Good deal.....or not?

thumbinmyway

i have a little ibanez practice amp that i paid about $70 for a little over a year ago. its not a bad amp at all but i just want a little more. so im thinking about trading it to my buddy plus 75 bucks for an old crate vc2110 club 20 tube amp. i looooove the sound of this thing plus it looks pretty cool too. so what i need to know is, would the 75 extra be too much? plus i really dont even understand the concept of a tube amp. i hear a lot of great things about them but how about maintenance? should i be worried about it going out on me anytime soon and having to pay big bucks to repair it? any advice would be appreciated. thanks

jodi

i've heard you have to look at the color of the tubes..
i they are brown, that's not a good sign.
just looke here, maybe you find what you need

http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/other.html

thumbinmyway

thanks jodi......what about crate amps in general though? anyone know anything specific about these?

House53

crate makes good low cost amps... the tubes being "brown" is not a major repair... that is simply replacing some of the tubes. A tube amp of that size, will only have two power tubes (most often the ones needing to be replaced)... that would be less than $15 for those tubes.

They are totally different than a solid-state amp. If you are uncomfortable with having potential maintenance, (While inexpensive, maintenance is a part of a tube amp), then it might be best to continue playing your current amp and study a bit about tube amps.

They are nothing to be intimidated by, but I understand how they can be intimidating if you are unfamiliar with them.

$75 extra seems fair to me. However, I haven't heard the two amps. Use your ears to determine which one you like better.

I hope this helped.

Pacomc79

The Vintage Clubs were good little amps that kind of got lost in the mix. Used they usually go between 130 and 200 dollars. So that should be a good deal.

Maintence is not bad at all Power tubes for that amp (EL-84's) are about 15 dollars for a matched pair. 20 being high end.

(12AX7's) are the preamp tubes and they are around 10 bucks a piece but you don't need to replace them very often.

Most likely the tubes in the amp you are getting are fine and will last a good long while.

I think it's a good deal. I'd try to talk him down to 70 or 60 just to see if he'll budge, if not 75 is still a good fair deal.


this is a good link on tube amps by Sal Trentino the maker of Mike and Stones amps.

http://trentino.best.vwh.net/

thumbinmyway

you guys are awesome! thanks for the advice. i hate to ask this but i dont even know what some of the controls are on the thing-gain, mid, and level knobs?? and what is an external speaker jack used for? he let be borrow it yesterday and just playing it last night, wow! i think im sold!

Pacomc79

Gain and level are both relative level controls.

Gain is before the amp (pre amp tubes) Level is post pre amp (power amp tubes)

The more pre "gain" you add the more distorted the amp will be. Level is your volume control.


Bass Mid and Treble are your basic EQ. How much Bass Middle and treble are in your sound. You can adjust these to custom tailor what your guitar sound is like. They control the character of the sound, whether it is bright or warm.

The external speaker jack is for hooking up an external speaker cabinet.

Usually there is a number with an ohm symbol next to it. It looks like the Greek Omega symbol.

You can use a speaker cabinet such as a 2x12 or 4x12 that correlate to the same ohm number next to your speaker out jack to get a little more volume from your amp.