Amp virgin- What do I buy for dreamy sound?

[cestlamort]

don't forget about the roland jc-120 (or variation thereof: jc77, jc90, jc60, etc).  solid state but okay reverb and AMAZING chorus. 

For playing in clubs now, there is really no way you'd need anything over 50-60 watts in a tube amp.  For fenders, also check out the 80s tube amps (concert, II models, 75) as they are even cheaper than the silverface ones (but much rarer).  A pro reverb is a lower wattage twin, too. 

It all depends on your budget.  For shoegaze stuff, you'll probably want a fair number of pedals, too, so factor that in.  (cheap hint: Slowdive used the yamaha fx500, which can go for $40-50 and has great chorus and reverbs, but terrible distortion.)

I'd guess a giggable amp will run from about $250-300 up to as much as you're willing to part with.  Again, check out a roland jazz chorus, as they pop up on craigslist for as little as $250 sometimes. 

[mezcalhead]

Bear in mind that if you've just heard your ideal sound and it's a Jag HH through a Marshall stack .. well a single-coil JM through a Fender is going to sound different (still good, just different).

I don't think of any one kind of amp as a "shoegaze" amp particularly, there are lots of examples of all kinds of amps being used - Marshall, Vox, Fender, Hiwatt, solid state amps - also lots of different pedals. To be honest the sound you're thinking of may well be more to do with pedals than the amp, especially if your role models are bands like Cocteau Twins or Slowdive that use a lot of delay/chorus/reverb.

Anyway, because a lot of the gear that was around in the early 90s is out of fashion now, you can find the stuff that the old shoegaze bands used fairly cheaply. I just bought an old Alesis Quadraverb for under £40 for example, and the Nanoverb (do a search for the thread in our effects section) is great too and even cheaper. I also picked up recently a Boss HM-2 (£10) just to check it out and it does a cool wall of noise. So with those and any amp with enough headroom you're in business. An old SF Twin Reverb would do it as øøøøøøø says, or there are plenty of good solid state amps that can be had even cheaper.

If I was starting from scratch with a shoegaze band that's the way I'd go: jazzmaster, a couple of cheap fuzz stompboxes or possibly a Marshall JMP-1 preamp, a Quadraverb and/or a Yamaha SPX-90, a loud clean cheap SS head and a couple of sturdy speaker cabs.

[fripp]

don't forget about the roland jc-120 (or variation thereof: jc77, jc90, jc60, etc).  solid state but okay reverb and AMAZING chorus. 

+1... any Roland JC series will be great for shoegaze. I  JC-120s 

If I was starting from scratch with a shoegaze band that's the way I'd go: jazzmaster, a couple of cheap fuzz stompboxes or possibly a Marshall JMP-1 preamp, a Quadraverb and/or a Yamaha SPX-90, a loud clean cheap SS head and a couple of sturdy speaker cabs.

+1... also, if you may want to consider a SS bass amp.

[wooderson]

In any case, you can turn a twin up to 3 or 4 without it being too terribly loud (about right, in that range if not a little higher, for your average band performance) and it certainly won't sound "pinched" on 3 or 4.

Right, but what I referred to initially was recording and playing at home, not in a band situation. The original post didn't specify whether this was for gigging or primarily recording, and the clips sound like a solo project, so I commented on the latter.

[Papajerry]

Look for a vintage tube amp like ampeg sano ect.