As a couple of you saw, I posted looking for recommendations on a new amp. I'm intrigued now by a couple pieces I've seen available used locally - a Fender Ultra Chorus and a Peavey Special Chorus 212. My only concern with either one is that on neither amp are the chorus and reverb functions both controllable via the footswitches. (The Laney LV looks promising online, but I haven't found one available locally and I'm a believer in "try before you buy").

This isn't a deal-breaker at all - in between songs, I can go "old school" and, you know, use the amp knobs, and if I need to change settings a lot mid-song, I can get a pedal to take care of that. However, if I were to find a reliable, reasonably price way to render both reverb and chorus independently footswitchable, then why not?

So that's my question - is there a way to modify the circuit on a solid state amp to render certain effects footswitchable?

If this is a stupid question, please go easy on me; the only amp work I have ever done was to replace a blown fuse once. I wish to apologize in advance for my ignorance.

EDIT: I think that on the Fender Ultra Chorus, the chorus effect is controllable via footswitch while the reverb is not. I might actually have that backwards, but I know that at least one of the two is not "footswitchable."

Again, if this isn't doable, then I'm happy taking either unit as-is. It just seems most practical to be able to turn onboard effects on or off the way one would turn an effect pedal on or off.

Nah, it's just been my experience that a solid state amp is going to be much lighter than a tube amp if the two are at the same watt rating. In the weight/portability range I'm looking, it's going to be unreasonable for me to try to find a tube amp that's, say, 80 watts, whereas that's perfectly reasonable for solid state. The standard's higher for solid state, then, because that's what the market has to offer.

Watts are really at the bottom of my list of criteria, though, to be honest - don't watts operate logarithmically? So 50 watts is really more like 45% "louder" than 15 watts, rather than 3 times louder? So there's not much point in obsessing over watts?

Basically, the point I was trying to make was that I don't want something like a 2 watt Fender Greta; as long as I can stay away from that extreme, I'm happy.

Here are my criteria for an amp I'd be interested in:

Need to have... (I won't budge on these)

• Good clean channel
• An effects loop
• Under 40 pounds

Ought to have... (I need a good reason to budge on these)

• Footswitch-able OD channel/boost function
• 3-band EQ or more
• Footswitch-able spring reverb

Want to have... ("Extra credit" - I'd like these, but they aren't crucial)

• At or under $300 used
• Footswitch-able chorus with rate control
• 20+ watts tube/50+ watts solid state/hybrid

I currently have an '88 Peavey Special 112 from the Solo Series. On the plus side, the Special 112 puts the solid into solid state - this thing will never break on me; that, and the clean channel is a thing of beauty. I loooooove it.

On the other hand, I really don't need 160 watts - and considering that I get my favorite sound by plugging a Tone Wicker Muff into the effects loop at minimum gain, the wattage of the amp really restricts how much I can crank the Muff. Also, the Special 112 is just too freaking heavy. I wish not to disclose my location out of paranoia, but I live in an area that favors mass transit over driving (it's a pain to get anywhere in a car), and the Special 112 has got to be almost seventy pounds. Fancy lugging that from bus to bus?

I really don't care if my next amp is solid state, tube, hybrid, digital modeling, whatever...I've borrowed enough amps to figure out how to get a decent tone out of any type of amp, assuming it's at least a decent one for its type. I also don't care how prestigious or reputable a brand or model is; if I did, I wouldn't be playing a Peavey Special next to my friends' Bogners and Fender Twins.

Here are a couple links to show you what kind of sound(s) I'd be going for:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhEm4S-4v_U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHHrDNbMxf8