What valve (tube) amplifier should I purchase?

Posted by admin in Friday, April 9th 2010

Luis M asked:

Hello. I have been trying to decide what tube amplifier I should buy. I have a Gibson Les Paul. And I like all types of music (except pop). I love to play bluesy songs to heavy metal covers. I don’t want to break the bank either. I was thinking of the new Marshall MA series, the Fender Hot Rodd Deville, Fender Deluxe reverb, or Jet City amps. Which one offers the best tonal range. Any other models I may want to look at?

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2 Comments

Sal Chaech said in April 11th, 2010 at 6:41 am

The best advice here is to physically go to the music store and test all of your options using your own guitar. Test the ones you listed, test a few you haven’t, and test as much of your style on them as you can.

Adam D said in April 13th, 2010 at 8:30 pm

I’ll second the recommendation for you to try and check out the amps for yourself.

In my experience, I think that Marshall kinda *****. I haven’t actually played one, but they’re getting terrible reviews. If you like Marshall, look into Orange Amps. They’re WAY better in terms of tone, but might be out of your price range, unless you’re looking for an amp to play at home, you could look into the Orange Tiny Terror. This is a great amp in terms of being able to play at home and for recording. Orange amps have amazing cleans, and great British distortion tones.

If you’re looking at playing in a band, your best bet is to look on ebay for a Marshall JCM800, which is one of the better Marshall amps around… look at getting the 50 watt series, because 100 watts is overkill, even for a band that plays medium sized venues.

The two Fenders are both really great amps. The Deluxe reverb is one of the most sought after amps… Period. Amazing cleans, probably some of the best in the business. It’s not going to do metal though, so you’ll need a good distortion and overdrive pedal for this amp. The Deville is good, but not quite as good as the Deluxe.

The Deluxe or the Tiny Terror will probably be the next amp I purchase, but won’t be for awhile.

Currently, I run a Mesa Mark IV amp, which is another great amp. They’re expensive, but well worth it. They’re great for doing everything from Jazz to Blues to Rock to Metal. I can do Black Sabbath to Eddie Van Halen to Lamb of God in terms of Rock and Metal, which is what I play. This amp is considered to be the most versatile tube amp on the market… well, they just discontinued it and came out with the Mark V, which is just as good. You can switch these amps from 85 watts to 75 to 50 to 35 watts, making it usable in any type of live situation, recording or possibly at home, but it’s pretty dang loud.

I’ve never played a Jet City Amp.