Undervalued Amps to Buy Now

[telemnemonics]

Which Traynors do you recommend for clean and low gain, edge of break up sounds. Something in the 10-25 watt range?

Hmmm, Traynor vintage meaning actually old hand wired amps advertised by throwing them out a second floor window then replacing the smashed tubes and showing they still work?
The more popular are 50w Bassman circuits but they made a YGM-1 I think which is similar to a Deluxe Reverb with el84s.
Yorkville was the brand behind them and Is the Y in YGM for Yorkville Guitar Mate.
If the front Traynor logo got knocked off they may be listed for same as Yorkville amps.

 

[telemnemonics]

I have a Lionheart L5t. Not old, made in China, but an absolutely killer amp. You can usually find them for around $600 (that’s what I paid). And it’s LOUD five watts. It can hang easily with a tame drummer.

Not sure about the 5w but the Monoprice 15w is known to be a Laney built amp if you open it up and compare circuit boards and transformers.
That may have changed too though since Monoprice contracts with factories to make amps same as any brand made in China like Fender and Orange etc etc.

I gotta say, maybe I’m just old and cheap but $600 for a 5w amp or $800 for a Vox AC10, those prices are just nuts.

 

[David C]

Peavey amps are always undervalued in my estimation. The Classic series in particular. Great clean amps for short change.

 

[InstantCoffeeBlue]

Peavey amps are always undervalued in my estimation. The Classic series in particular. Great clean amps for short change.

And by undervalued, we probably actually mean "appropriately priced for a 1990s mass-produced amp" in this market, lol.


Peavey Classics are great. A 4x10 Classic 50 was my first real amp, and I loved that thing. They're still IMO the best value for a real tube amp that's built to professional durability specs, though many of the older ones are no doubt in need of service by now.

 

[mad dog]

Two very different amps. And I'm not talking investment. Just value, good sound on the cheaps.

The Fender Super Champ X2 I just grabbed used is really one fine sounding amp. Best for home or practice I think. As a combo, not a big sound. Use it as a head, with a really good cabinet, and this amp just has it. I got it cheap. Tonally, it stands up with amps that cost several times as much.

Lots of players are hip to the quality and utility of SS amps. You mostly hear about Quilters, for good reason. Very few talk up Evans amps. Given the quality, that is hard to understand. Mine is a 20+ year old S150, a tweed covered 1x15 combo. The "S" is now "SE", and the wattage has gone up to 200, but still more or less the same amp. Some odd EQ options ... an "Expand" switch, "Deep" switch, "Body" knob. Which once you get used to them are quite useful. This old dog strikes me as a much more powerful, alternate universe SS take on the tweed pro. As in, very big sound. Warm, room filling. Not tube, but tube-like in many ways. And as much volume as you'd ever need. I've not yet heard the smaller combos, such as the 1x12 JE200. For years these were like vintage Ampegs (as in surprisingly cheap). That is changing, but Evans amps are still bargains.

 

[Greenmachine]

All my handmade tube amps are undervalued. If I tried to sell I’d only get like $300 CAD for one. Most I ever sunk in to one was $600. But I have the privilege of knowing an amp tech friend who taught me and answers my questions.

Builds

5f6a
Harvard
Deluxe
Deluxe reverb

Oh! What about the ultralinear silverface Twin or Super Reverb? They are not sought after but that’s a mistake in my opinion. I use a SF Super and it’s so awesome in my opinion. $600 CAD two years ago! Clean tone for miles.

 

[bottlenecker]

This thread is a terrible idea. There is no way I'm mentioning anything I like that's still remotely affordable, on this forum.

This seems like a great time to say it's all in the fingers. Go get yourself a nice modeler.

 

[ce24]

Which Traynors do you recommend for clean and low gain, edge of break up sounds. Something in the 10-25 watt range?

Look at the YGL SERIES. there is a tao of tone FB. page that is only Traynor people

Which Traynors do you recommend for clean and low gain, edge of break up sounds. Something in the 10-25 watt range?

YBA SERIES ALSO

 

[ReverendRevolver]

Nothing.

Undervalued amps were SF fenders when I started buying gear in the early to mid 2000s. Everyone "knew" that only BF and tweed fenders mattered, the silverface ones were terrible. Buy they sounded great to me, and I could afford them. Honestly, the blackface ones didn't sound as good the times I could try both (Bassman, twin, deluxe, less with the champ). Sf champ was $100, Bassman $300 . BF ones were double+.

There's nothing like that now. Orange Tiny Terrors trend down.
Peavey Valvekings $200 and less. They're just OK. Old ampeg and Traynor isn't cheap, but isn't Fender expensive.

Really, Carvin Belair and nomad, some Peavey combos that look like thier SS Contemporaries, and Bugera infinium series are the good area of bang for buck.

Other than that, Sovtek Mig50s and B52 AT series are great for typical price, assuming you have a tech to fix a few things for them.

Outside those, too powerful stuff such as Crate Blue Voodoo stacks, Hot Rod Devilles, Peavey Mace/Duece/Butcher/Vt?, Peavey Classic 50s, and UL twins all reside in a price category of "too much amp = discount".

But nothing I'd call undervalued. The mass proliferation if the internet ruined that.
Anyone wanting a specific sound or style of vintage amp can get most of that built for them for under $2k. The 2 amps I've bought that were basically custom made for me (3rd rail) or built to ordered specifications (Frenzel) were right around $1000. I cannot imagine buying new when custom made is so similar in price.

 

[Mowgli]

Vintage Ampegs (jets, m-12s, rockets, reverberockets, reverberocket II) are portable. Most of the Gemini ii and higher are too large to gig with IMO and some iis don’t get very loud (some do, go figure). All sound great and takes pedals well, IMO.

The Music Man RD-50, HD-210 and RD/RP/HD-112 combos (65 or 130 watts) and the Music Man heads are not too heavy to move. All Music Mans can get loud and stay clean. And with the right compressor->OD/distortion pedals (compressor->klon clone->Blackstone Appliance or Nobel) they sound great distorted.

Ampegs & Music Mans have increased in price, like everything else, but are still affordable. Music Mans are probably more reliable. Both are incredibly underrated, IMO.

 

[1Mudman]

Monoprice tube amps!

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www.monoprice.com

I agree! I have quite a few tube amps, Marshall, Peavey and I just play the daylight out of a 15W single channel monoprice. It was loaded with JJs and sounds good, easy to get distortion and metal sound if you want them. Very quite on its own. It surprised me how with I can just turn the gain to 5 and the volume to 5 and this little amps wails!

 

[mystichands]

I grew up in the 50s and 60s. As I got interested in guitar in ‘61-‘62, a lot of my contemporaries went the Ampeg route - Jets, ReverbeRockets, Gemini I and II - but I never gravitated to that sound. I preferred Fenders. Even before I could acquire one. I know that some of you cut your musical teeth on Ampeg gear. Not slagging on any of you. But the players whose talents I respected most - local players, in the same basement/garage bands where I grew up - seemed to have Fender amps and Fender guitars.

These were the days of “I have the biggest amp, so I’m the lead guitarist.” Vocals went through a Lafayette or Rat Shack 4 channel high-impedance mic mixer. Two channels more than we needed, because the entire band could - maybe - afford two mics. That mixer plugged into the unused channel of the biggest two-channel amp the richer kid (lead guitarist) had. And the “lead singer” never bought a mic, unless threatened with a beatdown. (Sort of like today?)

I wonder what that garage/basement band scene is like today. Neither my daughter nor my son got interested in it. My granddaughters both prefer ukuleles lately.

I started playing in the mid sixties, and my mom bought me a used Champ, probably from the late fifties, tweed, small speaker. That was fine until she found me a Silvertone head with a 6x10” huge cabinet, from a church rummage sale. I used both amps up through the early eighties.

 

[Ronzo]

A guy in my neighborhood in Queens had the Silvertone 6x10 cab and head. He was a singer/songwriter type before that genre was popular; IIRC, he played a Rickenbacker 620-alike (1966-67) solid body through it. It sounded great to me.

 

[naveed211]

Gibson GA-15 Goldtone.

There are a couple listed right now for around $500, and that’s around what they were when I bought one years ago. The ones I had ate through tubes like nothing else, so I wouldn’t want to pay much more (and of course there are some jacked up Reverb prices, too). But man, the tone with these is so sweet, boutique level amp at a bargain.

 

[northernguitar]

There's a VOX Night Train, recently serviced selling for CAD$350 in Toronto. I'd offer $300, and that would be a sweet score.

 

[ETMusic777]

I'd go Traynor Bassmaster or YG-2 or 3. I was close to buying one last week but went with a Bassman instead. My next amp will be a vintage Traynor. There are many tone videos on Youtube with old Traynors and they sound insanely good.

 

[telemnemonics]

Buy a damn kit and build a classic yourself.
If you get in trouble just ask for help here.
THAT is the undervalued amp to buy now.

 

[telemnemonics]

All my handmade tube amps are undervalued. If I tried to sell I’d only get like $300 CAD for one. Most I ever sunk in to one was $600. But I have the privilege of knowing an amp tech friend who taught me and answers my questions.

Builds

5f6a
Harvard
Deluxe
Deluxe reverb

Oh! What about the ultralinear silverface Twin or Super Reverb? They are not sought after but that’s a mistake in my opinion. I use a SF Super and it’s so awesome in my opinion. $600 CAD two years ago! Clean tone for miles.

Assuming you are a hobby builder its fair to say your hand wired clones of Deluxe and Deluxe Reverb are under valued compared to a boutique builder or originals made by Fender in the '50s & '60s.

But I buy clone amps built by hobby builders and others will too, for well over your $300 guess.
Unless you maybe housed them in milk crates or nailed together pieces of vinyl siding?

Really, I consider hobbyist built hand wired clone amps to be a terrific option for shopppers who want old school hand wired amps but cant afford boutique or vintage.
Seller needs to provide clear pics of wiring, buyer needs to learn what to look for etc.
But you or any hobby builder should be able to easily sell a build for your cost plus a little more, and build another amp if you didnt want to keep the last build for whatever reason.
Figure also that you can sell just the working chassis with tubes and the buyer can order a Mojo cab or whatever.

I say this because the hobby builder community is now a valid source of amps, and even if a few naysayers require a warranty, plenty of us know what we're looking at and know the wire by numbers sort of kit amps are solid contenders.

If a hobbyist does a terrible job, it will look bad and sound bad.
Buyer beware but no need for buyers to run away in fear.

 

[Happy Enchilada]

In times of inflation, it’s foolish to buy what you don’t need. You do not get real value from your purchase and you keep prices high for everyone else. The amp to buy is one you need. Period. There’s no amp to buy just to have it.

^^^^My Dad often said "Nothing is a bargain unless you NEED it." So purchasing things you DON'T NEED purely as investments or because the price is attractive isn't good money management.

 

[standup]

10 years ago if I had money and room for storage I would have bought up all the big old fender amps that were going for $400-600. I’d have a warehouse full of Twins, Concerts, and Supers that are now (or soon to be) worth $2000.

Better than bitcoin. oh well.