What is a professional guitar/amp combination that wont break the bank?

Hello there,

Like someone else said, I also think you have your priorites all screwed up. You already have one lousy amp. Why do you need a second one? For $200 that is pretty much what you will get (unless you buy used gear).

I think your first priorty must be getting a good quality amp and some good quality speakers. You only sound as good as your speakers no matter what guitar you play. For folks who play at home, they can use a 1x12. For gigging with a band, you need at least a 2x12 combo or a half stack.

I am guessing you are pretty inexperienced (by what you wrote), so I would suggest getting a high quality solid state amp. You probably are not up to the care and maintenance that a tube amp needs. Many newer players get tubes thinking that makes them appear professional. Of course they have no clue how to maintain the tube amp. so to anyone who really does know anything, those folks are real posers.

A good tube amp will eat up your entire budget and then some. You won't touch a Fender Twin Reverb for anywhere near that. A decent Marshall will run nearly twice your budget. So you need some realistic suggestions to consider.

A Line 6 Spider 150 watt 2x12 would be my lowest suggestion. Worth looking at, especially if you are new enough to playing to still be intriqued by gimmicky modeling amps. It is not a bad amp. I have one sitting around. But I would never dream of gigging with it.

Marshall DSL. These are about the best of the inexpensive Marshall tubes. Fortunately they have been around for a while and there are a ton of used ones on the market. You could probably find one for about your entire budget. That would mean you will still have to come up with some extra cash to find a 4x12 cab somewhere and then load it with some decent speakers. All in all, even this cheaper Marshall is going well beyond your budget. (Don't even look at the MG series crap. It does not deserve to have the Marshall name on it).

Vox. There are a couple really great Vox amps. But they are tubes and well beyond your budget. The Vox solid state stuff is not nearly as good.

Let's see, I elminated Fender, Marshall and Vox. That is my favorite brands of amps and the ones I have played most. The Fender Dual Showman and Marshall Lead are my main amps. I do have one other newer brand I like. About as good a tube simulation as any solid state amp on the market. Dirt cheap. A 4x12 stack is going to cost you around $500. That fits your budget and leaves something for a new guitar, if you still feel you need one. Take a look at the B-52.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ccLzbtHlT...

I have the same head as that guy in the video. Nice amp. Loud enough to keep up with the big boys. No built in effects or amp modeling. Just a straight forward amp. Great tone. 1 clean 2 gain channels. What is does, it does great. I run my head through an old Marshall 1960 cab that I loaded with a pair of Eminence speakers and a pair of Carvin British Series speakers (the old made in the US ones, not the new made in China crap). That is a great amp.

Here this amp is new at Music123.com.

http://music123.com/Guitars/Guitar-A...

The head alone will cost you 1/2 that. If you can find a decent sounding 4x12 speaker cab locally, you can load it yourself with good speakers. Either Celestions or Eminence would work. However, if you are not up to loading a cab, get the B-52 cab. It is not expensive and sounds decent.

Also, if you do not have a decent basic distortion pedal, get a Boss DS-1

http://youtube.com/watch?v=UKFuwErM2...

Now after you get the new half stack and pedal, try out that Harmony 802. You may be surprised how good that guitar is for punk. If you still feel you need a different guitar, you should have enough money left to buy a used Fender Standard Stratocaster. The MIM Strat is the most commonly sold guitar by Fender right now. It is good enough to gig with. But frankly, I am guessing after getting the half stack and pedal, you are going to be satisfied with how good your Harmony sounds.

later,

$200 for an amp? Really? You're not even close to anything sounding good.

Switch your price range around. $200 for a guitar and $600 for an amp... seriously. For $200, I Don't recommend a new guitar, rather, look into getting new pickups. Think about it.... The guitar doesn't make the sound.... the pickups do. So changing your pickups will account for somewhere between 95% to 99% of your tone (before the amp), the other 1% to 5% comes from the wood type, hardware, fretboard, etc.

Then comes the amp. This is the basis for your entire sound after the guitar. After the amp is the speakers, and trust me, speakers are a VERY important part of your sound. Why have a good amp with crappy speakers?

So, take $150 and buy some good pickups. If you want a heavier, thicker sound go with Seymour Duncan Blackouts with are active pickups. Great for metal, but if you're in a punk band that uses a lot of gain, then these will be good too. Better to have too much gain, and roll back on the volume knob a bit, then to not have enough gain in the first place. If your guitar is setup with single coil pickups, then go with Lace Sensor pickups. Dimarzio makes great pickups as well. This is what I mainly use.

Amps, There are going to be a only a few options for you in this price range that will compete with Vox... although, this depends on the amp they are using. Tube amps will cut through the mix a bit better. I recommend something in the 40 to 60 watt range. Tube amps sound a lot louder than a solid state amp. If you go with a solid state amp, I don't have a suggestion for you, because I haven't kept up on them.

A used Peavey 5150 2x12 combo will be great. It's more of a metal amp, but will do just fine for a punk band, unless you're using a lot of cleans. If you're primarily a distortion/gain player, then it will be fine. This is one of the best Metal amps on the market, and is the cheapest. I would say that it's a top 10 amp for metal, but for the price, it's #1. Used you'll get this for around $600.

I also recommend the combo, because a tube amp needs to be biased to the speaker.... well, the 2x12 is biased already for the speaker it comes with. The head version is 120 watts and will need to be biased to whatever speaker cab you buy. The 2x12 is only 60 watts. Perfect to actually saturate the power tubes a little bit. The Seymour Duncan Blackouts will help overdrive the amp as well.

The new 6505 amps are only a 1x12 combo. I prefer to have at least 2 speakers to push a little more air to help with clarity. Having a huge 4x12 is overkill in most cases, unless you have 2 types of speakers for a difference in tone. So, what you could do is get the 5150 combo 2x12 and later on when you get more cash, you can buy a 2x12 cab, and/or change out the 2 speakers that come with that amp.

Checkout avatarspeakers.com These are great cabs that you can customize yourself, and are great cabs for the price. For punk I would recommend maybe Greenback speakers or G12H30's to help with mids and highs. Then later you can swap out the speakers in the amp for Celestion v30's to help get tighter lows... but you may like the ones they have installed.

So for $150 to $180, upgrade your pickups.
For $600 get a great amp that will hold its resale value

Then get a 2x12 cab, Plan on $400 for this, unless you find a used cab with the same speakers cheaper.

For under $1000 you can have a pro-setup. This is very hard to do.
Oh, and I also recommend a Noise Suppressor if you do use a lot of gain.

- ISP Decimator $75 to $100 (the only one I can recommend and I would buy this before the extra speaker cab)
- MXR 10 band EQ (also the only one I recommend)

EQ and Noise Suppressors... these are 2 things that most guitar players do not have, because they don't do much... but they are 2 things that EVERY guitar player should have to sound professional.

Also, DO NOT GO FOR A 30 WATT LINE 6.... 30 watts from a non-tube amp will not come close for you to hear if you have another guitarist and drummer. Impossible. You really need a minimum 100 watts, and I recommend 150 watts to be the minimum, since most solid state amps state they're 100 watts, but it's split between 2 channels, which equals 100 total watts, or 50 watts per side... still not loud enough for a loud punk band, unless you mic your amp.

Last option, if you have a P.A. system is to get a Iine 6 HD500 or POD x3 Live, and plug direct into the P.A. system.

Also, you're NOT finding a real Gibson under $600. Sorry. Also, in the future, you can ALWAYS swap out your nice pickups and drop them in any of your future guitars.

Based on your style of music and your budget I would definantly recommend getting a Gibson guitar and a Line 6 amp. I have a Gibson SG and a 30 watt Line 6. The combination of the two sounds so professional and it was not that expensive.