Beat Practice Amp?

I am a songwriter who doesn't forsee playing in a band anymore and I am looking for the best practice amp not over $300. The Super Champ is right at $300 and offers a lot of built-in effects so I'm guessing that's the way to go? Any suggestions of an equivalent piece of equipment for less money? Or is the SC more amp than I need if I don't intend to play out?

If you don't need to crank it louder than a drummer, you should consider a Vox AD15VT modeling amp, which many people here have recommended....for a bit more you can get the 30 watt version and maybe even play out with it.

The SC is also well reviewed and has a real tube in it for a bit of authenticity. My practice amp is a tiny Champion 600....which has one great tube tone on it's own, but is fantastic for running a Pod through.

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the Vox Valvetronix (either 15 or 30 watts) is just a great choice for your needs. I have the 30-watt Valvetronix and have sung its praises here several times -- and the longer I own it the more I'm amazed by the great tones I get out of that amp. For less than $300 it is an amazing value. I highly recommend it.

My favorite practice/studio amp is a '72 Fender Princeton, modified by Jim Demeter. Speaker is a JBL D110 10". It took me a year and a half to talk my buddy into selling to me.

Almost forgot. If you can find a silver face Princeton (stock), you should be able to score one for under $300. In new ones, the smallest Fender (Blues Junior) should do the trick, and you can probably find one for around the budget you have. I would stay away from any of the modeling amps, since they mostly sound thin compared to a real tube amp.

'bug

Real tube amps are great....and I have 3 of them here in my studio, but if you simply want versatility, the modeling amps offer a lot for not much $$$. When I used to gig regularly (2 years ago now).... I played a Line6 Variax + Podxt Live thru a Bose PS/1... Any show where there were guitar players around, they were incredibly curious about my tone...many thinking that I had several boutique amps behind the drummer. The loudness and projection ability of the PS/1 is what really made the emulated tones sound good. Thinness has more to do with power, in my opinion. Even a solid state Roland jazz chorus 120 has balls.

I know better than to say that it sounded "better" than my tube amps, but my tube amps only did 1-3 good/great tones at a time. You can hear the difference in the studio in the initial attacks and the tailing sustain of notes and chords. It takes a pretty good ear on an isolated part to tell really the difference.....perhaps even side by side.

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