JimiZeppelin4

Im looking to buy a tube amp between $500-700. My style is blues, classic rock, and alternative rock. Yesterday i went to GC and tried a few out. I played the vox ac15c1 and the bugera v22. I loved the ac15 but the bugera was just ok for me. What other amps would you recommend? I was also thinking of saving up for the ac30c2 or buy it used for a lower price.

gerraguitar

fender hot rod or blues jr, don't waste your time with bugera with that kind of budget you can do so much better. either of the vox amps would be a solid choice too but if you want a really good blues tone thats fender. if you stroll into a GC on a good day you can sometimes even get old silverface fender amps for the top of your budget or maybe a bit more

Edit: and remember you can always throw a pedal in front for gain stuff

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theScapegoat

not sure if this is helpfull, but i would always recommend taking the amp you tried and liked best. used is always an option. Also better than ac30 for blues? i don`t know, but for classic and alternative i would recommend you to look for high gain stuff like blackstar, engl and so on. often a surprise on lower gain levels.

MaaZeus

What about Jet City JCA22h? Two channels, one for high gain stuff and a crunch channel that has pretty nice rock tone. No clean channel however, other than turning gain low on crunch channel so it cleans up.

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im_atheist

I'd go for a Laney LC myself but the best thing you could do is try to keep it simple, 2 channels, treble, mid, bass, gain, volume for each.

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badfish_lewis

Fender

JimiZeppelin4

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Another question I have is if the amp I choose doesnt have strong distortion cant I just buy a solid dist pedal to hook up?

supersize

yeah you can. good one on a budget *prep flame sheild* is the boss MD2

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MaaZeus

Yup. If the amp has distortion that is "just not there yet" and you need a hair more all you need is some tubescreamer clone or any overdrive pedal and use it as boost. Hell, with tube amps I still recommend tubescreamers. High gain or no they add nice flavor with their mid hump and mild compression, either keeping it always on hammering your preamp tubes or kicking it on during solos to make them stand out more.

__________________
Guitars:
ESP LTD F-50
Cort EVL-Z4

Amps:
Peavey Envoy 110
Peavey Valveking 100
Marshall Valvestate 8100
JCA12S cab
Vox Pathfinder 10

Pedals
Behringer HM300
Digitech Bad Monkey

4FunandProphet

Get a used Peavey Classic 30 or Classic 50 and have plenty of cash left for a tubescreamer and a good dirt pedal.

bburritt1

All the way man! You cant go wrong with a tube screamer somewhere in the loop for that extra "Love".

Also if your amp has an effects loop there are some distortion or overdrives that go straight into it. Companies like AMT or AmpTweaker make great overdrive, Distortion, Fuzz to full out Metal.

Wont go to deep to get you all confused but there are many ways you can get any sound with a good amp and some form of overdrive. Hell Rev Billy Gibbons is known to use a few of them at once! (all hail to the Gibbons)

LaidBack

Buy a used AC30C2...you can get it shipped to your door if you buy one used from used.guitarcenter.com.

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Deadpool_25

There's a blues guy here, local famous type who's played with some real famous guys, he uses an older Fender Vibroverb and two tube screamers, one always on, the other for solos. Sounds really good.

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Blktiger0

I would recommend a Marshall JCM2000 DSL401. They go for $500-ish used on GC's website all day long. You could use the extra money to swap out the speaker for something a little bit better, like a V30 or G12T-75

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bigfyt

personally choice between the fender or the vox.

ive got the ac15 love it, put a bad monkey with it fixes your dirty issues.

you have a decent budget espcially for used