Got to say Fender Excelsior... can´t get better under $300... loud 13-watter reasonably clean and foremost... COOOL!

As if those were the only two choices. No brainer indeed.

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In my opinion Leo Fender had essentially perfected the guitar amplifier by 1964.

What I find interesting is that there is no specification as to whether an EL84 or 6V6 type amp is preferred.. probably a good starting point given that suggestions have been all over the place.

Just my opinion, but an EL84 isn't even close to the "classic" Fender sound if that's what you're looking for. It still technically a Fender sound because Fender makes them. Just not "classic".

As far as "tube snobs" go, yeah I'm one. I have a few solid state amps, but I don't do any real serious gigging or recording with them. It's hard to explain, but solid state amps sound too one dimensional to me. There's not much complexity to the tone. But then again, If I wanted a squeaky clean tone, I would have kept my 76 Twin and bought a truss. The only solid state sound I liked was the Peavey Trans Tube amps. Don't know why, but I never found them to be brittle at all.

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Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

I used to like the Dyna-Touch series of Fender S/S amps. The had a nice chimey clean tone. The one I spent some time with was the 90 watt 1x12 version.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

My son had one some Champion 30 or something like that. fender replaced it twice then the third time he tossed it in the dumpster. Didn't sound bad when it worked.

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Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

FWIW, I played a show where the 'house amp' was a Fender Frontman 212R, parked my Fender Mustang III next to it, and everyone wanted to plug into my amp. It was no contest.

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Without being too snobbish about it, I've owned both tube and solid state amps....tubes just make it for me....period....I had a rude awakening at a gig when a band mate played thru a borrowed Egnater 60 watt amp and my Mustang III just couldn't keep up in terms of warmth, presence, etc...I've since bought a HRDLX III and 2 other tube combo amps and never looked back...YOU WILL SPEND MORE MONEY for what is sold to you as less wattage. Trust me, it won't matter. I never turn up that Hot Rod past 4 and a half at loud gigs even! I have a Super Champ XD for smaller gigs...it's a Hybrid and it was only 200 bucks! I think the new Super Champs are a little more money but, offer a little more in terms of wattage and will probably keep up just fine for most of your gigs....Then there's the Blues Jr...I find them to be a tad expensive for what you actually get but, a lot of guys really like em! If you have 450 bucks and can find a local dealer the Blackstar HT-5R combo is a VERY VERY good deal! It has the sweetest OD channel of ANY amp I have played thru....set the gain at 25 percent and you have instant blues and classic rock tones...roll the gain up to 75 percent and you will have as heavy of a sound as ANY metal band out there!

Singer guitarist in my band uses a Frontman. Gotta say, I've no complaints about that amp at all. The drive on it is a gorgeous, fuzzy, aggressive mess. I prefer it in a lot of ways to my Class 5. I have a hard time getting my JCM800 to be as aggressive at low volumes. I also tried the cleans on it with a low powered strat, yeah, they were clean.
I think it's the inbetween sound where transistor amps suffer these days. But who needs that anyway?

As for the Blues Jr. I had one for a year. It got two weeks use as an amp and 50 weeks use as a coffee table. Which it was really good at.
Didn't like the amp at all. The tone stack on it is all wrong, it's biased too hot and the reverb doesn't sound like the old Fender amps. I liked the Pro Jr, I put it down to the amp not losing much through the tonestack and switches. I think a lot of amps suffer from those things though, no matter who makes em.
Less knobs and switches, bigger boxes and casters please.

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No no and no

For the price of 1 Egnator 65 watt combo amp, you can buy 3 Mustang III amps. I guess it just comes down to how much $$ that extra warmth, presence, etc. is worth to you.

Here's something else to consider, ever play a gig where you had to carry your amp up or down a set of stairs?:

Egnator 2X12 65 Watt combo: Weight: 75 lbs
Egnator 4X10 65 Watt combo: Weight: 80 lbs
Mustang III 1X12 100 Watt combo: Weight: 36 lbs.

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Many moons ago I picked up a Frontman 25 for my nephew as his playing had progressed to the point that he needed a decent amp and I was approached to do the amp hunt. That little amp had a lot of balls and he even used it gigging for years until I sold him my old Marshall Artiste-which he still uses after about 10 years.

It really surprised me that the Frontman had such a full-bodied sound and at the time it was the first S/S amp I had heard that had a near tubelike tone to it.They are really versatile little workhorses and can be very clean even when played relatively loud,although they have a pretty good distorted punch when it's called for too.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Supro I'm sure that's a large part Of what's up
With the amp. The el84, I'm sure it's biased so hot to help
even out the response of the valve. Then the eq goes to extremes to try and add a bit of response.
Why I like the pro jr. It's just like a Dominator. No tone stack getting in the way.

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No no and no

Well, I payed 336 bucks (approx. 380 US $) for my first generation Fender Cyber Twin (the best hybrid modeling amp I know). Used, of course!

You literally get every music genre covered with this fantastic amp!
I'd keep my eyes open, if I were you, to get a used one.

There's no way to get a more perfect Fender sound without going TUBE!

There's other relatively good modeling amps out there which deliver a good clean fenderish sound but IMO the Cyber Twin is the best you can get!

The 12AX7 tubes in the cyber twin are a little overpowered for my taste and I don't like the squelch sound on high distortion (can get pretty loud and I don't want to use a noise gate). I invested another 50 bucks for exchanging the tubes with 12AU7s. The amp is still at the amp service center but it is supposed to be quiet as a church mouse with these tubes.

I can seriously recommend this amp, even though I'm a tube fanatic myself.
The Cyber Twin convinced me!

Another amp: Line6 Spider I or Spider II (40 Watts, Stereo!)
Fairly good sounds for every genre but can get pretty gritty on high volume settings (as most of the SS amps do. If you raise volume, you need to adjust the amp settings.
The Spiders after I and II weren't nearly as good.

3rd recommendation: get a used, full tube, Hughes & Kettner Tubemeister 18. I have one and it's fantastic! Cost me 360 bucks but I already had a 1 x 12" cabinet at home. That would be additional 150 bucks used or you get yourself the combo. Probably more expensive in USA because it needs to be imported from Germany.

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Kindest regards from Germany, Dee
My recordings --> http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_mu ... dID=564337
STRATS ROCK!!! but Teles and Firebirds, too!

I remember years ago trying out one of those Fender modeling amps, where you chose a model or mode and, the knobs would turn themselves. I found that not only was it totally high-tech cool but, to myself, it sounded like the best SS modeling amp out there. I have not seen these amps around since.

Gotta love it. New Wave makes one post and one post only. He or she started this thread, and hasen't been heard from since.

Fender Frontman 25R and some headphones will do ya just fine.

What?

Well it will. Sheesh.

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2012 Lefty American Standard Jazz
2017 Lefty American Professional Precision
2018 Rumble Studio 40 Combo
2016 Rumble 200 Combo
One day they shall name a GREAT city after me, and they shall call it LINNINGRAD