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what's a good single 12" amp

Started by jimtr6, October 07, 2016, 09:05:09 PM

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jimtr6

looking to buy a good bang for the buck 40-75 watt single 12", no effects or modeling needed, like a clean sound, light weight, small size a plus

galaxiex

Hmmm, It's only 15 watts but maybe a Blues Jr?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4W8pIxQR6M

It can be pretty loud, even at only 15 watts.
If it ain't broke I'll fix it until it is.

amp_MD

I like the older SS Peavey amps like the Studio Pro 40 or 50.  Many of these can be found in decent condition for less than $100.  I found a mid-eighties 40 in a pawn shop a couple of years ago and gave $48 for it.  I cleaned it up and replaced the old original square magnet speaker with an 8 ohm Eminence Cannabis Rex and I've been playing it nearly every day since.  Nothing fancy, but excellent cleans, relatively light weight (about 24 pounds) and easy to pack around.  If I need dirt, I've got pedals that the amp takes just fine.

J M Fahey

Peavey Bandit, any generation, from 70´s to last one.

Any Fender 60/80W 112 (Performer/M80/Deluxe/you-name-it)

Any Marshall 112 from VS4040 to VS65 to 8080 to VS100

Any Crate or Laney 50 to 100W , tons of killer "80" available.

All SS  of course.

If looking for small size, a Peavey Envoy 110 is a "mini Bandit".

Mangas

Rivera era Fender SS amps (Montreux, Stage Lead, Studio Lead). Nice clean and reverb.

DrGonz78

Quote from: Mangas on October 10, 2016, 02:48:30 AM
Rivera era Fender SS amps (Montreux, Stage Lead, Studio Lead). Nice clean and reverb.

Even the later 80's Japanese built versions of the Stage Leads are great too. Not much different from the US built one's really. The Fender Showman SS amp is like the Montreux amp on steroids. Great amps indeed!!

The Fender Princeton 112+ SS amps are great too. That falls into the you-name-it section that Juan mentioned.
"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new." -Albert Einstein

jimtr6

I ended up buying a Crate GX30M for $30, but I don't like it, I couldn't try it and figured for $30 if I didn't like it I could easily sell it, which I'm going to list today, the recomendations of Marshall, Peavey, Fender look good, no big rush. I have two Peavey high wattage steel amps, one with discreet transistors (70's vintage) and a newer with op amps but both heavy

J M Fahey

If you are used to the Peavey Steel Guitar amps then you are spoiled, no other amp can even approach them in power, loudness and clean headroom.

Loudthud

Keep your eyes open for a good sounding neo 15 inch speaker. That will cut the weight down on those steel amps.

gbono

Fender Deluxe/Princeton 112
Peavey Special 130


mexicanyella

I traded a tremolo pedal I never bonded with for a late 80s Peavey Special 150 earlier this year. The amp's speaker baffle board had some of the wood chunked out around the speaker mounting screws, but other than that it worked. I filled the holes with wood repair epoxy, redrilled the holes and remounted the speaker.

It's basically a late 80s Bandit with twice the output power, into a single 12" Scorpion speaker. The clean channel is great; three-band passive EQ and a VERY effective active presence control. Lots of tones easily available, and the clean channel will snarl a little when you turn it up to less-than-head-implosion levels. Turned up to 6-7 and beyond, it gets pretty crunchy and rocked-out sounding, but that is extremely loud. I think it would have plenty of clean headroom for any modern PA-equipped gig situation.

The distortion channel shares the presence control but seems to bypass the EQ controls. It sounds pretty distorted even at the lowest gain settings, but you can get some useful sounds out of it. I never run the gain higher than 2 in the rare instances I use that channel.

A similar-era Bandit 75 would be the same, for all intents and purposes, still capable of being loud as hell, and available cheap used. The earlier Special 130  has sweepable mids on the EQ section. Never tried one, though.