I mostly play and enjoy the sound of “classic” metal. 1980s Judas Priest. Metallica. Maiden. Etc.
What’s a good amp/fx setup to reproduce this sound at modest volumes?
I have a friend with a Marshall stack, which sounds amazing but I have neither the budget or the space for something like this. I currently have a Fender amp with a Boss GT-1 effects pedal, which is quite good but no matter what I do I never quite get this to reproduce the tone I’m looking for.
Will a small Marshall combo amp like a MG30GFX work for me? Does it make sense to go for low-wattage tube amps over solid state? Thoughts?
Not at modest volumes it won’t. A 1W valve amp is going to be more than loud enough for use at home levels, let alone cranking a 20W amp
You don’t need to crank it to get the sound op is after
Edit: I completely forgot that the 40 and 20 watt versions all have low power modes so you can run them at 20/10/1 watt
So many people just assume you need to dime the master volume to get good tone. It’s not the 70’s anymore. Most amps are made so that the pre-amp does the tonal heavy lifting. The power section doesn’t need to be pushed at all to get a serviceable tone. Sure, there’s extra sauce in the power amp as you turn it up but its not an absolute necessity like it was 50 years ago.