I recently purchased a Warwick Tubepath 5.1 off ebay that turned out to be a complete lemon (broken internals and when checked over by my tech it turned out numerous bodged jobs had been done). It was declared a write off.
As such im in the market for a new amp that meets the below requirements:-
Not class D
Valvey driven type tone
Hybrid rather than all valve (more price concern rather than weight)
Usual 2U rack mount type size
300w - 500w as a minimum
Budget is going to be £300 - £400 second hand
So far amps in the catergory ive tried and loved:-
Mesa Boogie Big Block - best sound ive had from a non-valve amp. Outside my current budget but this is the tone that im after
Ashdown Spyder - again, beautiful sound, maybe lacking just a touch more grit
Ampeg SVT3 - couldn’t get quite enough growl/grit out of it
Ampeg SVT3 non-pro - better than the pro but again lacked grit
I also tried the Orange Bass terror, plenty of volume but lacked that kick to the gut, ive found this with all the class D's ive tried hence me possibly ruling them out.
Id still like to give a Warwick Tubepath a go as from what ive read it ticks most of my boxes. Theres also the Handbox 400 that gets brought up on here a lot but will be way outside my current budget.
What other valve/solid state hybrids will get me in the ball park of a Mesa BB750 without the cost (probably asking the impossible here).