I used to really like Tube amps because everyone says they’re “the best,” but in my experience this depends on a lot. What style of music are you playing? What’s that sound in your head that you’re looking for?
I have a Marshall DSL head and Cab and a Boss Katana 50EX mk3, and genuinely prefer the Boss over the Marshall. Both take pedals well, and my honest recommendation would be to get something with a lot of headroom for cleans and make a platform out of that. I am personally using the clean channel 100% of the time and letting pedals do the rest.
Below is my usual setup, used for P90 Revstar Professional and a dirt cheap but very adequate HB 8 string, top row is what I am using regularly:
Fantastic amp but seriously I have it through the attenuator sat on top and struggle to get a "bedroom" volume out of it. I'm registered deaf BTW 😂😂😂
So my recommendations at Boss Katana, they are just incredible versatile etc or the Blackstar ID series which is similar. I heard one recently and was impressed.
If you're looking for a pedal platform I'd possibly go for one of the Fender tonemaster ones. I plugged in one in a guitar shop and only realised it wasn't valve after a few minutes. If I was gigging I'd use that with my silly pedalboard 😂
Do you want effects too? I have a Line 6 Spider V30 and it has a ton of effects and different cabs etc. A looper, tuner, does most things, but then I bought a Valeton GP200 and didn't need all the effects on the amp anymore. Still, a good amp. I bought an old Fender amp off marketplace (100 watt). It needed new output transistors and I swapped out all the pots and now it's a great amp.
I have a Line6 Spider and a Crate - depends what you want to do - the crate is clean or dirty with minimal fuss, the spider requires a lot of adjustments all the time....it does have presets - but I find that limiting too...
These days I have a Fender Mustang III for guitar, mostly because it's semi-small and got lots of pre-set tones. Also have a few others that i don;t use these days, including an Ampeg stack for my bass.
