Hi all!

After browsing around these forums for quite some time now, I thought I'd dive in and write a post myself. I've been playing for a good while now, however have only recently got into Surf Rock, and the desire to play it.

So, after browsing through the gear forum section, trying to find the "best amp for Surf Guitar", it became pretty obvious that like most things guitar related, it all depends on the rest of your gear, budget and size etc. So I thought perhaps, if I give a list of my gear and such, maybe I could get a bit of info on what you guys think is my best bet!

I currently own a Squire Vintage Modified Jaguar, and an '89 Korean Stratocaster.
I also have a reverb pedal (Marshall RF-1), if that's useful at all.

In terms of size and such, I'd be looking for a combo amp, or a "smaller" stack, as it will be mainly for practicing at home, however, there is a big demand for houseparty shows in my area, and therefore, something loud enough for that kind of thing would be perfect too.

Thanks guys!

honestly, if you ask me if you want a good amp that's good all-around, go talk to Nik of Cieratone amps. he makes hand made amps of pretty much anything you can think of with infinite options to mod if you want at a very reasonable price.

For reverb, id go with a surfybear or Topanga if it was me. I might add tremolo and a compressor too just for variety sake

I'm looking to get another Amp that has Reverb & Tremolo
and there are a couple of Amps that I like. One is the
Tone King Galaxy Head and 2X12 Cab the other is a Magnatone
Twillighter Stero 2X12. Now is either one of those Amps good
for Surf Music? Does anyone here play thru those Amps I've
listened to YouTube and both sound great.

Lou D

peavy classic 50 or 30
not expensive if you find them usedand sound great for surf
i haved a classic 50 4x10 that sounded really good

Last edited: Jul 26, 2019 15:25:29

the classic 50 is more vox in sound cause of the el 84 ,but the 50 4x10 have a présence knob ,bright and normal input ,good reverb in ,too bad i miss mine now!(but had too much amp at this time and need money)
it is very cool in crunch also ,on mine i put the gain really high on the clean channel and the master never more than 5 i think, it was really loud and don't dissapears in band like a deluxe reverb

Last edited: Jul 27, 2019 12:37:50

As others have said, an amp that you can turn up and doesn't distort (clean headroom) is all you need to get started. You don't need a tube amp to play surf (unless you want one). Honestly an old inexpensive solid state Peavey is a good option. These go cheap in my corner of the frozen north. I have a 1980s solid state Fender Stage Lead I bought for $100 that will give me loud clean tones for days.

the Undead Bureaucrats
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The Rum Sweats

What's your budget?

If your budget conscious and additionally focused on house party-type gigs as you described (where accidents/damage can be more likely) keep an eye out for a 1990s-era Crate with DSP. I have two Crate GT80DSP amps with modeled (mosfet) reverb (like 32 options) which I find more than adequate for surf and plain old rock & roll. I also use a Danelectro Cool Cat chorus, a Danelectro FAB echo, FAB chorus, and a vintage "red bean" large-sized POD (which I've yet to master).

My first Crate GT80DSP cost me $180 over ten years ago, the latest set me back a whopping fifty dollars ($50.00 USD) in June of 2019. These Crate amps are both solid state and tube (a unique arrangement/a lead and a rhythm channel for each) and would be loud enough for your purposes.

Note the second amp had a crackly/loose input jack, I spent about an hour removing the chassis and resoldering the loose input jack which was causing intermittent signal loss/crackling in addition to cleaning the pots with electroclean, it was my first amp repair, ever.

As others have suggested the Peavey amps particularly those with 12" speakers will suffice as will some of the all tube "V" Series Crate amps.

I've used a myriad of guitars with the Crate GT80DSP including a Fender Lead II, a Lead III, an SX Liquid (w/two P90s), a Squier Affinity Tele, a Squier Affinity Strat, a Korean-era Squier Strat (refinished myself/see thread here at SG101), and a recently acquired semi-hollow Oscar Schmidt OE-30 "Delta King" (a Gibson 335 clone) that I found on CL for $120 and that I've completely fallen in love with, the neck fits me like a glove, none of the guitars nor my choice of amp have let me down.

Last edited: Jan 30, 2020 02:16:38

Just to add another budget option, the Bugera V55 is a great option. 6L6 tubes. Tons of clean headroom. Also will give you a little bit of grit if you want it. Takes pedals as good as anything I've ever used. Available in a head (that's what I've got), or a 1x12 combo. It's my primary amp (and will probably be my last amp, because I ain't getting any richer or any younger).

Guitarist for Northern Tides from Hudson Valley, NY.
Northern Tides on FB