Amps Under $500 | A Tech's Perspective | Part 1 of a Series

Rather than a comment, I have question regarding unreliable power supply, 220v plus or minus 10v , despite having an auto voltage regulator, post power dist box. Does any member of your magic 4 , have irregular voltage or current surge protection.

You missed Fender Mustang GTX100. This amp comes with a Celestion speaker.

SMD is easy tho, but I guess if your not used to hot guns and microscopes it can be “unrepairable” but as a former computer repairman I can fix anything. Nothing is worth wasting my time on now or even then is the heck of it.

DO UOU HAVE THE KING AG- 30 - guitar amplifier

Finally, someone who knows what they’re talking about. This has been most helpful but now I have analysis paralysis.😂 I would love buy a quality/budget friendly tube amp for (95%) home use but feel stuck. I was I nterested in the Blackstar HT-20R Mkii til I saw this video. What are your thoughts on that amp? Or, can you point me in a better direction?

Thanks Lyle for opening my eyes to the hype surrounding so-called guitar shop amp reviews. As a newbie
Looking to buy his first electric guitar amp I was guilty of being sucked in by their smooth, corporate rhetoric and would have fallen into the trap had I not discovered Psionic. What a revelation! How easily I could have bought into the long past, no longer relevant, reputation of some manufacturers, without realising that not all modern counterparts of many of them are built to the same standard as each other. I was on the brink of buying the Vox Ac10c1 but thankfully found your review first. It's now looking like the Ac15c1 could be the one. I will only ever be a (mature) home player, but that's no reason to purchase shoddy goods. Big thanks from UK. Keep up the good work!

I love my Katana. I didn't want to, but I do. I hardly play anything else at home, and that's 90% of my playing. I feel like I definitely explore more of the instrument's potential with the katana's interface (I use a cheap android tablet) than I do if it means adding/swapping things on my board, or even just bending over and fiddling with knobs. No, I wouldn't gig with it (peer pressure) and I neither shred nor chug, but I have no hesitation in saying it's the best < $1,000 gear purchase I've made since I bought my first strat.

I would have guessed that solid state amps would have greater reliability than tube amps. Are the boards on these solid state amps really that shitty that they would fail after a couple of years? That doesn't match the reliability cycle of a comparable solid state device like a laptop computer.

The DSL series is great for metal, people just don't know how to set them up or expect them to sound like a 5150iii

I have a Bugera V22, V55, and a 6262. I absolutely love them. Mine are the later Infinium versions. I think the issues were more with the runs prior to the Infinium stuff.

I love mine.

This is great information. Thank you. 👍

I love my Vox AC15C1. I initially regretted not buying an AC30 for the cache but tbh the AC15 is so loud that I really don’t need the 30 watt version. The AC10 would probably be loud enough. It’s just a fantastic amp.

Hello! What good videos, i'm new on this your YTchanel and has helpme a lot. Thank you btw.
I would like to ask you 1 minut of your time giving me a simple answer, and its about the "FENDER CHAMPION 100": What's your tech opinion about it, do you will recomend that amp for recording or playing live? Or its a simple practice amp?
from 0 to 10, where will be that amp?
Thanks again, have a nice day men.

Maybe a silly thought but would mounting a cooling fan that you could turn on/off help with an amp such as the HRD?

would have loved to see the little Roland JC in this comparison.

in any case nice work

It’s cute that just a year ago some of these were under $500 :p

Great video, appreciate the straight facts

Absolutely a good assessment, Have the Marshal DSL 40cr and Katana Artist and both serve me well.

This is a really great video. I don't though understand why the hypothetical life of the less repairable amps are supposed to be something like 4 years. The solid state and modelling amps I have had last much longer than that. Failures were more likely to be something like capacitors, jacks, or something with the reverb. But not something that would render the amp worthless. Electronics can function for a very long time. Even when they aren't well taken care. (Take care of them!!)

AC15c1 is an incredible amplifier. I love British Invasion tones. FYI, AC10c1 doesn’t come close as far as tone.

Been beating the crap out of my Hot Rod Deluxe for 18 years! Replaced the power tubes 10 years ago and that’s it. I’ve heard I’m very lucky because the boards tend to go out on them.

I wonder if the smaller brothers of the DSL40, the DSL20 and DSL5 have the same build quality in your opinion? I see those as good options for in house playing. Thx

I still have a 1998 USA made SLM era Crate Vintage Club 3112 amp. Great amps IMHO.

Appreciate your opinion! what is your take on the BOSS NEXTONE amps?

I retired my Hot Rod Deville from gigging due to the weight and volume, bought a 100W Katana for convenience. Lighter weight, switchable output levels, built in access to most Boss effects, decent Line Out, multiple channels etc.
Does it sound as good as the Deville? Certainly not. Is it an acceptable compromise? Most definitely, for me at least. And my near 60 year old body thanks me for not having to lug the valve amp about.

Ps. EXCELLENT EXCELLENT EXCELLENT VIDEO, I SUBSCRIBED!!

My opinion, ORANGE SUPER CRUSH 100 PERIOD!! WHOOOOOOOO

Cheap amps are cheap, open one up I was shocked by the build quality…junk.

You start running into a thing where you have to decide whether you want to buy the amplifier for the sound or build quality.

Out of your four finalists is the marshall a good amp to practice jazz with a good mids? Or which is a good clean practice amp for jazz guitar with es 335 guitar.

Great source of information when getting a live gigging amp that you can rely on.

What do you think of a Fender Pro Jr? There is a tweed one, brand new on sale for 500 bucks. Would you give a general thumbs up on that deal?

Excellent! Appreciate your insight in repair area, as this is very important

"What used to cost $300 now costs $800"...silverface fender comes to mind...

As an owner of the DSL100HR since the month of lauch and someone whos played MANY DSL100H's, DSL40C's and DSL40CR's i can absolutely recommend these amps. I have certainly had failures in the DSL100HR but they were all repairable and all but one were repairs i could do myself (i build amps, pedals, guitars and restore old tube radio receivers in my free time). And that one repair i couldnt do was fireware related and that issue has been fixed on all the newer DSL R series amps and was only an issue on the very earliest units. And even if you did get one with that issue a Marshall certified repair/service center could easily fix it. Ive also found these amps to be pretty great modding platforms. Ive added a hammond choke to mine as well as added an optional mod to the Ultra channel to make it sound/perform like the DSL100H, like the stock 100HR or like something right in the middle of the two. Plus these amps are insanely versatile. They sound excellent clean, lightly broken up or flat out dirty. They take pedals extremely well which is really important to me since im constantly building, designing and modding pedals. And even if you want the tone of a fender (more lows and highs with less mids) you can dial in a similar tone but an even better solution is to pick up a Tech 21 Blonde (or Joyo American Sound which is a clone of the Blonde but youll have to mod it if you want the option to kill the speaker emulation like the Tech 21 Blonde can). With that pedal in the front of the DSL you can get a wonderful fender tone.😮😮 Overall its a really great amp. The one downside is that it can be quite expensive to replace the four EL34's about once every 12 to 18 months (unless you play it less, i play mine a ton). But i also built myself a Fender Champ clone that has a switchable output section that selects either the stock 6V6 or an EL84 and I use the Champ clone as not only a back up but a second amp to bear some of the load of my playing so im not always playing the Marshall and running through its tubes. Anyways i just wanted to share my experience with the DSL's. They really are wonderful versatile amps.

Great video! I do have an Egnater Tweaker 40 1X12. I bought it very cheap somewhere around $120 because it had its power transformer blown. Common problem on these but I bought a Mercury Magnetics transformer that is much beefier for it at the time $120. Replaced it myself and have never had a problem since. Damn good amp for the $240 I have into it.

I plug my pod go into PA 😂

Great video...learned tons. Pls do one on small wattage amps <10 watts...thx!

So these hybrid micro amps from vox,joyo,orange,etc. Are pretty much planned obsolescence with a 12v light bulb(ecc83) ?

Awesome!!! Thank you for that!!!

Interestingly, I worked in electronics for more than a decade. Surface mount service/repairs/manufacture was most of the work I did. It is not that difficult. Hot air guns are fantastic to lift components.

Excelent review!!! Right to the point!

I liked the Marshall origin but the DSL better simply because it has reverb. Printed circuit boards equal low price. Buy two if you are playing out a lot. You may have a failure on stage. I played a deluxe reverb for clubs for 2 decades. Everything from old country to Judas Priest with only 2 pedals and a rack unit for delay and slap back.

I also have 2 Kustom Defender Heads that 5 watt tube amps that use EL84 and a 12AX7. They were $99 brand NEW and are among my most used amps. They have 16/8/4 ohm output jacks. I got them around 2018 FYI. They sound pretty good for home use. I rune them through a 12", 212 412 and full stack of 2 412 cabs. Very versatile.

I'd be interested to know your thoughts on the Fender GTX100. I'm currently A/B-ing that and the Boss Katana Artist 100 Mk2 (+ the AirStep foot switch). I like them both.

have an Ac15 C1, A Marshall dsl 40C, and a Deluxe Reverb reissue amongst many others, and concur with your analysis and comments. my favorite would be Deluxe Reverb with upgraded speaker and Fromel mods followed by the stock AC15.

As far as the Boss Katana? I'm glad Yoshi went with a Class A/B power section IMO.
Class D for guitar just doesn't "feel" right to me personally. Possible naive bias, but just my 2 cents.

cabs/speakers, and by extension amps, are by far the single most important element of your tone
no surprise that's what people ask about

boss