A not well loved amp that I thought was pretty good would be the Music Man 112 it is small and 60 watts. Has a tube amp but a solid state preamp. It is slightly larger than a practice amp so it does not take up much room. They are not collector stuff so you might get a deal. I found them good when size was a issue.

Peavy had a 112 that was 100 watts all tube in the early 80's that sounds great it is heavy though, Lou Reed used them for a while. Nice sound.

Big John wrote:A not well loved amp that I thought was pretty good would be the Music Man 112 it is small and 60 watts. Has a tube amp but a solid state preamp. It is slightly larger than a practice amp so it does not take up much room. They are not collector stuff so you might get a deal. I found them good when size was a issue.

A friend in the band Giant Haystacks has a Music Man 2-10 combo. It sound great for his gang of Four and Minutemen esque tones. Plus his whole rig is one guitar, and one fairly tiny combo amp. that's one easy trip from the car for a gig. I envy him.

Ben Adrian

Well, everybody's got their own ideas about what sounds good, what is light enough, and what is loud enough. It's still pretty hard to say what's gonna be the right thing for you.

I've owned several combo amps, all of which I can tell you something about.

The first was a Seymour Duncan 8440, which I never got to sound very good. 4 x EL84 output tubes @ about 40W, 1 x12" speaker, reverb. I kinda wish I had it back, now that I know about amps. I could poke around inside it and see if there was something funky going on, or if it was just a crummy amp.

Then I had a '65 Twin Reissue, the one that Gio has now. 4 x 6L6 output tubes @ about 80W, 2 x 12" speakers, reverb and tremolo. That's a great amp. It's loud and clean, and it takes distortion pedals alright, provided that you're letting the distortion pedal generate the tone, rather than relying on the pedal to overdrive the input of the amp. I like that amp a lot, but it's primarily good for clean moreso than distortion, I think. Also, it is one of the heaviest combo amps you're gonna run into, so it's not the most portable.

Next I got a mid 60's Ampeg Reverberocket, which I still have. 2 x 7591A output tubes @ about 12W, 1 x 12" speaker, reverb and tremolo. That's a *great* little amp, and is super-light and super-portable. It's great for getting an oldschool sound, and the way it breaks up is pretty cool. You don't stand a chance of it being able to stand up to an average or loud rock band in terms of volume. Forget it! Great sounding reverb on that amp, and it goes from clean to dirty really nicely, in a low-volume setting. I bought a second one of this amp for use in a stereo setup. After a while I traded the second one for a '74 SG Special.

Next combo is a Laney VC30. 4 x EL84 output tubes @ about 30W, 1 x 12" speaker, reverb. I also bought a second one of these a while back, and am actually selling the second one now to make room for other stuff. It's some sort of a Vox AC30 clone amp... the thing this amp does really well, I think, is to go from clean to dirty, all at one setting, based on touch sensitivity. It's got a great clean tone that breaks up when you wail on it. It's a channel switching amp, but I find I don't like the second channel's distortion as much as just wailing on the clean channel. The second channel can be set for a more thick distortion sound, though I prefer to use a pedal if I need that much distortion. I wouldn't characterize this amp as super-portable like the Reverberocket, nor would I characterize it as murderously heavy like the Twin... it's portable, but still pretty heavy.

Then I had a Traynor TS100 that I recently sold to forum member Tree. It's solid state, 120W with 2 x 12" speakers, reverb. It's a great amp that can do a whole range of sounds from quiet and clean to quiet and distorted, to loud and clean or loud and distorted. It's great for bass also, and has that same "tri-comp network" solid state preamp that the TS-50 has... It's not off the charts heavy, but it's not all that light, either. I wanna say when I shipped it, it was something like 60 lbs, somewhere right around there. Great amp that I will certainly miss. Can get *very loud*.

I have a Traynor YCV40, which is one of the newer, current production models. It's got 2 x 5881 output tubes @ 40W, with 1 x 12" speaker, reverb. The best things about this amp, to me, are that it's a channel switcher that has separate EQ controls for the clean and dirty channels, the dirty channel can get really, really dirty, and it has a DC voltage supply to the first two preamp tube filaments, for quieter operation. If you're looking to get into your first guitar amp, this would be a fine choice. It can get loud for rocking with the band, it can get quiet for playing at home, it's reasonably light and portable, it's got reverb, all that good stuff. The one I have, I really only bought so I could get to know the new Traynor stuff, to see how it stacks up to the old stuff. I got a super deal on it on eBay, so I knew I could turn around and sell it the next day for at least what I paid for it, and probably more. Right now it's on the "donating it to an afterschool program at some point" list for me, though. You might actually like the YCV50 or YCV80 better, what with them being louder. I dunno about the weight of those, though I'll assume it's more.

The most recent combo amp I got is a '79 Hiwatt Custom 100 (FL-112). 4 x EL34 output tubes @ 100W, 1 x 12" speaker. It's heavy as hell, with gigantic transformers and a really heavy speaker magnet (100W RMS into one speaker)... this amp has a beautiful clean sound, and I'm still not satisfied that I'm getting the most out of its distortion sound, which I think might be because the preamp tubes need replacing. Haven't got to that yet. It is both very heavy and very expensive, so it might not fit your needs in that regard. But it stands up to loud rock volumes pretty well. They usually go on eBay for somewhere in the $1,000 to $1,100 range, give or take. I got mine for less. Thanks, Chad!

So now here's where I throw you a curveball and tell you what I would actually do if I was in your situation. I might not buy a combo amp at all. Maybe the VC30, or maybe the YCV40. But the most portable rig that I have, that produces great sound and can put out medium-loudness rock band type volumes, is actually a separate head and cabinet.

A Traynor YBA-2A head, and a 1x12" cabinet made by "Jenkins", that has a Black Shadow speaker in it and a removable back panel (so it can be a fully sealed cab, or an open back cab). I got the two of them separately on eBay, to a grand total cost of about $500. The YBA-2A (and YBA-2, and YBA-2B) is low-wattage, somewhere around 20, give or take, with a pair of EL84's. It came in either a 2 x EL84 or 2 x 6V6 version. It's one of the most basic amp designs you'll come across, with volume, bass, and treble knobs, and a really simple circuit, hand-wired on an eyelet board, just like all the good old Traynors were. Cranked up to full-on, it rocks.

And with the head in one hand, and the cabinet in the other, it's plenty portable. Not to mention, if you needed *super* portable, you could just bring the head, and borrow the use of someone else's speaker cabinet. That leaves room for your guitar in your other hand. Hell, you could put the head in a backpack, and carry a cabinet in one hand and your guitar in another, and there you go.

Also, the YBA-2 came in a combo amp version (I think the YBA-2 is the combo and the YBA-2A is the head-only), and in typical Traynor fashion, they did something awesome that virtually nobody else was doing at the time and for some reason, people have been too stupid to do since... the speaker is an its own compartment, in an enclosed section of the cabinet, while the head is up above it in its own section, properly ventilated. It's amazing how next to nobody has caught on to this design, of isolating the speaker from the head like that. So there's that, too, the combo version of the YBA-2.

So, I guess for tube, I'm recommending the Laney VC30 and Traynor YCV40 as fine 1x12" combo amps in the 30-40 watt range, and the Traynor YBA-2 in the 20W range (though it's a pretty loud 20W). Any of these three amps would respond well to being hit with a boost pedal like yours. And for solid state, the TS-100 and TS-120B are great on price, and are plenty loud. Just kinda heavy is all.

Those are the combo amps I'm personally familiar with. As far as ones I'm not directly familiar with, if you can find a used Traynor YCV50 or YCV80, those might be good options for you, too. They're gonna be louder than the 40, obviously, but probably heavier, too.

FWIW, I normally (these days) play through two amps at the same time; a Traynor YBA-1A (80W) into a 2x12", and a Marshall JMP (50W) into a 6x10". Not very portable!! The YBA-1A alone is heavy as shit. Something about the gigantic transformers that helps it kick ass, though. I think that sadly, there's a correlation with "weighs a lot" and "sounds great".

Good luck with your search!


:EDIT:

EGAD, I have too many amps. I totally forgot about these two combo amps:

Roland Jazz Chorus JC-120. 120W solid state, 2 x 12" speakers, reverb and chorus. The chorus is great at doing what it does. I like it, personally. Unfortunately, on mine, the chorus is non-functional. It's a nice loud clean solid state amp. It's sorta like the Traynor TS-100 in that sense, except the Traynor does a great distortion sound as well. The Roland is better for clean, I think. It's hella heavy, but is on casters, so that can help with moving it. If you're talking about carrying it to a gig, with no car, maybe you'd wanna buy a Radio Flyer wagon.

Fender Hot Rod DeVille. 2 x 6L6 output tubes @ 60W, 4 x 10" speakers, reverb. It's a channel switcher, pretty similar to the Traynor YCV-40. I think the clean sound is alright, nothing that I get super excited about. And the distortion channels don't do it for me at all. It's probably just me, but I don't really like Fender's distortion sound, that I've heard. I am maybe spoiled on the Traynors and Marshall... regardless, it's a nice loud amp. I've only used mine just a couple times, and one time to pretty good effect. It's really heavy, something like 60lbs. At that weight, I'd take the TS-100 in a heartbeat.

Hey, here's a YBA-2B just came up for sale on eBay.

As far as lightweight amps go, I have a Silvertone 1484 and a nice 1x12 cab... easy to get around - add a gig bag and bam! One trip! - and it sounds fucking awesome for clean/crunch.

i have 3 combo amps, and i'm very happy with all of them. i'll give you the rundown.

traynor ycv-40. 40 watts. this is a new amp. it has a lot of bass on the clean channel -- enough that i often play bass through it although that made something come loose inside so maybe you shouldn't do that -- and breaks up juust enough to sound right when you turn it up loud. the distortion channel can be monstrous. only sore points: the bass drops significantly on the the distortion channel, and the reverb is inaudible until you turn it up to 9, and then it sounds kind of crappy. but i have no qualms about recommending it. goes for $400 used, i think.

traynor ts-25b. 20 watts. this is an older amp. it's solid state. the EQ is extremely drastic, which is great, and the distortion can get really chunky and metallic with the boost switch on. it really has its own sound. i'd recommend it highly for guitar even though it's supposed to be for bass. i got mine for just over a hundred dollars, so it's not going to set you back much. only issue: it's not very loud.

traynor yba-4. 50 watts. this is an even older amp (mid seventies). it runs on el34s and has no distortion channel or boost switch. however, it starts to break up at 3, and in fact it's not excessively loud when cranked to 10 -- you just get this really perfect classic rock distortion that disappears if you play lightly. it's much more responsive in that respect than either of my other amps. the weak point is the cleans. that's what i use the other amps for, primarily. but if you know that you'll have it cranked, it's a great choice.

it's very hard to go wrong with any of eh Mesa Mark series amps. The Randall RM stuff is very good. Fender Hot Rod stuff seems to be a love hate thing, I like them. Actually the Peavey Bandits were very solid amps, with no particular tone of their own, so a nice blankish page.

fender combos are great if you have the $ for a silver or black face. the reissues are supposed to be quite good too, but are also $.

i'd look at an old ampeg. i have a reverborocket which puts out 20 watts, enough to keep up with a drummer at moderate volume. it has great sounding verb and trem and mine cost under $400 which is a steal for a vintage amp of that era.

i think musicman is also a good place to look. a vintage musicman combo would be like a half-priced fender, but the quality of sound should be pretty close. i had an old musicman head and i loved it.

i think you need to take into consideration what sort of headroom you need. if you want to play an overdriven amp at mild show volumes, i'd look into a 20-35 watt amp. if you're looking for clean sound at the same volume, i'd go for a 50-75 watter.

Has anyone tried the Ampeg VT-60 or Ampeg VT-120? They are 60w/120w 1x12 combos made in the mid- to late 80s.

Looking for something portable, like check-it-as-luggage portable.

I played one of these (VT60) in the American Music (with eagle) store in Seattle Washington. I did not like it. It did not have the Wipers sound. It did not have the Ramones sound. It did not have any sound I would pay money for. Perhaps it was a lemon.