Must buy tube amp. Suggestions ?

[blearyeyes]

Looking for a tube amp that sounds rich/round. 3 sounds I'm looking for are nice tubey clean, edge of breakup and Full lead tone. Obviously pedals can achieve some of the previous but without a great sounding amp I'm struggling.  Just was looking at an Egnator tweaker 88 watt w/ 2/12. Never played one. I'll have about a grand. Been jonesing for a couple of Celestian Gold backs as well.

Any suggestions?

[thesmokingman]

orange or-15

[woolie]

Looking for a tube amp that sounds rich/round. 3 sounds I'm looking for are nice tubey clean, edge of breakup and Full lead tone. Obviously pedals can achieve some of the previous but without a great sounding amp I'm struggling.  Just was looking at an Egnator tweaker 88 watt w/ 2/12. Never played one. I'll have about a grand. Been jonesing for a couple of Celestian Gold backs as well.

Any suggestions?

I remain unimpressed with my tweaker. I am hugely impressed with my Ceriatone amps. Also the BYOB Deluxe Royale, and my Mesa Mark V:25.


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[alanp]

Weeeell... the 5E3 will do that, but it will ONLY do clean if you can control your guitar volume. With guitar volume at full trot, it is damn near impossible to get any clean out. And the 5E8A is near impossible to drive into fullblown ROAR.

[flanagan0718]

I love my Peavey amps. I've owned a few. Right now I have a Peavey Prowler. This one is my favorite so far. I've also owned a classic 30 and a Valveking 212. The Valveking sounded great too but it was a BEAST!!! The Valveking also comes in a 112 flavor that is really nice too. They are very affordable and pretty abundant used.


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[sonnyboy27]

I'll second the Valveking. I've got the 1x12 and it's got a really good variety of flavors to it. Plus it's got a heavy mod forum as well if you want to get in there and play around. I put a couple switches in there; 1 to bypass a gain stage and 1 to lower the gain from one stage. I did a couple other mods too. It's a fun amp to play with.

[blearyeyes]

Devin Townsend meets GrandMeister Deluxe 40 | Hughes & Kettner

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=915&v=ESQBEI4lgRw

[Ralfg]

Mesa Tripple Crown. I tried on liked it a lot but went with a Lonestar, which was more what I was going for. The Tripple Crown gets pretty metal. I have a Tubemeister 18. The clean too clean, sounds sterile to my ears. Maybe it's better in the higher end Tubemeisters.

[jubal81]

Had a Tweaker 15 for a few years and loved it. Great clean and dirty tone and versatile.

[junkemail86]

Right now I am loving my Egnater Tweaker 15 combo as well.  Sounds slightly better through my Orange cabinet, but internal speaker is great.  Very versatile.
I also recently got a Jet City JCA22H for pretty cheap, which is nice as well.  Cleans are not as good and it's pretty loud so doesn't do apartment volumes as well at the Egnater.
My old amp I used for years was a Marshall DSL401 which I like a lot, but not everybody's cup of tea.  Does do good cleans for a Marshall in my opinion, but not quite as good high gain as some other Marshalls.

[brejna]

I suggest Hughes & Kettner Tubemeister Deluxe 40. Great sounds and low weight plus midi options switching.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that it is got 3 channels..

[warriorpoet]

My personal favorite is my Valvetech VAC25, but you didn't mention how much power you need, head/ combo, coicing or any of that...

You might check out the Fender Bassbreaker as well. I like the 15w best.

[ahiddentableau]

Kinda need more information.  Do you prefer Fender, Vox or Marshall style tones?  How much power do you require (sounds like quite a bit)?  Do you like bright or warm sound?  Particular tube types you like or dislike, etc.

IMO it's not really possible to have an amp that does all three of those things really well because of the design compromises involved.  Tubey clean and wicked lead tones just don't go together, unfortunately.  You can have basically have the first two or the last two qualities on your list, but not all three.

I'd look for an amp that does clean and break-up and then go pedals from there.

[Ralfg]

Kinda need more information.  Do you prefer Fender, Vox or Marshall style tones?  How much power do you require (sounds like quite a bit)?  Do you like bright or warm sound?  Particular tube types you like or dislike, etc.

IMO it's not really possible to have an amp that does all three of those things really well because of the design compromises involved.  Tubey clean and wicked lead tones just don't go together, unfortunately.  You can have basically have the first two or the last two qualities on your list, but not all three.

I'd look for an amp that does clean and break-up and then go pedals from there.

That's a great point. I was in the market for this exact setup and it is probably not out there at a reasonable price. The closest I found was that Mesa Tripple Crown, but the clean was almost too clean and the high gain channel was really metal. The drive channel was nice though. A while back I was playing a Carbon Legacy which was cool, but sucked with singles and the 2 gain channels were almost out of control. The clean took pedals like a champ though!

Suggestions are good and really help narrow the playing field and take those to a brick and mortar store (if you can find one) and give them a play through. See what you like.

[blearyeyes]

Kinda need more information.  Do you prefer Fender, Vox or Marshall style tones?  How much power do you require (sounds like quite a bit)?  Do you like bright or warm sound?  Particular tube types you like or dislike, etc.

IMO it's not really possible to have an amp that does all three of those things really well because of the design compromises involved.  Tubey clean and wicked lead tones just don't go together, unfortunately.  You can have basically have the first two or the last two qualities on your list, but not all three.

I'd look for an amp that does clean and break-up and then go pedals from there.

That is a good point ahiddentableau. I don't need much power but on the off chance I was to gig again I would like about 30-50 Watts or so. I bought a VOX AC15HW1X 15-watt 1x12" Handwired Tube Combo with Alnico Blue Speaker. It is a bit stiff, brittle and uncompromising to a degree. It was an attempt to get into something different. Might be the Alnico Blue, might be the tubes. Might not have broken it in yet as I haven't opened it up much. I'm not sure how to make friends with it if you know what I mean. I would like to try it with a different speaker. I also have a Bugera 22 and running them both sounds pretty good but I would rather get it all in one. Maybe I'm dreaming.

I'm staring down the Hughes & Kettner Tubemeister Deluxe 40. I'm not hearing the warmth on most demos online but in person with hands on it might be better.  It has the control I'm used to having since I used a small rack system with a ton of preset slots for a while in the 90s. Really only need four or five to do all I want it to do. Looks like they did their homework on the user interface. The midi pedal adds another $200+ to the sticker. Hmm. I guess it's about time to go to (dread) Guitar Center to try out a few amps.

I am checking out everyones suggestions and am finding a lot of good stuff.
Thanks you guys and keep em coming!

Mesa Mark 5 25:

https://youtu.be/gjkfArHfV6Q