Amp choices
I'm not Bob Dylan, of course, but I don't think he'd care which of those amps he played in his room. They are all three really good amps, but think about that Crate V18 at musciansfriend.com for 149, no tax.
Watched some utubes last nite of Dylan and he played a different guitar on every song, couple beautiful strats, a tele, an Airline Spudman tells me, some special Gibson Les Paul with a headstock inlay like I've never seen probably a really old well taken care of guitar.
So any way you go will be a good choice, I think, if you spend a lot of time playing it and learning it, finding its sweet spots, special characteristics, etc.
I have all three.
I play the Vox DA5 the most and in fact took it apart tonight and resoldered a broken solder joint on the PCB where the power plug plugs in. I was lucky, I could see some faint sparks and some semi microscopic cracks in the trace and solder points. I applied flux and used a well heated fifteen watt pencil soldering iron to very very lightly touch them up, no added solder. Then I finished it off by adding a very little solder at some weak spots on the joints and on the cracked traces without getting any solder on any other solder places. I use very thin electrical solder from radio shack an it is about one mm in diameter. Works great in tight places where a lot of solder would mess things up big time.
The DA5 has some great sounding effects like autowah and is editable in three parameters for the effects, plus has a tap tempo button. A lot of great amp models including two cleans, three blues amp models, three crunch models, drive, and probably a couple more. It has one tone knob for eq, not two or three or four. It has a separate gain knob next to the volume knob and it gets loud enough to aggravate your surrounding neighbors and obliterate your family or roomates. It switches, however between point five watts to one point five watts to five watts and you can use six C cell batteries to take it on the road, camping, picknicing, on the hunt, etc. Take it somewhere and sit around and play and see what shows up. A nice feature. It is small, about ten inches by ten inches and about six deep. You can take the battery panel that's velcro'd on off for an open back amp sound.
I haven't used my Pathfinder 15R much lately but it is really cool with a vintage Vox sound and layout. Clean and overdrive, nice eq, reverb, and a vintage style tremolo with speed and depth knobs which I like to set at slow and shallow to get that wavering rotary Leslie speaker type sound. Works good for blues. It looks really vintage and is a super amp but you usually have to order it from musciansfriend or somewhere like that. GC usually only has the Pathfinder 10 which is another animal and something I wouldn't get, like a Behringer GM108, although some people like them.
I think the GM110 is a super value and you get three drive models, clean, high gain, and mega high gain, not in those same words. You get American, British, and HiGain amp models I think. You also get three cabinet models, a four by twelve Marshall stack supposedly, a Vox two twelve supposedly, and a Fender tweed I believe. It has a full eq, a separate drive knob to even overdrive the already overdriven models, a master volume knob, no reverb I don't think but a Danelectro corned beef will work great! It has incredible connectivity including a built in DI out for using xlr cables to connect to a board or PA. Lots of other things like a effects loop, etc. Plus a ten inch quality speaker and thirty solid state watts, for 98 dollars. It's supposedly very dependable unlike some other Behringer items.
That 149 Crate V18 would be a mind blower for sure and you could turn it down low enough to really enjoy it at home and it would almost definitely keep up with a moderately loud drummer, definitely with a drummer who knows how to play more softly and more mellow.
musciansfriend.com is even selling the five watt V5 for 99 dollars. These prices are less than half of the normal price and they won't be around long. That little five watt tube amp would be great along with a multi pedal or other single pedals. Definitely. The V five has an eight inch speaker but the V eighteen has a full twelve inch speaker that would give you a richer tone, supposedly, I think definitely.
Being an amatuer my ideas on these amps might not be equal to those of some of these super experts here on the Fret, but I know for sure some of them like any of the above amps and would agree that any of them would be good for home use. The Behringer and the V18 obviously have more potential for jamming with friends. The DA5 has that playing in the park with the batteries for thirty hours on one set, and seeing what shows up; could be a catalyst for rounding up some babes, definitely. Bring a dog along and you'll be a sure hit.
Hope these ideas from a relative neophyte or novice/intermediate player help you out. I need to practice every day, which I do, and take lessons more regularly. Lessons are how you learn a thousand times faster and get a thousand times better, at least for someone at my level of ability. They really help and are not expensive.
Let us know how your search turns out but I wouldn't play around if I was going for one of those Crate tube amps. He who hesitates is lost. You can preorder which would be highly advisable especially with the V18.
Duff
as is the little GA5 'junior-a-like'
