When buying a amp, what are you looking for?

[rtslinger]

When I was using a stage amp I looked at what others were using in my same situation
and what sounded good live. I believe going to GC without first hearing the amp in a live band situation is a waste of time and money you are not going to get to crank the amp in GC at stage volume to make your decision. Like mentioned you can have a kick a$$ amp in your bedroom and in the band situation it disappears. Suggestion at least 300 watts plenty of headroom and if it is a combo have to have 15's to produce the bottom end and a tweeter for the highs and mids

[JimmyM]

I look for something I can pretty much forget about while I'm playing. I want an amp that allows me to get my sound quickly without much effort, and has a lot of leeway for sounding good should I not get exactly dialed into the room right away. It also has to have clarity combined with mulekick. If I can play a gig without touching my amp once, I am a happy camper.

[Raymeous]

Try every amp, even the ones you've never heard of. If your local shop has it, give it a test run. You never know, that weird off brand may be just the answer. Oh and although there is some validity to the "name brands" being good, it doesn't mean that they will be YOUR best choice.

Personally I prefer a clean and articulate amp. I worked long and hard to become a decent player. The last thing I want is for my playing to get masked by unitelligible sludge.

I'm using a Carvin BX1500 amp into a Carvin BRX 4x10Neo cabinet. http://www.carvinguitars.com/products/BX1500-10.4 and wouldn't change a thing. This works for me.

[soulman969]

For me any longer it's light weight and transportability so I've begun using combos although except for the higher cost involved a lightweight Class D head and lightweight cabs would probably work just as well.

I tend to look for adequate volume, a reasonably full bottom end, an ability to punch through the mix, basic tonality and dependability and simple easy to tweak eq and volume and gain settings. I'm a straight into the amp player and in most cases less is more.

[Bunnfactor]

I've had a couple amps in my time--Carvin, Peavey, Dean Markley (yes, they made amps too), Fender...The last amp I bought (which was about 2005) I bought for one reason and one reason only: power. I was tried of my amp heads blowing up on stage during a show. So I bought a 1200W Ampeg SVT-4 Pro. I had a 4x10 cab and an 18 cab, and needed something heavy duty to run both. I now have a 4x12 Aguilar cab and probably don't need that big of an amp, but I still have it.

[cchorney]

Have an idea before you go shopping of what features you NEED, for example if you really NEED an amp that drives at 2 ohms, then you don't want to look at 4 ohm amps. Likewise, if you need 500 watts at 8 ohms or a line level out or a headphone plug or an MP3 input, shop from that subset.

You also need to know what you can afford in terms of price range.

That should put you in a good position to do some listening - take your bass and pedals if you use them, and go try stuff out. Bring your cabs if you aren't buying those, too.

Once you find a tone you like at a price you can afford with the features you want - BUY IT!

If you can't find all that, then its time to revisit your "features needed" list or your price range.

[portlandguy]

Tasty tone and that it is BIG enough.

[4Mal]

Nirvana... Or barring that, true enlightenment. I'm always let down. Maybe I should lower my expectations...


Or Elvis. Elvis I could accept....

[Danno1985]

If I can get a good sound out of it, and it's loud enough for what I need it for, that usually does it for me. Don't care about bells and whistles or spec sheets, just a good, punchy sound with nice warm mids. I guess I'd be lying if I said looks didn't matter. In particular, I dig the looks of old Acoustic stuff and old Ampeg stuff. I had an old Acoustic 220 with a huge 2X15 cab, now I've been using a Hartke HA-5500 head with an old Acoustic 4X10 cab. Recently picked up an Ampeg PF-210 cab to have something lighter, and I have to say I'm really tempted to just get a PF500 head and go the Portaflex route. So I wouldn't say I'm dogmatic about one brand or another but I guess the common thread with all those setups is I dug the sound, and they looked cool.

[Russell L]

1. Enough wattage.
2. And these days, enough tone shaping capabilities. I don't mean bells and whistles, but things like semi-parametric mids control, or a graphic eq section.
3. Reliability.
4. Preferably Markbass (covers all that).

[mjac28]

Originally Posted by B-string

After owning MANY brands I have my current rig(s) based on reliability, tone and not the bells and whistles toy factors.

Try BEFORE you buy will save a lot of time and money as only YOUR ears know what you want to hear. Then balance that with what will sound good out front in a band mix. After all, what other people will hear is much more important than what you hear on stage.

+1 if you buy used I would prefer buying something from this community or a Big box store like Guitar Center because they have a thirty day return policy and if you get a lemon you aren't stuck.