I'm not particularly looking for something that old, though it does sound like a decent amp from my recent(pastfiveminutes)research. I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with the Peavey bandit 112 now. 80 watts, and it costs 380 online or off(now that I have checked)so its better that I can make sure the amp is in good working order before I buy it.

That would probably be a half stack. Two 15's in a cabinet with an amp head on top. You sure it wasn't a bass amp? Most guitar amps would have 4 12's long before 2 15's.

That fender FM212R is the fender amp I was speaking of, but I'm VERY paranoid about buying things off of the internet. If I could find it in a local shop I would get it in a heartbeat, but I don't know of any local shops that carry fender amps.


EDIT: And that Roland is just waaayyyyy to expensive. I don't need a lot of built in efx, I just bought an digitech RP200A pedal.

Jotdaniel wrote:

I'm looking for a decent sized combo amp right now(75-100 watts)and I'm wondering if anyone has any recommendations. Right now its between ordering a 100 watt fender combo for 300 dollars(internet, unsure of actual quality, but it is fender, and buying an 80 watt Peavey Bandit 112(about 400 dollars with tax).

Well, before buying it, what style of music are you interested in playing? Also, where will you be playing? If you're just looking for something to jam with at your house, 100 watts might be a little loud.

Secondly, if you ARE looking for a really loud amp, you shouldn't bother with a solid-state amp. Go tube. I know from experience that solid-state amplification with distortion sounds horrible when it's loud.

I have a fender frontman, 40 watt amp, and it is a pretty cool amp. When you buy fender though, you're mostly buying a brand name. A lot of people assume that fender and gibson stuff is better just because of the name. For the most part, you're just buying the name. The quality really isn't much better.

I am looking to replace my amp soon, I'm either going with a rack (preamp+poweramp seperate) or with a stack. Currently, I have a 100 watt, Gibson L5 combo. It's kind of old, and I need to take it in for a tune up. It sounds good though. It has two channels, one "simple" and one "complex." The simple channel has a 3 band EQ, and the complex channel has a 3 band EQ, plus a few other tone controls, and reverb. It has a built in compressor you can turn on or off too. There is no distortion though. Let me know if you're interested.

I'd still advise you not waste money on a 100-watt solid state amp, depending on the type of music you play. I play alot of metal, and it just sounds like [expletive deleted]. It gets extremely muddy at loud volumes, where tube amps actually sound BETTER at loud volumes. I guess if you don't use much distortion, it wouldn't be that bad.

In any case, you should always try it before you buy it. If you order online, see if you can find the same amp at a music store and try it out.

Jotdaniel wrote:

I most definately will try out the amp before I buy it. I'm currently looking at the Peavey bandit 112, it has what peavey calls "transtube" technology, or whatever; supposed to sound more like a tube amp. I will see how it sounds. It also has a powered speaker out for a peavey made extention speaker, which almost doubles the power.


If tube amps didn't cost about twice as much I would look into it, but my budget is very limited(essentially I have 100 dollars and whatever my dad is willing to put into it).

Type of music though is probably going to be anywhere from completely clean to(if I have my way)very, very distorted. Anyway, if the amp sounds bad, I wont get it, so its pretty simple there.

Cool. Just keep in mind alot of amps claim to be tube amps, or sound like them, but they aren't/don't. I've heard of people buying "hybrid" amps that have a single pre-amp tube. When they took that tube out, the amp sounded exactly the same!

You might want to look into something with a lower wattage. You might be able to get a better bang for you buck that way. If you want something to jam around with a band, 60 watts is more than enough to get over the drummer. I regret getting a 100 watt amp. I was using a tiny amp, and I had no real idea of how much wattage I needed to be "loud." I figured I needed 100 watts, because that seemed to be the standard for most performers. I never turn my amp past 3 or 4, 5 when I'm really cranking my amp. So just consider that factor first. If you are on your budget, you might want to trade off wattage for a higher quality amp. I would also check out the used department. I know alot of people who buy their gear and such off ebay with no problem. I don't know anybody who has gotten burned, but the risk is still there. There are a couple of 60 watt peavey 5150 combos goin on ebay pretty cheap. One is at 270 now with a day left. Anyway, I would think for 300 dollars you could get a decent tube combo.

Those crates sound pretty good for how cheap they are. My cousin has a half stack and it sounds good, but I don't know what model it is. He got the whole thing for like, 500 dollars at guitar center. Logically, a combo would be cheaper.

Jotdaniel wrote:

Problem is I'm going to have to compete with whatever my other guitarist buys

If you go with the high quality low power models he'll be able to beat the snot out of you in terms of power. Like Ebon said however, he's never going to turn his up past 6.
If you go for the powerful but lower quality models you'll be able go as high as him, but you're going to sound crap next to him.
What you've got to do is figure out how high you'll need to go. Then don't look at anything that can't go that high. After that go through what's left and figure out which one sounds the best.