Is there such thing as cheap but good tube amp?

[Ted 'N' Leo]

Ooh a Laney GH50! I've played one of those before, thought it was quite nice.

I'm sure theres someone on this forum who has one...

[Lazy_McDoesnothing]

Keep in mind you'll have to save enough money for a decent cab if you buy an amp head.  4x12 if you play large gigs or a smaller one if it's for home use or practice.

[_tom_]

Yeah I have a Laney GH50L, it's great especially for the money. If you need versatility/ease of changing between different of sounds its probably not the best seeing as its a single channel amp but its good enough for me, playing a lot of different stuff, just needs to be set up a bit differently but it does most things I play well enough (rock, metal and I guess what people would call "alternative/modern rock"). I did recently compare it to my mates DSL50 and preferred the DSL50 but I think the GH might just need some good preamp tubes. It's not quite as tight/punchy as the DSL but sounds bigger somehow. Heres a clip showing it doing some cleans and distortion.

http://www.mp3lizard.com/download.cfm?id=26424

Same amp settings for both sounds but the distortion was with the gain boost on and bridge pickup on full, the cleans were the gain boost off and the volumes rolled down a bit, on the neck pickup I think.

[silentrage]

As I was putting my amp up for sale, another idea came to me,
would it do me any good to replace the tubes in this thing with some hi gain ones and use that as the bandaid solution until I get a job?
I can't find any information on what kind of tubes are in this thing and what it'll take.

This is the amp
http://www.reidys.com/index.pl?submit=View_PLU&PLU=32

What do ya all think?

[gingataff]

^
As far as I know your Carlsbro is a transistor amp, there are no tubes in it.

[silentrage]

Hmm, sorry for being a retard, I don't know why I had the impression that they were tube amps...
Oh well, there goes that route...

[_tom_]

By the way, I've heard the solid state JCM800s (5210) are actually pretty good. Have a look at this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNz9gPzIBww

Not bad at all imo.

[silentrage]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Crate-Stealth-Guitar-Amplifier-Head-All-New-Tube-Amp_W0QQitemZ270294248576QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item270294248576&_trkparms=72%3A1205|39%3A1|66%3A2|65%3A12|240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

omg, tube head for 150 o.O


http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2138372

this valveking is tempting too

[silentrage]

found a Engl E520 tube preamp on ebay for about $200 US,
anyone have experience with this amp?
I'm considering getting it and plugging it into a hi-fi or headphones for practicing right now, and buy a power amp + cabs later when I have more funds. But I've heard almost nothing on this, I did hear good things about the E530 though.

Thanks for any information on it!

Cheers

[MrBump]

Keep in mind you'll have to save enough money for a decent cab if you buy an amp head.  4x12 if you play large gigs or a smaller one if it's for home use or practice.

Not sure that you necessarily NEED a 4x12... even for larger gigs...

[Lazy_McDoesnothing]

True, you could get by with a 2x12 and mic it if it doesn't project enough.  My main point was that he should be careful of blowing his whole budget on just a head and having nothing to play it through.

[silentrage]

You're right, I'm looking at this peavey XXX locally, and it's $365 USD
it's very tempting, but I'll definitely end up with no cab to play it through for a while...

Decisions ...decisions...