Hi. I’m in the UK so guess at a disadvantage in terms of amp choice compared to USA (often they state no shipping to UK). That said, I would appreciate any sensible advice on a potential amp that would be powerful enough to be used with a band. I have no idea what size watt that would be. I would ultimately love the Chicago crunch/dirty sound but also have the option to play clean. Ignore any budget with your advice, I just require options at this stage. I play through a bulletini with volume control. Many thanks.
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Depends on how loud the band is and what venues you play. Smaller crunchy amps are good (and cheaper), but will need a PA channel (and line out or mic) in anything bigger than a room - and some small venues don’t have much of a PA. Big amps are great, but are expensive and heavy. I went for the middle ground - a HarpGear 35 - 35 all tube watts with twin 10 inch speakers and a line out. Works well for a medium room (with a not-excessively-loud pub rock band), but is small enough for room size gigs and can be PA’d when we play stadiums (as if!). Transport from Florida can be expensive (US$400 for the shipping to Australia), but I love my HG35.
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Thanks Maka. Venues will be pubs in the Uk which are usually cramped. Appreciate your advice.
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Nice to see ya @tess848ducati it’s been awhile! Did you see this?
I recommend the HOG stuff if you can get. Otherwise, you could pick up a MonoPrice and swap out the tubes to AY7’s. I’ve yet to do that on my amp, but plan to!
Hope that helps?
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You don’t need a “big” amp (in terms of wattage) Any good sound man would mic your amp. Pick one that produces the tone/sound you like, then it’s up to the sound man.
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Well if you want to go big and spend a lot of money a fender Bassman is my dream amp. But I have a 40 watt Vox with an amp Modeller and a tube From which I can get the Chicago crunch. If you have a Bulletini a Roland cube works well it’s small easy to transport and won’t break the bank
@Andy2 @Luke @GmanG @tess848ducati @Maka Has anyone tried a Blackstone ID Core 10w solid state amp? I borrowed one and it has more toys than I know how to use; weighs 3kg; comes with mains cable but there’s an option for a powerpack and I’m told it sounds better than my Fishman Loudbox but I know nothing about amps other than they can be a pain to carry around and have knobs with mysterious names 
Jay1
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Got any pics of the controls and switches? Model numbers etc might be able to find you a manual on line
Thanks for the offer Andy but it was only borrowed because one of the guys who’s a busker brought it into the studio. He has a manual, mostly gobbledegook to me I try very hard not to get involved with the sound engineer’s territory. 
Just thought I’d ask as it seemed a very lightweight amp that others on the forum who understand these things might find useful as a heads-up. Jay1
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A lot of Amps even small ones these days either have effects pedals for guitar built in, you can get some interesting effects of you are so inclined. I must admit to having played with them. Some of the more mid- high end amps may have amp modelling units such as my vox amp, on which I get a pretty accurate Fender Bassman sound ( not willing to pay Fender Bassman prices then there’s lugging the bloody thing about, being a valve amp they weigh a ton, and my days of carrying heavy stuff about are well and truly over) my amp has a single valve in it, as I say the modeler allows me to select whatever amp I’d like then I have a bunch of other stuff that allows me to select various effects and Amps and switch between them, way too complicated for me. And not really suited to what I play, although being a 40 watt amp or thereabouts it allows me to piss off over enthusiastic ego tripping guitar players especially if I kick in the boost. Although they tend to behave when I’m playing through that amp. The other thing it has is a reverb I was told what it was called but apparently it’s ever so good. What I actually like about it combined with the dirty Chicago sound, it has been described by a local music critic as “the devil’s own fart! And very dangerous sounding” Which I thought
was hilarious! And it’s actually pinned to my notice board in the kitchen. This Amp you described might be a similar thing. I like the fact that I can get a sound akin to a tactical nuclear strike on mine. I used to have a valve amp but the feedback, the weight the boom if it got knocked on a small stage really got on my nerves so I sold it to a mate of mine. I didn’t need the money so I gave that to our then local music venue which was going through a bad patch.
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Andy the only time I use anything attached to my mic is at the recording studio where there are two sound engineers in a control room and more room mics; amps and other strange boxes with knobs. Playing chromatic I use my old 1970’s AKG D1200E instrument mic (sound engineers like that one) or a Shure SM58. Haven’t used my Green Bullet for quite some time as I found it awkward with chroms. Other than at the recording studio I like the simplicity of no electrics. Jay1
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