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Advice on entry level combo guitar amp


homeskizzle

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My grandmother recently gave me a guitar as I enjoy music and my sister avoids music like the plague. I had it appraised and it's a National Guitar - a 1953 New Yorker Acoustic Electric. I'm just learning to play guitar, but have played the piano for 18 years of my 28 year life so I at least have a basic understanding of chords, progressions, etc.

 

I mainly am looking for an amp to sound good in the country and blues genre. The amp will be used at home. From what I've been told, I should try to get a tube amp to match with the guitar if possible. 

 

Budget - pretty solid at $400. After all, I'm looking for an entry level amp to enjoy, not to gig with. 

 

My frontrunner is the Fender Super champ X2. 

 

Lemme know what yall think. 

 

 

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To ensure that you get what you like, take your guitar to Guitar Center or a music store that has a selection of amps and try them out. Pawn shops are another possibility. I have an original Fender Champ and if the newer versions are similar I believe you will like what you hear.

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Whatever you do, get the guitar appraised and get insurance on it. Find someone beside Guitar Center to do it, too. I'll ask some "in the know" guitarists to get you a basic idea. That guitar is worth a LOT! Looks in beautiful shape.

Bruce

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Any guitar is better than no guitar... but to many times folks choose an instrument based on looks as oposed to what it was designed for. Different guitars are designed for different duties... but that doesn't keep folks from using them for whatever they want.

Nation arch tops are super valuable, but if its set up you can have a great time playng them. Guitar pricing has really skyrocketed over the last decade after being flat for a long time. Many of the brazilian martins I have owned in the past are now worth many tens of thousands of dollars.

The f hole is a great versatile guitar and what ever amp you choose will get you the excitement you are looking for, but it is generally designed for a clean sound.

Look for a used amp from craigslist.

Edited by Schu
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Those single ended practice amps like the Fenders are kind of fun (Champ?  Chief?  Can't remember the model name).  They don't get too loud, but the trade off is that they'll overload at low, practice type volumes, which is really fun.  

 

Don't laugh, but I've also had a lot of fun with the newer dsp "modeling" amps like the Fender Mustang.  While not quite the tone-meister as real tubes, they did a remarkable job trying, and the thing is gobs of fun to play with.

 

They're both cheap options, but would get you rolling.

Edited by Ski Bum
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I got a nice Yamaha amp in the mid '90s... a coworker had it and broke the input jack. He put it it the closet and bought a new amp. I paid him $50 and fixed it within 20 minutes, and it has been a fine amp ever since. It is SS, but for my use, it is just about perfect.

Bruce

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Thanks for the input everyone. It was appraised for $500 by a local shop - then I heard him tell someone else he could sell in for $900. There's a few more shops I could take it by as well if I wanted. 

 

The reason I like that Fender Super Champ x2 is it's a 15W tube amp with decent settings on the amp itself. Plus, it has Fender FUSE which is kinda like a DSP software which can add a lot of different settings if need be. Brand new it's $380. 

 

I've been perusing Craigslist and Reverb for used as well. I'm not in any hurry so I can wait for a good deal. 

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Also look at the Peavey Classic 30 - great 2-channel EL84 sound, plus a good used one should be in your price range.  I used to play one for years and was never disappointed with the sound; cleans were clean and the second channel sounded like butter.  Beautiful geetar, by the way!

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I got a nice Yamaha amp in the mid '90s... a coworker had it and broke the input jack. He put it it the closet and bought a new amp. I paid him $50 and fixed it within 20 minutes, and it has been a fine amp ever since. It is SS, but for my use, it is just about perfect.

Bruce

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Oh almost forgot to tell you about this. Rocksmith 2014,most useful thing i have tried or bought while learning guitar. With the included cable you can play through your home theater setup while playing the game or just pause and play whatever you like. Even my poor playing sounds awesome coming through the lascala's.  And you don't have to worry about the problems that can come about from trying to hook up directly to your avr. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

You might want to look into a Roland Cube 30X (lots available used) or if it fits your budget, the new Cube 40GX.  The Roland amps are really reliable, and sound pretty good.

 

In any case, you'll want a 10" speaker as a minimum.  The entry-level amps with 8" speakers sound cheap.

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