Amps Under $500 | A Tech's Perspective | Part 1 of a Series

The question I get asked more than any other is what amp or apps I really recommend. People see the amplifiers. I point out flaws in things that catch fire. They are common failure points. I know what

amps

on the market I really recommend and I'm usually just asked, hey, what an empty recommendation. I don't know if you're playing country jazz, blues, heavy metal, whatever. I don't know your budget. I don't know the volume of your stage. needs so I'm going to do a

series

on these and this first video as you can see from the title has

amps

under 500 so to start I did what almost anyone would do nowadays I went to reverb now.

I do not endorse Reverb or any

part

icular listing I show later in this video. I do not endorse those sellers. I went to Reverb because I can show you new prices and use prices. You can see the shipment. We'll talk about some of those details later. new verses used and shipping considerations, it gives a good overview of what's on the market, it's what most people would do so it will be the big guys like sweetwater, it will be mom and pop shops and it will be individual sellers so I went to reverb and finally I clicked on pedals and amps and then I went to guitar combos and that's important because most people in this price range need a combo so I went to all the listings.

I don't care about the brand or the filtering I decided on. go from 225 to 500, that's a pretty good range, anything below 225 isn't going to be worth it, that's just reality and then I also went to ships and ships from the continental US, which will be the US. US Pacific, but you know, just because of your range or in your own region, the prices will be more or less comparable from country to country, like that PV classic 50, not anymore, more on that later, let's see that black star ht club 40. It is one of the most popular amplifiers on the market and I will simply add that to our list for comparison.

Now let's get into the apps I actually chose for this list, so after setting up those filters there are a little over 3000 apps to choose from. I didn't review all the 3,000 lists I made. I went through the first 20 pages or so and started seeing that they were the same amps over and over again, but after going through all of that I found seven amps that I had direct experience with. We'll talk about that. In a moment these seven applications are not the seven amps that I recommend, these are the seven amps to consider and I will limit them depending on your needs.

Some of you may be surprised to see that two of the seven amps I chose are solid-state modeling applications. the boss katana and the lions Prices The Black Star HD Club 40 is a very popular amplifier model in this price range and the next up to a thousand dollars many players are choosing the Black Star, we will see if it makes the cut. This list is also interesting in another way. In this way, the two shapers, the katana and the Lion Six catalyst, can be purchased new for less than five hundred dollars, which could be the 50-watt or 100-watt katana, which could be the 60-watt, 100-watt or 200 watts, all under the 500 brand. new with warranty sent to you, we will talk about the pros and cons of modeling in a moment on the tube side, each of these applications is a used list and that is good and bad as we go in, but you know.

Each of these apps was over five hundred dollars, some of them around a thousand dollars new, but you can use them for less than 500 or just 500. Typically those amps are sold used and the apps weigh a lot. very rarely free shipping, sometimes there is no shipping available at all so it would be local pickup only, which is not necessarily a bad thing if you live near an area where, if you live in an area where you can actually have local listings if you are in middle of Montana, it may not be great, but many of us have access to local markets, so if one is in a town or just another

part

of town, you can go and do a local pickup, which means that you can play. amp before you buy it, so it's good for local pickup.

You can inspect it visually. You can reproduce it. You can ask questions. I recommend you try looking inside the cabinet of a used valve application. Look at the board if possible, this is not always the case. easy with the hot rod it's easy with the blues jr it's easy custom it's easy the marshall and black star is not any of the reverb lists i saw for any of these apps and i went through a few dozen for each amp model trying to find gut shots, no one shows the inside of these apps and I'll talk about some things to look for particularly in hot rod and blues in a moment, so this list sorted into shapers versus tubes is a more useful way to look at things is repairability so here I have the amps that are repairable and for those I call limited repair and notice that the black star has changed columns, he is no longer together with his two friends, he ended up in the limited repair column with the things solid state, what do I mean by limited repair? the boss the lion six the black star they sell a lot of features at a very low price one of the ways they do it is they have very cheap boards with what are called surface mount components on them and they are very easy to manufacture they are very difficult to repair at the component level they do not do component level repairs on these under warranty if you have a problem with one of these while it is under warranty the authorized service center will change the entire board, it costs the company less to change a board than to pay you someone to fix what's wrong with any individual board, so the whole concept behind manufacturing them to bring them to market at a certain price is fine.

The board isn't going to last forever, but that's okay, we'll throw you a new one and that's actually okay when the amp is under warranty once the warranty expires. Can you get the plate? You can get the Black Star plates. Uh, I don't think so? You can get the Boss Katana boards unless you are a Boss authorized service center and then once it is out of warranty you will have to pay a lot more for it and there is another problem that will affect you and that is a concept called end of life. end of product life, so right now somewhere in a warehouse there is a bunch of black star hd club 40 main boards, will they still be there and available for sale in five years?

Well, companies still have replacement components for these boards in five years ten. years, Fender has screwed a lot of players over the last 15 years with their various modeling apps xd where the dsp card dies well, they stopped making those dsp cards because they came up with a new model and then you have this old app that I just can't get the board unless you buy another amp and cannibalize it so with katana boss line six black star two there is a certain window where you can use this app and you will have support and once that window expires the amp may or may not be serviceable, so if you know that going in, you say, "Okay, I'm going to buy that 100 watt catalyst or the 100 watt katana for 450 and if I get three to four years out of that, that is what I need". and then I'll get something else so it's not terrible, it's less terrible on the katana and the catalyst that are under 500 new, the black star is over 500 new, you know, you do the math on what I would say about these amplifiers now I would recommend the marshall dsl40c over the black star.

It's better built, it's repairable. They have very similar sounds available, but you know, I can't tell you which amp to buy. We will talk more about the individual models later in the repairable field. All these. tube amps, except, you know all tube amps on the right, not the black star, they are all designed to have component level repair if a resistor fails, that resistor can be replaced if something goes wrong, you can fix if you take care of your amp, if you service it or just have it checked out by a

tech

nician, get it every two or three years, these things can last more than 10, 15, 20 years, some longer than others, we will talk about the strengths and weaknesses of the individual. amps later I will say that it is good that the hot rod and blues junior are repairable because they always need repair, that said once certain repairs are done on those two models they can last for decades, they just aren't.

I'm inclined to do it because they come from the factory. Here are the pros and cons of solid state modeling applications as I see them and some of you will be surprised if I tell you that there are advantages, but there definitely will be in 2022 at this price. Below 500, a solid state modeling application can be a very good option for many people. What I want to talk about here, you can read the rest of this. I don't need you to read all this. You can pause it if you need to take your time and if you have any questions that I'm not going to address here, put them in the comments, but it's low cost per watt so I have it in parentheses.

It is now a true solid state that always gives you more power output for the same price. If you get 450 you can buy the 15 watt ac 15 model or the 40 watt marshall dsl 40 or you can get the modern 100 or 200 watt solid state modeling apps so if your only need is to be as loud as possible for so little money. Solid state has an advantage that in real world use there is not a big difference between a 25 watt amp and a 50 watt amp or a 50 watt amp and a 100 watt amp. If you double the power, you don't double the output anymore.

We'll talk about that later, uh, that could be a different video, but just because you have a 100 watt solid state amp doesn't mean it's going to be much louder than a 60 watt tube amp, etc., etc. , people don't understand how high 15 watts is. That may be why the bluetooth junior and the ac 15 are still on this list along with the 100 watt and 200 watt amps, they are loud enough to play with the drummer on the pros and cons of tube applications and can Some of you may be surprised to hear me. Say there are disadvantages, but there definitely are.

You can read this. I don't need to read everything. Pause it if necessary. If you have any questions about anything here, put them in the comments. You now have a longer life. In general, and at this price, a tube amp can have a longer lifespan because it is serviceable, and since they are generally better built, they have to be because transformers for tube amps weigh a lot, so if you have a heavy transformer , you need a stronger one. chassis that chassis with its transformers weighs more, so you should have a stronger cabin in applications that are well made, that is true, it is not the case in all areas of blues jr, but we will get to the point that the classic sounds are a little confusing. a little vague, a little subjective, that's why I have it in quotes, but the more you play, the more you realize that not only does a deluxe '60s reverb not sound at all like a deluxe '50s one, that it doesn't sound like a 50s basement, which doesn't sound at all.

It doesn't sound like a j team 45 it doesn't sound like a super martial leader. You will also notice that the deluxe reverb doesn't sound like the vibrolux reverb doesn't sound like the pro reverb doesn't sound like the super reverb and what the modeling app says this is a 60's fender sound. It may be Pretty good, but may not be the sound you're looking for. If you really want that sound, if you really want to sound like Danny Garden, you need to have a vibro x reverb. You may sound pretty good with the deluxe reverb, but you won't have exactly the same thing.

Modeling applications have not reached that point. They can get you to the point where it sounds like you're playing some kind of 60s. Mudguards, at least at this price, we're ignoring the Kempers, the pros, the profiles, the drives and all that sub-500 talk, so you will have a clean fender and it may be okay, but not necessarily. the ideal, simple, best, all-around sound support circuit, more tone per watt, another one I have in quotes, there is a misconception that tube watts are stronger than solid state, that's not It's what happens with a watt, it's a wad, it's a measurement of power, what's real is that if you honestly measure the output of an amplifier, you're measuring at the beginning of distortion or clipping and a solid state amplifier a Once you clip it, it's useless, it sounds horrible, so if it says 60 watts, that's as loud as it gets.

It doesn't sound horrible, a tube amp does, however, sound good past the clipping point, in fact, many amps that we perceive as clean inThey're actually clipping and distorting slightly and that makes it sound very exciting to us, so if I measure a tube amp amp, I might say okay, at the beginning of the distortion it's 16.5 watts, which might be four or five on volume knob, you turn it up, that amp can put out 25 to 30 watts at its peaks at most, but you can't sell that amp as a 30 watt amp because you have to meter at the beginning of the clip, so what happens is that You set up a tube amp and a solid state at the same volume as the solid state amp is clean, it doesn't sound as interesting to our ears as the tube. amplifier at the same volume that has distortion, we simply do not perceive it as distortion, it is simply richer harmonically, more interesting to the ear and certain frequencies are accentuated the way we like, so the perception is that the more interesting sound has a slight distortions are stronger and grab our attention more, that's how our brains are wired as modeling applications get better and better and even at this price they are getting to the point where this is less of an argument that perception of tube watts versus solid state watts will become less important at certain price points; it may not even exist anymore in 10 years, they will probably have the model under control, it won't be a problem. problem, but it's something to keep in mind, so a 15 watt tube amp can be a great choice over a 50 watt solid state modeling application, especially now that we have to keep the volume down if you have a 100 watt solid state amp, but you should keep the master volume at three you're right there where the ac 15 will be you're right there where the blues junior would be in fact the blues jr ac 15 can potentially be louder than the 100 amp watts with the master volume at three is just something to keep in mind.

The other thing I want to talk about here is that they generally hold their value, especially if you buy them used and, uh, they're harder to beat. If you have a fancy reverb, you won't worry about new ones. The deluxe reverb version has USB 3. You won't worry if the new version has firewire or plugins or an app that lets you control it from your phone. It's a luxury reverb, you got it. To be quite satisfied at some point you can change the speaker, but the application will adapt to your needs. A good tube amp that really does a certain thing well will always be useful.

Ok let's move on to the individual applications to consider here let's start with the modeling applications now I have no preference for the line six versus the boss in fact of the amps on this list the line six catalyst

series

is the only one which I have not had in the bank, they are simply too new, but in terms of construction. In terms of quality and longevity, it's a choice between the line six and the boss stuff, either can be fine for a certain period of time, but you know, if you need something that's very flexible and lightweight, etcetera, it takes all your boxes and you spend four hundred dollars and you get four or five years of that, four hundred dollars a year is about the same or less than what we pay for Netflix, etcetera, etcetera, it can be a good investment, just know that it is.

It's not a long term investment as to which model is better, that's going to come down to which ones you like, the features of which ones you like the sounds, so look at one, play around, look at all the specs, do some research, do whatever. informed. decision you can make, I'm not here to say it's good or bad, I'm here to say it's an option at this price that can meet your needs. Warning mtor, as always, next up is the black star, the ht club 40. It is a very popular amplifier today. It makes many of the same promises as modeling apps in that it has many different sounds.

The problem is that it has the same long-term reliability problems as some much less expensive modeling applications. You won't get it new under warranty at this price, you'll use it, which may be towards the end of its life, or you can buy one that's been in someone's house for six months and is still new, you'll have to take that decision. I can't really recommend the Black Star because it's not reliable, it's no good, it's much more expensive than the modellers, it costs about the same as the Marshall has similar features to the Marshall and the Marshall is a much better built app so let's Eliminate the black star from the list that brings us to the hot rod deluxe.

Now I chose the hot rod deluxe versus the hot rod deville or the blues deluxe or the blues deville for two. Reasons number one: The hot rod deluxe costs less than the various hot rod devilles, so it meets our price of 500 and under. Number two, I honestly think the deluxe circuit sounds better than the deville circuit. There are differences and the hot rod circuit sounds better. than the blues circuit that says with any of these, know that you're primarily buying a clean channel overdrive channel that you can use but it's not going to give you the sound of a marshall, it's not going to give you a great high gain sound, it's just no, it makes a very good clean sound, that clean sound can be very loud, it has an abrupt transition from nothing too high, you can control it a bit by using a 12a y7 instead of a 12ax for v1 and there are people on eBay and Reverb who will tell you they will sell a little box that you plug into shipping and returns and it adds a master volume to the app and that's actually fine, they should have made it from the factory, it's just a little volume control that you put in the effects loop and it allows you to have a master volume if you need a clean, loud, really big sound and want it to be tube, the hot rod is a very popular choice, know that the hot rod deluxe, like the devilles, like all blue amps, are prone to certain common failure modes. one, the filter caps leak, the filter caps don't last long, you will have to change them at some point number two, the low voltage supply on these amps gets very hot and burns the board to the point where the traces they can get damaged and the pads can lift off the board, this can be fixed but it is something you should know if you are going to play one in person because you are considering one, ask to remove the back panel and look in this area which you can see in this video .

Here, where you can see the discoloration from the other side, you can see if the lids are leaking. If they do, you may not want to purchase that application or if you are just starting out, you can take it to a repairman and have it fixed with new caps. and the low voltage supply was properly replaced with new off-board mounted components, the major failure points of this series can be eliminated and the application can last for decades if you want to do it, that's easily $350 assuming there's nothing else . There is a bug with the app so your 500 purchase becomes an 800 amp if you want it to last, for that reason I don't recommend the hot rod deluxe.

There are people who will think I'm crazy and do it anyway. I hope you're right and I'm wrong, but I wouldn't bet on it, so let's move on to the blues junior, another very popular option now that the blues junior also has its heat problems, the amp has a non-adjustable fixed bias and the fender circuit has is set to stun, it completely kills the el84s, the heat generated by the two hot tubes damages the tube ferrules where they are mounted, it damages the board in that area, the tracks and pads can be damaged, it can have a very Expensive, here's an excerpt from one, it's not an uncommon place where someone tried to fix it and made it worse.

I had to end up replacing the entire board at the same time. It has 15 watts. It's quite noisy. It has a master volume. It has a good and clean sound. It has a nice light overdrive sound. People love these amps. They are the worst amps on this list in terms of being rugged. They have a very flimsy plastic input connector that breaks the potentiometer shafts. They are not actually connected to the chassis. They wobble, they're just little pieces. plastic, I think when the blues junior came out 20 years ago it was a very good choice, I don't think it's a good choice anymore, like hot rods, these things can be fixed, the amp can be upgraded a little, but you.

It's easy to spend 200 to do it, maybe more if you need a new board. Next is the custom vox ac 15, the c1. There are two versions of this amplifier, the c1 and the c1x. The x just means it has a blue alnico speaker the c1 without the x means it has a dollar, usually in this price range you will get the one with the dollar. I found an auction on eBay where someone had listed a blue Weber dog for the same price. period, there are good options out there, but the dollar sounds pretty good. I'm talking about the newer custom series, not the slightly older custom classic series.

I know it's confusing. the custom classic ac15 was not a very good application. the custom classic ac30. it was pretty good the 15 not so much with the new custom series the 15 is the same app more or less as its big brother it just has less tubes, different transformers as a result and it doesn't have the effects loop that its big brother has which he said It is a very good sounding, very reliable application for its price. I would say that as far as build quality goes, it is the best built app on this list. It is the most resistant PCB.

Everything at this price is PCB. It is well designed. not prone to systematic failure, you may encounter a poorly protected resistor at some point, it's relatively easy to change them, it's not likely to catch fire, it's loud enough to play with the drummer, it has a master volume for places where you don't . I want to be too loud and if you are not familiar with the amp it may surprise you. They're not just neat little jingling beetles. I love the Beatles. I love some clean, jangly things. All the sounds you can get are pretty versatile. It is not. as versatile as the marshall not as versatile as the shapers not designed to be makes two or three really good sounds and does them well has built in reverb which is pretty good has built in tremolo which is pretty good doesn't have an effects loop and The Blues Jr are the only amps on this list that don't have an effects loop.

It accepts pedals very well in front, although of all the tube amps on this list, the ac-15. comes closest to sounding like its heritage the marshall sounds good has cosmetics reminiscent of the older marshals does not sound like the older marshalls the two fenders do not sound like historic fender models although they are old enough in some ways it is their own historic model, but you can't sound like a deluxe reverb or a twin with a hot rod or a junior blues; You can sound very similar to old boxes with the AC-15, now the AC-15 in its current form.

Not a historic model, the old JMI era AC-15s of the 60's were a very different amp with a pinto channel and a tremolo channel. The current custom AC15 model is actually just a 15 watt version of an AC30. Both amps have a bit more gain. than the original circuit that inspired them, but they sound pretty good and for the price, if you don't need a lot of different sounds, you don't need an effects loop and you don't need this, you don't need that. I just want an app that sounds great, it can be hard to beat and the latest contender here is the Marshall dsl40c.

This is a very versatile application, it has very good cleans, it has very good crunch tones, it has very good overdrives, it has very good distortions. tube apps on this list this is the only amp that would make you happy if you play metal but you can also play jazz through it now it will be the ultimate high gain sound no, not for less than 500 used but it is a very good sound and you have a very good clean sound, a very good overdrive sound, etc., you only have very basic effects within the app, but you do have an effects loop, so while it is not as versatile as the shapers on this list , it will last much longer than them, you may prefer the sounds and you can always add effects before application or in the effects loop if you are playing a top 40 concert or in some other situation where you have many covers. and you need to get many different sounds, the marshall, black star and shapers will be the most attractive to you.

Let's take the black star off the list because you have all the disadvantages of a tube amp and all the disadvantages. of the solid state amps into one with the black star that leaves you with, say, the line six or the boss or this marshall there's a reason this marshall costs closer to a grand new compared to the new five amps of modeling 500 that you are You will get greater longevity, better build quality and it will not go out of style, so ifYou're really looking for a lot of different sounds at this price, it's a very attractive option.

Personally, I prefer the sounds of the AC-15, but I'm not trying to get a wide range of sounds with a single amp. If you are the dsl40c it can be a very good option and will hold its resale value, so if later you want to get something else, say you know, quote a more authentic version. Marshall, you won't waste your money, while with modeling apps you won't get that money back, you just won't, so here we are, we've reached the end, we have the final contenders, these four abs, the katana and the catalyst the ac-15 and the dsl40c all of these amps are very good options for a fairly reliable amp under five hundred dollars the two tube amps are much more reliable than solid state amps solid state applications cost less, we've discussed all of that now I know that some people are yelling at me what's wrong with this amp?

What's up with that amp? I find that almost everything out there uses PV Classic 50 uses PV Bandits some of the late 80's solid state fenders may be pretty good, I don't have them Time to make a list of why I didn't choose specific applications. Older PVs are aging. They will need pb service as a company is going down. Their parts department is being closed. They have special parts on those amps. Are you likely to do it? I'm not going to be able to get replacements in the future, that's just one, for example number two, unless you're a

tech

guy, you don't know if that amp seems like a very good idea, it's really these four that you are. guaranteed to have a good result the two on the left the new ones will have guarantees the two on the right the tube applications you will probably have to pick them up in person which means you can play them first, in case you should also give it an Inspect as much as possible possible, other people will yell at me in general because I have two modeling applications and two applications with PCBs to get real people, we are talking less than five hundred dollars in 2022.

Things that used to cost three hundred dollars now cost eight hundred dollars the world changes the whole While the next sub-thousand dollar video apps will have a lot more options some apps that will make purists happier some apps that are better built I don't think we'll have modeling apps at that point, we'll talk about why when we get to that video, but for now, if you're looking for an app in 2022 and you have 500 these are four good options maybe all four intrigue you maybe you have no interest in modeling maybe you have no interest in tubes these are good options but again Five hundred dollars is not as much money as many of us think, so the options for getting a good result are relatively limited.

Once we get to the next level under a thousand dollars, there will be a lot more crayons in our box, so look for them soon and if you disagree with me, let the world know in the comments section.