GOOD, vintage solid state amps for reasonable money?

[benecol]

Another vote for Award-Session from me: never played one myself, but the bloke who bought my strat off me absolutely swore by them, and made a living buying them up on eBay, cleaning them up and selling them on. Mos-fet rather than tubes, and they do some weird things - my memory's a little hazy, but something like you can plug two guitars into the same amp and have one per channel, and also you can cascade the amps, and build a big stack of them. Must admit, I'm tempted myself...

[blacktiger]

I'm in the UK. They seem to be a tad on the pricey side, like everything else, over here. I think obscure is the way to go...

Vox.

WEM.

Selmer.

[idiotbear]

Fuck. Missed out on the Award Session. Gonna keep an eye open for another one, though - they sound like great little amps, and obscure enough to be cheap. That said, someone's asking £200 for one right now on eBay. I'll keep waiting...

[ohm-men]

I always like those 2 x 12" Kustom amp's (the ones with the big EQ sliders) I played a few of them. Nice sound. Although perhaps a bit big?  But the usually don't fetch that much of money...

I only once played a Selmer head, though it was tube. Little thing with 2 channels and only vol-treble-bass...very nice....

[Surfoverb]

Fender 70

[Just A Dude 2o8]

i hear those roland jc-120s are supposed to be pretty good sounding..

[mjet]

Do you want a head or a combo? 1x12"? 2x12"?

I like H||H stuff too. Lots of it in the UK for good prices. If it's good enough for Daniel Ash, it's good enough for me. 

[cestlamort]

Acoustic amps are really quite good.  And can be had for nearly nothing.

I had a 2x10 that I really, really liked, which kept up with some old tube fender stuff.  Best $100 I'd spent up till that point.

I actually liked it better than the roland ones (JC120, JC120H) I had/borrowed.  (not counting the great chorus on the rolands)

[northern_dirt]

Acoustic amps are really quite good.  And can be had for nearly nothing.

I had a 2x10 that I really, really liked, which kept up with some old tube fender stuff.  Best $100 I'd spent up till that point.

I actually liked it better than the roland ones (JC120, JC120H) I had/borrowed.  (not counting the great chorus on the rolands)

I do see acoustic amps selling for a decent price.. I may have to check er out

[cestlamort]

I do see acoustic amps selling for a decent price.. I may have to check er out

I've only played the black / blue color scheme ones.  There are also brown/yellow/wheat super-ugly ones, too.

I think people believe they are for acoustic instruments or something...

[northern_dirt]

I do see acoustic amps selling for a decent price.. I may have to check er out

I've only played the black / blue color scheme ones.  There are also brown/yellow/wheat super-ugly ones, too.

I think people believe they are for acoustic instruments or something...

haha.. yeah ugly acoustic colours.. haha

[gutter rock]

Fender has actually had a few decent solid state amps if you are just looking for a good clean sound and add dirt with pedals.

The London Reverb has a beautiful clean sound and good grief that head is LOUD.

[mjet]

Fender has actually had a few decent solid state amps if you are just looking for a good clean sound and add dirt with pedals.

The London Reverb has a beautiful clean sound and good grief that head is LOUD.

I have a 1x12" London Reverb combo that I had to abandon in the US at a friend's place when I moved to Europe. Not being a player, I think it's being used as his tv stand at present. 

It's got a four-function footswitch - try and make sure you get one with the amp if you buy one or you'll never get one (odd 5-pin connector only used on it and one other amp from the same period). It controls channel, reverb, eq (5-band) and the effects loop.

[stevejamsecono]

kind of wanted to get this one back open again (given that I might need a new amp soon myself)
+1 on the Yamaha amps, I had the extreme pleasure of trying out a G100 115 (yummmmmy) today, and nearly bought it on the spot (they were asking $130 for it, a steal in my opinion) Lots of eq options, and definetly a good kill-proof platform for effects pedal usage.

Also has some cool Robby the Robot looks to it


even if my amp is fixable, I may still buy it based on principle. Good price, and hey, you always need a big clean machine... right?

-Steve