Best amp for $1200

[Racerx2k]

Marshall DSL 50 watt. Great sounding amp.

[jgcable]

Marshall DSL 50 watt. Great sounding amp.

I agree.

[kmanick]

I'd go JSX like Pete suggested.
I own a B-52 At 212 combo. I run it through a Marshall cab with an EQ in the loop and thru a hotplate, and I think it sounds great, it's also pretty versatile, the clean is sweet too, however, my amp never moves, If I was in a band gigging this wouldn't be my first choice, just because I don't know how really realiable it would be. Initially they had some serious QC issues but it looks like they 've got their shit together now. It's also not organic sounding at all, so if you need to get a good bluesy tone forget about it, it's voiced very similar to a dual rect, it's much better suited to more "modern" metal tones.
I get a much better "Marshall" type of sound or bluesy sound out of my 5150 combo.
I'd go JSX if you want tube or the DSL 50 watt, or a Vetta if you don't care.

[Shawn Lutz]

I always say its your money so head on out there and and you use YOUR ears to satisfy yourself Play as many amps as you can get you hands on and let your ears do the talking Only thing I'd nix on your requirement would be reverb. A lot of amps dont have them because its easy to get elsewhere.

These may or may not meet your critera but each of these I bought were all <$1200. VHT 50CL w/EQ+Reverb, Splawn QR and Mesa/Boogie DC5 widebody combo.

[Eric_kv2]

Check out a carvin v3, seriously. It has a built in device that is like a sonic maximizer and will also give you endless sustain. It has a great amount of gain as well. It is a very versitile amp, but if you must have reverb then skip this post. It meets all of the other criteria though.

[Spivonious]

Guitar Center near me has a DSL combo (i think dsl40?) for $400. It's really beat up and sounds like it needs tubes. Is it worth the money? If it does turn out to not be the tubes, there is the 30 day money back guarantee.

[kmanick]

I'd stay away a from the DSL40, they had serious overheating issues, plus
they are pretty one dimensioanl sounding. I used to have the DSL 20 (20 watt version) and it was an ok amp but you really only get one type of tone out of it. It's much more of a classic rock sounding amp, for get aobut anything "modern High gain" sounding it just doesn't do it.
for $400.00 I'd look for a used 5150 combo instead.

[Spivonious]

Okay, I'm heading out to a few stores today. Wish me luck! And thanks to all for the suggestions.

[Spivonious]

Okay, here's what I played today. It did make me rethink what I want to get.

Peavey JSX - not what I'm looking for. Cleans were nice, overdrive had lots of gain but was very loose. Also this amp was very buzzy.
Peavey 5150 - essentially the JSX with more mids and less definition.
Marshall TSL60 - sounded like a solid-state preamp through a tube power amp. Also, not awhole lot of gain.
Marshall DSL401 - see the TSL
Mesa F-30 - very tight and punchy. Was a whole lot louder than I thought it would be. I don't think I liked the overdrive on it though...it sounded a bit muffled..might have been the 1x12 though.
Mesa Stiletto Ace - very nice, but out of my price range Sounded like the Peaveys but with the tightness of the F-30 and without the super buzzy high end.
Ampeg VL1002 - Amazing! This is from the Lee Jackson line and had everything I wanted. The cleans could have been a bit better, but they were good enough. The overdrive channel was amazing! I especially liked the "Frequency" selector, which was essentially a Contour knob, but it had 5 settings. Perfect Cowboys from Hell "tone" with the amp super scooped, and with a flip of the Frequency selector it became very midsy and punchy. Best of all, it was only $500. The head is 100W but had an attenuator built-in, so it still sounded good at lower volumes. I think if I can find a 50W version of this I would be in amp heaven.

So in the end I didn't get anything, but I will definitely think seriously about the Ampeg.

[Racerx2k]

Yeah, I dig the Ampegs, too. Nice amps, if you can scoop one up.

[Firebird V]

Those Ampegs had Tranny problems. They do sound good though. I have owned a few amps done by Lee. If you buy the Ampeg just be aware that quite a few had bad transformer problems. The Lee Jackson heads can be had for around the same price and are have a much better build qaulity.

[jgcable]

"Peavey 5150 - essentially the JSX with more mids and less definition.
Marshall TSL60 - sounded like a solid-state preamp through a tube power amp. Also, not awhole lot of gain".

Not to my ears!!

[MEX3]

Check out a Rivera KR 100 if you can.

[Mickey_C]

Marshall... {snip my original advice}

EDIT: SCRATCH THE OBVIOUS!

The Gibson Super Goldtone amps have been dropping on the bay lately - two 12 combos, with great channel switch features, serial/parallel fx, and you can tube them with pretty much any octal power tube you want.

I just checked the bay, there's a nice one there for 900.00.

[Twisteramps]

"Peavey 5150 - essentially the JSX with more mids and less definition.
Marshall TSL60 - sounded like a solid-state preamp through a tube power amp. Also, not awhole lot of gain".

Not to my ears!!

+ a kazillion. The JSX has an active EQ, I don't think the 5150's do. One bad thing about some amps like Mesa Mark series, the Vetta, JSX/XXX, etc is that the standard 'guitar center' settings sound like shit.

I'm guessing that the person who tried the amps out cranked the gain, ran the masters low, probably dimed the resonance and presence, scooped the mids and ran bass and treble high too.



Pete