yes i am looking for a rare compination...awesome classic, vintage CHEAP tube guitar heads. what should i get? i m thinking some ampeg or peavety classic 100 or something close...what is ur advice?

a very good often over looked power house of an amp is a sound city. its prehiwatt, actually the guy who built hiwatt used to make sound cities or something like that. they use partridge transformers which are incredibly tough and good sounding. they are point to point inside so you can modify them if you like quite easily. theres always the traynors...very cool amps. if you want the metal heads to love you get an old laney...seriously they do sound good. the guy in sweep the leg johnny used one and it was very nice. dont get a peavey, thats like buying a kia, yeah it runs and will get the job done but come on have a little self respect*. hope that helps.

*no offense to peavy and kia owners, i was just trying to make a point. actually has anyone ever had a peavey not work?...kicking the shit out of it included and expected. i havent...maybe the peavey isnt so bad afterall. na.

I have to agree that Traynor and Laney have made some of the great, undersung amps through the years. The mastermind behind Traynor is said to have done quality control by chucking his products off a roof. Take that, Peavey!

Laney made a bunch of tube/solid state mongrels, but their all-tube amps are really versatile and sound quite nice, thank you. I've owned a couple of Laney AOR 50 watt heads (that's "Adjustable Overdrive Response") and they've served me well.

They're a little weak in the cosmetic/surface details: the knobs are cheap plastic and the level indicators tend to spin around or fall off. Also, the handle on top is less than trustworthy. If you like the amp and decide to buy it, replace the knobs with the Vox/Hiwatt style and remove the handle preemptively.

Finally, when buying any tube amp, let that sucker warm up for a good fifteen minutes before you commit to it. Tube problems are often not apparent at first listen. Good luck.

- - - chrysler

If $250 to $350 is reasonable ( and I think it is, when compared to what Marshalls or Fenders sell for ), then you can usually find Ampeg V2's or V4's in that price range. I think most were made from around '67 until '73 or so. V2 is 50 watts, V4 is 100 very loud watts. They stay clean until they get really loud, and even then, they produce distortion far different from a Marshall. With a good pedal, they sound amazing.

Some people think that they use tubes that are rare or expensive, because they came stock with 7027 power tubes, but I put 6L6's in mine after seeing some articles explaining why that was safe. I think there is also an easy modification that allows 6550 tubes or EL34's even. I've also seen quite a few on Ebay that have had a master volume rigged up.

Both the V2 and V4 have reverb ( very nice reverbs, I think, but they buzz some ) and switchable midrange frequency. Later year models have distortion on channel 2, but it's not very usable in my opinion.

These amps came stock with two prong power cords and polarity switches, but I wouldn't trust that setup. Install a grounded plug if you buy one of these.

usually fender silverface bassman heads are pretty cheap. i bought my bassman 70 for $200. they're really cheap to get fixed so look for one that needs some tlc. people will let them go for next to nothing. then take it to a good repair guy and you'll be set. i haven't had any problems with mine but i noticed that it doesn't like cabs that aren't 4 ohms.