Conference napalm::guitar

    Oops!  Almost forgot.  Any stores in and around Marlboro that carry
    amps?                                                              
    
    Prasad

    The features to look for depend on the kind of music you're going
    to play. In general:
    
    Sound - clean or dirty
    
    Volume - loud or *LOUD*
    
    Effects - distortion, reverb, tremolo/vibrato, chorus, etc.
    
    Flexibility - number of channels and controls, eq
    
    Size - moveable or immoveable
    
    I would say there's a lot available for $150-200 that might meet
    your needs, especially used. Stores have been discussed a lot in
    this file. I'll let others put in their $.02.
    
    - Ram

    
    Re: .0
    
    A good amp to look at in that price range is the Peavey Bandit.
    You can find it at Union Music in Worcester.
    
    It has 65 watts and a single 12" speaker which should be plenty
    unless you need a heavy metal stage amp!
    
    Also has four band EQ, channel switching, a decent tube-like overdrive
    (OK, it's *not* a Marshall sound, I'm not saying it is...no flames,
    please!) and will last just about forever.
    
    Which is a good place to start from.....

    I second the recommendation for the Bandit. I almost bought one,
    and ended up buying the Special 130, which is next model up. 
    Tewksbury Music has new ones cheaper than Union Music. Billy Lee
    has one used, probably under $200 (vs. $239 at TWO Music and 
    $265 at Union).
    
    -Dave (another satisfied Billy Lee's customer)

    The one at Billy Lee's went over the week-end. (under $150, I think.)

    You could try a Gorilla Amp. They are rather inexpensive (or cheap
    depending on your point of view). Depending on the store, one with
    just reverb will run $50 to $70. (Knock off $20 if you just want the
    Metal (yech!) distortion.)
    
    Not bad for a cheap practice amp.

    RE: .0
    
    Ditto on the Bandit. It makes a great first amp. The only complaint
    I could make, is that it tends to be noisy.
    
    Tom

    My "practice" amp is a Yamaha GS series amp ( the GS110-20 I think
    is the model number ).  It has two separate "channels" with independent
    gain and tone controls, a parametric equalizer with adjustable Q,
    and a price ( at least what I paid ) of less than 300.00.  It's
    very clean and with the EQ and reverb can tailor the sound almost
    any way you want it.  At 20 watts it won't fill up a auditorium
    but fills my basement quite nicely.  The only thing I can't get
    it to do is that great, gritty sound you get from a Boogie or 
    equivalent.  I like it a lot for my needs.
    
    Good luck and happy shopping.
    Doug Dickerson
    

    Thanks everybody for the suggestions.  I tried out the Peavey Bandit
    and decided to go in for it!  I understand the list price for the
    Bandit is $299.  
    
    Centre Music in Framingham is selling it for $269.  He said that
    that was as low as he could go. Is $269 a fair price to pay for the
    Bandit?   Based on the discussion about stores in the earlier notes
    (that the stores get goods at about 50% list price..), I should be able
    to get a better price on it.  Would mail ordering it be a good idea?
    I tried to get hold of mail order company's addresses, but wasn't very
    successful.  

    try Tewksbury Music on Rt. 38 in Tewksbury. They had (probably still
    have) Bandits for $239. I read in GP that Peavey is replacing the
    Bandit 65 with a Bandit 75. Probably necessitating a price increase.

    
    
    
    	I was kind of looking at new Fender Tube amps at my local Fender
    dealer the other day... yes, we do have a real Fender dealer up here
    and I'm amazed at what they want for amps!!  Holy crap!!  A thousand
    bucks for a new twin ($500 for an old one)... heck, I was looking at
    maybe buying a 40-60 watt Fender tube amp... my playing is based mostly
    around blues and I'm still at a novice level... but I hear a big
    difference in tone between tube amps and my solid state amps.  I'm
    using a tube-driver that's great when I want a dirty tube sound, but I
    can't seem to get it cleaned up, when I want a clean sound.  Jeese,
    hocum they want so much for these new amps???   Anybody got one that
    they want to sell????   I was looking at the Champ 12 watt amp
    (Chump??) and that's a little more in my price range ($250??) but how
    would it sound main amped into my solid state stage lead?????  Sheesh,
    I'm down to only 3 guitars, so I really deserve a new amp, right???
    
    

Bloww off fender and get a Rivera


yuk yuk yuk

dbii

    >Blow off fender and get a Rivera

    I agree!
    
    My friend who just bought a new Twin not a few months ago now has it in
    his living room as a plant stand!!!  What happens when new amps died a
    major output stage death and ya don't have the bux to fix em!
    
    Buck 

    
    
    
    	Dudz, does Rivera make little combo amps??   I thought that they
    just made those megabuck systems like dbii's
    
    
    Steve

They make some combos now (accoring to the literature) but I've never seen one.
However if you're looking at  a twin at ~ $1K you might want to look elsewhere.
If you can afford that kind of bucks then chekc out the Rivera's, several 
different models are available all at over $1K.....

dbii

    I've heard some scary stories about the new Twins smokin' quick.
    Personally, I don't know much about Rivera's (excpet what I've read
    here), but I think Alan Starr has the right idea...
    
    He's got a Chandler tube driver and a QSC power amp (and a delay).  
                                                                     
    I think thats where it's at.
    jc

    
    
    
    
    	YEEEEOOOOW.... I've gotta have one... I just played through three
    Fender tube amps (sounds like the three bears story) the Twin was so
    powerful that I doubt I'd ever get to crank it up (bein' a gutless
    attic player at the moment) the Champ was a joke... no kidding it
    sounded terrible to me.. even the sales person was embarrassed.  But...
    the super sixty is a different story.. this amp is awesome!!! I can't
    believe the tone.. I want one now.... quick tell me all the reasons not
    to buy one before I go and put a down payment on this little beauty
    (BTW the cash price, just for me cos I'm a nice guy, right, was $499)
    
    Do I sound like Stevie Ray now or what??

    Something I always thought was a cool setup for playing blues is to use
    a Bassman.  You can buy the old Bassman heads for about $150 or so now,
    then getcha a nice little 2x12 cab or maybe a 4x10 and your all set.
    
    Not real flexable, I suppose, but a great warm tone and about 50wts of
    all tube power dirt cheap.  Like I say, sounds good for the blues!
    
    Greg  (or go getcha a nice Metaltronix M1000, best amp I've heard in
    ages  ;^)