I recently picked up an electric guitar, and am using a Fender Mustang I amp a friend loaned my son. It is not a bad amp, per se. But it has built in effects that cannot be turned off, it is nice having the effects because I do not have any pedals yet. But I would like to be able to play clean sometimes.
I am looking for something about the same size. Maybe a bit bigger. It is a 1-8” 20 watt amp. Maybe something around the 50 watt area. If it has built in effects I am only interested if they can be turned off.
Bonus if anyone knows if it is possible to turn off the effects on this one.
Are we supposed to include a guitar tax here?
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Boss Katana is a really hard amp to beat, especially at the price point. You should be able to find used mark 2 versions of the amp for pretty cheap.
I have the same amp and discovered that you can disable the effects holding the tap key while you power it on.
After that it provides a quite flat response, fine for usage with digital modelers
As other people said, Boss Katanas are the benchmark product of this cathegory, it’s hard to do better.
The Roland Cube is an old but gold that can be found for dirt cheap on the second hand market, there are both a 20 and a 40 watt version.
A friend of mine found herself to be very happy with the Blackstar ID Core, which also has a 20 and a 40 watt versionSomebody on this Reddit thread here says to:
[…] If you hold the tap button down and switch on the amp only the master volume works
When asked about how to turn off effects
Man, from one extreme to the other
Awesome. I will give that a try in the morning.
Watts doesn’t mean louder. Unless you are trying to drown out people talking at a venue then 20 watts is all you need.
Even pros are using lower watts now that everything is miced going front of house anyways.
I’m not in the game much anymore but I’m happy with my Orange practice amps, especially for the price
I’ll second that. If you’re looking for something a little more traditional the Orange solid state stuff sounds pretty good.
I have heard about Orange amps, but know nothing about them. I will look into them. Is practice a model? Or are they generally all practice amps?
No, Orange do full-size separate heads and cabs
They got famous in the 60s and 70s with their British tube amps then sold the name to Gibson. That didn’t go well, and the founder bought it back in ‘96. Now they make a full line of gear. Some other companies’ smaller amps seem to be outsourced afterthoughts, or badge jobs.
For your use case, they have a 35w 10" w/ reverb and tuner for $300 and a 60w 1x12"w/3 verbs for $600. I got my 20w 8" at guitar center, they’re great too.
The Blackstar Debut 50r is a two channel 50 watt all analogue solid state amp for $250. No effects except for reverb. Sounds pretty good for an entry amp.
I’ve been weirdly enjoying my cheap Catalyst 60 modelling amp. Has some nice clean tones and you can deep dive with the phone app to really dial in what you’re looking for if you want. But even the knobs on top of the amp allow you a good bit of tuning. Also allows you to experiment with a bunch of in built pedal-like effects/reverbs you switch on/off.
I used to own a Marshall MG15CF, and absolutely loved that thing. For the price, it was absolutely excellent.
Depending on how much money you can spend, the Boss Katana will probably be the last amp you’ll need for personal use. Or otherwise, digital kits like stuff from NeuralDSP are my favorites too
