That's true I bought a Crate in 1986 and was still playing gigs with it until last year. I still use it occasionally as a speaker.
yup. I've been a dealer several times in my life. 5 year warranty and even the repair of old ones is easily handled through SLM on the cheap. I'm not a fan of the sound myself, but for the money and considering his needs it would be the best choice. I'm saving up for a used Jim Kelley myself... ;~)
i think a fender should fit his needs based on those bands (especially radiohead & floyd). since he is still young, but has already owned a 'starter' amp, i wouldnt get something too basic, but you shouldnt need to spend more than $500. check craigslist.org everyday for a week or so and you will probably be able to find some good deals - i got a practically new princeton chorus for $75 (they go for about $450 new) - had it for 2 years now and still havent had any problems with it. like many others, my first amp was a crate. they are solid, but as mentioned, not the greatest for sound/tone. that would be fender, imo (for the under $500 range). if your son likes 'crunch' and distortion i would suggest a marshall, but based on the bands you mentioned i would go w/ a fender. better sound, imo. aside from the princeton chorus, i also own a 72 bassman, which is the best sounding amp ive ever played tone-wise, but the princeton is my "gigging" amp - much easier to carry around. EDIT: fenders also tend to hold their value better - especially if you can get a "vintage" amp. ive had my bassman for 10 years and if i sold it today i could easily make a profit.
while I love Fenders - anything you buy for 500 bucks is going to suck unless you manage to pick up the last of the bargains in a fender tube amp (which is a silverface Pro Reverb). There are very few new Fenders worth owning, in my opinion, and none of them are in that price range even if purchased used. There have been a few small tube combos that are ok, but unless you are micing them up and feeding them back through the monitors they will be useless for him. He'll eventually outgrow something like the crate and will probably pine for a nice Fender tube amp with nice effects - but you can get him to that point without spending the thousands of dollars that would require. by then he can buy his own damned amp... ;~)
I don't know about the love for Fenders. I bought a new amp this past year, Peavey Bandit, and tried a few Fenders. Since I was only looking at mid range of costs I didn't find the comparable Fenders that good. The Crates to me seemed as good if not better than the Fenders at the mid to low end of costs. Another problem with the mid range Fenders was that none of them had a line out. So far I have had no complaints about the Peavey Bandit and it delivers a pretty clean sound.
I hate to say it, but the Bandit is a pretty rockin' little amplifier. The distortion has that boxy sound that can be very tight sounding and a lot of fun to play with. I agree in regards to Fenders... Most of what they are making these days is pure garbage. The only thing that is amazing to me about them is the amount of reverb they are able to achieve with a tiny reverb pan and a deceptively simple reverb circuit. I had an amplifier that was built for me by a friend of mine who works on lots of high profile artists' amps and he tried his best to emulate that circuit but it isn't nearly as easy as it appears. That having been said - I love me a REAL Fender... Some of the best amplifiers I've ever owned have been Fenders. Namely: 1962 Bandmaster head and cabinet 1966 Blackface Super Reverb 60's Vibrolux Reverb Several Princetons (which are generally still my favorite - change out the baffle board and put in a 12" Jensen and look out) among others...
My apologies, HUGE MISTAKE,its a Ibanez ibz10a. I went up to his room just now and it looks like a typical teenage room. The amp looks pretty cheap but has lasted him awhile. Im going to see how much money the kid has saved up and pitch in the rest. I did this with a bass guitar he recently bought and he can play along with songs already. He now has two Acoustics, one electric and one bass and occasionally I find my acoustic in there. He says that he and some friends want to play together but I havent heard them play yet. Youve guys have some great ideas that I need to start looking into. He is out of town for a week so I may surprise the little knucklehead.
Wow all these 'players' on the bbs! I play unplugged or through a PA, but my son is the guitarist, for the money I would highly recommend the Vox Valvetronix at least 50W with the 2X12 The one my son plays sounds really good. He has had crate, fender, now the vox I was always fender, my son wants to spend $3000.00 on some outrageous Marshall set up, but until he gets out of school he is very happy with the Vox. I had trouble with the cheaper crates, I would recommend spending at least 400-500 on a crate to get the better one. (glad to hear someone really had one that lasted more than 2 yrs.) I think the Vox is around $500 BTW, I wish I would have kept my equipment from 30 yrs ago, would be worth alot.
I do agree that those Vox's sound pretty darnded good for the money. I knew a teacher who used one of the tiny combos for his teaching amp and that thing sounded amazing for a little solid state guy... I also agree that the cheaper Crates are garbage but that 400 or 500 bucks will get him something he can use with a drummer and get the type of gain he is probably going to desire. And rhester, I also wish I had your gear from 30 years ago...
One of the things the OP asked about was a headset, and typically you're not going to find a headphone jack on too many tube combos. Definitely not on most of the higher wattage ones that he'd use to play live (again, if he's being mic'd and going through a PA to compete with the bass/drums/etc., a smaller amp is ok and often more desirable) MB - If having your son play his amp with headphones is a priority, i'd look more seriously at either some of the solid state combos or the hybrid circuit (tube-solid state) combos out there. Other posters have mentioned a few manufacturers - Vox, Marshall, Crate, Peavey, Fender... they all make amps that fit into this range. They also often come with built-in effects (reverb, distortion, vibrato, delay, chorus, etc.) so you can skip out on buying all those expensive effects pedals he may want (for now). A drawback to these types of amps is that if something goes wrong with the all-in-one variety of amp, typically the whole amp doesn't work as well. If he likes having a lot of different sounds, the alternative is to get an inexpensive all-tube circuit amp... and just count on him gradually adding to the palette by getting new pedals. In some ways, it's better -- learning to play with no effects can improve your ear and technique... with loads of distortion or other effects, it's really easy to mask sloppy play. Also, if something goes wrong with the amp or one of the pedals, you can usually tell which component it is... and if it's not essential, you can play without it. The downside of this set-up is that over time, he's probably going to be spending more of his/your money.
I wish I had my gear from 30 years ago..... 1965 Stella parlor guitar 1969 Fender Esquire 1970 Fender Mustang 1976 Fender Stratocaster 1979 Alvarez Yairi 12 string I miss all 5 of 'em ...but I still have my 1954 Gretsch Electromatic Mine looks like this, only refinished in sunburst, and I don't own a tie-dyed sofa (bachelor black leather at mi casa, thankgyooverymush)
man, that era of Yairi 12 string has the nicest necks ever put on a 12 string acoustic. I've been after a good one for a long time...
If you're looking for a great deal on a used amp, look for an old Traynor. These were Canadian-built amps in the 60s and 70s that were modeled after Fender amps and are considered some of the toughest, most reliable amps ever made (apparently, Mr. Traynor used to test them by dropping them out of a 2nd story window). They're all tube, wired point-to-point (rather than using circuit boards), which makes them very easy to work on, and can be modded if your son's tone tastes change in the future. And they're loud. You can find a YBA-1(or its 2nd generation cousin, the YBA-1A) for around $400-500 (sometimes less if you look hard enough). They also made a lower wattage combo - the YGM-1 and YGM2 Guitar Mates - which are great sounding as well. There's one on ebay right now actually.
Yup. It was solid as a rock, and it had a nice ringing jangly tone also. I wish I still had all of the ones I listed.
that's not a bad idea, and the money you will save can be stashed away for all of the back problems he'll have later in life from lugging that thing around! ;~)
pawn shop is a good option. write down the model and search in the database @ www.harmony-central.com you will see prices other people paid for. just test out the amp and guitar at the pawn shop if you can. otherwise, crate amps are cheap. don't buy any expensive stuff unless he is dedicated. otherwise, you'll end up selling them in the future.
I use an ampeg for my bass amp and it's really good for its price of $350 (@ guitar center). However I'm not sure if ampeg make amps for a normal guitar. My band uses Fenders for their guitar and thus far it works pretty decent. Not great, but decent.
Ampeg does make guitar amps... some still sound fairly nice (in particular, the old 60s combos with reverb and/or echo -- Reverbrockets, I think... are appreciating nicely).
