Looking for advice on an amp for pub gigs

[dern]

Hello.

I currently have a Laney Lionheart L5T amp for playing on at home which I love to bits and I'm just getting to the stage where I feel confident in my playing enough to try and get a band together with mates just to do pub gigs, that kind of thing. I know I can mic up what I have through a PA but if we assume that that won't be an option I'm looking for a combo I can use. It'll make practicing easier.

I've no particular sound in mind that I'm after but anything that's suitable for blues type stuff will be the way I'd want to go rather than anything high gain. Ideally around the £800 mark or less but more than happy to go second hand so it doesn't need to be new at that price.

Don't need any effects but would prefer something with a reverb.

I would really prefer an all valve amp. I've had a couple and much prefer the sound. Any idea what sort of power I'd need in a pub with a drummer? Can I get away with 15 or 20w?

Thanks,

Mark

[framerateuk]

I can't help with the amp choice, but I wouldn't worry too much about power.

I used to do band practices with a 5w Blackstar HT5 and still had plenty of volume over a 6 piece band including a saxophonist and additional percussionist (as well as the singer, drummer and bassist!).

What you do need the additional wattage for though is having enough headroom to keep your clean tone clean without the power valves starting to break up. I would have thought 15w to 20w would be absolutely fine for that.

[kev b]

Our guitarist uses a Vox VT30, it is plenty loud enough, has useful effects when using the controller pedal and sounds pretty good possibly due to having a real valve in the circuit.

Not too big heavy or expensive either. HTH

[SWoll]

If you don't mind solid state then the Fender Mustang III V2 comes in well under budget (£230), has plenty of power for your needs and the fender amp models (with reverb) are very good for clean and bluesy tones.

If you're looking for something of higher quality and tube based I'd probably look at the Fender Blues Junior III (£450) or Hot Rod Deluxe III (£600) dependent on how much power you need.

[davidd]

Blackstar ht20 should be worth a look. I have a 40 and it is a great bit of kit if a little loud for pubs.

[dern]

Thanks very much for all the suggestions and I'm glad that 15/20W should be plenty as it gives me a lot of choice.

I'm not that keen on a solid state amp. I know there's not a lot in it and you get loads of extra features for your money but I'm not keen on the sound.

Has anyone got any experience of Egnater amps? There's a rebel 20 hald stack advertised near me that has perked my interest.

Cheers,

Mark

[davidd]

I also have a Hughes and Kettner Tubemeister 18W combo which is a fantastic little amp. The only issue is that our drummer is very loud and so it ran out of clean headroom when I had to keep up with the drums.

[conkerman]

How about the blackstar ID30 or 60?

Much less weight to lug about.

[Tom_C76]

As David says, watch the clean headroom if you're playing blues stuff. I've got a Laney Cub 12, which is 15W with an upgrade to a Celestion V30 speaker. I played a gig with a relatively quiet drummer and it was OK, but never less than crunchy as the power amp was overdriving slightly. Without the upgrade speaker it wouldn't cope at all.

With my own band I prefer the dynamics and compression of a bigger amp (Marshall 1987X into a 4x12), but used an old Marshall JTM30 2x10 as a second amp at our last gig. That was loud enough in a village hall with 50 people there, clean and chiming nicely with the master about half way up. Could still make it crunchy easily enough though.

[Justin Cyder]

I'm not much of a tonehound with amps & live I stick it through a cheapy Fender frontman 220 & it sounds great. Two channels, fx loop, two stage overdrive built in & I can chuck it in & out of vans. I do like a good valve amp as much as the next chap but I also like resilience & that Fender shrugs off all kinds of abuse.

The drummer lives in fear of it too.

[Tom_C76]

We had a bassist quit because he was frightened off by my 1987X, but it has now got a master volume mod.

[dern]

Played on a line 6 amp at the weekend while buying an Ibanez for my daughter and a couple of surprises... I've never had an ibanez and I'm surprised how good they are. I look at my fenders that cost 3 times as much and wonder why frankly.

Anyway, the line 6 amp I played on was the Line 6 DT25 112 combo. Looked at it and immediately the snob in me thought it would be bks. Wrong, it was absolutely superb... lovely sounding amp is so many different ways.

Sadly the guy who was supposed to come and buy my old amp (very old Park) didn't bother otherwise I'd have bought the line 6 on the spot. Awesome amp.

Cheers,

Mark