Going into this, I know I'm a Marshall "fanboy". I know its silly that a lot of my decision to get what I get is because it says Marshall on the front. Actually, if I had the money, it'd be a Marshall clone, so I don't know if its fair of you to say I only want the name. If I only wanted the name, I'd make the same decision I did 10 years ago and get a solid state Marshall and call it a day. The thing is, making music is largely a creative endeavor, and creative endeavors require inspiration. If me playing a Gibson SG through a Marshall amp is what I use to be creative, then so be it.
Marshall does make an amp in the range I want. Back in 2004, if you wanted Marshall tubes, you were looking at a ton of money for more power than you'd ever want to use inside a small stage, much less a bedroom. Now though, they have this DSL-15h that is a 15 watt tube amp head. It has the dual channels I've gotten used to in the past 10 years. It will come with a footswitch for changing the channels easily. I also like that it has a 1/2 power switch on it, that way when I'm loading up the gain for more "modern" metal, I can lower the overall volume and increase the distortion easier. The downsides? It is missing a few modern touches that I will be losing. Not the built in effects, I don't care for that, but I will be missing the Effects loop. There is also not an emulated out for computer recording or headphone use. Maybe not now, but I could see in the next 10 years where I'd want both of those. The #1 reason I want this amp, "unlike all their sub-$1000 amps in the past the DSL-15 nails the Angus Young sound" -Rob Chapman.
Blackstar is the most popular small amp makers. When Orange brought out the Tiny Terror and started the craze, they dropped the ball on updating that amp in ways the average player wants. Blackstar took up the slack and now have the popular amps in this range. I'm looking at the Blackstar HT-5 or 20 if I look at the same price of the DSL15. They have both the effects loop and the emulated lines that I'd want. Blackstar is a company made of former Marshall engineers. These were the guys that did the more modern amp engineering at Marshall and left when Marshall started doing re-issues as their high end. So, it is still Marshall pedigree. The problems with it? It is so "modern" in sound that I am worried I would not get the classic sound that it so hard to get if your amp doesn't do it naturally. Modern metal can be gotten easily with a pedal, I'd rather have a classic sound and use pedals for the other stuff any day of the week. It does have a knob that is very famous called the ISF knob, and it makes it sound "American" or "British" or a blend of the two.
My 3rd choice: Egnater. I've been interested in Egnater for years. They are the tech junkie amp makers. The line I'm looking at is the "Tweaker" line, and before that I wanted a "Rebel". The Rebel had both "American" tubes and "British" tubes and a switch that let you choose between or blend either. The Tweaker is the newer style where they use EQ switches to achieve all its things. The Tweaker 40 is the one I want because it has 2 channels, but the channels are the same exact copies of each other. Then you use the switches to alter them. So instead of having a Clean and Dirty channels, I could have Classic Rock and Metal channels that I typically use. You can choose to make them sound "British" "American" and "AC". There are also hot and clean switches, deep and bright switches, its called "Tweaker" because its made to do lots and lots of different amps, and from what I saw on Youtube it actually does it. So what's my hangup? 40 watts can take a lot of juice to make sound "right", and the Tweaker 40 does not have a 1/2 power switch. The Tweaker 15 doesn't have the fully editable footswitchable channels that the 40 has. Its also $100 more than the DSL or the Blackstar 20. Damn, it is "Neat" though, and "neat" factor carries much weight with me.
So that's what I'm looking at.
If the Egnater had a 1/2 power switch, I'd be all for it, no question. If Marshall's DSL40 came in a head format instead of a combo, I'd be all over it. The combo adds an effects loop and has a 1/2 power switch. If Blackstar... did not feel so much like a compromise between both, I'd just like to play through a Blackstar to get rid of my fear of it not getting the tone I want.
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