What are your favorite small/medium solid state amps?

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Re: What are your favorite small/medium solid state amps?

Post by HNB » Fri Apr 20, 2018 8:39 am

Marshall Master Reverb 30
Fender Eighty-Five
Vox Pathfinder 15R
Fender Sidekick Reverb 20
Fender Sidekick 10
Christopher
Lilith Guitars

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Re: What are your favorite small/medium solid state amps?

Post by Con-Tiki! » Fri Apr 20, 2018 1:39 pm

another vote for the 15r
(Christopher, also)
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Re: What are your favorite small/medium solid state amps?

Post by sessylU » Sat Apr 21, 2018 6:32 am

JazzBlaster wrote:
Fri Apr 20, 2018 8:05 am
sessylU wrote:
Tue Apr 17, 2018 2:25 pm
Not a sexy answer, but Roland Cube. Maybe not brilliant, but far better than you deserve for the money etc.
+1

I bought one when I was really poor because it was cheap. I still have it 10 years later, I have a 60 and an 80. The tweed and blackface sounds are awesome. It's my grab and go jam amp when I don't feel like packing everything up.
I think I've mentioned this before but I used to gig a lot with one (gigging in a different city to where I lived) and it always sounded great live too. Soundmen love them, and making the soundman's life easier is probably the most important part of good tone (despite how much fun we all have trying to get mojotones from fancy gear).
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Re: What are your favorite small/medium solid state amps?

Post by Telliot » Sat Apr 21, 2018 6:56 am

Con-Tiki! wrote:
Fri Apr 20, 2018 1:39 pm
another vote for the 15r
Yup.
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Re: What are your favorite small/medium solid state amps?

Post by Maggieo » Sat Apr 21, 2018 8:34 am

Peavey Bandits, Tech 21 30 & 60, ZT Lunchbox.
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Re: What are your favorite small/medium solid state amps?

Post by mackerelmint » Sat Apr 21, 2018 1:35 pm

Oh, good call on those Tech 21 amps. They make fantastic stuff, no question about it.

Jane Wiedlin's been playing ZT lunchboxes on tour with her new band Elettrodomestico. I still haven't played one!
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Re: What are your favorite small/medium solid state amps?

Post by Maggieo » Sun Apr 22, 2018 9:36 am

mackerelmint wrote:
Sat Apr 21, 2018 1:35 pm
Oh, good call on those Tech 21 amps. They make fantastic stuff, no question about it.

Jane Wiedlin's been playing ZT lunchboxes on tour with her new band Elettrodomestico. I still haven't played one!
I saw a vid where Nels and Julian Lage were both using Lunchboxes, too.
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Re: What are your favorite small/medium solid state amps?

Post by aliendawg » Wed Apr 25, 2018 12:06 pm

wow! why so many good things about the pathfinder 15r? I'm currently looking for a small amp but didn't think people would recommend this one since they're like an entry level amp.

Well... now I'm considering it! Does it sound good with Jags?
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Re: What are your favorite small/medium solid state amps?

Post by mackerelmint » Wed Apr 25, 2018 10:49 pm

Well, I haven't played one with a jag, so I can't honestly tell you yes, but... they sound good with anything. The stock 8" speaker sounds damn good, and if you run it into an external cab, it sounds even better. Honestly, I think they flatter any guitar you put through them, since that's been the case in my own experience. They take effects well, too. Really, they're just fantastic little amps dressed up as entry level crap. A real gem.
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Re: What are your favorite small/medium solid state amps?

Post by Sauerkraut » Tue May 01, 2018 12:04 pm

sessylU wrote:
Sat Apr 21, 2018 6:32 am
JazzBlaster wrote:
Fri Apr 20, 2018 8:05 am
sessylU wrote:
Tue Apr 17, 2018 2:25 pm
Not a sexy answer, but Roland Cube. Maybe not brilliant, but far better than you deserve for the money etc.
+1

I bought one when I was really poor because it was cheap. I still have it 10 years later, I have a 60 and an 80. The tweed and blackface sounds are awesome. It's my grab and go jam amp when I don't feel like packing everything up.
I think I've mentioned this before but I used to gig a lot with one (gigging in a different city to where I lived) and it always sounded great live too. Soundmen love them, and making the soundman's life easier is probably the most important part of good tone (despite how much fun we all have trying to get mojotones from fancy gear).
+1

I have a Cube 30, it's a cheap but great practice amp and it's even loud and good enough for small shows

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Re: What are your favorite small/medium solid state amps?

Post by Sauerkraut » Tue May 01, 2018 12:04 pm

sessylU wrote:
Sat Apr 21, 2018 6:32 am
JazzBlaster wrote:
Fri Apr 20, 2018 8:05 am
sessylU wrote:
Tue Apr 17, 2018 2:25 pm
Not a sexy answer, but Roland Cube. Maybe not brilliant, but far better than you deserve for the money etc.
+1

I bought one when I was really poor because it was cheap. I still have it 10 years later, I have a 60 and an 80. The tweed and blackface sounds are awesome. It's my grab and go jam amp when I don't feel like packing everything up.
I think I've mentioned this before but I used to gig a lot with one (gigging in a different city to where I lived) and it always sounded great live too. Soundmen love them, and making the soundman's life easier is probably the most important part of good tone (despite how much fun we all have trying to get mojotones from fancy gear).
+1

I have a Cube 30, it's a cheap but great practice amp and it's even loud and good enough for small shows

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Re: What are your favorite small/medium solid state amps?

Post by mike45 » Wed May 02, 2018 1:23 am

PCL Stagemaster 30 or Stagemaster 60

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Re: What are your favorite small/medium solid state amps?

Post by solfege » Wed May 02, 2018 6:04 am

mackerelmint wrote:
Sat Apr 21, 2018 1:35 pm
Oh, good call on those Tech 21 amps. They make fantastic stuff, no question about it.

Jane Wiedlin's been playing ZT lunchboxes on tour with her new band Elettrodomestico. I still haven't played one!
Have a friend who's a bit of a local legend who played a solo show with one of the bigger ZTs last fall. Sounded really great and when I talked to him about it afterward, he just raved about the thing. I'm very intrigued by one of those.

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Re: What are your favorite small/medium solid state amps?

Post by skink » Fri May 04, 2018 5:33 am

After some reading here and elsewhere, I picked up a Vox Pathfinder 15R. Have to say I'm really impressed with it. Kind of surprised by its versatility, actually. I can't say it does any one or two things extremely well, but it does a lot of things very well. It has limitations, but what amp doesn't? Would like to try it through an ext cab at some point. But it's certainly a great value and extremely useful to have around. I think it's a really nice complement to my PRRI and GA-6. Glad I got it.

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Re: What are your favorite small/medium solid state amps?

Post by rumfoord » Fri May 04, 2018 9:31 am

^^ Sweet!

My personal requirement (especially for small amps) is that I think it probably sounds better than all kinds of other amps---even if in an actual AB test it doesn't come close to winning.
"This amp sounds great! I can't believe it only has an 8" speaker!!"
*does AB test*
"Oh, no, jeez, totally. That sounds waaay better through a different cab. Nevermind."

I just recently bought a cheap 10" PA speaker and threw it in my first amp. About 10 years ago now, after playing only acoustic for 10 years before that, my first amp was a used Behringer GM110---a copy of a Tech 21 Trademark 30. It was a pretty decent first amp, and only $60. I wound up blowing a speaker in another amp that I was going to sell anyway, and I decided to just rip out the speaker from the GM110. So it sat unused for a long time.

I'm really surprised that it sounds kind of great in this configuration. With my baritone guitar or bass, it can be really touch sensitive but still a nice amount of compressed and also pretty tight bass. I'm loving it. This amp with guitar is better with this speaker (and pretty good for SS, and pretty great for the price), but still something kind of...missing? A really great amp will make me want to just keep playing and playing and playing, or just strum open strings. But this amp on guitar (and most solid state amps IME) makes you feel more like, "ok. fine, that's enough". I guess this is my other test for amps.

Also, a few years ago, I picked up a speakerless Yamaha G50-112 for free (!!, but also a missing reverb tank and scratchy pots), and my assessment is that: it's true what they say about it. It's great. A joy to play. Nice cleans. Reacts a lot more like a tube amp than seems reasonable to me.

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