Decent Solid State Practice Amps.

[Dave Hicks]

Roland Cube, if 10 W is enough.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...bo-amp-with-fx

[David Eastwood]

Originally Posted by ChrisN

If it's not a blown speaker, my suspicion is it's due for a recap. Those power supply and other caps are good for 10-15 years or so. They lose mojo gradually and become symptomatic. I just had a tech replace the power supply caps on one of mine. $40 with me bringing it in with chassis removed, to save a few bucks (plus, I like to tinker), but should be well under $100. Worth a check to see what's up, as you can't do better these days.

Good advice - thanks!

[abn556]

I would do what was previously mentioned and get a small tube amp. I gave given away at least a dozen and a half solid state practice amps over the years. In the end I always end up hating them and they’re rarely worth selling. The 30w Cubes at least had a decent clean tone, but that’s about the only positive thing I can say about the SS practice amps.

[printer2]

Originally Posted by abn556

I would do what was previously mentioned and get a small tube amp. I gave given away at least a dozen and a half solid state practice amps over the years. In the end I always end up hating them and they’re rarely worth selling. The 30w Cubes at least had a decent clean tone, but that’s about the only positive thing I can say about the SS practice amps.

Have you tried them with good speakers?

[Puddleglum]

Believe it or not, back in the day (90s) I used to have an old Crate solid state. I think it was called an X15 or something like that. Very cheap and basic, but it had a really exceptional clean tone. The gain channel was pretty bad but the clean channel with the added reverb sounded great. Later on it conked out and I got a “better”’ amp and was shocked at how awful the clean setting was. That’s when I discovered that SS amps usually have lousy clean tones.

[ChrisN]

Originally Posted by David Eastwood

Good advice - thanks!

You're welcome. Be sure to first test that speaker by running the amp into another cab, if handy (you'll need a speaker cable, not an instrument cable, for that).

[GoPappy]

If you're looking for clean tone in a solid state amp, you owe it to yourself to check out the Roland JC series, which are widely recognized as the King of Clean. I've got the small one - the JC22 with twin 6.5" speakers - and its clean tone is indeed wonderful, and it has way more power than you could ever need for a bedroom practice amp.

[Brent Hutto]

It's probably overkill to use with headphones but I have a little $109 Orange Crush 12 solid state amp. It is a very compact 6" combo with an old-school solid state design (i.e. nothing digital, just two stages of analog amplification).

At very, very quiet volumes in a hotel room or vacation condo I find it has the best sound of any sort of electric guitar amp I've ever tried. And it has some preamp overdrive with its own Gain control that's not-awful sounding (won't say great) even if you use the Volume to keep the overall output quiet.

I use it for clean playing at less than TV volume and just set the little combo on a nightstand or something a couple feet from me. It has a very full and clear sound, probably because it's a fairly midrangy voiced circuit.

Absolutely no features (like reverb, etc.) beyond adjustments for Bass/Mid/Treble, Volume, Clean Gain, Overdrive Gain. Weighs maybe 6-8 pounds and small enough to tuck under your arm when schlepping stuff to and from the car. And inexpensive.

[Puddleglum]

Originally Posted by GoPappy

If you're looking for clean tone in a solid state amp, you owe it to yourself to check out the Roland JC series, which are widely recognized as the King of Clean. I've got the small one - the JC22 with twin 6.5" speakers - and its clean tone is indeed wonderful, and it has way more power than you could ever need for a bedroom practice amp.

This amp looks great, but is there no overdrive option built-in? I love playing clean, but a bit of OD is a must at times. I know pedals are an option…

[GoPappy]

No, it does not have Distortion. The JC-40 does, but not the JC-22. But that may be a good thing because most people seem to hate the distortion on the JC-40 anyway. I use a Nobels ODR Mini overdrive pedal when I want some grit and it does fine. If I was looking for a solid state amp for grit/dirt/overdrive/crunch consistently but still have a good clean sound, I'd probably pick a Fender Tonemaster Princeton or Deluxe Reverb.

But the clean sound of the JC-22 and JC-40 are where those amps really shine.

The JC-22 has two 6.5" speakers, but if you look at the speakers the diameter of the magnets are almost as big as the speaker cones. I'm convinced that has a lot to do with the big sound that comes from this little amp.

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by Puddleglum

This amp looks great, but is there no overdrive option built-in? I love playing clean, but a bit of OD is a must at times. I know pedals are an option…

I had a JC-120 many years ago. I now use a Cube EX with the same true stereo chorus the Roland does so well. It's 70 pounds lighter than my original JC-120 with heavy duty JBL speakers, though. I traded the JC-120 for a black face Fender Twin that was featherweight by comparison.

Distortion / overdrive is so much a personal preference thing that I would always recommend an external pedal for anyone desiring "distortion". I've never heard a modeling amp that had a good built in overdrive and the Roland built in modeling OD/distortion presets are particularly nasty sounding IMHO.

[Beachrunner]

I've got to agree with a couple of others here that the Vox Pathfinder 15R is a great choice. It's just a perfect practice amp. It really does sound great.

Here's mine (on the right) next to my Vox AC15.

(I bought the foot pedal for an extra 25 bucks. Well worth it to switch the tremolo or gain on and off at will.)

[edward993]

I will absolutely concur with both the Vox and the Boss Cube recommendations.

There are various iterations of both of these amp models that vary through the years, so it's impossible to enumerate which has what features here. But I will say I've used both the Vox and Cubes over years past (still own a Vox) and they are good, solid amps with good tone. Buy the size and feature set you like. I wholly agree that one ought not get sucked in by all the modelling: get the one that sounds good to you. And personally, I don't care for the Mustang ...ugh, no, that's a pass.

And used is, of course, your friend ...which is even better for you since the older models will be free of all the icky features you are trying to avoid anyway!

Edward

[Puddleglum]

That Vox Pathfinder 15R looks like it would be about perfect for me. But when I looked it up I only see used ones. Has it been discontinued? If so, what is as it replaced with?

[ChrisN]

Originally Posted by Puddleglum

That Vox Pathfinder 15R looks like it would be about perfect for me. But when I looked it up I only see used ones. Has it been discontinued? If so, what is as it replaced with?

It has been discontinued for several years now, arguably replaced by the Pathfinder 10, but they're not the same amp, by any means The 10 has no reverb/tremelo, either). The consensus view is that the 15R was syphoning sales from Vox's upstream lines so they killed it, but I can't confirm that. I do know it's a lot of amp for the money ($125 or so new, in early 2000's $$). FWIW, I've bought 2 used ones that were in perfect shape. After several years, I did replace two capacitors in one, but that's considered normal wear and tear on most electronics of this type.

If you decide to get a Pathfinder 15R, you should know that a popular modification is to remove a particular LED from the component board to supposedly enhance the overdrive channel. The "LED mod" (you can research it w/that term) has mixed reviews, with some regretting it. I'd avoid one that's had that mod, BUT your seller could be the 4th owner and have no idea if a previous owner did the mod, so might represent it's not modded. The only way to know for sure is to pull the chassis and have a look at the board, but that's beyond most buyers' capacities/desires. The LED acts as some sort of limiter on something, but I don't know for certain.

Separately, some decided the original Bulldog speaker wasn't to their taste, but the fact is that most who tried something else did so just to try something different and returned to the Bulldog, which all acknowledge is the perfect speaker for the 15R. Some also wedged a 10" speaker into the enclosure - same result - no improvement, and some regrets.

Best of luck. Cheap to try one and see if it's for you. You'll always be able to resell it if it's not.