Solid State Combo Amp Advice

[groverj3]

Hey everyone,

Currently I have a Peavey Transtube 112 EFX and a Crate GT 212 combo. The Crate I got when I was in high school, and was good enough to play with the occasional drummer but feeds back really really badly at almost any volume. The distortion sounds OK, but sounds a little too compressed and I'm just not a big fan of it.The Transtube I picked up cheap for an amp to have in my dorm in college, but the distortion channel seems... muffled. I wonder if it might be broken, but in any case I'd rather upgrade.

I'm looking for a 112 combo to have in my apartment. I'd rather go solid state because this is just going to be a practice amp, I'm not going to be gigging with it or anything and I'm looking to get a tube half stack in the near future.

I've looked at the peavey vypr series and those seem to sound pretty good for their reasonable price. I'm a big fan of the peavey sound (especially since playing the JSX series heads multiple times in stores), Any suggestions though?

[tonemonster]

If you want my opinion, look into a VHT Special 6 ultra. YES, I know, its made in china. but its HAND WIRED!!!!! no PCBs. Its 6 watts, but it cranks, and it goes down to .5 watt if you want to play at low volumes. Its priced damn well, $329 for a combo. I mean come on, $329 for a hand wired tube amp? its a no brainer. Look into it. check out the vids on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqyENlWnZQY

I think you would be happier with this in the long run, tube is always better than SS. check out VHT.

[markD]

the carvin SX series amps are nice.

[data187]

look for a cheap vetta 2 combo. i had one and it was killer at any volume. the only draw back with all solid state/modeling amps is that it is not sensitive to guitar volume like a tube amp.

[groverj3]

the carvin SX series amps are nice.

I've heard good things about them. Is there enough gain that I won't need to boost it with a pedal? This old peavey transtube sounds really muffled and a little too bassy, I'm running a boss metalzone into it (yeah, not exactly the greatest sound in the world either) to get acceptable metal tone.

[groverj3]

I might add that this amp is going in my apartment so the volume has to be controllable and hopefully it won't sound like crap at a moderately low volume.

[Trussrod]

I have a Vypyr Tube 60. It sounds great at low volume.

[groverj3]

look for a cheap vetta 2 combo. i had one and it was killer at any volume. the only draw back with all solid state/modeling amps is that it is not sensitive to guitar volume like a tube amp.

Played one of those a while back. Don't remember if I liked it or not, its been quite a while. Keep the suggestions coming!

[data187]

not sure what type of music you play, but if you're into metal or hardrock, then the vetta is tough to beat for the price/convenience factor.
i found it better with humbuckers, not as good with single coils or p90s. it also doesn't do the mild tube breakup ala little wing, yellow ledbetter, etc sounds well.

[rjohnstone]

the carvin SX series amps are nice.

They're fantastic amps.
I run my GT-8 through two SX300 2x12 combos.
But they sound pretty damn good on their own.

[groverj3]

not sure what type of music you play, but if you're into metal or hardrock, then the vetta is tough to beat for the price/convenience factor.
i found it better with humbuckers, not as good with single coils or p90s. it also doesn't do the mild tube breakup ala little wing, yellow ledbetter, etc sounds well.

That wouldn't be a problem for me, my guitars are all double humbuckers. An old DXMG I'm putting blackouts in, an old mexi strat I put a dimarzio tonezone and air norton S in, my SLSXMG (on order), and of course my SL2H .

I play anything from classical to death metal. I've been into Dream Theater and Symphony X a lot recently, but I'm known to break out the Van Halen from time to time as well. Sounds like this or the Carvin SX. Only downside to the SX is only coming in 212 combos I believe. My current plan is to get a 112 practice amp and then in a year or so get a real tube head (Carvin V3, Peavey JSX or 3120... something like that).

Anyway, that was probably more information than you needed, haha.

[data187]

i would pick the vetta over the sx anyday.
the vetta has tons of sounds and is plenty loud for band practice.

i hate to sound like a vetta fanboy...lol

[Xyrium]

You don't need to go to high powered stacks to get decent tubes. The Blackstar HT5 is decent, as is the Egnater Tweaker. For a little more, you can pick up an Orange Rockerverb 1x12 combo. These are all 5-40W amps. The Egnater and Orange can certainly play small clubs, while the HT5 is probably ideal for practice, though it does get fairly loud. These are amps I've actually played and liked. However, I've heard good things about the Blackstar line of distortion pedals as well. So, you could do a cheap solid state and use the clean channel, when you want distortion, pop the pedal. Do a few youtube vids to hear some of this stuff.

I'm actually in a similar situation right now, in that I'm looking for alternative distortion pedal, or processors.

[Hellbat]

Get a digi 11 rack and some powered speakers. Free recording interface, great modelling, and you can use it as a rack effects unit with whatever head/cab you purchase. (Assuming the amp has a loop.)

[KingVee]

You could try to look around to try out a Randall RG75, either first or second (G2 series) generation. The first two gens had Celestion 70-80 speakers in 'em but were dropped in favor of in-house Randall speakers in the third (and last) generation. Obviously these are used, you should be looking at around 300$ max for these. If you're lucky, you can stumble on one that includes the original footswitch.

I'm not very knowledgeable as far as amps are concerned, but I like to recommend it. Works fucking awesome for me and it's got plenty of loud when you want to annoy the neighbours, TRUST ME. They easily hear me from across the boulevard.