back up head

Well the three tube preamp MB Fusion would be a good light weight easy to carry backup, as would the MB800 and MB500. Less wattage MB200.

 

mesa M6 carbine. Only modern solid state amp I would ever touch

 

If it's strictly as a back up, just in case your main amp goes haywire at a gig, just pickup anything that cheap as you can find, used that works, old Peavey or something. If it's for more play than that, get a wider variety of sounds, etc., anything on the wamer "vintage" side of things tonally would make addition to the stable. Although, I can make my 800rb sound pretty fat and warm as well. The only thing that makes people say GK's are modern sounding is a pretty healthy baked in treble boost. Turn the treble down quite a bit, turn up the boost a little, small tweaks on the other knobs maybe dropping the bass a notch or two, and you're in old-school territory tonewise.

 

My main amp is an all tube mesa buster 200... backup is a mesa m6.

 

For rock solid tour proof I would go with a Hartke 3500....

 

+1

 

I just picked up a PF-500 as a micro grab and go. Im digging it.

 

I use a GB Shuttle 6.0 & love it. I never feel it's a compromise if I use it. Fits in anywhere, light as & with it's tube pre, you can dial in-or out-some tube grind.
So, with their A1 CS, the GB Shuttles tick many boxes. Equally as good-imo-Ampeg PF500. Up to yr personal preferences

 

IMO you can't beat the GK MB200 for a stow-it-and-forget-it backup head. It's tiny enough to fit in a gigbag pocket. Saved my bacon once.

 

I'd go with a GK MB200 as well. If like to grab one for a tiny backup.

 

^^^ This ^^^