Is there one do-it-all amp?

[Cedarburger]

I have gotten to a point where I would like to scale back my gear and focus on my practicing and playing. I would love to get to 3 or 4 guitars and a single amp, but wonder if that is possible. I would consider a Headrush or Helix, but just not something I can afford. I also like simplicity. That said, I haven't tried one yet, but have been reading a lot about and am very curious about the Blackstar HT Club 40 Mk II. It seems to check all the boxes and wondering if anyone has just one amp that can do everything you want it to.

 

[VonBonfire]

Twin Reverb.

 

[brookdalebill]

I have, and love my Roland Cube 80s.
They are perfect, for my uses.

 

[Happy Enchilada]

I did this exact same thing a while back. Got rid of amps that were collecting dust. Ended up taking the $$$ and getting a Quilter Aviator Cub. It does a decent job of delivering 3 flavors of tone (Tweed, Blonde, Black) with useable reverb. Goes from bedroom volume to stage volume with the same sound so you can practice and then just turn it up for gigs. Takes pedals great. Has two volume knobs: 1 for the speaker and one for the line out to the PA, so you can effectively use it as a monitor and control your line out volume. It's lightweight, so my olde back thanks me. And Pat Quilter himself answered my initial email inquiries, which is unheard of these days. Nice company. So far I haven't found anything about it that irks me.

Here it is pictured in my office with Linda Lou, my favorite Tele. The Blues Cube Stage in the lower corner was one that got sold.

 

[jackal]

With the wide variety of pedals available, just about any clean amp with enough power for you will work.

 

[stantheman]

Consider this: Neil Young has been playing arenas for decades with 2 Deluxes.

I'm beginning to think THE ONLY ESSENTIAL THING is an SM57.

However...taking the above into consideration - an Origin 20 as well as a Cube 30 HOT or a JC 40 or JC 22 will get the job done with class & style.

For old school iconoclasts and other jumbo shrimp any Fender Combo should
suffice.

 

[Cosmic Cowboy]

The amp that got away from me is the Mesa Lone Star. That amp has beautiful cleans, high headroom, and perfect frequency. Also has a tremendous gain channel that goes from mild overdrive with gorgeous transients to higher gain than I would ever use, but stays tight, smooth and sustains.

The 30 watts has the headroom and fine for almost any stage. It has a switch to cut the power down for practice and keep the paint on the walls.

Super amp, I will find another.

 

[Timbresmith1]

Bogner Ecstasy, maybe.

 

[DrBGood]

If not performing on stage, I'd be happy to only keep my Fender Super Champ XD and a 2X10" cab to plug into.




Or my Egnater Rebel 30 with similar 2X10" cab. Very versatile 2 channel amp. Cleans are incredible.

 

[bottlenecker]

You can have a do it all amp, as long as you don't really want to do it all.

 

[Telenator]

RIVERA Chubster 40.
From Creedence to Stone Temple Pilots with the tap of a foot switch. I bought mine in 1998 and have never even considered another gigging amp since.

 

[Axis29]

Gonna need a lot more info....

What kinda music? How much gain? Channel switching? Do you need a loop? Do you like warm and fat? Crunchy? Grindy? What size venues? Just the bedroom? How sensitive is your wife to loud noises? Do you need silent recording? How about a direct out?

I mean, for me, my favorite amp, and the one I could live with by itself is my high power tweed Twin. But, if I wanted full on classic rock overdrive out of it, without any pedals, I'd be killing folks at the front row of tables.... I could probably be really happy with my '59 Bassman as well. But, again, 40 watts might be too much? I took my 5e3 to a jam the other day and was working way away from full power... It's only 12 watts.

I usually use a pedal board... So, I can get the dirt and everything at reasonable volumes, as well as my Topanga reverb. But, if you want built-in trem or reverb, or overdrive... Your needs are way different than mine. If you don't play Blues, or even the same style of Blues I play? Well, my tweed preferences definitely don't align with yours....

 

[KokoTele]

There are two details we need to answer to help answer this question: how much power do you need most of the time (how big of a band, how big of a room, etc.), and do you have the ability to mic the amp when you need more power?

I agree with the idea of using an amp with a clean sound that you like and getting the overdrive sounds through pedals. For me, the ultimate in clean tone is a clean Fender Blackface amp set to a volume level before it starts to drive.

The ToneKing Imperial does channel switching between a blackface-voiced clean channel and a tweed-voiced gain channel, but they're pretty pricey.

 

[Lawdawg]

The short answer is no, there's not one amp that can do it all.

The longer answer is, you can get pretty close especially if you're ok using a modeling amp. The digital Boss Katana amps get a lot of love around here and they're a lot less expensive than a Helix.

For a super flexible and inexpensive analog tube amp it's really hard to beat the Origin 20. It's voiced closer to a JTM than a Plexi and isn't anywhere near a JCM -- which means it had a wide range of great clean to edge of breakup tones, but you can still crank it to get some great vintage Marshall drive. Honestly, I bought it as an inexpensive way to add some vintage Marshall tones to my Fender and Vox amps, which are my preferred tones, but I've been blown away by how great the Origin 20 sounds especially for clean and low gain tones.

 

[JL_LI]

One amp for five electrics. I manage the differences between single coils, humbuckers, and Filter-Trons with a BOSS EQ-200 equalizer. My Fender Mirror Image Delay works better for me than reverb so I use that. I play in the house using the 5 watt setting. 25 watts can take you from DRRI clean headroom to insane loud with distortion depending on you choice of channels. Here it is with my Gretsch 6118T for scale.

 

[39martind18]

I have four, any of which is a "Swiss army knife" of amps for me: a Super Champ XD in a 1x12 cabinet, a 1969 DR running 6L6s, a TMDR that gets the majority of gig time because of weight considerations, and the new guy, a 1979 Vibrolux Reverb that'll handle all higher power needs. Of all of these, the TMDR would come closest to the definition of one amp for all applications, but the old school, Fender tube type combo love is too deeply ingrained in me to let all the others go.

 

[loopfinding]

deluxe reverb reissue, used. just got to wait it out for a cheap one to come by sub 1000. you can always boost the mid with a TS/klon or EQ pedal (or have a tech put in a mid pot instead of resistor). easier to fake bassman/early marshall sound on it than fake a deluxe BF clean on a marshall.

for me a 5e3 or a 5f4 super is a do-it-all amp - i like the more mid heavy cleans, they do classic grind, and with fuzz do splat in a way that's almost orange-y. and on the super you can still get a very slight mid scoop with the bass & treble jacked. but you probably can't get either under 1000 unless you build it yourself or have a friend build it.

 

[Edgar Allan Presley]

I have gotten to a point where I would like to scale back my gear and focus on my practicing and playing. I would love to get to 3 or 4 guitars and a single amp, but wonder if that is possible. I would consider a Headrush or Helix, but just not something I can afford. I also like simplicity. That said, I haven't tried one yet, but have been reading a lot about and am very curious about the Blackstar HT Club 40 Mk II. It seems to check all the boxes and wondering if anyone has just one amp that can do everything you want it to.

If I were scaling back, I'd go with one guitar and 3 or 4 amps. You can get more range of sounds that way than with 3 or 4 guitars and one amp.

 

[Edgar Allan Presley]

One amp for five electrics. I manage the differences between single coils, humbuckers, and Filter-Trons with a BOSS EQ-200 equalizer. My Fender Mirror Image Delay works better for me than reverb so I use that. I play in the house using the 5 watt setting. 25 watts can take you from DRRI clean headroom to insane loud with distortion depending on you choice of channels. Here it is with my Gretsch 6118T for scale.

View attachment 939025

That guitar makes my knees weak. I'm blushing.

 

[Jazzcaster21]

I have had a Mesa Boogie F50 for years and used it for all my gigs: corporate/cover/wedding, jazz and now country.