Looking for a good 30-50 watt all tube combo amp...

[jbert]

...that likes pedals (I've got lots!).

I am basically looking for a 1X12 all tube combo amp that a) has a good stock speaker (not really into swapping speakers to get a "better" sound), b) has a very good clean channel with lots of headroom, c) at least one other channel for mild to heavy distortion, and d) that likes pedals (I've got a full pedalboard of analog effects).

Your suggestions and experiences are welcome. Anyone using the Koch Twintone I would particularly like to hear from.

Thanks!

JBert

P.S. Anyone tried the Peavey JSX combo yet? A little too much power for my needs, but the JSX head has been getting very good reviews.

 

[AxSport4me]

I played a Koch......pretty good! but i would suggest you check out Rivera amps!!!! They are a little expensive but they are amazing!!!! Great clean and overdrive channels! I have a Rivera Knucklehead 50W combo amp and its the best all tube combo amp that i`ve ever heard!

 

[tommyindelaware]

again......
http://www.reverendguitars.com/reverend/amps_etc/kingsnake_20_60.html
these amps are great !!!!!
excellent tone......
reliable........light........& very versitile .

 

[JT1]

The Traynor YCV50 Blue is one hell of an amp. Fender cleans and Marshall with a boost channel. This thing screams. 3- 12ax7s. Comes with a Celestion Vintage 30. Also has a speaker out for another cab.

 

[blackspy]

The JSX is amazing, I have yet to try the combo version though. A friend has a combo version of the XXX, which the JSX owes its heritage to. It sounds fantastic too. I think it's a 30-40 watt version. The JSX was designed to play very nice with pedals, that was a requirement, it also has a great clean channel, as does the XXX.

 

[Norrin Radd]

Well -

How much do you want to spend? I've got 2 recs at different price points:

1. Orange Rocker 30 (plenty loud)

2. Bad Cat anything.

 

[mcclassic]

On the Boogie side I think the F-50 may be your call, excellent cleans and god distortion. Used ones are around 800 dlls.

 

[nobozos]

In the category of amps you described, the best bang for your buck by far is the Peavey Classic 30. It has a great clean tone, and can do dirty just as well. When I had one, I particularly liked the dirty channel with the gain dimed and the boost button off. In combination with a tube screamer, it almost achieves 5150 status.

It is a two channel amp, and has an outstanding reverb. Also has an effects loop.

 

[mhorse]

On the Boogie side I think the F-50 may be your call, excellent cleans and god distortion. Used ones are around 800 dlls.

You may also want to look into Nomad or Dual Caliber lines that are no longer made. Nomad is a 3-channel 6 modes, DC's are 2 channel with pushed mode on the clean channel. I have DC-5 myself, Clean channel is awesom, dirty one is really good too, only the dirty channel doesn't work well with all pedals. Usually you can get more then enough gain using pedal in front of clean in pushed mode, but if you want to use an additional OD/Dist in front of dirty channel, you main want to consider putting in a noise gate/reducer.

 

[frankiefingaz]

The Laney lc-30 is all tube and sounds amazing...Satriani used to warm up on one backstage. I had an Lc-50 but sold it. Very, very good clean sound, and an amazing fat satuarated tube overdrive.

 

[mcclassic]

Hey mhorse, I got one DC-5 too, is a great amplifiers, I got mine with the EV and tan color, I love it, sounds outstanding and I love the pushed channel, only think is that very heavy thanks in part to the EV speaker, those DC series were really good, got mine used for 600 plus tax...

 

[mhorse]

Hey mhorse, I got one DC-5 too, is a great amplifiers, I got mine with the EV and tan color, I love it, sounds outstanding and I love the pushed channel, only think is that very heavy thanks in part to the EV speaker, those DC series were really good, got mine used for 600 plus tax...

Mine is black and has regular Celestion, and is also very heavy. Got mine used for the same 600

Oh, forgot to mention - DC-5s and 10s have 5 band footswitchable graphic EQ (not sure about DC-3), which is a really cool feature. Allows you to dramatically change either channel. I don't think you can get graphic EQ on any production Mesa's any more since they stopped the Nomad line.

 

[Pundix]

Mine is black and has regular Celestion, and is also very heavy. Got mine used for the same 600

Oh, forgot to mention - DC-5s and 10s have 5 band footswitchable graphic EQ (not sure about DC-3), which is a really cool feature. Allows you to dramatically change either channel. I don't think you can get graphic EQ on any production Mesa's any more since they stopped the Nomad line.

The MK VI still comes standard with the 5 band EQ, and you may be able to order it on the MK I reissue. The DC-3's were cool amps. Not that the DC-5's and 10's weren't, but the DC-3 seemed a bit better for small club stuff. You could crank them a bit without hurting people.

Another nice small combo is the VHT Putbull 50/12. I don't see them mentioned a lot, but I have one I use as a backup amp and it sounds great, clean and dirty.

 

[Snake]

I have a Triple XXX head...... and loved it so much I got the XXX 60 watt combo for smaller venues. I kicks some serious butt, and sounds almost as good as the head running into a Mesa 4x12. It has all the gain you could ever possibly want. I'm a gainaholic, and never push the gain knob past 12 o'clock.

 

[CudBucket]

I love my JSX head so the combo is probably good too but 2x12. The F-50 is also fantastic and can get HEAVY.

 

[OrangeChannel]

I'd go Mesa F-50 also....just a great amp and it can cover alot of ground...

Rock!

 

[bing4sons]

I second the Reverend Kingsnake reco.

I have a Reverend Goblin, 15/5w switchable. I love it. It's got a schitzo switch, which allows you to go from a Fender to a Vox to a Vintage tone, with the flick of a swich and a couple of setting changes. The Goblin replaced my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. It's a huge improvement. I'm able to get great tone at low volumes and it will still get plenty loud.

Oh, and the Reverend amps love pedals.

 

[jaxadam]

Koch Twintone

Your suggestions and experiences are welcome. Anyone using the Koch Twintone I would particularly like to hear from.

I have a Twintone, and I have to say the clean is great, but the overdrive is not very good at all. If it is dialed in without a lot of treble (below 12 o'clock) , some mids (around 1 or 2 o'clock), and an little bass (12 to 1), it has a pretty silky tone, but the notes don't flow or sustain for some reason (even with a lot of reverb) when doing shredding or sweeps. The reverb on this amp is not very good, either. I like a lot of reverb, but if this amps reverb is turned up a lot on the overdrive channel, it gets really muddy and spacey.

I have only put a few hours on this amp. I would sell it pretty cheap, because I have way too much stuff and it just sits there and takes up space. The only time I would ever use it is if I felt like having a crisp, clean sound for some classical. I have heard better things from people who have swapped out the speaker, but it doesn't look like you are interested in doing that.


Don't know if this was helpful, good luck!

 

[jbert]

Thank you all for taking the time to reply. To my knowledge, Orange, Bad Cat and Laney are not available locally (except by special order), and I would have to order a Reverend sight unseen (plus the complications of shipping into Canada...), so I think I will narrow my search down to the Mesa F-30/50s, Rivera, and the JSX. I've tried the Traynors before and found them too bright.

Thanks again for all your suggestions.

Jbert

 

[jbert]

Well I'm now the proud and very happy owner of a discontinued (aka limited edition!) Reverend Kingsnake combo. Took about 4 weeks to get, and I ordered it right after Reverend's announcement that they were getting out of the amp biz - a shame that this product was obviously not selling enough, because the amp is great. Compact, extremely light, and lots of great clean and moderate distortion tones.

Thanks to Tommy and Bing for their recommendations - I bought this one sight unseen (although Reverend do have a 14 day "no questions asked" return policy), but I am delighted with this purchase, which is my intro to "All tube" world.

Now all I need is that Silo I've been thinking about to get some great single coil tones...

Cheers!