I must admit I don't know much about those amps but Garth Strydom has a Peavey Valveking for sale in the classifieds for a good price and thats what I'd recommend. It sounds great clean and driven and is loud enough for any gig you will ever play. There is some delay when switching between the clean and drive channels, but if you're not needing to switch between the 2 then its great. Both channels sound great to me, if you're planning on using pedals for your distortion then you can always just play on the clean channel and then there won't be any issues with delay between channel switching. A lot of people deem this as metal amps but they sound great with lower gains as well. And if you need a boost for a solo when already on the drive channel that switching is instant.
btw the delay is a design fault, this actual amp is in great condition, I have played on it quite a bit, both at home and in a band situation

I'm assuming you're playing regular guitar through this, not bass?

I don't have any experience with this particular amp, but I can tell you that with 80W you're likely to kill people, even if it is a transistor amp. ?

My personal opinion is, don't go for "Tube emulation," go the whole hog and get a 2nd hand valve amp, but with a much lower wattage... You're likely to find a pretty decent amp for R4k, and I think you'll find the sound much more pleasing...

And I agree with Kalcium's assessment of the Peavey VK112, except I don't have any delay in switching channels with mine :yup:

The Peavey solid-state amps always used to be solid workhorses. The old 2 x 12 Bandit 212 used to be a very popular choice for rockers, metalheads and country players, capable of very loud, punchy cleans and cutting distortion tones. The transtube models were a step up from the old models, getting more of a valve-type response. Unfortunately in recent years the QC has dropped quite a bit though.

BTW, I saw a Classic 30 on CT Gumtree earlier for R4K. Reverb wasn't working (a common problem with Peaveys and usually a simple fix).

VellaJ wrote: I'm assuming you're playing regular guitar through this, not bass?

I don't have any experience with this particular amp, but I can tell you that with 80W you're likely to kill people, even if it is a transistor amp. ?

My personal opinion is, don't go for "Tube emulation," go the whole hog and get a 2nd hand valve amp, but with a much lower wattage... You're likely to find a pretty decent amp for R4k, and I think you'll find the sound much more pleasing...

And I agree with Kalcium's assessment of the Peavey VK112, except I don't have any delay in switching channels with mine :yup:

Go for a small tube amp. Tube amps are a lot louder than solid states.

Reliable, but you'll have to tweek the crap out of it.

Hmmm, it seems like there is a lot more to this than I thought... ?

I was thinking solid state because I will be taking it (not very often) from venue to venue so I figured reliability would be the main attribute of a SS amp.

The other thing is that the local music store is keen to give me credit on a guitar I am selling towards the amp, so going for a new model that he can supply would be best for me. He reckons Laney/Vox is a better brand to look at but I have no idea.

So some more questions then:

1: if the qc on the new Peavey stuff is a little dodge, what would a decent Laney/Vox equivalent be?

2: If tube amps are reliable enough and loud enough to gig with , what is the minimum wattage I should look at, and what make of amp do you guys recommend for punk and metal?

3: What amps are good for heavy distortion and good cleans, bearing in mind that I have multi fx and distortion pedals to cater for the extra effects?

(Im playing guitar through a bass amp as it's the only thing that I can use that's loud enough at practice, it's very muddy...)

Before asking about wattage, tell us what speakers you'd be looking for. If we are talking 100dB/W/m or more (which you'd get with most 12" branded speakers except for Jensens) I'd say 18W is fine. The smaller combos tend to come with not-so-nice speakers which will have much more of an effect on loudness than the wattage. 30-40W tube into a 2x12 with >102dB speakers is seriously awfully loud, just play a Twin or AC30 once and you'll know.

Properly maintained, a good valve amp is, if anything, more reliable than a solid state one. I doubt if any of the new amps will still be gigging at 49 years old the way my Twin is (and I'd lay money on my Twin lasting easily another 49 years). Also valve circuits are the only electronic devices that'll still be working in the event of a nuclear strike. So in the post holocaust world, it'll be the cockroaches, guitar amps and Keith Richards. ?

For me the very real advantages of a modern modelling solid state amp are:
- the flexibility of a variety of tones on tap
- the ability to use it at a wide range of levels from bedroom, through practice room to stage.
- Relatively inexpensive
- Mostly smaller and lighter than valve amps

Valve amps still have the edge tonally for live playing though and are easily far louder than a similar wattage solid state.

I agree with Gearhead - speaker efficiency is of more importance for volume - a cranked AC30 is a hellacious beast thanks to the pair of blues. Hell, when I was playing with an AC15, I had to attenuate it if I wanted to crank it. Granted, for metal and punk you're probably going to be playing a lot louder than I do, so I'd say 30 - 50W valve or 100W solid-state. More if you downtune. Some of the Laney valve amps are worth a look along with the usual suspects - Marshall and Mesa.

*Thread Revival* ?

Well I played my first gig last weekend, and although the mix was better than I was expecting (for the audience), none of us on stage could really hear my maxed out amp above the JCM 800 that our lead guitarist is using. But in the recordings of the gig everything is just about spot on, I'm just a little less loud than what I am in practice.

So, armed with the valuable advice in this thread I shall be visiting my local music store and begin the amp hunting and testing process this week, thanks for the help so far.

I found this, looks like it might do what I need. (I have some multi fx and pedals so I'm not overly concerned about on board effects, it just needs to have a good clean channel really so I can throw my own distortion in there) http://www.bidorbuy.co.za/item/65716445/Marshall_MG102FX_100W_Dual_Combo_Guitar_Amp.html

Thoughts?

G-Man wrote: I found this, looks like it might do what I need. (I have some multi fx and pedals so I'm not overly concerned about on board effects, it just needs to have a good clean channel really so I can throw my own distortion in there) http://www.bidorbuy.co.za/item/65716445/Marshall_MG102FX_100W_Dual_Combo_Guitar_Amp.html

Thoughts?

I haven't played them, but I know Marshall have just brought out the new MG range, which seem to be regarded as much better amps than the old range. I'm also fairly sure they're roughly the same price as the one you've found; I'd suggest checking that out first...

The Peavey Bandit 112 is mighty loud..