I have a Peavey Max 125 amp for my bass, and a Crate GX15 for my 6-strings. While I love the Peavey, I'm not all that satisfied with the Crate.

In considering others, I've kinda narrowed it down to either a Line 6 15 amp, or a Marshall 15 amp, but I hear good things about the Orange practice amps. Back when I had my full rig, I ran a Boss Super Overdrive pedal into Mosh-all JCM 900 and had the exact sound I wanted. To replicate that, I now have the crate fed by a Line 6 Floor Pod. Some days it rages, some days not so much. I figure the difference from good to bad has to be the Crate, since the floor pod should, in theory, always sound the same regardless of humidity, ambient temp, etc.

So the question is, does anyone own any of these other practice amps and if so, what are your pros and cons?

For Examples of my sound, listen to these two old tracks:

https://soundcloud.com/iron1/scab-despair

https://soundcloud.com/iron1/scab-in-si ... d-in-death

(I plan to use these two sounds as two different guitar tracks on my new stuff - the bass on each track is by different guys)

I might suggest the Line 6. A friend uses one for a practice amp and he loves it. Great for recording scratch tracks and sounds great in general. Run your pedals through it and should sound good for your desired tone.

If you want a practice amp that doesn't discolour the tone from your effects/pedals/whatnot, go for a Vox, any Vox.

any Peavey Vypyr is great

Anybody see this deal? Seems pretty slick...

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Line-6-Tota ... 1995766.gc

I have a Vox VT80+. It's a "modeling" amp, that is supposed to simulate any number of "famous" amp sounds.

After messing around with those settings for awhile, with great dis-satisfaction, I figured out how to make it operate as a standard amplifier.

It's a nice-sounding metal practice amp. I definitely recommend it. Just turn off all the silly pre-sets. Reasonably priced, and solid.

I use my full amp heads for anything serious, but I like my little Vox VT80+ for standard practicing.

I agree with this. I have a 15W and it's great. You might want to go with a 30W for extra volume, better quality at high volumes, and more effects, but it'll cost $200 instead of the $100 that the 15W costs.

I got the 75 version, which is a lot more than needed for apartment use...
Works great for smaller shows tho. But I still use it for recordings with a bit of ease on the volume controls...

I'm thinking about getting a 40 watt tube, about how loud is that? As far as comparing it to a 75 watt solid state that I have now.

A 40 watt tube amp is LOUD. Definitely not bedroom levels. I use a 50 watt head for all gigs. If you are going the tube route, I have heard good things about the Blackstart Ht-5 head. Pair it with a 1-12 and it would sound great, though even that would be kind of loud.