So my lovely wife hear's my amp cutting out and sees me jiggling the amp cable. She says "you can buy a new practice amp if you want."

There's 2 things going on here - first my wife is freaking awesome and says I can buy a new toy; second is that she uses the word "practice" hoping I'll get something quieter.

So today we walk into guitar center because they have their "greatest sell of the year" read "sell for this month's holiday."

I grab a Line 6 Spyder. I haven't bought an amp in 15 years. Holy hell those things are complicated now. I played it for the first time for about 20 minutes, 1/2 of which was spent learning the nobs after reading the manual. Maybe I should just get my old amp fixed.

Don't get me wrong, the Line 6 has some great sounds, but damn if it isn't complicated as hell. And this is a freaking 30 watt solid state practice amp. I miss Windows 3.0.

You sound like you need a Fender Pro Junior. That's what I have: A 15W tube amp that is deceptively loud (looks like a practice amp) and has GREAT tone. And here's what you'll like--only two knobs. Tone and volume. Increase the volume and you get a nice natural overdrive.

Slightly more expensive than the Spyder, but you can probably find a deal somewhere

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Fender-Pro-Junior-Combo-Amp-100036382-i1145368.gc

-edited for forum code-

[This message has been edited by tomtomdrumdrum (edited 5/26/2009 12:48a).]

I've been using a Spark Mini. I had some Sweetwater gift cards banked and decided to get a Katana 50W Gen 3.

There was some strong consideration to getting a tube amp kit from StewMac or Mojotone, but the price would have been almost three times as much, and if I'm gonna get a tube amp, it's probably going to be the ENGL Steve Morse head and a cabinet. But that's down the road.

Now time to learn all the stuff this thing can do

maroon barchetta said:

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I've been using a Spark Mini. I had some Sweetwater gift cards banked and decided to get a Katana 50W Gen 3.

There was some strong consideration to getting a tube amp kit from StewMac or Mojotone, but the price would have been almost three times as much, and if I'm gonna get a tube amp, it's probably going to be the ENGL Steve Morse head and a cabinet. But that's down the road.

Now time to learn all the stuff this thing can do

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The Boss solid state stuff is really fantastic. I should have gone that direction instead of Marshall DSL combo tube amps.

fixer said:

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maroon barchetta said:

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I've been using a Spark Mini. I had some Sweetwater gift cards banked and decided to get a Katana 50W Gen 3.

There was some strong consideration to getting a tube amp kit from StewMac or Mojotone, but the price would have been almost three times as much, and if I'm gonna get a tube amp, it's probably going to be the ENGL Steve Morse head and a cabinet. But that's down the road.

Now time to learn all the stuff this thing can do

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The Boss solid state stuff is really fantastic. I should have gone that direction instead of Marshall DSL combo tube amps.

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Katana is a great choice, Orange also has great solid state amps. Super Crush, Pedal Baby, and now their newest ones the Tour Baby, Dual Baby, and Gain Baby. With a good preamp pedal of your choosing and one of those as your power amp you could really have some fun, add an EQ pedal and you can shape the tone to your exact liking.