I asked once in yamaha store...

PS : couldn't find the 1/4 watt from laney on google ...

and there is still the fantastic www.zvex.com ...

ahems, its not a laney.
its been around for a long time.
http://www.songworks.com/14watt.html

ive tried the valveking.... decent amp.. dont expect top range vox cleans or mesa dist....
its versatile and for that kind of price.... i aint complaining
with my gat.. it can produce a better blues tone than a fender hotrod

That's why I decided to go with a Valvestate Marshall instead of a full blown Tube amp....
Small Room..... Can't play too loud..... and if I get a half-stack Valvestate.... it will take up half the room already!

Will take pics of the complete room when I get the Marshall AVT150.....

get a full tube amp and a powerbrake

hoooo, it's lanilei, not laney... i thought you did a typo error that little thing looks pretty good ! But those small amps seem so easy to build, make me wanna build one... (ceeeh, since i managed to put my pickups in my strat, i feel like i can build any electronic device in the world )

the risk of electrocution is pretty non-existent in installing pickups

you got a point there... considering tubes run in excess of 250 volts, easily...
i thought of building my own tube amp based on AX84.com's schematics as well... but the said statement made me think twice

This post has been edited by MetalZone: Sep 20 2006, 07:52 AM

oh oh oh.. when I install a pickup all by myself, there IS a risk of electrocution. Along with risks of fire, drowning, amputation, asphixy and explosion... and because i'm working in a very dim light, I could have gone blind too (I actually did, for few minutes) I'm that bad

I really thought I was going to loose the guitar (and the house, and my wife -she was disappointed by me... an engineer that takes two days to mount a pickup doesn't worth nothing...)

Anyway, now I have serious GAS for a little tube amp (didn't have GAS for 3 years.. what a pity)

This post has been edited by Pix: Sep 20 2006, 10:36 AM

hi, how much u get AVT150x for? Actually I was quite satisfied with AVT50's sound. But just want to survey if there any better amp around this price range. (~2K RM)
I did heard from echobrain about ceriatone, but same concern we have, what cab to use? overall, i still think get a standard market product will be better. (budget saving la...)

Actually... They quoted me About RM3200.....

wahhh... thats enough for u go for a low wattage all tube adii....

Can get the Smarvo DSL100 combo copy di for less than 3K.

Anyone tested them out yet?

I know...... but Smarvo???????
I dunno man......

Man, it's all about the tone man. If it sounds great, who cares what's on the front? And worse comes to worse, just remove the logo.

I also believe that this DSL100 copy has be rebranded all over the world under different names. Madison seems to be one of them. Some say Randall too.

3200RM for a solidstate amp !?! noooooo...
You've tested it, so you must know better than me. But don't you think you're gonna "look" better with a marshall AVT than with a Smarvo... As an average guitarist, I wouldn't jaw-drop in front of an AVT150

(i didn't like the DSL100, so i'm not recommending the Smarvo either, but that's not the point...)

for RM3200, you can get 3 little lanilei's...and uhh...well just go SG and search for a used 5150 combo.
what i wouldnt mind tho is a warhead combo.

5150 combo? Going there to get one and coming back with it is going to be a heavy affair. That thing is like 50kg.

I remember Swee Lee blowing them out a few years ago for like RM2000++ but I don't see it on their website anymore. They have lots of XXX though.

This post has been edited by noisetrigger: Sep 20 2006, 04:20 PM

well a friend of mine actually went there by himself and brought back a 5150 combo for just under RM3k.
this was about 2-3yrs ago tho.

btw, i heard when the ibanez valbee came in sweelee had a sale of SGD299 for it.
sure beats the RM1k price of it here.

Your friend drove there or handcarry it back? If you friend actually hand carry it, respect!!!

well his parents house is in JB, so guess he borrowed the car there and drove down
the amp isnt 50kg anyway.
i tried carrying it, feels just around 30kg.
so just possible to carry it and then dying on the road after a few meters

EDIT.
hmm well peavey says its unpacked weight is 84.50lbs, so 38kg.

This post has been edited by Everdying: Sep 20 2006, 04:30 PM

I wouldn't mind a Triple xXx combo....... but driving down to Singapore, bringing it over..... aiyo...... soooooooo mah fan......

even if you save RM1000?

I consider that travelling expenses.....
If anyone knows where I can find a Peavey XXX Combo in Malaysia, do let me know..... And NOT second hand.

hmm, so lets see...
from plans for a 4x12 tube half stack, to 4x12 ss half stack...and now to a 2x12 tube combo...
eventually its gonna lead down to the little lalinei

Who said 4x12 SS half stack?
It's the AVT150x combo lah.............

And yes...... I'm still sticking to the Marshall for now.......

Pix is just jealous because I can squeeze out better tones from my little AVT then his big ol' Tube Amp........

ok, let's list down all average amp (<3K RM) that we can find in malaysia & singapore and make a comparison.

1. Marshall MG series
2. Marshall AVT series
3. Peavey Bandit
4. Peavey Transtube series
5. Ibanez TB Series
6. Laney LX/HCM Series
7. Roland Cube Series
8. Fender FM Series
9. Fender Frontman Series
10. Fender Princeton Series
11. Fender Stage Series

err... i think that's all i can find in kuching....

how bout VOX AD series?
since the cubes are up there =)

Peavey Bandit and Transtube are the same thing dude.

You need to add Vox AD series and Line 6 Spider series.

Out of all those though, I will take the Peavey Transtube series anyday. Some of the best sounding solid state I have ever played.

well he said hes in kuching...perhaps those amps arent available there?

Yup, i can't find any VOX or line 6 Spider II amp in kuching here...

ohya, thanks for remind me of that peavey bandit r under transtube series... =)

i used to play alot with older version peavey bandit before.
but new version looked and sounded so different to me... >__<

how do u think?

This post has been edited by akeiser: Sep 20 2006, 10:18 PM

got line6 spider II at lee's lah. saw em before. looks like u havent been there in a long time.

anyways, i remembered seeing jim dunlop straplocks there for rm30+ but then ppl in this forum said it was too cheap. maybe i recalled wrongly. can u remember the price?

forgot the price already.
better ask ah nick whose all bass guitars r using straplocks.