I've been playing guitar a little over a year, and was thinking of upgrading my digital head (Spider II) for a tube amp. Thing is, I don't have a whole lot of money. I'm planning to go try some out this weekend, but wanted to hear some suggestions so I can read some reviews, and hit those up first. Basically looking for a cheap, quality tube head.

I play mostly Progressive/Power metal, and a bit of Thrash.

And while I'm here, I had a question about cabs and ohms. I'm currently using a 16ohm stereo ( ), but get a much better sound out of my friend's 8ohm (not sure if its stereo or mono). Is it the cabs themselves, or the ohms, or the stereo/mono that's giving the different tones? Is there anyway to modify mine to give a similar tone without having to pay to rewire it (like, a cable solution or something)? What do you suggest I check out to go with my new tube head? Brand and ohm please.

Again, I'll be trying these out before I buy, but I wanted to go in with some suggestions.

Thanks.

do you need cleans? if no, get a peavey 5150/6505

if you DO need cleans, peavey XXX, or JSX

if you do a trade in, you can take alot of money off and get more expensive options like marshalls

oh and line6 cabs sound like shit, ditch that motherfucker. trust me, i know, i have one
just do it like me, trade the whole stack of shit in for a new amp and cab.

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Uh, JSX heads cost way more than your average Marshall DSL/TSL or JCM800/900. He plays prog/power metal, I don't think he would like the glassiness of something like a 5150.

I don't think anyone is willing to trade good gear for a Line 6 head man.

It really depends how much you're going to have to spend.

My personal suggestions:
Engl Fireball(because I own one ) - 1200$, not much less used.
Crate Blue Voodoo 60/100/120/150 - Somewhere between 400-800$ used(you probably want this)
Marshall JCM 900 or 800 - 500 - 800$ used.

As for cabs:
Framus 4x12 - 500$ new.
Marshall 1960A - Fuck I don't know, but probably very cheap used.
Any Avatar cabinet (www.avatarcabs.com)
If you need assloads of headroom, a Vader 4x12 - 500-600$.

Thanks for the suggestions. Looks like I need to find me a job.

Didn't want to make a new thread for this, but what would you all recommend as a practice amp? Been needing one of those too.

all the stores i know will trade it. They dont really care. If they can get an amp just by taking say 500$ off the price of another, they'll do it. My current trade is going in on a tsl 100

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Why does everyone say 5150's have no clean channel? i have played one and I got beautiful cleans on out it.


Also, if you don't need a clean channel at all, I recommend a Peavey VTM 120. 200 bucks for a loud ass amp with mad distortion.

Theres an explanation for that, you're crazy. Turn it up to gigging volume and no matter what you do, it will distort. Then, compare the clean to another tube amp... like a fender or a marshall... or an orange, THEN tell me the cleans are beautiful. 5150 is not built for cleans, its built for super high gain at lower volumes. Therefore that leads to the clean channel to be very thin and tinny sounding at low volumes, and the solution to put fatness into cleans is to put more power into the power tubes, and since it has such high gain, the power tubes break up and you get distortion. So, for the cleans to be clean, they have to sound like crap. full stop.

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I thought the cleans of the 5150 I played out of sounded fucking great.

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get a blue voodoo. i got a 120w one for $299 used at a music store. you can easily find one for that price, maybe cheaper. your ears will thank you.

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the 5150's cleans are usuable. nothing great imo. but even at gigging volumes they're just fine to me. the 5150 II's especially, having the independant eq and less gain.

your guitar and pickups will have a huge impact of course.

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Dudes, the clean on a 5150 sounds just fine to me...
this is a video clip of me playing out of a 5150 at gig volume. it sounds clean as fuck to me!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU0TrQBNqSY

THIS IS NOT ME PROMOTING MY BAND! especially since we didn't do very well in this video..

sorry for gettin' off subject :P

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