Hi, well im looking for a good amp for death/thrash stuff.
I dont care if is SS or Tube, also my price range is about 100-600 usd.
Im on a band also so i need that the amp have good volume when i play it with the drummer and also good for live situations
At the moment i want a combo but also i would like to have a half stack (with a 2x12 cab)
Please dont recommend me some expensive stuff (Mesa/Boogie, Engl and some others) at the moment i dont have too much money, also i was thinking about a Peavey 6505 combo 1x12 but i dont know if is good for what i need (as i sayed above)

Thanks In Advance

Used gear is your friend when you have a limited budget.

A few of the common recommendations for something like this:
Peavey Special 212 combo ($250-300 used) - you can plug a 4x12 cabinet into this for more loudness.
Ampeg SS150 head (not sure on the price, these are great death metal amps)
Peavey 5150 ($600ish used, but you'll need a cabinet)
Marshall Valvestate (some of these are good, some aren't so good)
Roland Cube (1x12 combo, there are a few versions)

As the used gear i can go with it, the problem is that i dont have chance to buy by ebay or something like that (i dont have paypal)
and as the Roland Cube and Valvestate, they can go at high volumes that can i play with the drummer and have good distortion for what i need?

SS can be great when you don't have a lot of $ for amp maintenance; tube amps are cool, but they're fussy like a sports car. High-gain amps burn up tubes. Tubes can be an expensive habit. It sucks blowing a fuse 2nd song of your set.

Check out solid state amps from Randall and Laney. Loud, cheap, reliable, and voiced for metal.

check out bugera amps, if you can. especially their 6262. Fucking amazing amp, I bought my head for 500 bucks brand new, shipped. 120 all tube watts of amazing sound. They had some quality issues before 2009, but they fixed that stuff now, and they're golden.

I think the same about the SS amps, tubes sounds good but i dont have enough money to maintain one.
And for Randall and Laney which ones do you recommend?
I was thinking some time a ago about a Ibanez TBX and a Randall Rx120
And about the Bugera really i liked the 6260, also the price it was very good, but as i mentioned i dont have enough $$ to maintain a tube amp

I bought my 6505 in late 2009 and I still haven't changed tubes on it. Still sounds great!

Although I have heard that Bugera amps have improved in quality, I have still heard of people having problems with more recent ones.

5150/6505 amps are pretty much immortal though, plus they sound great. You really can't go wrong with one.

This. If you can get your hands on one, it will sound perfect and last forever.

i think im gonna move to choose a Randall i like those amps, but the SS of them are good?

From what I've heard, it's the solid state Randalls that actually sound good, but there's nothing wrong with their tube amps.

yeah, anyone opinions about the Randall RX120 amp?

If you're set on a Randall, get a Cyclone.

and for starting out a Line 6 2x12 amp would be good? Or i should go for a Peavey Vypyr

Anything but a Line 6 amp is a better choice.

Marshall JCM900. Very great Thrash/heavy metal amp!

Here's mine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfoZqq0Z4f0

http://soundcloud.com/jasperpost/hot-ro ... das-priest
http://soundcloud.com/jasperpost/trash-big-4
http://soundcloud.com/jasperpost/too-ho ... -ufo-cover
http://soundcloud.com/jasperpost/bkp-nailbomb-demo1
http://soundcloud.com/jasperpost/glpswb-eppups-jcm900

I own several tube amps, but bought the Randall RX120 head specifically for the purpose of having a high gain head that isn't a temperamental tube eater.

Currently the other guitarist in my band is using it on semi-permanent loan (he fried his Line 6 Spider II head - that amp sounded great but proved to be extremely unreliable).

I'm using a slightly older Laney GH120 ss head.

I love both amps for playing live. They are loud and mean and require zero maintenance.

The JCM 900 sounds good, but at the moment i dont have any chance to get much money to afford one or a good tube amp. So i would go for SS market, i like the Demolition Hammer or old school death metal sound. But I think i would go for a Vypyr or Spider 2x12 one, for this moment, then i would go for a better amp.

JCM900's are pretty cheap. At least here in the Netherlands. And I think you can get a used combo for under 600 USD in Amerika too. Very underrated amp.

JCM900 combos can be a good amp, but you will often need to do some work on them to get an ideal sound. Sound varies between generations of these amps because of some of the parts they changed, and it's pretty common to find them modified. The commonality of modding Marshall amps is good, because there are tons of resources, schematics, and knowledgeable people on forums dedicated to this, but it's also common to find amps that people have modified for the worse, or non-ideal for what you want.

If you're going for a JCM900, be prepared to change tubes and bias range resistors. EL34s generally provide the basic sound that people want with these, but from the factory those have been paired with a few different bias resistors, making it difficult/impossible to adjust to the sound you want sometimes. I'm not sure if they ever came stock with 6L6s, but I've seen a few of them with those and it's another thing you'll need to be prepared to do some research and some work.

They came a lot with 6L6's. Mine has them too. I think there are as many 6L6 JCM900's as EL34 900's.
Mine's standard and sounds great. It has my personal ideal sound. See the soundcload links above. Especcially the Judas Priest - Hot rockin sound I made is the sound I like.

That's the thing, there isn't one standard, there are at least three or four different factory setups, so someone could easily pick up a used one and it will be distinctly different from yours. It's important to be aware of stuff like this, especially when looking for used gear. I wish I could say that I knew more about these, but I don't know specifics. Fortunately there's a lot of info about them.

It's also important to know how much variation there can be within one model name, never mind one brand. I disliked some brands/models of different things for many years without knowing how many differences in these things there were. There can be a world of difference between a Les Paul Standard through a JCM900 and another LP Standard through another JCM900.

But isn't that the case with most amps? The JCM800 series for example excist of two-channel versions, single-channels. They have different circuits depending on the year etc.
There can be difference, but I think all standard JCM900's are way better than most cheap SS amps.

Since you mention considering Peavey Vypyr, I can just mention that I think it's really awesome. I have a 5150 head but I bought a Vypyr to keep as a practise amp and I really think it's great. definitely get a Vypyr over a Spider if it's between those two.

Edit: I've actually had a Spider also, and I like the Vypyr ALOT more.

Hey one thing, i got at the moment a Behringer V-Tone GM108 its a good amp and i think it have a very good distortion on it, i saw the 2x12 of that is the GMX212 http://www.musiciansfriend.com/amplifie ... itar-combo) and i want to know if is good too.

Avoid Behringer like the plague. Bugera's are alright, but for the price of that Behringer, you can get a lot of awesome stuff. To those that are saying don't buy Line 6, I agree somewhat. The Spider series sucks, but if you can find a Line 6 HD147 or Vetta in your price range, I would go for it. Those are killer sounding amps.

alright, well in one hand i hear that the spider is good and on other that the vypyr is good too. mhh this make hard my decision, i need a good one that can give me a good old school Death Metal sound or like Demolition Hammer sound

Vyper, no 2 ways about it.

The Peavey will do that much better. It also sounds better when you mic it, and it'll be easier to mix and less muddy. Some (maybe all) Spiders have a line out for recording, but it's a really dry tone - if you like the dry, digital tones of djent bands, go for it, otherwise I'd avoid it. It's not easy to get a great tone out of a Spider, the digital presets are mostly a waste and sound like ass, and you'll have to scroll through dozens of them to get to the 2-3 selections that sound OK, then you'll need to play around with the other knobs for a while.

All of this refers back to this advice:

And the 100w 2x12 version can be good for rehearsals with drums and some gigs?

Yes for rehearsals, no for shows.

Looking at the prices of new stuff on GuitarCenter/MusiciansFriend (same thing), all of these new combo amps are overpriced for what they are.

Peavey
$99 Vypyr 15w 1x8
$199 Vypyr 30w 1x12
$399 Vypyr 100w 2x12
$399 Valveking 50w 1x12 (tube)
$349 Bandit 80w 1x12

Line 6
$99 Spider 15w 1x8
$199 Spider 30w 1x12
$299 Spider 75w 1x12
$399 Spider 120w 2x10
$499 Spider 150w 2x12


Look for used gear. Once again, don't buy a Line 6. Here's what you can get for less than the new 100w combos:
This is a steal at this price: http://www.guitarcenter.com/In-Store-Us ... 1300024415
Here's an inactive MF page for the model that I use: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/amplifie ... itar-combo
^It's loud enough for some gigs, and you can plug in an external cab and it'll get even louder. You should be able to find this for $250-300 used, and they're very durable.

+1 If you want to spend 400 dollars on a new 100w vypyr you'd better go for a second hand (tube) amp for that price.
People say tube-amps aren't suitable for at home, but there's a volume knob on it.
And my experience is that a tube-amp even on low volume still sounds better than a cheap tranny/modelling amp.

If you want a tube amp but need to keep the volume down at home, get a cheap attenuator. I've heard that this is the best you'll get for $20 shipped: http://www.amazon.com/Volume-Box-Attenu ... B0046QEVS6

One thing to remember for tube amps, especially at home in a multi-use space, is that a 50w or 100w amp can heat up a room a lot. A tube amp and a computer can heat up a room a lot - two or three people, a desktop computer, and a 100w amp generate a lot of heat.

Regarding transistor/modelling amps - solid state transistor amps like Peavey Bandits/Specials and Ampeg's SS series are amazing amps, while nearly every digital "modeling" amp a la Line 6 is a piece of shit. Don't mix those up.

Peavey Windsor series is a good way to go. My guitarist got a 100 watt half stack for $350 though a Guitar Center special a few years back. You can still find them pretty cheap. They sound great, are durable, and full of gain. He's got his gain turned up pretty low, as our band isn't a high-gain band and it is at a similar amount of an 800 cranked...I'd actually love to hear the gain maxed out on it one day...

I got a bugera 6260 halfstack in my studio, which I originally bought for the thrashband I was playing in at the time.
It doesnt sound as great as my engl fireball (great metal amp) but it is pretty fucking good, especially considering the price.

http://www.drsatan.nl/nieuw3.mp3 http://www.drsatan.nl/nieuw4.mp3

those are 2 songs I'm writing ATM.. just one shure in front of the cab, didnt really pay attention to settings and placement or whatever but it already sounds pretty good.

its got plenty of gain, I usually dont turn it up beyond 12 o' clock. most high gain amps got too much gain anyways.. DONT get a line6 spider, those fizzy ultra gain metal amps usually sound shit mixed in with the entire band.

ok, i dont mind buying tube or solid state, as can do the sound i want. But i got a doubt if i want to go for a tube amp, which wattage would be good for band rehearsals and maybe little gigs? 50w?

yeah I think 50 should be enough.. my fireball is 60 and is loud enough to cut through live drums and all that stuff.


solid state is probably more durable if you plan on taking it with you to gigs and stuff, tube amps generally have a much better tonal quality.

Solid states need a few more watts in order to be heard properly with live drums in the same room, I think about 100 watts, and a minimum of 2 speakers for both solidstate or tube.

alright so 100w for SS and 50w or maybe a little more for tubes.
I prefer go first with SS as for tubes i dont know i think its a lot of money in maintenance. At the moment i only want for mostly rehearsals and little gigs. Also if there 2 speakers can be 2x10 and 2x12? or only 2x12?

2x12 is much more common, but there are a handful of 2x10 amps. Some of the vintage-styled amps from Vox and Laney are 2x10, plus some shitty Line 6 amps. There are also some 4x10 cabinets, but the 4x12 are by far the most popular. I always assumed that the larger speakers were better for tuning down, and the chunky low-mids of metal.