Recommendations

[tallman]

I'd recommend getting something with a fantastic clean sound -maybe even one channel, ad then buying any number of boost, overdrive and dist. pedals for your dirt.  I think this would probably be most cost effective.  I'd check out Orange, Dr. Z, or whatever you have available.  Some good pedals to check out would be a Fulltone Fulldrive 2, ZVEX Box of Rock and ZVEX Box of Metal.  The fulldrive will push a clean channel into fantastic overdrive and the Box's will give you great distortion tones.

I would also recommend point to point wired amp -much easier to fix.  That's why I think Dr. Z would work well in your case -they are all under 2k, point to point and made in the USA -doesn't get any better than that!

 

[blue313]

For a 1x12 I have to vote for my amp, the Deluxe Reverb. Great cleans and is still plenty loud for practice and clubs.  It breaks up a lot easier than its big brother the Twin.

 

[GoDrex]

For a 1x12 I have to vote for my amp, the Deluxe Reverb. Great cleans and is still plenty loud for practice and clubs.  It breaks up a lot easier than its big brother the Twin.

Yeah I'd like one of those please.   I think it would be a perfect match for my Cyber Deluxe.

 

[crow55]

dont bother with those 50 knob heads there a knight mare
get a marshall jcm2000 that will cover everything  on your list
or the peavey 6505+ eddie used the same thing

 

[Fish Out of Water]

I really like my Vintage Modern Marshall half stack.  Nice tight clean sound that breaks up nicely when it's turned up..It also has a hi-gain/overdrive switch which really gets the amp screaming.  I have to 50 watt half stack and very understanding neighbors because that sucker is loud...  And it fits into your budget with some cash to spare for pedals and whatnot...

 

[Patrick from Davis]

If you have that much to spend, check out TopHat amps.  Here is there dealer page. 

http://www.tophatamps.com/dealer_locator.htm

I don't know what the dealer price is, but the home page price is pricey.  These are amps that you'd normally have to build yourself.  Very nicely built and great sounding, but you have to pay for it.  I have heard a couple of these amps and they are impressive, they just cost a metric crap load (technical unit)  Look through what models they have, they are based on the classic designs (Vox, Marshall...)
Patrick

 

[GoDrex]

I was watching the making of Stealy Dan's Aja - and Walter Becker was playing a Top Hat amp when they were playing some of the songs from the album. Sounded damn good to me.

 

[rightintheface]

if you get a chance, check out a hughes and kettner switchblade. i'm a huge supporter of those amps. does everything you mentioned. amazing clean, awesome crunch, really tight hi-gain.

and it has very decent built in fx too. the delay and reverb are ace, the chorus/flange/trem are useable. not to mention the included midi board, which makes tap dancing a thing of the past. i will say though, that the eq is touchy, and it takes a while to tweak it properly.

$1499 from musicians friend.

just another name to throw into the pot anyway, just to make decision time that little bit more difficult.

 

[stratplayer1]

ive looked into those im just a little bit leary of the whole digital thing, from experiences with line 6 products, i hate line 6 amps, now I understand its tube driven but I'd feel like the digital portion could color/affect the tone of the tubes, idk maybe im just weird, im assuming you have one of those amps, is it all tube tone, warm, driven, rich harmonics, thick distortion, screaming leads, with a soft sparkley cleans and mildly overdriven blues tones at low gain? hm a bit carried away on the perfect amp description. i mostly want warm driven rich harmonics and screaming lead. can it do that?

 

[JamesL]

Get the Holy grail of ampage...

Bogner Ectasy head, uberschall cab

 

[rightintheface]

actually...

yeah, it does all that.
the amp itself is actually an all-tube signal. the digital fx are added on/off as you desire.and they're not bad effects either.

and i know what you mean, i came from a line6 onto this switchblade. the line6 was a piece of ass-butter. seriously man, try one out, they absolutely melt the walls down. they can go from tasty marshall-esque crunch to mesa saturation heaps easily. and, more importantly, it can do this convincingly. and the clean is to die for. i've cranked the clean channel to about 7 on a hot pickup (SD phat cat) and it hardly had any break up with the gain backed way down. turn it up and gets all furry.

they get pretty rave reviews on harmony central too.

 

[stratplayer1]

mmm definitely sounds appealing the only problem, this is with most amps im looking into, is theres no where to try one, so ill more than liking end up buying blindly, which isnt my favorite thing to do but ive so far gotten lucky when doing that so well see. I definately dig the hughes and kettner stuff, theres one vid on youtube of the switchblade that blows my mind.

And I've heard great things about Bogner, quite expensive though arnt they? 'm kidna thinking of going on a lower amp budget to get another guitar, possibly a warmoth LP :laughing7: oh well so much to think about

 

[Fish Out of Water]

I had a Line 6 as well and I had problems with it.  I always used the Marshall amp models on it and then tried to program my effects around that.  The problems came in live situations when I would try to tweak the settings, all of the other settings would drop out and I'd have to reprogram my whole board.  Major pain in the ass.  That's why I went with the Marshall and a handful of pedals.  Now I can just turn the knobs on my head and I have no other worries.  The total cost of the whole package, head, cab, pedals and pedal board was around 3100 bucks.  I believe that fits into your budget as well. If you just pick up the head and the cab I think it ran around 2300... What ever you choose, rock on... :guitarplayer2:

 

[stratplayer1]

Fish what kind of music do you play with it? I've looked at those and their interesting although I've heard some what negative things about them.

 

[Fish Out of Water]

I'm into classic rock right on up to all of the modern stuff, as long as it's guitar heavy and not synth driven crap.  The amp has a pretty good overdrive type sound.  It gets a little muddy if you don't back off on the bass a bit, but not too bad. I can get all of the sounds that I need outta the amp and just a handful of effects.  What negative things have you heard about it??

 

[Ted]

Marshall VINTAGE MODERN

 

[stratplayer1]

Just a few reviews online that the sound isn't quite as good as the price warrants, just basically people saying its good but that theres better amps for the cash, I'd definitely want to try one though, I really hate having no guitarcenter / sam ash or anything around me