Which SS amp to buy ?

[BedroomMusic]

Hi all hi all . ^^
Long story short: currently I own " desktop amp " ( Yamaha THR ) and my playing is all thru it. And I kinda have plans to upgrade that amp in the near future.
I prefer future amp to be small, light, more focused on clean cause of pedal platform, and prefer it not to have tubes, cause I don't have money and will to maintain those. Amp is strictly for this whole bedroom musician stuff. So no gigs, recording with it, or anything like that. It is just to give sound basically.
Now , I have few questions: for now I mostly tried Marshall MG series , smaller models. And it's descent amp. Clean is usable, takes pedals well.
But I wanna try out few other stuff like Orange Crush 35 combo.
And if I go to head route: DV Mark has some heads on sale for 250 - 350 $ , depends on the model. Laney Foundry Ironheart Solid State head is also on 200$ in online store. Also if I go head route, those would be paired with Hughes Kettner TM110 / Celestion Ten 30 cabinet.
I already eliminated Hughes Kettner Spirit of Vintage head and like Roland JC 22 from my choices.
Now my questions: I really like that Marshall MG stuff, they always gave me that one when it comes to pedal testing, since I have pedalboard ... But my question is: if I go for example like: DV Mark Greg Howe head, which is like 350$ on its own, and with that H&K cabinet for 180$ , is that worth double the price of Orange Crush 35 for example, for 250$ , do I get quality jump and price difference is justified ? Hope you get my point.
Also: did anyone here try out DV Mark heads , how are they quality wise? Thanks.
But yeah , thanks for the help and thoughts, and sorry for long post and mess.

 

[synthpenguin]

I’m not sure where you’re located, so potential availability issues aside…

For a clean pedal platform that meets your criteria, I would seriously consider the Quilter stuff. I think their small Superblock US and Superblock UK units would be perfect for you (I lean towards the former, but since you mentioned liking Marshall, you might like the latter). They’re about 300USD new.

They sound great, take pedals very well, interact with a speaker in a very nice way, and are louder than their 25 watt rating suggests.

They are pedal amps (though you can mount them on a cab), so like the heads you will need a cab.

The Orange Crush amps are pretty nice though. But I do think the Quilters sound much, much better for cleans and have more range as pedal platforms. In this general price range (which knocks out some of the higher wattage Orange solid state options), I’d only consider the Oranges over the Quilters if I was wanting the Orange fuzzy overdriven sound. Otherwise, I think the Quilter + cab price difference is worth it. You will probably end up with a better speaker that way too.

I’m not familiar with the DV heads though, so I can’t speak on those or how they compare to the Quilter Superblocks. I did a quick search and it seems they are much higher wattage. Quilter does have full heads which are higher wattage too, though they’re much more expensive, so the DV might be a better choice in this price range if you need the wattage.

 

[BedroomMusic]

I was looking for a Quilter , but they discontinued 101 Reverb for European Union , which is a shame. But it is also tiny bit out of my price range, 600$ for head + 1x10 cab for 200$ , tiny bit too much for my current skill level.

I wanted to ask this also - since I'm more on a beginner side in terms of guitar playing, do I even really need like DV Mark head or will something more affordable do it for me ?

 

[synthpenguin]

I was looking for a Quilter , but they discontinued 101 Reverb for European Union , which is a shame. But it is also tiny bit out of my price range, 600$ for head + 1x10 cab for 200$ , tiny bit too much for my current skill level.

I wanted to ask this also - since I'm more on a beginner side in terms of guitar playing, do I even really need like DV Mark head or will something more affordable do it for me ?

Can you get the Superblocks? That’s more comparable in price and wattage to the Orange you mentioned etc

Could you link to which DV Mark head you’re looking at? A few different things come up when I search for that.

 

[BedroomMusic]

They are all same, I've read that DV Mark has same clean channel on all the heads , so it should be minimal difference.

This is from their current offer.

They want ~ 275 $ for Micro 50 head. And ~ 350 $ for Greg Howe one.

 

[synthpenguin]

They are all same, I've read that DV Mark has same clean channel on all the heads , so it should be minimal difference.

View attachment 52976​

This is from their current offer.

They want ~ 275 $ for Micro 50 head. And ~ 350 $ for Greg Howe one.

I guess there are two things to look at as far as what you need: wattage and other features.

For wattage, either of these is plenty for playing alone and for some band situations, though the latter depends a lot on the situation, band, and style. Playing with a larger band or a loud drummer, or a higher gain genre like metal (especially a style with, say, downtuned guitars), will require more wattage.

And with solid state, more wattage than you need is generally better because it gives you more headroom (a larger volume margin before clipping). Unlike tubes, solid state power amps don’t clip nicely, so you want to avoid that at all costs, and additional headroom helps prevent loud transients and bass from clipping it.

(fwiw the Quilter Superblock is rated as “25 tube equivalent watts”, which as I understand it basically means that it’s something like 50 watts but with half of that reserved for catching transients… or something like that. Either way, they’re about as loud as a Deluxe Reverb ime)

As far as features, the only notable things I see with both of these are the built-in reverb and the channels. I’m not sure about the reverb quality, but it’s always nice to have a touch of that if you don’t have a reverb pedal you like.

And having an overdriven / “lead” channel is cool in case you want to get some breakup from the amp. If you just want to use it as a pedal platform, that may not be relevant though, but you never know.

Oh, and the 50 watt one doesn’t seem to have an FX loop. This may not matter if you are just running the amp clean, but if you plan to use the overdriven channel on it, then that can be useful to run things like reverb pedals and delay pedals in so that they aren’t distorted (this is subjective though).

So, I’d *personally* lean Quilter if it’s an option just because I know how good those are. The DV ones are an unknown for me, but assuming they sound fine clean at least… I’d go for the 250 watt one if you think there’s any chance you’ll play live / with others as that extra headroom is very, very good to have (and the fx loop too!). If you don’t see that happening, and you don’t necessarily need the FX loop, the 50 watt one should be more than enough (and may even be enough for a band too… again, it just depends!)

PS: have you looked at any of the digital amp options like the Line 6 Catalyst and Boss Katana lines? Or even something like the Blackstar Amped pedal amps? People have differing opinions on how these sound, especially the Katana, but they can be great clean pedal platforms at the very least and are pretty affordable. It’s fine if you want analog, but just figured I’d mention them.

 

[BedroomMusic]

Well, even Marshall MG 15 is too loud for my room , my bedroom is like 2.5 meters by 3 meters. So it's pretty tiny.
I have modular already ( Yamaha THR ) ,... So Katana is out. But those are great amps. It's just , I don't need two modular amps.
Also I don't need FX loop. I run all pedals just in front to keep stuff more clean in terms of cable management.
Btw. playing with others is also out, I don't have plans for band and stuff, it's for pure bedroom musician thing.
I guess I will try out that Orange next time when I go to music store. And I'll try to try out DV Mark as soon as I get chance.

 

[synthpenguin]

(PS: remember that these wattage ratings are relative to specific speaker ohm ratings. e.g. the DV GH250 is only 250 watts when hooked up to a 4 ohm speaker; it’s down to 150 watts if hooked to an 8 ohm speaker. Or the Superblocks, which work with 4-16ohm speakers, but are only actually 25 watt output with an 8 ohm speaker)

 

[BedroomMusic]

H&K TM110 box is 8 ohm. But thanks for reminder. ^^

 

[synthpenguin]

No problem! Good luck! :)

 

[MindCrime]

Good Morning BedroomMusic...

May I suggest for your consideration the Tech 21 Trademark combo amps. The Trademark 10 or 30 to meet your requirements.
I have a Trademark 60 that I have had for about 10-11 years now. All the circuitry is mounted on a stainless steel chassis.
For me, this amp has been absoluetly flawless in it's performance ! Not 1 single issue.

But for your needs, please consider the Trademark 10 or Trademark 30...these are great little combos and are light weight too.

Good luck with your search....

 

[BedroomMusic]

That would be really hard to get in my part of the world ,... But thanks for the post. Tech 21 is great stuff, and I'm dying to try out their amps. It's just - South East Europe is hard to get some more unusual stuff. But thanks for the post about T21 stuff. Cool products. I remember looking those a long time ago so ... Nice day to u 2. :)

 

[GuitarBilly74]

The Hughes and Kettner Ampman Classic is pretty good for their price. It takes pedals well in the clean channel and the overdrive channel is great too. I have one here and I use as a backup at gigs and for home playing.

If you can spend more, the Bluguitar Amp1 is phenomenal. That's a legit pro amp that sounds good at any volume.

 

[maddnotez]

I would just buy a used Katana combo

 

[Snags]

If they're available in your area, and you're already keen on Marshall-esque things, the Laney Lionheart Foundry combos are worth checking out.

 

[sleewell]

i kinda wanna buy a SD powerstage 700

 

[maddnotez]

i kinda wanna buy a SD powerstage 700

My friend has one for his Helix, definitely works.

 

[Dave Lewis]

The Tube 15 or Tube 5 both can also be used as heads and also bought as Heads from Thomann in Germany and are great with pedals

 

[Dave Lewis]

 

[laxu]

Well, even Marshall MG 15 is too loud for my room , my bedroom is like 2.5 meters by 3 meters. So it's pretty tiny.
I have modular already ( Yamaha THR ) ,... So Katana is out. But those are great amps. It's just , I don't need two modular amps.
Also I don't need FX loop. I run all pedals just in front to keep stuff more clean in terms of cable management.
Btw. playing with others is also out, I don't have plans for band and stuff, it's for pure bedroom musician thing.
I guess I will try out that Orange next time when I go to music store. And I'll try to try out DV Mark as soon as I get chance.

Realistically any amp is going to be loud for your space, therefore it does not matter how powerful or not the amp is as long as it is adjustable to the volume level you need. This can be done either by a master volume amp, or just by reducing the level from your pedals.

I use the BluGuitar Amp 1 + BluGuitar Fatcab or Nanocab at home and it's 100W but I can easily turn it down to a whisper. I assume that's outside your budget, probably even used. But if not, it's a great option.

I think your budget would be best spent on the used market. I don't know what it looks like where you live but if you list some options available and your max budget, maybe we can give better suggestions.