The search for the best sub-1000€ guitar amp

[Saapanael]

I’ve been posting in the “guitar pedals” thread for a while but decided that this topic deserves a thread of its own. I’m not going to buy a new amp just yet but I’ve been researching a lot of options for the future. In my search for the perfect guitar amp head that costs less than 1000€, I’ve come up with the following options:

Marshall 2525H Mini Silver Jubilee
I’m looking to upgrade from a Marshall Origin 20 so another Marshall would probably seem “familiar”. This amp has great reviews and is the only one out of the Studio Vintage-Studio Classic-Silver Jubilee 20-watt bunch that has a drive channel. While the Studio Vintage is greatly acclaimed and has excellent cleans based on videos, I’m not interested in cranking the master to defeaning levels in order to get any crunch out of it. Perhaps the Silver Jubilee would help in this regard. EL34 tubes.

ENGL Ironball 20 (or Fireball 25)
The regular version of the Ironball, not the Special Edition. Again, great reviews, more of a metal monster than the Marshall but I can’t even imagine what its clean channel sounds like compared to a 2525H, or how its drive compares to the classic British rock growl. Aesthetically it is pleasing and it has all the basic features necessary in an amp. It has EL84 tubes. Alternatively, the Fireball 25 rocks 6L6 tubes and supposedly has an even more aggressive sound. I wonder how the cleans behave. 6L6 tubes have more headroom, therefore the clean channel should break up later than the Ironball but in practice, I don’t know.

Laney amps (Ironheart IRT60H; GH50R; Supergroup LA30BL)
I don’t know much about these amps but a local retailer sells them at pretty good prices. The Ironheart is a 60-watt amp and should be voiced for metal, while the LA30 is a clean amp that could serve as a pedal platform. If anybody knows anything about Laneys, that would be great. I wonder if they’re much worse than Marshall/ENGL or a hidden gem that many don’t know about.

Marshall 2266 Vintage Modern
A bit of an obscure 50-watt Marshall amp, there isn’t much talk about them. But they seem to be the weapon of choice for many Marshall enthusiasts, and a local online store has this in stock, although it seems to have been discontinued. I played through a Vintage Modern live recently, I believe it was the 100-watt version, but I didn’t have much time to tinker with the settings. My impression was pretty good, that the amp could deliver multiple solid tones once you get the hang of its behavior. KT66 tubes, which I read is a variant of 6L6.


All that said, my current setup is that of a clean amp + pedalboard with drive etc. And that’s how I’ve achieved my gain stages live, performing with different amps that have been available. Haven’t used amp drive at all. So my options going forward are to stick with a clean amp and get all necessary distortion from the board or start experimenting with amp drive channels. I think the most important thing to have at the end of the day is still a great clean channel. Any help is appreciated, if you have experience with any of these amps, please do share your opinion. There’s also Vox and Fender to look at but I believe those are not ideal for rock and metal territory. Although I have heard from hard rock dudes that Vox AC30 is amazing, for example. Many of these amps I don’t have the chance to try out in person, as Estonian stores don’t have Marshall or ENGL amps on display.

 

[Eddie's Uncle]

I’ve been posting in the “guitar pedals” thread for a while but decided that this topic deserves a thread of its own. I’m not going to buy a new amp just yet but I’ve been researching a lot of options for the future. In my search for the perfect guitar amp head that costs less than 1000€,

It really depends on what kind of music you want to play. If you go for classical heavy metal, Marshall is still a good choice. For more aggressive stuff, here are better choices, alhough Marshall CAN work even in Death Metal, but you defintely need an external distortion then.
Amps is also a topic where I don't care much about reviews, except maybe for material quality. As for sounds, reviews are not saying much, because the final result that YOU will get after purchase depends on a lot of things. For example, Marshall amps sound great when you blast them through a Marshall box. Through a H&K or Engl speaker? Not so much.

I’ve come up with the following

ENGL Ironball 20 (or Fireball 25)

The regular version of the Ironball, not the Special Edition. Again, great reviews, more of a metal monster than the Marshall but I can’t even imagine what its clean channel sounds like compared to a 2525H, or how its drive compares to the classic British rock growl.

A buddy of mine uses it live for epic Doom Metal, but boosts it with a distortion pedal. He does not use it in the studio, though, bc it has it's limitations and is very treble focused. It is more of a pumped up rock amp than a real Metal amp, which is true for Engl in general. With a real aggressive humbucker pickup you can make it heavy, but if you want a real face-slamming sound, forget it. Hearing him play, I think the amp really shines when he is playing melodic leads. For rhythm, it is fine but could use some edge.

Laney amps (Ironheart IRT60H; GH50R; Supergroup LA30BL)
I don’t know much about these amps but a local retailer sells them at pretty good prices.

I use the Laney Ironheart hybrid live and for pre-production. I fucking love it. It is so small it fits in a backpack, it has adjustable watts, and adjustable EQ bands. The pre amp tube makes a great natural sound, the transistors make it small and keep he price low.
I must mention however that I strictly use the clean channel! I take ALL distortion from a floor board (Boss GT 100), send it throuh the clean channel, so the amp's job is to make it loud and give it some EQ magic.
If I wanted to use the amp's own distortion, the Ironheart would only work for my little Crustcore side project, but definitely not for my main band (Death/Doom Metal).
Bigger Laney amps have a great distortion, though.

Personally I would prefer Laney over Marshall, and Marshall over Engl.
I would also recommend Orange 30W amps. Yes, they look ugly as fuck, and yes they are way too big for their power, but hey get you a super flexible, still heavy-as-shit sound with a lot of warmth, and they sound good with every speaker. That's a rarity.