I purchased a Amer Stand about a year ago and i love it. My problem is that i have a Roland Cube 20x amp and i cant seem to get a R&R sound with this amp. It sounds great with my Gretsch but ive tried everything, all settings and pick up selection with the strat and i cant get that nice hard low end. Could it be the single coil or could it be the amp. Any opinions out there

One of the best sounding strat amps I have ever played through is the 5E3. It has a lot of bottom and topend more than any other amp I have played. It is an aquired taste though, as the 5E3 is not very forgiving. It amplifies everything you and your strat puts out (the good and the bad). But it is a must try amp. Try one if you find one.

ive owned a few roland amps before... (x30) i found that the sound that i got when i used my strats on it were a bit "cheap" didnt have much range or depth... if i were you id get a fender blues deluxe... might not have that much drive bt nothing a pedal cant fix and its got enough bottom end to wake the dead...

most valve amps will give you wat your looking for... depends what your price range is...

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blues - its a religion...

Hi there.

I would recommend you find a Peavey Ultra 212.
It is an all tube three channel amp, the clean has nice "Fenderish tone" then you have a crunch channel and a Ultra channel, the crunch is more a Marshall tone while the ultra will keep up with a 5150.
There is also a three position switch for the final drive to tighten or loosen the speaker response, along with a midway setting, again, this gives you more tone options.
It is all footswitchable and has a reverb on board.

It is a 6L6 amp and can drive a 412 or 212 cab of 16 ohms along with the 212 it has.

this will let you cover just about anything and my start sounds just fine through it.

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Marriage is like playing cards...

At first all you want are Hearts and Diamonds.

But in the end, all you really want is a Club and a Spade.

I dont know what price range you are aiming for. It needs to be a tube amp for sure to get that "true" strat sound.

Do you play with a band?

On the cheap end of the spectrum, your best bet would be an Orange Tiny Terror Combo, or head and cab if you can afford it.

I have the Orange Dual Terror, and I run my guitar through a Wah pedal directly into the amp. It sounds well.....fantastic is the only word that comes to mind. But I play with a band and these kind of amps tend to sound best when they are played fairly loud.

The cabinet and speakers make a lot of difference too.

Guitar +Marshall tube amp makes the world go around.

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— did that sound like something?

I've played through quite a few - for my ear Bruce Egnater has nailed the tone I'm after! The Egnater Rebel 30 gives you the option of the 6V6 Fender clean bell tone, and the EL84's gives you the Marshall and Vox British bite - all in the same 30 Watt head. Don't be deceived by the 30 Watts - plenty of clean headroom with the Rebel 30.

I agree with VB: An Orange Tiny terror will give you what you want. If you can afford it go for the Orange AD30 twin channel head with Orange Celestion 30 cab or the AD30 combo.

A less expensive but also worthy option is the Marshall DSL401 combo

Both these amps use EL84 tubes and both these amps have received much acclaim

Of course these amps sound best loud, but if you are practising at home and cant turn it up too loud , i suggest a decent overdrive pedal in the chain such as a Maxon OD 9 or a ZVEX DIstortron... good luck

Why let the amp dictate to you what it can be used for?

I've never come across a amp I couldn't get some semblance of the sound I wanted, out of it. Certainly colse enough for bedroom work.
The Cube is a decent amp with plenty of scope for sounds.
Perhaps your letting preconceived ideas about what amp model should do what and eq ideas cloud your judgment.

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No no and no

the cube is definatly a good amp... but there are limits to it... put it this way... i used one every day for 4 years and it was magic... then i baught a valve amp and sold the cube the next day...

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blues - its a religion...

Yeah but the thing is, every valve amp is limited. Every single last one of em. You need to be settled on the sound you want, know it's going to be the only sound you'll ever want before you go mucking about with em.
I really don't care what I use at home. It means little to me whether it has glowing bottles or not, as long as it does what I want.
There's only one real sound for rock'n'roll, the champ or a tweed deluxe. Neither of which has a particularly tight bottom end. Infact most rock n roll doensnt use that sound. Thats metal territory. Leading me to believe the OP may not know exactly what they want, or doesn't know how to express their desire in popular terms.
Personaly I'd be putting the strat on the bridge pickup, roll the tone to about 8. Put the amp on Bassman setting. Gain 5/6, treb 5-7, bass6-8. Start somewhere near that and then refine it.

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No no and no

To the OP, ask a bunch of people the same question, and you are bound to get lots of different answers. The good side to that is experiencing everybody's diverse opinions, the bad side (if you can even call it that), is those opinions do not narrow things down too much. FWIW, I have a couple different make/model tube amps and solid state amps. All are at least two channels, some are three. My big ones are 100 watt tube stacks, made by Carvin. The x100b has a graphic eq and parametric eq, it is a tone seeker's dream. It is limited only in the amount of on-board gain in my opinion, and you can always put a pedal in front of it. I have a smaller Marshall tube amp as well that I feel is quite versatile. In the lesser cost, simpler to use and not so finicky range are my solid state amps, one a Crate, one a Marshall. Using the eq on either of them gets me the sound I want with relative ease. The tones are not that of a tube amp, but then again, they aren't tube amps. If you want a Fender clean, the best is to get a Fender tube amp, if you want the Marshall rock/distortion sound, then get a Marshall tube amp. If you want more versatility, check into multichannel amps such as Carvin makes (they also have a solid state line as well). You can also significantly change the tone of just about any amp with a good eq pedal. The bottom line is that you'll have to be the one to decide which amp is right for you, because, as you can see; we all use different types.

I'll probably catch some flames for this (go easy, fellas), but...

I'm surprised that nobody has pointed-out the utility of currently available modeling technology for beginning and/or younger players. For someone in the OP's situation, I can't think of a better option than something like a Line 6 Pod or Fender Mustang/G-Dec.

Like previous posters have suggested, high-end tube amps have their place and are unbeatable from a pure tone perspective, but are severely limiting in other, more practical areas. What little you may give up in "tone" is more than made up for in the areas of cost, versatility ergonomics, and reliabilty.

In my 30-odd years of playing, I owned everything from Plexis, to Bluesbreakers, to Twins, to Laney Stacks...I've loved them all like children...just as I currently love the Mustang II and PoD 2.0 I use both at home and at church.

It's an option that I think deserves a mention.

I'm a tube amp junkie,but have used a little of everything over the years also,I came full circle years ago back to Fender vintage amps because like nikininja said I knew exactly what sound I wanted and the Fenders get it,but it's not for everyone and like someone else said they're not very forgiving,you hear lots of finger noise if you play clean,and if you're a sloppy player you will sound like crap to put it lightly.
An amp is to be considered as much of an instrument as your guitar if you're serious about tone,and you have to know how to use them to sound your best,and if you're hearing great tone it will inspire you to play better,believe it or not.

+1

Only a few amps are worthy of a Strat.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY