Advice needed - Cheap and cheerful amp head with some power

meltedbuzzbox

Can anyone recommend an used amp head purchase, ideally cheap and cheerful?
Ideally it will be 50w+ or capable of being clean at volume with a loud drummer. 

Im not bothered about loads of channels, I can get by on one, I wont rule out multi channel though

Cheers

cbilly22

Depends on what you mean by cheap, but a used Orange CR120 will do the job as well as anything.

pintspiller

Jet City?

meltedbuzzbox

ah of course, I always forget about Jet city

timmysoft

Bugera v55, very cheap, very good! 

bbill335

Dsl50? Jcm900? 

JMP220478

what cab / speaker set up you using - assuming you're buying a head ?  

and what sort of sound you after - fender clean / AC30 chime / Marshall - edge of breakup ?? 

p90fool

There have been a couple of JCA50H heads sold on here for around £130, they're great amps. 

ThePrettyDamned

For cleans, I loved my old Laney lh50, available used often for less than £200. It's a nice clean channel, takes pedals great, has a bright switch too. The crunch channel is nice, but a bit bland sounding. It's all about the cleans. They stay clean until quite loud,too, easily keeps up with a rock drummer. 

As a bonus, it's smaller than your average 50 watt head.

ICBM

You can buy a brand new Jet City for less than the second hand price of a lot of other amps which are less well-made and reliable.

Or even a Bugera, they're pretty good too.

There are also a large number of older solid-state or hybrid amps which sound good, are reliable and sell for around £100, eg the Marshall Valvestate 8100 or VS100.

meltedbuzzbox

I think I will punt for a jet city.

I did previously own a Laney lh50 ( I think) I should have kept it. 

I've recently moved to a new practice room so cabs are provided but no amps and I really don't fancy lugging my hiwatt to practice every time. 

ecc83

100W tvp?

Well, I gotta ain't I?!!

Dave.

meltedbuzzbox

ecc83 said:

100W tvp?

Well, I gotta ain't I?!!

Dave.

Is that a blackstar? Don't take this the wrong way and i mean no personal insult here but I honestly would rather gargle a pint of piss than own a blackstar. 

GavRichList

The AC30 head I picked up for £300 sounds bloody lovely. 

impmann

GavRichList said:

The AC30 head I picked up for £300 sounds bloody lovely. 

Bastard! I wanted that... ;-)

GavRichList

@impmann I know, I recall. If I ever sell, you can have first refusal 

impmann

GavRichList said:

@impmann I know, I recall. If I ever sell, you can have first refusal 

ecc83

meltedbuzzbox said:

ecc83 said:

100W tvp?

Well, I gotta ain't I?!!

Dave.

Is that a blackstar? Don't take this the wrong way and i mean no personal insult here but I honestly would rather gargle a pint of piss than own a blackstar. 

Well, if you know of my past involvement it is hard not to be a little insulted by such a rabid reaction!

Dave.

meltedbuzzbox

@ecc83 I honestly have no idea of your involvement. Like I said it was not intended to be a personal insult but if you were involved in any design I guess that makes things awkward. 

ecc83

meltedbuzzbox said:

@ecc83 I honestly have no idea of your involvement. Like I said it was not intended to be a personal insult but if you were involved in any design I guess that makes things awkward. 

Ok, well we can draw a veil. Do you have any particular evidence or experience that causes so much vitriol?

Dave.

meltedbuzzbox

I've used 7 or so models of blackstar at various practice rooms. My general impression is that the range is generally geared towards heavy rock/metal. I say this as the drive channels tend to have a shit load of punch and sound massive but the sound doesn't seem to carry in the mix. 
The cleans generally sound overly toppy on single coils and some humbuckers. 
All amps felt like they were trying to cover all trades but for me they mastered none.

From the model names I can remember I have used 

One series 100w
Ht20
3 or 4 of the ID models
And something else but the name escapes me

Currently at practice I will reach for a vox valvetronic before I will use the blackstar. 

But do bare in mind I am sharing my opinion, I'm not passing anything off as fact. I am entitled to dislike a range of apps especially when I have had extended playing time on a variety of models