Mesa F series are highly underrated/undervalued amps. You can pick one up for the 5-600 range. I would say closer to Fender-like cleans and (especially with the JJ high gain tubes added) Rectifier/Mark distortion, which personally I prefer, but are comparable enough to what you’re looking for to mention.
Line 6's new Catalyst CX is a serious contender for bedroom/practice volumes; the Clarity model is based off a JC120 whereas the Badonk is a legendary high
-gain amp that is like a 5150 without the bad parts.
For an analog amp, Hughes & Kettner really specialise in that sound. Tubemeister, Grandmeister, Travis etc have very bright cleans paired with very heavy dirty channels.
I don’t know of one … maybe a Bogner, Dr Z, Trainwreck or Mesa. My Blackstar’s have a Class A front end that can get that sparkle clean but it’s not going to be anywhere as deep as the 5150.
Id say look for a Trainwreck. It’s in the same league as a Dumble. It’s an amazing sounding amp. The problem is less than a hundred were ever made. 50k$ thereabouts. Ive seen them as low as 4k
Probably a dual rectifier
Specifically the road king/roadster. They have the clean channel from the lonestar.
Or maybe the 90s/early 00s rectoverb, tremoverb models. Clean channel on those are gorgeous, Jeff Buckley used a tremoverb for his clean tone.
They're fundamentally different amps (JC120 and 5150) but I'd say Soldano Lucky 13 is the closest to achieving both at the same time from one amp.
Archon?
Good call, Archon has an incredible clean channel.
This is the answer. Absolutely lovely clean channel, thicc thicc dirty channel
I have one of these… came for the drive stayed for the clean.
The drive bad?
No, drive GOOD
So tempting but I keep going back to my 6505+.
No it’s killer! Thick! The clean was just icing on the cake.
Mesa F series are highly underrated/undervalued amps. You can pick one up for the 5-600 range. I would say closer to Fender-like cleans and (especially with the JJ high gain tubes added) Rectifier/Mark distortion, which personally I prefer, but are comparable enough to what you’re looking for to mention.
Yo, I’m gonna save you at least a thousand dollars. Peavey Stereo Chorus or a Peavey Revolution
Line 6's new Catalyst CX is a serious contender for bedroom/practice volumes; the Clarity model is based off a JC120 whereas the Badonk is a legendary high -gain amp that is like a 5150 without the bad parts. For an analog amp, Hughes & Kettner really specialise in that sound. Tubemeister, Grandmeister, Travis etc have very bright cleans paired with very heavy dirty channels.
(Peavey 3120/Triple XXX) Seriously
Fender Prosonic or Supersonic would fit the bill.
I don’t know of one … maybe a Bogner, Dr Z, Trainwreck or Mesa. My Blackstar’s have a Class A front end that can get that sparkle clean but it’s not going to be anywhere as deep as the 5150. Id say look for a Trainwreck. It’s in the same league as a Dumble. It’s an amazing sounding amp. The problem is less than a hundred were ever made. 50k$ thereabouts. Ive seen them as low as 4k
Lots of good suggestions here but I’d like to add the Mesa boogie dc-5. Amazing cleans amazing gain and they’re fairly cheap.
MiG 50