t h e ga s station best budget blues amps Words Ed Mitchell Photography Joby Sessions 100 Total Guitar november 2016 TGR286.gear_test.
the tg test Are you an aspiring blues guitarist who wants to get amplified? We’ve found the right combo for you… T he notion that you need a certain type of amp to play your chosen genre is nonsense – you can, of course, play blues guitar through any amp you bleedin’ well like.
t h e ga s station rolaNd BlueS CuBe HoT £495 Convincing tone, without the tubes... FeNder BaSSBreaKer 15 £509 The Yanks perfect their British accent... Should I be worried that this thing doesn’t have valves or not? Bassbreaker? It’s a guitar amp I’m looking for... Nope. Roland’s onboard ‘Tube Logic’ technology mimics the performance of a vintage tweed valve amp so well, we reckon more than a few solid-state cynics would be fooled in a blindfold test.
the tg test PeaVeY ValVeKiNG ii 20 £719 The beast of both worlds… BlaCKSTar arTiST 15 £649 English heart, American soul Is this one of those Peavey TransTube things? The Artist 15 has similar valves to a Fender, right? No. That’s the valve emulation technology the company includes on its solid-state amps – including the pub gig staple Bandit model. The ValveKing II 20 we have in our clutches features real 12AX7s and EL84s. Yep, it’s that classic British set-up again.
the tg test Head to head Build quality is solid on all three amps How our four amps stack up against each other… W 104 hile there are no dogs when it comes to build quality here, the sturdily-conceived Fender and Blackstar combos are the pick of the litter. The compact, lightweight Roland and the more imposing Peavey feel a bit more ‘budget’ in comparison. Tonally however, the Bassbreaker 15 gives us the biggest surprise.
t h e ga s station FiNal VerdiCT Which amp is the right one for you? W e’ve had our wicked way with four great amplifiers here. We love the fact that although they are similar outputs and price points, they actually sound quite different. That’s makes your search for the perfect blues amp way more interesting. We obviously have our favourite and so will you; and it might not be the same amp we’d plump for.
