I sincerely apologize if I hurt anyone’s feelings.
But I’d like to know in what way my previous post was against forum etiquette. I think threads where someone explains what their purposes are, what they’d like to achieve and ask for guidance on what equipment to buy to reach that goal are perfectly fine. But I just don’t get the point of “help me spend x amount of money”-type questions. To me it seems the wrong end of approaching the topic of spending money on something useful.
With that said, I wish happy spending to everyone on whatever they feel they need.
Honestly, to me, the question reads: “I want an amp (that I can play at low volumes). If money isn’t an issue, would you advise me to go and support my local amp builder, or not?”. He’s not saying he wants to spend the money.
I wouldn’t!! Well I might have a one to one lesson or two but to be honest my playing isn’t up to that amount of expenditure. I’d take my other half on a good long holiday, somewhere warm!
I thought about this for a contest about a year back and put together a set of things I’d enjoy having. It was two guitars, a tube amp, an amp attenuator, and some bare speakers that would fit in cabinets I have. This was a selection for a totally off-chance win of the contest. I would not get the tube amp using money since I play in quiet areas and would not benefit much from having the thing.
For spending my cash, I am in a similar situation now. I have a fund of bonus money I get for extra work I do. This fund doesn’t go into the general household account and is solely for me to spend without accountability. It has grown large enough that I can get something nice if I want it. Last time I spent cash, it was from 20 years of birthday gift cash I saved until I wanted something. I bought a guitar I never thought I’d spend so much on, but I do enjoy playing it, and it fills more gaps than I had imagined.
I am currently looking at a guitar to fill in a gap that also suits my goals. well, kind of. I need to research and do a lot of thinking to see if I will be satisfied with my purchase or if I will think I should have waited for a better need. I have little I truly need so am simply filling in with fun things since this is a hobby, not my work.
You should be able to get “edge of breakup” from almost any amp as long as you can push the pre-amp into overdrive.
I have owned and used a range of amps and modelling systems over the years, including solid state, digital modelling, and tube amps…
The only amp I couldn’t get edge of breakup from was a tube amp. In that case it was a 15W Laney T115-112. It was ridiculously loud and it also was super high-gain, and really didn’t do clean tones at all. But it was a Heavy Metal amp.
I don’t know the Fender Champ 40, but the Fender amps have a reputation for being clean. You may have the opposite problem in the amp is too clean. You may be able to fix that with some sort of boost pedal.
Bottom line: you don’t need a tube amp to get an excellent “edge of breakup” tone.
lf you do decide you would like to try a tube amp (and why not) then I suggest you look at something low wattage or with an attenuator.
The Bugera G5 head I have and use with a Harley Benton 1x12 cabinet has an attenuator down to 0.1 W and I can get great edge of breakup tones from it at bedroom volumes,
The same with the Orange Micro Terror I have.
I will say I, personally, don’t consider the tones I’ve had from tube amps at these volumes to be significantly better than the tones I’ve got from my Yahama THR10, Vox Pathfinder 15, or the Katana 100 I used to have.
It’s your prerogative to spend your hard earned however you want. However, personally I can’t get excited about expensive gear. Not that I don’t have any - I have around 15 guitars, but most are inexpensive (my latest is a 12 string Guild Starfire - lovely sounding instrument, very reasonably priced). I don’t have an expensive amp, the one I use is a 35 year old Sunn. Between this and the amp modeller built into Garage Band I can usually get a sound that I like. I would spend my time and money on improving my playing and my recording equipment, but each to his own I suppose.
Neil
A mid range amp modelling rig to play around with (that runs profiles) (500-1000)
an extra Alto TS 410 PA speaker (350)
A good wireless microphone (500)
leaves me 2000 for a guitar or some compact protable track/case system or something
$4000 on an amp would be too much for me and quite deep in the “diminishing returns” end of the curve for me.
Being so involved in digital tech and the handyness of a small, lightweight setup is bliss for me. So many good emulations and profiles to create the tone I want. I’m no longer tonehunting, I’m tone CREATING so my $4K gear should work toward that.
I would also break the chain in modular pieces, get a 2x12 cab with 2 different upper midrange speakers that fit your needs and complement eachother. a solid state power amp is affordable and in pre-amp world there is a myriad of analog, digital and hybrid options.
Oh btw, don’t see 'digital as ‘relying on a computer’ too much.
It depends on how much you want to fiddle but in many cases you seldom use a pc and most of it is done on a hardware unit, with knobs and buttons. I like intuitive too when in the rehearsal room or on stage.
I still have a cabinet but 99% of the time I use IR’s (singles or 2 blended).
The tone I want on each volume, even decent in headphones because of the speaker emulation.
All is in my hardware unit and I use knobs to control it. I modelled and blended my own amp models as well, ported them to a hardware unit the size of a big pedal and i twist knobs and press buttons with my feet in the rehearsal room.
I use a computer to fiddle with it, because I can route splits, merges, parallel, serial, cascades, signal recorders, EQ’s and switches on any spot… the feeling of being freed from patch cables and even words power supply ay sweet bliss I just drag a cable on my screen and done.
$4k buys a SWEET custom guitar workhorse at your local luthier and still enables you to buy and amp with a good edge of breakup and control on low volumes.
I’d probably get a Tone King Imperial Mk II amp head and a nice cabinet. The 20W amp has a Blackface Fender character, but it’s a head and cab (which I prefer) instead of a combo, has two channels, sounds great. Also, though it’s a tube amp, it has a built-in attenuator. (And even if you get a tube amp that doesn’t have built in attenuation you can add something like a Torpedo CaptorX and get attenuation, cab and mic sim line out, and even headphone out from any tube amp. I do this with my Marshall DSL40 and my Fender Blues Jr.)
That’s probably what I’d pick right now. My choice tomorrow could be different.
I’m not sure… Maybe a Revv G20 Tolex! Outside of a decent amp, a few pedals and a Player II Jazzmaster there isn’t too much gear I’ve been wanting these days
My amp is definitely very clean. Which is great when I’m learning and I want to work on my technique. But when I just want to play, I don’t always get what I’m after. Songs with cleaner tones, yeah, works great for those. Even after tweaking the various settings to get the tone closer to where I want it. And honestly, tweaking those settings tends to make the amp louder at the lowest usable volume (and don’t do anything to help the huge volume falloff below that). Maybe it can reach breakup on its own, but not at any volume level I can use at home. The loudest I’ve played it at is with the knob at 4, and that’s a way too much (still no breakup). It’s one of those single-volume amps. There are two volume knobs, but they each control a different channel.
Learning that there are things I might be able to do to get there are certainly helpful.
When it comes to pedals, though, I just don’t know where to start.
Well, that’s a whole other rabbit hole, however if you have a clean amp and want break up sounds then a Boss BD2 is never the wrong answer (there are 100s of other correct answers of course!)
Interesting question. I never owned any tube amps and honestly don’t think I will. Last year I bought a multi-FX unit, Headrush MX5, and it easily can be the last piece of amplification gear I may ever need. It has everything and even more. And with a bigger budget you can get any model, being it a Quad Cortex, Helix etc. Then you can get an FRFR cab and that’s it, you have dozens of amps, all kinds of effects and it’s all in a much more convenient package.
Firstly there are plenty of people on here that can offer valuable info on this subject so I’ll leave that to them.
However, good on you for asking the question and offering plenty of information for everyone to asses it on I think it’s a valid question, I also think the value of what you may be looking to spend is also very valid otherwise the question has no base.
Personally I guess it depends where you are in your journey and will you get your moneys worth out of 1 high value amp used at home or are there multiple other items that many be more beneficial in the nearer future for the same or even less money?
I will share one thing. I play golf and I know LOTS of guys that spend a fortune on expensive Drivers (and other clubs) to “improve their golf” The queue for new clubs in the Pro Shop is far longer than the queue for the lessons
This! I finally came to this conclusion about guitars, since I don’t currently use amps. This thread is about one reason I stepped away from electric gear.
There is so much cool, amazing and wonderful gear out there. I would never be satisfied and I would spend all my time drooling over, buying, tweaking, combining my gear that I would hardly play guitar! An acoustic is just me and the instrument. Besides, drooling over a high voltage tube amp is dangerous in many ways.
If you love it, can actually use it, and it is within your budget, then apply you own metrics to the idea and buy it if you want. It would be so fun!
But so will the next one, so consider that and don’t stretch with the imagination that it will be your only amp until the rest of time.
I doubt I could even turn that amp above “1” in my own neighborhood…
I just drag a cable on my screen and done.
I think it’s a valid question, I also think the value of what you may be looking to spend is also very valid otherwise the question has no base.
The queue for new clubs in the Pro Shop is far longer than the queue for the lessons 
