Amp Suggestions (30w ish small head)

delorean

So as much as I love my Blackstar Series One 100w head, it's a bit much for a lot of gigs, and bloody heavy to cart around, so I've decided to shop around for a smaller valve head to go with my Zilla Fatboy 2x12.

 

I prefer to get my OD from the amp itself (mainly because I’ve reached critical mass on my pedalboard, and can’t add a dirt pedal), and I do like a generous helping of filth.  I’m not a metalhead by any stretch, but I like a well-saturated 80s hair rock tone.

 

We have a fairly loud drummer, so I would think 30w ought to do the trick and allow me to push the amp that little bit harder even in the smaller venues.

My budget is about £400 and I'm happy to buy used.

  What would you recommend?

simonk

Boogie MkV:25

shaunm

JTM45 Gets you break up but not loads of saturation. 

delorean

Thanks guys, I should have mentioned that my budget is a little prohibitive unfortunately (up to about £400-ish)

simonk

Ah... scrap the Boog idea then.

delorean

And the JTM45 

kennedydream1980

Orange TH30 might be worth a look. 

delorean

kennedydream1980 said:

Orange TH30 might be worth a look. 

Cheers @kennedydream1980 - I've never tried an Orange amp before, but I'm off to Peach Guitars this weekend so I'll give one a go!

Dan_Halen

Engl do some cool heads that'll give you a couple of channels in a fairly compact format. You can probably grab a Thunder or Screamer for about 400 quid used. Possibly a Gigmaster 30 as well. Should have plenty of gain on tap and a couple of channels.

John_A

If you can stretch a bit more I would highly recommend an Engl Ironball <£500 used Very versatile and sounds stunning

fastonebaz

Buy my H&K tubemeister 18 head.  Plenty loud with sparkling clean through to saturated 80s molten lead with its built in boost.  Served me well but i have a combo now.

Bridgehouse

I thought the correct answer for this question in this budget was always Jet City? No?

John_A

Bridgehouse said:

I thought the correct answer for this question in this budget was always Jet City? No?

Yes, a JCA22-H is a good shout.  Had one and it's great, but for versatility and 'tone' I much prefer my Ironball. Both easily loud enough to gig with

Boromedic

Not played a Jet City but obviously their rep here is great. Dual Terror perhaps? I had one and liked it, enjoyed the flexibility of the 2 channels.

flying_pie

If you're used to Blackstar you could get a second hand HT-50 head within your budget. If you could stretch your budget more then you could look at avsecond hand Victory V30 such is very compact and sounds great.

kennedydream1980

Another suggestion would be to wait for the new PRS MT15 to hit these shores (Mid July). It looks and sounds immense on the Youtube clips.

Tat2dstesh

I have had a jetcity 50h which was a great sounding amp, and I have a orange dual terror. Love the the dual terror but it is essentially identical channels on the same head with pretty much one sound that is that very raw Orange sound with low mids and a bit of a fuzzy edge. 
I would like to try the jetcity 22h to see how it compares 

thomasw88

look for second hand H&K Statesman head.  They're awesome.

Creed_Clicks

A Dual Terror head would be enough for you I'd say. I had one and nearly always just used the 15W setting and it was loud enough.

An Orange CR120 would do the trick as well, a solid state.

Not sure if the Orange 15W would be loud enough. Doubtful with a loud drummer....

I see someone mentioned Jet City. Curious about these, especially the 20 Watts. They are dirt cheap. Too good to be true? The single channel Jet City 20H head seems like a steal!

delorean

I tried the Victory V30 and V40 over the weekend and was blown away by them both.  That's the direction I'm going to be leaning towards now - thanks for all the suggestions!

Creed_Clicks

delorean said:

I tried the Victory V30 and V40 over the weekend and was blown away by them both.  That's the direction I'm going to be leaning towards now - thanks for all the suggestions!

Did you try the Sherriff 22?