i've been playing the acoustic for 5+ years and now i wanna play electric. I'm getting just a standard fender stratocaster. My question is, what amp should i get with this? I'd like a tube amp but they can be expensive. I don't need something really fancy right now. Gonna be playin alot of classic rock and some blues. Let me know what you think. Wanna keep the amp price range $200-$300 if possible.
tubes are the best, but your budget is understandable. You can get a combo amp with tubes, such as the peavey vyper combo, and 6505+ combo. The peavey blazer(no pun intended lol) is around that price and a fairly decent amp.
Check out Jet City Amplifications JCA20H half stack, its all tube and its like $350 new..you can probably get a used one for $250-300
Stay away from bugera. They have some cheap tube amps, but they literally are cheap in both price and quality. I've owned their 55 watt head and sent it back. Their bass amps though, are okay. I recommend maybe a vox valvetronics amp. It's a hybrid amp (solid state power with a preamp tube). I had one for a day, but it wasn't to my liking (don't let that give you a bad opinion of it, I am a tone nazi.) I had the 100 watt version (500$ ish) but the 40 watt is around 250 online. Vox Valvetronix VT40+ 40W 1x10 Guitar Combo Amp: Shop Guitars & Other Musical Instruments | Musician's Friend Has built in effects and digital amp modeling (so it can sound like a lot of different amps) with customizable presets. If digital modeling isn't something you'd go for, you can't really find a brand new tube amp for cheap. Try upping your budget if that's the case and go for the Jet City Amplification JCA20H and JCA12S Half-Stack: Shop Guitars & Other Musical Instruments | Musician's Friend that was mentioned earlier.
Get a practice amp from a solid company, like maybe Marshall or a fender, and get one that's half tube and half solid state. The tubes warm up the sound a good amount but you won't have to pay out the ass for it. Or the best way is just to bring your guitar down to your local music shop and try out the different amps, and see what brands tickle your fancy Also, buy used. I really can't stress that enough lol. Look on cragslist and maybe ebay for people around you so you can pick it up yourself. You find some pretty fucking good deals on craigslist.....I got a mesa 4x12 oversized rectifier cabinet for $500, its worth 1000 new and only had 4 hours of play time...fuck yeah. The best part is when youre done with it you can often sell it without losing any money