Sleeper Guitar Amps

[brandondrury]

1986 I bought a Whole Marshall stack with a 1974 100 watt head, two 4x12 cabs for $450.00.. yes thats right $450.00. the head needed some work and one cab didnt have the old vintage 35 watt green backs. but it was one hell of a deal.

Wow! What's that worth now? $5k?

Brandon

[scooterlow]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

Wow! What's that worth now? $5k?

Brandon

Yea but now time has passed, I blew up the head playing a gig in the middle of the grass lakes (north of Chicago) on generators and didn't have the money to get it fixed sold it in the late 90's for $300.00 bucks. That's before I knew the Company I used to work for" LS Electronics in st.John Mo". I could have gotten it fixed for a couple hundred bucks and had an amp really worth something.

Oh to have it back now! Haaa it would just be sitting in my studio collecting dust. But it would look pretty.

[Freddy G]

My modified Gibson Ga-17 is killer for recording although not quite loud enough for live.
I also have amps called "Morris Muscle" that are awesome.
Built by a good friend of mine named Glen Morris, here's his website:
Morris Amps
Ha!
When I went to see his website the first 2 amps that scrolled by on his "Flash" home page were mine! The one with the walnut cabinet and quilted maple face (I made the cab) and the green one with the white controls.
These are beautiful sounding amps.
He's got some sound clips on his site, worth checking out.

[Blindfinger]

RIP LES!

Ok, sorry I posted in the wrong forum, I guess. My comments on guitar strings below, was the forum I thought I was in. .... Sleeper guitar amps...I started out with small 65 watt crate 12" speaker combo. Got it for $90.00. Loud little thing. Sound is pretty sterile but hey I was on a super low budget and it was OK.
Be careful when buying used amps....a bad speaker sometimes won't talk to you until you turn up the volume and push it hard. When you are at a persons house in the middle of testing it out, it becomes a challenge to turn the volume up for a test.
Bought a fender bass amp for practice, got it home, turned it up a little and guess what....buzz buzzz.

I say some of the Crate tube combo amps are great deals. I finally ended up with a good Fender tube amp. Fantastic.

Stuck on the stratocaster single coils. Noisy but they throw out the sound when I want to get nasty. The humbuckers are great but... I just bought a new fender stratocaster that comes from the factory with 9's. Immediately moved up to 11's. The strings I put on were Daddario........ So far, they are too bright for me. Just too like...you know....tinny. I am gonna give them a little time to get broke in. If no improvement, I will go back to the Fender strings....probably 10's. The 11's are just a little too much for bending.

[stuartslanding1]

Just wanted to share some of the 'sleeper' amps I have found.
First is a '50s Silvertone 1340 combo. Its 5 watts with a 6" speaker. It has a very '50s midrange thing going on, much like an old Fender Champ. Also breaks up very nicely when cranked, and takes pedals well. Best of all, it cost $75 at a local pawn shop! I think silvertones are one of the best values when it comes to vintage guitar amps. Good sounds, good designs, and can still be found pretty cheap.
Second, I have a 50 watt Crate Blue VooDoo head that rocks! They come with 6L6 power tubes, but can be switched to EL34s (self-biasing). The 6L6s sound O.K., but with the EL34s, it rules. You can get some great distortion tones, from AC/DC type classic rock to all out evil metal. The sound is kinda in the Marshall camp, but unique. I paid $200 for it used, and $30 for a pair of EL34s. I like it as much, if not more than most of the Mesa and Marshall amps I have played with.
-Joe

[engineroom]

Definitely a plug for the Peavey Windsor here as well... put an Ibanez tube screamer in front of it with the stock tubes and got all the gain I needed. Single channel, super simple, but plays great. I got it on sale at MF for 249$. Can't beat that price for a 100w all tube amp!

[garageband]

Originally Posted by engineroom

Definitely a plug for the Peavey Windsor here as well... put an Ibanez tube screamer in front of it with the stock tubes and got all the gain I needed. Single channel, super simple, but plays great. I got it on sale at MF for 249$. Can't beat that price for a 100w all tube amp!

Curiously, this is about the combination that won the "Metal Guitar Sound" shootout.