Which tube amp should I get?

Kerry Brown

Kerry Brown

Ambassador of the Great Northern Bar Jams
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I hang out on several guitar/gear forums. One common question I see is "Which tube amp should i get?". The amplifier makes more of a difference to your tone than any other gear you own. Tube amps in particular are very much an individual taste. When you ask this question be prepared to get all sorts of opinions based on what the responder has/likes. This may or may not help you in your quest for your amp. Here is my general purpose answer to this question.

When you ask for opinions you will mostly get what other people own is the best. It is the best for them but probably not for you. Take your guitar to as many guitar stores and play as many amps as you can. Play them at the volume you will be playing at. Take your favourite pedal. Repeat this procedure with your top two or three favourites. Tube amps are very particular about different volume settings and different EQ settings. Start by setting your guitar volume at five and all the EQ on the amp (Bass, Treble. Mid) at noon. Adjust the gain and volume until you are at the desired volume. Adjust EQ for tone. Play the heck out of the amp at different volume and tone settings on your guitar. Try all the channels and voices that the amp has. Try your pedal. When I shop for an amp it can take many days and at least half an hour with each amp I try. This will give you an idea of each amps capabilities and tone. When you show up with your guitar and explain you will be buying an amp but maybe not today I have found most stores are willing to let you try a few amps.
 
I feel that these 3 questions are the ones I ask myself:

1- Are you looking for a clean pedal platform or do
you want your dirt to come from the amplifier itself?
2- If the latter, effects loop or no effects loop?
3- What's your budget?
 
^^^That's much the approach I take.

Because of my answers to those questions, I only ever consider two-channel amps with effects loops, anymore. This, of course, means I am limited to amps above a certain price point.

The bottom line is that I don't get new amps very often!
 
The questions:
WHAT do you play mainly? Music type.
EFFECTS needs - lot or little pedals, want on board effects or no.
WHERE do you play, or intend to use it? Wattage/ Speakers etc.

The answers are ALWAYS:
A Tweed Deluxe
AND
A Blackface Princeton Reverb
AND
A Marshall 1974x or other 18w variant.
See, that was easy.....

HAHA!! Kidding but I'll go with the above and let you know how it all works out.

Lots of good advice you guys.
 
^^^^HA!

That's similar to the tongue-in-cheek (okay...smart-alec) answer I was going to give.

I was going to say, "There are three basic flavors of amplifier sounds: Fender, Marshall, and Vox. Maybe, we could add, 'Mesa.' Which of those sounds do you want?"

I WAS going to say that....

.....but I won't!
 
There are lots of "shades" of the big three sounds. Every amp is slightly different from others, even the same model. Every amp reacts differently to different guitars. That's why I get a kick out people who always recommend their favourite amp. Every player hears tone differently. The only way to tell which amp suits you is to play the amp with your guitar before you buy it. Recommendations can help narrow your focus as to which amps to try but even that isn't the best. You have to try as many as you can, even ones that get bad reviews or other people don't like. Then there is the let down when you get the amp dialled in at home exactly how you like it and get to your first band practice or jam and realize that it sounds like crap in the mix. Your tone quest starts all over again :)
 
Amps, and particularly speakers when you're speaker swapping, are such a feel thing that you've really got to play them before you know if it's a good fit. You don't know until you know.

I've only bought a couple brand new amps and it was many years ago- and when I did, I bought THAT amp that I played in-store - don't bring out a diff. boxed one from the back.
 
Kerry Brown said:
When you show up with your guitar and explain you will be buying an amp but maybe not today I have found most stores are willing to let you try a few amps.
Click to expand...

True. And you'll learn from the experimentation that one amp will sound good with one guitar but not another.

That's why I'm becoming increasingly lukewarm towards guitar comparisons. I have an amp that sounds rather nasty with one of my guitars, but another amp of mine sounds really nice with it.
 
smitty_p said:
True. And you'll learn from the experimentation that one amp will sound good with one guitar but not another.

That's why I'm becoming increasingly lukewarm towards guitar comparisons. I have an amp that sounds rather nasty with one of my guitars, but another amp of mine sounds really nice with it.
Click to expand...

This is true.
I have certain guitar/amplifier combinations that I would never use on a job.
Not many. Only 1 or 2, but they do exist in my equipment inventory.
 
My Fender Hot Rod Deluxe sounds way better with single coils than humbuckers. Humbuckers sound good, just not as good. The Mesa is the opposite. There are good sounds with single coils but you have to work at it.
 
Panama is one of those "blank A blank A blank A" words.
Can you name others? For example Canada.
English words only for this one so no Manana.
 
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I think the biggest questions, at least for me, are related to versatility. I don't want and no longer have the space for a lot of amps, so I need something that covers a lot of sonic territory - I need it to have good clean sounds, good medium gain/crunch sounds and good high gain sounds. I want onboard reverb. It's got to work well at any volume level (of course we all know they sound best loud but it has to be passable at sane volumes too). Portability and reliability are also important.

For me, it ended up being a Boogie Mark 5:25, but there are a few other amps out there that meet all the criteria.

For other players I can imagine that there are fewer requirements, like a good friend of mine only needs a good pedal platform with plenty of headroom so his solution is a Twin Reverb. Many other people just need a Tweed or a 18-watt. Guess what I am saying is it really depends on people being honest about what they need it for/how they are actually going to use it. I think too many players have a "dream amp" in mind and a lot of times that amp is not practical for them and their actual requirements. Plus, no matter how many times you try them in a shop, even with your own gear, there is no way to replicate living with an amp day-to-day, so you just have to keep trying until you get it right.
 
Tony M. said:
I feel that these 3 questions are the ones I ask myself:

1- Are you looking for a clean pedal platform or do
you want your dirt to come from the amplifier itself?
2- If the latter, effects loop or no effects loop?
3- What's your budget?
Click to expand...
I do not understand why you only move to a consideration of an FX loop when you desire a dirt tone from the amp itself. Please explain.
 
RVA said:
I do not understand why you only move to a consideration of an FX loop when you desire a dirt tone from the amp itself. Please explain.
Click to expand...

I don't know what Tony is going to say, but for me it is important because I find that time-based effects (delay, reverb, etc) sound like poo in front of a dirty amp. The loop is an absolute must for me if I am getting my nasty from the preamp.
 
RVA said:
I do not understand why you only move to a consideration of an FX loop when you desire a dirt tone from the amp itself. Please explain.
Click to expand...
gball said:
I don't know what Tony is going to say, but for me it is important because I find that time-based effects (delay, reverb, etc) sound like poo in front of a dirty amp. The loop is an absolute must for me if I am getting my nasty from the preamp.
Click to expand...

If I'm using the amp as a clean platform, all my effects including time based ones
are before the amp so to me the effects loop does not matter in that application.
 
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