Looking to buy a Amp to practice at home and for small Gigs

Rancid Rumpboogie

Blues Mangler
Thomas Blug is phenomenal and his Bluguitat Amp 1 Mercury is one phenomenal unit.
When I bought my Quilter MicroPro I spent a couple months going back and forth between it and the Amp 1.
They were both basically the same price, and I had plenty of suitable speaker cabs for the Amp 1 if I chose that.
The Amp 1 is far more versatile and sounds phenomenal.
But I know my playing style and preferences and know that I would never use most of the features the Amp 1 provides.
I wanted a nice light, powerful, grab-and-go combo with controls up where I could easily get to them, not down on the floor, and that excels at my two or three favorite tones. The Quilter is exactly that. It won. I am VERY happy with it!

Thomas Blug also makes some OUTSTANDING little pedals! I have his Sweet Leo and Golden Brownie. Both are outstanding.

Here is my ultra-mini board for jams and such.
MINI PEDAL BOARD.JPG

The Mustang takes pedals extremely well.
 
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straightblues

Blues Junior
My favorite at home, small gig amp is the Vox Pathfinder 15R. They are a little solid state amp with trem and reverb. They are no longer made, but can be bought used for less than $100. I always carry one to use as a backup when I gig. I frequently use it in a two amp setup with another tweed amp at a gig. I have much more expensive amps that don't sound nearly as good.
 

dan5150

Shredding the Blues
The only Bugera was a Line 6 amp with a Bugera designed tube output power amp.
Actually, it was Bogner who designed the power section for the Line 6 DT series, not Bugera.
Bugera is a division of Behringer, who like their parent company mainly builds clones of other well-known amps. For example, the Bugera 6260, is a Peavey 5150. The 333XL, is the Peavey XXX, etc. Even though they are clones, they sound pretty good. I used to own one, and I gave me the sounds l was looking for at the time.
 

CapnDenny1

Student Of The Blues
Thanks for the correction. Hey, at least I remembered the B?

Those micro amps are nice, but you still need a speaker. You can't get room filling volume from a 1" speaker.

I prefer my amps to be chosen by how good they sound. Size is a secondary issue.
 

Rancid Rumpboogie

Blues Mangler
Yes, it does. There's a replacement on his channel "intheblues": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kox-80svVw8
Oh. That is Shane of In The Blues!
Great guy! A straight shooter. I trust what he has to say. Many of us have the many presets he developed for his Mustang.

I think Shane is probably right about the Katana handling external OD pedals "better" than the GTX. I am a hard-boiled pedal guy. My Mustang III V1 kept me very happy for several years, handled pedals just fine on it's clean amp presets, very giggable. But when I got my Quilter MicroPro HD, the MicroPro HD "blows it away", just bigger in the room, deeper, more dynamic. Maybe "blows it away" is a bit much ... not exactly a really huge difference, but very notable. But we are talking a $375.00 amp against a $1,300.00 amp. And Shane has ears like a bat ... many of us wouldn't even notice the difference between the Katana and the XD.
 
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matonanjin

Chubby, old guy trying to play some blues.
Maybe this video is relevant. @leftymike01 I know that your title requested "For Home Use and Small Gigs". The title of this video is "For Home Use" but many of the amps he discusses are plenty powerful enough for a small venue.

 

Norfolk Bill

norfolk uk, just knoodling along
Hmm...

$1,200.00 with the foot controller.

I would have to actually play through it before plunking down that kind of dough, but I think it's a nice bit of kit and likely the future of amp tech.

Fascinating stuff! :)


Having had one for about three years you dont really have to have to floor board remote1 (though i do),,,the amp can be configured in many ways,,and with the addition of a simple two button controler you can access all four channels and the boost
 

Rancid Rumpboogie

Blues Mangler
[QUOTE="matonanjin, post: 403301, member: 3436"]Maybe this video is relevant. @leftymike01 I know that your title requested "For Home Use and Small Gigs". The title of this video is "For Home Use" but many of the amps he discusses are plenty powerful enough for a small venue.

[/QUOTE]
Fender Blues Jr ... tube amp.
REVV ... tube amp
Suhr ...tube amp
AC20 Deluxe ... tube amp
Port*City Pearl ... tube amp
Victory ... tube amp

Not one word of this video even remotely applies to a SS amp like the Mustang GTX or the Quilters that sound just as good at whisper-quiet volumes as they do cranked to a full 100 Watts. If you are hung up on the "Only tube amps will do" thing, well, you are most likely going to have to have two amps ... one for home and one for gigging.

Actually two of each so you will always have one working while the other is in the shop (excuse me, just my personal experience and opinion). Of all the tube amps I have owned in my 50+ years of playing, and there have been many, only ONE of them kept on trucking without having to go in for repairs, and that was an old Ampeg 100W head I had back in the mid-to-late 60's into the 70's. That thing was like a tank, going strong through 10 years of being hauled all over the country from bar to bar in a U-haul trailer, sometimes at 20 below zero temperatures, brought into a warm club, and fired up after only maybe 45 minutes. All of the others had various problems that required someone like Cap'nDenny to fix. On the other hand, my Mustang III V1 kept me happy being played daily for 5 years without a single problem and still looks and sounds like new.
 
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leftymike01

Blues Newbie
Rancid
I did a bunch of reviews on some different type of amps and i just kept coming back to the mustang GTX100 for what it offers and the money it seem like the way to go,Due to my Health issues I needed something light and versatile
I just sold my old Roland JC120 ,And going to move on with my late 90's Carvin 212,And my Carvin sx300
maybe my Boss JS10 not sure what value to place them ,
 

Rancid Rumpboogie

Blues Mangler
Rancid
I did a bunch of reviews on some different type of amps and i just kept coming back to the mustang GTX100 for what it offers and the money it seem like the way to go,Due to my Health issues I needed something light and versatile
I just sold my old Roland JC120 ,And going to move on with my late 90's Carvin 212,And my Carvin sx300
maybe my Boss JS10 not sure what value to place them
,
Well, the GTX100 is about as light and versatile as you can get, methinks, especially for the price. I don't know about selling your used stuff. I have a whole wall lined with very good tube amps ... well, not exactly, my Carvin Bel Air needs to go into the shop, its volume drops by 50% after about 10 minutes of playing, even with new tubes. I don't sell them because all I could get for them is less than half what I paid for them.
 

leftymike01

Blues Newbie
Rancid
I'm on the fence about the Amp sounds great it would have to be a local buyer worry even if tubes are taking out something happens
i would be stuck with a bunch of drama over it, the other Carvin would not be a problem,My list on Reverb they seem a little better in selling charges,only bummer is they don't take Paypal I was told.
 

Rancid Rumpboogie

Blues Mangler
If selling to someone local, just be totally honest with him, tell him everything that is wrong with it or that you know might go wrong with it, and tell him that if he buys it, that's it, he owns it as well as any future problems that might surface, and if he balks at that, tell him to move on. Same with Reverb ... tell them this and that no return will be accepted, I am pretty sure that is their policy anyway.
 

leftymike01

Blues Newbie
Reverb rep told me if it sells ,I would have to ship once buyer gets the Amp and test leaves feedback then i will get paid,at least for the first sell,after that if i sell again a tracking number is sufficient
sounds fair nothing i have has issues
 
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