ksdaddy Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 I'm not an amp swapper or hoarder. Well not much anyway. Traditionally I've had ONE amp and it was good enough. Aside from a little Chinese amp called a Muscle that I've had for 20 years or so, and the 1981 Harmony POS on the bench used for testing guitars (with swollen and flaking particle board cabinet), I basically have three. A 1974 Dual Showman Reverb head atop a 1969 Bassman 2-15 bottom (never gets used), a 1988 Peavey VTX Classic (my go-to amp), and a 1973 Ampeg GT-10 which is a good little dirty amp when cranked. It gets its nastiness naturally as opposed to being added artificially In my recent flips I picked up a little Squier SP-10 or some such. It's just a little baby thing with a 6 inch speaker, and I think it was part of one of those Fender boxes where you get the black Squier Strat and a tuner and amp and all the crap. It actually sounds good! I was surprised. I thought "if this thing had reverb I'd lug it everywhere!". So I'm halfway looking for a small easily portable amp with reverb. I know Fender makes a Frontman 25R. I've flipped a 25G and a 25B but never an "R". The street price on one of those is under $100 shipped. They used to make a 15R that only weighs like 14 lbs. I don't think it's made anymore. Nowadays it's like cheap small amps are the most inexpensive in history but most of them focus on the teen demographic and have a really crappy clean channel and an over the top distorted option (or channel). Not looking to replicate a '65 Deluxe Reverb on a $60 budget here, but I'm curious what people have found for little amps WITH reverb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidblast Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 Not sure if these will rock your world... but-- look at the Fender Mustangs... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Searcy Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 Look up the Vox Mini3. I does everything you want . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pauly Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 I'm pretty happy with the 25R. For the money ($99 shipped) I think it does quite well. The clean and dirty side serves my purposes just fine. Had it about a year and a half with no issues. Like you, I have bigger and much better amps but wanted a small easy to move practice amp that sounded good....for little money. The 25R did it for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZenKen Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 Another vote for the Mustang. I'd go for the II. I've had both the I and II but like to 12" speaker in the II over the 8" in the I. Great little practice amps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ksdaddy Posted March 25, 2013 Author Share Posted March 25, 2013 I looked at the features and video of the little Vox. That little turd does all kinds of stuff! I wouldn't have any use for the distorted settings but the clean ones are nice. And good soaky reverb. A 25R can be had for the same money and would also do what I want. Between those two it comes down to "how portable do I want to be?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
69tele Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 another vote for the mustang just looking at one actually for my brother. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbreslauer Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 +1 on the fender mustang amps. a lot of bang for the buck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitar dog Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 I like my 25R, not a big fan of th gain channel - sounds to artificial for my taste, but I like the clean with and without reverb. I bought a cheap fender footswitch to switch between clean and gain, easier than trying to find the little red button. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Versatile Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 The Roland Cube30 is a very usable small amp With a well respected clean channel... V Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidblast Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 KS-- so if you're just going for the clean tones, the Mustangs have some really good Twin and Deluxe tones. I've had an M-III for almost a year now, gets a lot of use, been rock solid and really has a lot of GREAT sounds. I urge you to at least take a look at them. Fender has just recently released a "version 2" (V2) that has some people saying sounds better than the V1, and they've corrected a few issues that were problematic with the V1s. So if you DO look that way - see that you are indeed looking at a V2 (easy to tell the difference... the V2 has the standard tolex covering, the V1 had a Carbon Fiber covering, as well as they changed to location of the control panel labeling, (V1 were behind the knobs, V2 are in front of the control knobs) it's worth the look man... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brc Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 I was at a store just about 3 months ago buying some strings, and saw a Crate practice amp with reverb for $65.00 new. Little thing works great for practice,stringing guitars, intonation and such. For that price I thought it was a good deal and snagged it up.It is the Crate MX15R. On another note, wish I would have know you were looking for a small amp, I have a couple of guitars for sale on E-Bay, and just threw in a Peavey practice amp in one of the sales as I had no use for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L5Larry Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 +1 on Roland Cubes. +2 I got my "spare" off craigslist for under $100. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lespaulj45 Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 been away for a while restoring my 66 Mustang-My family could not take my 2x12's anymore so I bought a little Epi tube amp, a Epi Valve Jr and it works good for me-doesnt cost much and sounds ok for what it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 I guess my question is more like, "What do you want it for?" I'm sold on, for what I do, my little Kustom 30-watt AE amp. Two separate channels so you can do a small solo gig with an archtop or flattop, and only haul the amp, guitar, mike and stand. Or... you could put the line out into a PA and use the amp as a monitor... or... I think it's still under $150. Mine's about 10 years old and still doing aok. It sounds surprisingly good plain, or with my Boss Leslie emulator or multi-effect box that I only use to thicken the sound a bit, add a wee bit of gain. KS, you've heard it on those old Youtube things I messed with. It has that line out that's good and easily interfaces mike and guitar easily into a computer if you have a USB converter from line. Earphone plug etc. Reverb and chorus. It's about 30 pounds. There's a fancier version with more effects. I put mine on a suitcase "haul to the airport" set of wheels/handle, put my Zoom 707II multi-effect box on top, then a wood holder for an electric strip... the open back carries an extension cord, etc.... It's still under 40 pounds. OTOH, if I were to get something else with more "how to sound like" options... probably a Mustang with at least a 10" speaker. It just doesn't work for that small solo gig. Larry even has me thinking about a Roland, though, for more clean jazz type sounds... m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ksdaddy Posted March 25, 2013 Author Share Posted March 25, 2013 Well Milod, it's fairly simple. I just want a 'grab n go' amp. I'm all set in the man cave with the bigger amps. I don't need to tweak and I don't have AAS. I just want a small amp WITH reverb and a decent clean tone. We're talking naked uncolored Tele here. Something I can toss in the car, take out in the garage or back yard... you get it. Doesn't need to be loud at all and any other features (aux input, USB port) is nice but not needed. I know there are a bunch of little practice amps nowadays in the $100 range but I'm not much of a shopper. If you turned me loose in a decent music store I'm sure I could walk out with something that would suit me just fine, but living where I live, that's not possible. In a perfect world I would own a Fender Champ (70s like) but with reverb. But then I'd be afraid to use it lest I put miles on it.... like my Dual Showman. One good thing about $100 Chinese amps is if they burst into flames you can toss them in the dumpster and buy another one. That makes it easier for me to actually USE it and not put a doily on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonzoboy Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 Hi KS Daddy,I give the Vox Mini-3 2 thumbs up too.I even used mine at a family jam/talent show at a family reunion in a fair sized church hall last summer.Its clean settings are great ad they emulate the blackface Twin,the '59 4-10 Bassman,the AC-15 and AC-30,plus 70s,80s and 90s Marshalls as well as 3 or 4 American high-powered amp models. I don't bother with the hi-gain models much and usually play through either the Twin or AC-30 setting or the designated "clean" setting.For less than $100,you can't go wrong. The Vox Pathfinder 15-R is one of the most tubelike solid state amps I've ever heard for both sound and performance. It also has a headphone out and a provision for an extension speaker.The 15-R has a tone much more like the tube Voxes than any other kind of amp plus the reverb and tremolo circuits are of top quality too.The 15-R only costs about $130 and a lot of times it goes on sale for considerably less. The Mustang amps are also quite versatile amps but I'm only familiar with them from reading reviews in magazines and owners comments which are very favourable in all cases. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Californiaman Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 Check out the Fender Blues Jr. Got's everything you need in a grab and go amp. Mustang's good too. But I'm partial to the Blues Jr. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonzoboy Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 There's another amp that I should've mentioned and that's the Vox VT-20,it has 20W of power plus 33 amp models that range from crystal clear to the heaviest metal crunch that you can imagine.The clean settings are the same as what you'd get from any high quality tube amp and the reverb and tremolo are sublime.Another great feature of this amp is that it has some of the most true to the original modulation settings that you can find in a modeling amp. The Leslie and Univibe models not only sound like the real McCoys but ramp up and slow down gradually like the real things.The chorus,vibrato,phaser and flanger settings are just about the best too along with about a dozen other effects models.The VT-20 also has several reverb/delay/echo types that really do the job almost as well as the most expensive digital delays.I gave an incredibly gifted 11 year old cousin one of these puppies several months ago and he still makes a beeline for it as soon as he gets home from school and every evening too.You can get optional foot controllers for them that really multiply the programming and settings possibilities as it has several factory custom sound presets and several user programmable settings too.I have tried them and was blown away by the fidelity of the sound,I have an older precursor to the VT series,the AD series which is superb and the VT series is even more user friendly,for only $170. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaysEpiphone Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 I'll chime in with the Marshall MG amp's, I had a very used MG30 a few years ago. Before it crapped out it was a nice amp for the money. It was an abused & used POS when I got it. Think I paid 50 bucks for it but I'm sure it was damaged when I got it. New one would have been cheaper to buy then fixing it so I gave it away. I'm sure if it had been properly taken care of it would have lasted a good while longer. http://www.marshallamps.com/product.asp?productId=129 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrosurfer1959 Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 there's so many out there right now I didn't even want one but picked up a Fender Pawn Shop Special Excelsior Pro - 13W 1x15 Tube amp - last week haven't even opened the box yet they were at a local store at a good price and I just loved what it looked like and couldn't pass it up. Always drawn to the Retro looking stuff guess that's where the nickname came from huh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdgm Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 In a perfect world I would own a Fender Champ (70s like) but with reverb. Look out for a red-knob Fender Champ, the Rivera designed one. Amazing, loud, 12" speaker, reverb and a drive channel too. Also you can get a Torres mod kit for them. They come up on ebay and are usually cheap. Regards! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidblast Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 there's so many out there right now I didn't even want one but picked up a Fender Pawn Shop Special Excelsior Pro - 13W 1x15 Tube amp - last week haven't even opened the box yet they were at a local store at a good price and I just loved what it looked like and couldn't pass it up. Always drawn to the Retro looking stuff guess that's where the nickname came from huh? While this is really a very cool little combo, the Excelsior does not have reverb, which was on of the primary "must haves" from KSDADDY post. (granted, lots of stomp boxes would suffice, but he maybe just looking to go straight in with no other cables, etc. - this is the biggest selling point for an amp like the Mustangs, or Valvtronixs. Amp, Guitar, Cable, plug in, rock out...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ksdaddy Posted March 28, 2013 Author Share Posted March 28, 2013 I stumbled upon a clean Frontman 25R in the back room of the pawn shop and ended up buying it for $60. It does what I want and I doubt I'll ever turn it up past 5. There may have been better choices but that one was there and jumped into my arms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChanMan Posted March 28, 2013 Share Posted March 28, 2013 I'll chime in with the Marshall MG amp's, I had a very used MG30 a few years ago. Before it crapped out it was a nice amp for the money. It was an abused & used POS when I got it. Think I paid 50 bucks for it but I'm sure it was damaged when I got it. New one would have been cheaper to buy then fixing it so I gave it away. I'm sure if it had been properly taken care of it would have lasted a good while longer. http://www.marshalla...p?productId=129 I had the MG 15 DFX. Great amp, for what it was. I'd say go ahead and pick up a Fender Champ on eBay. You'll love it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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