Guaranteed to survive nuclear fallout as well as the cockroaches. I've fixed my share of Peavey on my channel, both solid state and tube... There's lots of good ones if you take the time to tinker with the tones.
@@crazeyjoe most class a amps will make you a better player. You only get what you give em. You have to have perfect accuracy and intonation to make em sound like they do in the youtube demos.
@@WilsonTheArchitect A Harley Benton 2x12 Speaker Cabinet with 2 Celestion V30 speakers, with a price just over $200. The best deal for a really good quality speaker cab. Yes, substandard speaker cabs can turn a good sounding amplifier into a tonal waste land!
@@crazeyjoe i agree. And knowing how much headroom you want or how tight you want the low end helps to choose a cab. The higher the speaker wattage the louder they get before they break up.
I own a few Peavey TransTube amps, the more I play them the more I admire the genius of Hartley Peavey. They are quickly becoming my favorite solid-state amps.
@@edd9157 silver stripes' T.Dynamic knob.Brightens & tightens. Too bright in extreme settings for nice pristine cleans that takes pedals great.Great for heavy crunch at those.
+1 Clean channel; T dynamics on 10%, crank like a tube amp. Very close to Quilter kind of simulation. Part of the resurrection comes from intheblues man Shane who adores the Red Stripe Bandit. Red Stripes still go cheap and IMHO sound a bit better than the modern bandits. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Wc4NkZUItOg.html
@@stevenburvenich168 Shane Diiorio (intheblues) introduced a whole new generation to the red and silver stripe bandit models, and is almost single handedly responsible for the market value increasing from around $100 U.S. to around $200-$250 US for a nice example with the footswitch. He's since sold all of his Peavey Bandit amps and swears by the Marshall DSL40 nowadays. I've had my U.S. Red Stripe Peavey Bandit for years, and never plan to sell it. It's versatile, bulletproof reliable, sounds great and takes pedals well. Is at as good as my blackface Super Reverb? Well, honestly, no. But... it's 85% of the way there sound and feel wise for 1/10th the price. I'd be absolutely gutted if some bearded hipster spilled a PBR in my Super Reverb at a watering hole.
I could kick my dad in the ass for getting rid of his and not even offering to sell it to me lol. He had a 1995 Silver Panel Transtube series Bandit 112 and the accompanying 1x12 Extension cabinet. Still one of the loudest and clearest sounding solidstate combos ive ever heard. Side note: in high school, my buddy used that same amp and the extension, early on in a band we were in, before getting his own Marshall half stack and actually could keep up with a Marshall JCM900 SL-X 50 watt half stack I was using. Pretty impressive really
I have a silver stripe 112 and also a pacer 100. Both are very good clean and with pedals, but as he states not so good with the stock gain distortion.
The trick with the Princeton chorus is to turn it on the overdrive channel, set the limiter high, and bring up the gain. You end up with a hot, compressed, signal. Top it off with a little reverb
Hell Yeah, the acoustic and Sunn heads are amazing and so much potential for really loud bass affordably. I’ve been playing acoustic since I bought my first all original 1972acoustic 370 head with matching 301 cab. After working on the farm all summer as a ten year old boy all I did was save my money so I bought that whole rig out the door for a hair under $400. That woulda been 1993-94ish and before the stoner metal scene revived them. I never met another bass player who had one or even new what they were for that matter. The other bands would always ask WTF is that? It’s so loud and so clear. It wasn’t til about 2010 and on they started getting popular again which meant price goes up big time! Of all the gear I’ve collected over the years, bass and guitar, I still have my first acoustic stack and it’s my go to!! I was lucky that my old man was a blues and southern rocker in the 70’s so he was the one who talked me into getting it even though I had every intention and enough money to by the 74 Ampeg stack I had gone to buy but fate is a fickle mistress. I still thank him all the time for talking me into that amp and since the. I’ve had quite a few SVT and other model Ampeg stacks even currently but.....yeah ya dig?!!!
I used a Sunn concert lead with a Yamaha S412 cabinet for a while in the 80's, it was a remarkably good amp. Most of these amps you mention are recent ones, the best SS amp I ever used was a 200 watt Kustom Kasino stack back in the early 70's. Hard to find these days but it was my workhorse for over a decade. I just made a RU-vid video about it called "What's in your backline?"
Played a JC120 in high school in a school jazz band in the early 90's and was always blown away by how good that thing sounded, now with the aid of the internet and finding out how many albums they were used on makes feel like I had an idea of good tone back then... kinda. Great vid Cheers.
Glenn Ritchey I still play my SS-150, bought in 1991... over the years, I’ve ‘almost’ bought a Triple Rectifier, or whatever, but my Ampeg just sounds better, period.
@@pwsmanowar yes! i have one, and it sounds crushing! The clean channel is a great pedal platform also, and the bright button brings out the metal like no other..
Lol yeah man I said CR120 as soon as I read the title!! It and the JC are the only ones I use . Well, except for my old Bandit lol and it just won’t go down lol. But I wouldn’t use it live. Only EVER use the CR for dirt live. Don’t think I would record with it but I can have a good night with a CR 120.
I just found a Peavey Bandit on Craigslist near my home in CT for only 35 dollars! I called them immediately to see the hype and of course someone beat me to it. It literally sold within 20 minutes of being posted.
Tossing in a mention of the Tech21 Trademark 60, a workhorse that got me thru a few years of club gigs a few years back. Reliability was an issue, and no one knows how to fix 'em, but I used to get compliments on my tone with that amp. FWIW...
Peavey Bandit 65 - Had one in the late 80's. Two channel, great clean and fabulous distrotion channel with "tube saturation" overdrive, spring reverb and a 12" Scorpion Speaker. I think it cost around £165 new. Sold it in 1991 and regretted it ever since.
You nailed this list! The Fender Princeton Chorus has amazing cleans, but also makes a great pedal platform. I used one live a few times to play hard rock covers and it did fine. Also, if you're going to do a Bandit, I recommend the teal stripe from' 89. It was designed by Jim Brown, the 5150 designer.
Thanks for including the Fender Princeton Chorus on this list. I have the 90s model and absolutely love it! Best clean you can get, awesome Chorus, the overdrive is good for old stuff. I use a pedal board on the front end for my distortion etc. it also has an effects loop which is a plus for some pedals.
Hey man. I recently bought an 80's Yamaha B100 II head to play bass through. It's incredibly warm sounding for solid state. A friend told me to try playing guitar through it. Oh man!! Killer clean tone and it's a fantastic pedal platform! And they sell for about $200.
I had a G50 that I picked up With a laptop at a swap meet together for $20 the laptop was completely dead and unfixable. But only the speaker was not working. I put in a 12" guitar center speaker and it sounded great. Had to pawn it though. Really miss it. Also, replaced the braided wire that connects from the terminal to the voice coil and ended up fixing the original Yamaha speaker. I put it back in before pawning it.
Man, my cousin ( who was one of the reasons i began playing music) had the Peavey Chorus 2x12. Sounded just like Lynyrd Skynyrd The Breeze and it was SOOOOO LOUD!!! And an older Native American guitarist called Joe Puff who played with a great cover band called Cream Cheese had the JC 120, that i played through a coupla times with my little pedal board in a high school band opening for them (small town!!) He was my hero when i was a teen beginner...that amp!! RIP Joe Puff.
The greatest solid-state amp I've ever owned and played was made by Lab Series. I've owned a 2x12 and a 4x10. They're so good in a side by side with a tube amp, You would not know the difference.
@@JimJWalker yes and BB and Ronnie Montrose. ha, I was offered $80 for my Peavey Studio Pro 112 (red stripe) that I paid $150 for in '03. Turned that down. a move made things tight. sold it for less.
great video Robert! I owned the Fender Princeton and the Peavy Bandit,so you brought back some decent mems for me.Keep up the great work and God bless!
The Peavey Renown 212 was a good amp(had one for about 6yrs in early 90s) and for anyone not caring for the chorus a better alternative to the Chorus 212 amp. The Peavey Studio Pro 40 which I bought new in '86 is still a good solid state amp. Replaced the stock speaker with a Celestion G12M-70 in '90 and that was a huge improvement. And ten years ago or so, I rediscovered just how good the Saturation circuitry really is still today and marveled at its pioneering spirit given the era in which it was designed. And it's hard to beat the JC-120 for nice clean tones and that is why if it ever stops being manufactured by Roland, it would be a sad day. That is a timeless guitar amp.
I cut the top part of my Peavey Renown 2x12 and boxed bottom in myself and use it with a 4x12 cab and it sounds magnificent.its now a piggy back half stack custom.
I’ve had the Lab L5, RJC 120 and various Peavey’s in addition to all the classic tube food groups built prior to 1981. I don’t discriminate. However, my Quilter Mach II kicked everything to the curb. Hit the effects return with your favorite AIAB or Preamp, hitch to an external cab and it won’t just keep up with an SVT but totally bury the loudest drummer you can find. And man does it sound killer clean or dirty. 400 watts of Switchmode power is shockingly loud. I just sold my last Tweed amp, never going back.
Why no mention of Lab Series amps? IMO the best sounding solid state amps ever made. I used one for years until I wore it out and will buy one again when I can.
Good Call. Just happen to be moving things around. Watching the Video, Reading the Comments, and starting at my L5 in the kitchen with an Engle Thunder 50 head & a Dr. Z Z28 head sitting on top of it. CRAZY!!!😎
Thanks for including the Roland Blues Cube. I think it's one of the most underrated solid state amps these days! I have the Artist 112 with a sparkle clean tone capsule and the clean tones are Fender at it's best in my opinion but it also does the job as a pedal platform for any kind of setup. The clean tone is great when you crank it up, it reminds me of a Bassman. The factory speaker brings the best out of that amp, so there's no need to change it at all. Other great features: built in power attenuator, tremolo, reverb, second channel (which is in fact the Boss Blues Driver), Boost and Tone function for both channels and last but not least: the footswitch which regulates many of the features mentioned above! Man, this amp is soo good that I sold all my other tube amps and I had many of those! It's light and very reliable. What else do you need? I think this thing will be a classic such as the Jazz Chorus.
Alex Skolnick was a big proponent of the Marshall Mode 4 amps for a while. He said they could sound terrible unless you dialed them in right, and then they were killer.
I have the Fender London Reverb amp which has a single 12 inch speaker and a built on 5 band EQ on the face. It belonged to a friend of mine who had a band in the 80’s. They played cover tunes on weekends. He sold it to one of his roadie hands and I later bought it from him, years later. It’s a great sounding amp.
Glad to hear the Fender Princeton Chorus mentioned. My drummer has one and it’s a great-sounding amp. It has a nice, comfy feel to it that you can kinda lean into. Which is very different from the very tight, percussive feel I usually get from solid-state amps.
Own a Fender Princeton Chorus and you're right, this is a good value. Warning, it is heavy for a small solid state amp. Great clean and decent chorus. The only thing I don't like are the cheap looking knobs.
I love the clean sound, the reverb and the chorus on the Princeton Chorus combo - so much that I brought two of them (one for by son). They sound like the new Fender Tone Masters, except they weigh much, much more. You have to forget the overdrive channel and just pretend it's not there. If you're like me and have no desire to provide the maintenance that a tube amp requires, but want the classic fender sound that this amp undeniably delivers with the reliability of a solid state , then this amp is for you.
I like your attitude man. Don’t let the internet get to you and you still got your opinion off for us to check out the gear later on. Truly am glad I found this channel a while back that’s somthing I’d like to work on myself
I don’t know about “perfectly,” but if you’re looking for the JCM 800 sound, the MOSFET 100 is a solid alternative at a much more affordable price point. It won’t get you all the way there, but it will get you in the ballpark.
Yep, had an L5 (BB King amp) and the L7 4x10. Both should be top of this list but not even there. Kinda hard to get hold of them now so maybe that’s it?
Watched this to see if the lab l5 was on the list. Played one in high school. I’m 58 now and just bought one this year. Regretted selling it 40 years ago but there’s one sitting in my living room right now…. Guess I’ll go play!
When I started learning to play in my church they had a Peavey Stereo Chorus 212 and that thing was already over 20 years and solid as a tank. Never gave an issue and I think it's still there.
Just got a new Orange Pedal Baby 100 today! My first amp was a Peavey Rage. I remember pushing the hell out of it jamming with friends as a teenager. I had it for probably 20 yrs until I lost it in a hurricane.
Nice Vid! In the early to mid ‘80s I had a Marshall MOSFET LEAD 100 that was GREAT! I also just got a New Fender Tone Master Twin The is just UNBELIEVABLE!! You’d swear it was a Tube ‘65 Twin!! GREAT AMP!! Please keep up the Good Work! Love your Content!!
Warheads were released in 2000. Dime didn’t use them for long at all before switching to Kranks. CFH: RG100ES VDOP: Century FBD: Century GSTK: RG100ES/RG100HT RTS: Century/Warhead
This B-52 goldface 100-watt brain I've got is a really good solid state amp. ...They used to say "brain" back in the day, and the day I quit saying "head" and went back to "brain" was the day I was in Guitar Center and I heard some 11-year-old kid exclaim "This is great head!", which creeped me out infinitely.
The bandit and stereo chorus were amazing amps. My grandma used a stereo chorus up until a few years back when she got her showman restored. I helped a buddy find a bandit a few weeks ago. Such a great amp. As for the Princeton chorus and Princeton 112, they’re great clean amps. They’re clean and although the drive channel is mediocre, they’re a decent pedal platform. I’m surprised the peavey musician and standard series weren’t on the list. Those amps are clean, and they have guts. You won’t get any high gain sounds out of them, but they take pedals great and have lots of head room
You forgot about the Orange OR-120H. That thing is leagues above the bad rep to the Crush name that those little combos give. It's no RockerVerb or OR, but it sure does sound like an Orange.
Peavey Special 130. I've been playing these for years. Sometimes two at a time. Generally, my go-to amp. The most reliable, amps I have ever known and will go head to head with my Fender Twins.
Hey Robert. Aussie Vaughan from the Vester groups. Good video! I've found on fb marketplace, another Vester. This time, a really cool & clean SG. What a Beast! Even with dime sized pots. The guy was asking for $125 & someone wanted it, so I offered $250. Happy to pay that. Also just found a Marshall Mosfet 100 reverb twin combo for $350 Aussie money, recently. I should snap it up but I just bought a MX 60th Ann' 50s Classic Player Strat, in desert sand & Gold anodised pg, Gold hardware & I think Texas specials. Bingo. They are increasing in Value! Cheers Bro.
I loved my Valvestate when I had one back in the 90’s. I compared many amps and the Valvestate amps gave me the best sound for what I was playing back then 🙂
Yes! The 8100. I've had mine since I bought it new 26 years ago. Only thing I've done to it is clean the pots about 2 weeks ago. Still sounds as good as when I was a teenager in the 90's.
Robert's Guitar Dungeon I think people might be surprised how many death metal bands used this amp and still use it today. That’s not my style but it does a really good job at a modern metal sound as well
I had a Sunn Concert Lead head that was loud enough to melt your ears to mush.The great Todd Rundgren used one in 75 on the Another Live album and I love his sound.
Just a heads up, Dime used a rack mounted version of the RG100ES with a bunch of other rack gear for the majority of his career in his live rig. Even when he had his own signature model he was still using his old rig with the warheads as dummies.
The Peavey Bandit (especially the teal stripe version) is my favorite amp I've ever owned, including my tube heads. Got it for $150 used and it's been my main amp ever since
I was in the Castleton GC a few weeks ago for my normal Sunday and they had this 1972 Kustom 2x12 SS amp in the used section. It was so...70's. It had this sparkling red padding all over it and probably 50 knobs on the control panel. Another customer plugged into it and was just noodling around on the clean channel and I was taken aback. It really sounded good. Very full and tight with a big roomy sound. And it was less than $200. I don't know if you've ever seen these things or something like it, but I was really impressed with it. That padding though...
Hi from England.i can't get out the house because of disability so I rely on guitar playing to keep me going. The one I like is the peavy bandit. I put a jensen speaker in it and it sounded great, as good as my valve amps.
I have a removed left wrist joint & my guitar days are over. I switched to pedal steel, which I have to play with an amputated left foot, but I can do it with the prosthesis & a finger slide over my left thumb. No, I'm not a country western guy but played it when I had to ... like Wipe Out!
SS King is my Pearce G1 ....owned it for years and I still love it . I respect Roland, LAB,Peavey and Sunn for solid state amps produced but Pearce is the best to my ears . I have not played a Quilter yet and I have heard they are very good .
The 2 greatest solid state amps ever made are the Randall Warhead and the Roland Jazz Chorus because they're not just trying to sound like a valve amp, which is something a traditional solid state amp cannot do. They have their own sound, and their own legacy. They are not a compromise, which is what traditional solid state amps basically are by being cheaper, lighter, more reliable etc than valve amps. Professional musicians used them and are still using them because they actually prefer the sound of them. With that said, my list of best solid state amps after those two iconic amps would be the solid-state amps that do the best job of mimicking popular guitar tones. The best solid state version of a low gain "Fender type amp" to my ears is the Roland blues Cube hands down. It's so close that it's scary. the Fender Tonemaster amps are a close second, but the Roland is just a bit more dynamic to my ears. Other notable solid-state amps with great low gain tones wouod be the Peavey trans tube stuff, the fender red knob amps, and some of the Vox Hybrid amps. For a high gain amp, it's the Orange Crush Pro. Slap that thing on a quality 4x12, and it's virtually impossible to tell that it's solid state in a live mix. You can hear It in the studio or isolated on its own If you have good ears, but the biggest difference between it and the real thing is the way it plays. Solid state amps have a different feel at high volume than actual valve amps in regards to response especially with stuff like palm muting and harmonics using high gain. They just about got this figured out with the really high end digital stuff, but traditional solid state amps have a different feel for certain guitar techniques. A close second for high gain stuff would be some of the Blackstar solid state amps. Honorable mention would be the Marshall Mode 4, Which is an absolutely putrid sounding high gain guitar amp without pedals, But it's an amazing sounding bass head of you like distorted bass. This guy in a 3 piece band we used to play with that was just a bass player, drummer and singer that was trying to do the whole Royal Blood thing with distorted bass used a mode-4 with an 8x10 bass cab and he sounded amazing.
Dime never used the Warhed for his heavy distortion sound, he said he didn`t like the way they sounded, he only used them for cleans live. He did however use the Warhead X2 (second version) and liked it 👌Yes, Dime did use the Century amps a lot but his early sound was the RG100ES and he switched between them from time to depending on his preferences but he prefered the RG`s 😉 I have one from 88 with original zebra tolex and I fucking love it, even has a really good clean sound if you mess with it a little bit 👍
@catfromthedead You got almost everything right. Yes, he did split from Randall around the time Pantera broke up but he would still use their amps, the RM100`s, X2 and the Titan, showed in pictures from Damageplan era. He never used the Warhead(V1) for dirty live, you saw them in the racks yes, but that was for CLEANS ONLY. And yes he never recorded with the Kranks, that probably a mixtures of his old Century 200`s and some other Randall amps 😉
Peavey Bandit--yes! It's nice to see the Bandit get a little public love. :) I've been using a Bandit 65--the *same* Bandit 65--since 1983, and while not the greatest-sounding machine on the planet, it has never failed me (and back when I gigged, it never had trouble filling a small-to-medium room with sound). I admit to having become a bit spoiled since I got a Vypyr 75 a decade or so ago, and the built-in effects allowed me to tweak the sound to my heart's content, so my ol' Bandit 65 sounds quaint by comparison. But I'm using it now, in fact, because my Vypyr abruptly ceased to work, and apparently Peavey no longer answers service queries.
All digital guitar amps are at least partially solid state, but not all solid-state amplifiers are digital. If that sounds confusing, don’t worry, it’s actually very simple: A solid-state amplifier has a solid-state (transistors, resistors, capacitors, not tubes) preamplifier that produces the tone of the guitar amp, and then has a solid-state power amp circuit that amplifies the signal and drives the speaker(s). A classic example of a solid-state guitar amplifier is the Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus; there are many other examples, as well. Digital guitar amps use digital algorithms to produce the tone of the amplifier. Line 6, Peavey, and Vox are among the many manufacturers who make digital guitar amps. Theoretically, the tone could then be amplified either via a tube or solid-state power amp. Indeed, there are amplifiers such as the Line 6 DT line of amps that have digital front ends and tube power-amp sections. But the majority of digital guitar amps integrate solid-state power sections - that way, the digital algorithm can emulate the tone of various tube power amp stages and the solid-state power section can amplify that tone cleanly. www.sweetwater.com/insync/whats-the-difference-between-solid-state-and-digital-guitar-amps/
The ZT Club 200w is a beast. Best solid state amp Ive ever heard at a live concert when I saw Of Montreal. Monster tone and sounds great clean or driven. Traynor also makes great SS stuff too, but almost no one has ever tried them. My current pedal platform is a Peavey Wiggy. It gets a bad rep from tube guys but every single person that has ever played mine wants to buy it from me. Peavey nailed the Transtube circuit.
Fender Pro 185 Red Knob is needs on this list. If haven't tried one you will be surprised with great cleans and a really great high gain metal sound. One of the loudest amps I have ever played
Dude-Acoustic! I have a Acoustic 134 and it’s the warmest, fullest pedal platform ever. 120 watts of clean that weighs a ton but sounds amazing. From the 70’s not the recent reiteration. Check them out. What about cabinets? So important but often ignored. If you do a video about cabs, check out Barefaced guitar cabs. Because of an innovative design these cabs are louder, offer amazing sound dispersion and a low end that will rattle your fillings. Not cheap at all but it’s the first innovation in guitar cabs since the 4x12. You can watch a very interesting demo on Rob Chapman’s or Barefaced’s RU-vid channel. Love your stuff!
If you're interested check out a Yamaha B100 II. It's a bass amp but holy crap is it a warm sounding amp! I bought it to play bass through but it's been strictly for guitar as of late. I play it more than my tube amps now!
The acoustic guitar amps are great. They're bullet proof with some maintenance and they sound so good. I recently got a 230. 150 watts, and a ton of tone shaping options. Awesome pedal platform.
I’m glad you included a Quilter amp I’ve got an Aviator Cub and a Superblock US and they are not sensational. Lovely Eq smooth gain control and sound quite valve like. The inputs have a lot of headroom and take pedals even spikey fuzzes and they also do big fat cleans. They are all analogue not a CPU in sight the designer Patrick Quilter is a genius check them out you won’t be sorry!!!
I have a Fender Princeton Chorus from 1998. It's an amazing amp. I have it dialed in treble 7-8.5, mid 2.5, bass 3.5, reverb 7, presence +2, gain 7-10, limiter 0-4. The exact settings vary according to what sounds best with the particular guitar and pickup I'm using, but that's the general range. The chorus sounds good as it is but you can get a really nice subtle sound by turning the depth all the way up and the speed all the way down. You can get a very good metal sound by turning the mids all the way down and cranking up the treble and bass. It's overall a very versatile amp but it does take some patience dialing it in to really make it shine.
I have one of those mini-stacks.. Perfect for the home studio/yard parties. You could gig with this set. It will easily reach over a full drum set if you need it to, don't expect it to fill a stadium on its own though. Oddly enough as much of a Luddite as I profess to be, all of my amps are solid state at the moment. From the Blackstar Fly twin, that I use as laptop speakers that I can plug a guitar into.. to that Marshall mini-stack.. to an old Crate 35 with a huge range of built in effects. Sold off some stuff in a move about 3 years ago, got great money for my mid-60's Fender deluxe reverb silver and got silly money for my Marshall half stack. I don't perform anymore, so its not like I need the power of a big tube amp, and the new solid state stuff is really really good. I've also been watching videos by Keith at Five Watt World, and you know what? he is right. if the amp is going to be mic'd up anyway, just get the sound right and let the PA do the volume.
1My 1st jam ever, the drummer had me plug into a Peavey version of that stack and the thing kept me snug between him and his buddy running a RG-50.. A few months later I got a pawn shop L12 combo that made all my tapes sound better until had to sell it. Set now with a VS100 head I'm happy with. Played the range from daisy-chained Twins to a ME-30 through a ghetto blaster
I've still got my Line 6 Flextone II HD and matching cabinet. To this day, I still swear by the amp is o this day. I can get tones out of this amp that can match any tube amp. The bonus is being able to share and download custom models. I even have a 1970's solid state Rickenbacker Road 30, 1x15 w/horn that sounds amazing to this day as well. I had that same Peavy 2x12 as well.
I have a 1994 Teal Stripe Peavey Bandit 112, & it is THE BEST foundation Amp for pedals ever. Mine is still cranking out tunes 25 years & going. Cleaned the pots a couple of times, but the darn thing is a Tank & has never given me any problems.
A few years ago I bought a ZT Lunchbox amp because I wanted something very small and portable to take to rehearsals with my band, but I still needed it to be loud enough. This amp does the job nicely...especially when I add a small (1x12) extension cab. It's very loud, nice clean tone, takes pedals very well, has a nice full range of sound when the extension cab is added.
I was crazy about my Randall RG75 which came with a Celestion. What an awesome amp! I played more gigs with this Randall than all tube amps combined, including my Boogie. I just loved the punch and cut of this amp. Really had that 80s sound. Fun amp. I don't care for new Randall solid states or tube amps.
I fully agree! I have two M80 combo amps that I used for close to 2 decades. I'd run them together. Put an o.d. pedal in front of them and it's all I needed.
Best all around guitar combo amp I ever owned was a Peavey special 212. Worked for ANY gig size, including competing with an Engl half stack, which I did often. I ended up moving across the country and it was just too big to make the cut at the time, it’s the one piece of gear I regret letting go. That said, everything is even smaller and lighter nowadays, and I don’t need thrash metal power anymore lol, but that thing was a great sounding powerhouse. Nowadays I use a smattering of Quilter tiny heads and holy smokes those things are awesome.
Two amazing solid state amps that didn't make the list yet are worth considering are; The orange crush series. Orange took their Rockeverb series and turned it into a solid state amp and, the Ampeg VH-140 from the 90's. I owned one of these amps during my teens and it was a high gain smoking amplifier.
I have a pair of Crush20s that I use with a Digitech ValveFX to add a low-wattage stereo image to my very mixed bag of a rig; parallel to that, I run another stereo segment comprised of a DSL20 with a 212 and Bogner Uberschall pedal through a solid state clean head and 212 on one side, and then on the other there’s both the Diezel VH Micro and Soldano SLO mini, both through 212s. There’s even a PODX3 in there. I’m in no way a tube snob. It works for my tiny wall of sound at home, and sounds awesome. But the Crush obviously inspired me to buy a second. It’s a great fuzzy SS overdrive tone!
Today I purchased a fender ultimate chorus 2x12 65watt combo for $80.00. It needed a bit of cleaning in the input jack and the pots. When the seller saw I wasn't afraid to dig into it, he gave me a Princeton chorus made in USA that needs work. Nice.
What about the GK 250ml? It was like Eddie VanHalen in a box. A lunch box to be correct. Keith Alexander plugged his into 2 Marshall 1960 4x12 cabs for live shows and it killed. Then you could take it home and play it in a studio apartment. Still one of my faves.
There’s a relatively unknown set of solid state amps by Fender from the ‘80s that are not very expensive. They hail from the Paul Rivera Era and we’re also designed by Rivera as part of the CBS mandated modernization last hurrah. There were three models, although I can only recall the names of two, the Stage Lead 2 and the London. I’ve played the Stage Lead 2 and while I have no experience with the London, I understand the London was a British voiced solid state amp. The Stage Lead 2 is a two channel amp with a clean channel and a lead channel with two mid control letting the user dial in some really cool mid voicings. I want to say that they are in the 100-150 watt range. They sell used $200-$250 for the 1x12 combo and $250-$300 for the 2x12 combo. They sound great Another killer pair of killer sounding solid state amps are also from the ‘80s, the Carvin SX100 & SX200. I haven’t priced either lately but I imagine they’re in the $200 to $300 for the SX100 and SX200.
I have a Peavey Renown 400. 1984 and a Peavey Classic with phaser amd reverb solid state amp i still have them both 2023 also the Roland keyboard and guitar JC amps.
