If you’re planning to buy a new amp in the near future, or maybe buy an old amp, I would give you these three tips:

First, don’t buy anything that is close to what you want and plan to have it modified. That usually means more investment and in the end, your buying an amp that wasn’t really designed to do what it’s supposed to do. Try to find exactly what you need or would like and start there. Many times our company Plexi Palace is asked if we could “Modify” a plexi reissue to sound more like this or that and we are asked to change out complete circuit boards in new amplifiers for the sake of making them point to point or specked out to older style amps. The problem there is these newer amps with PCs are not made for the hookups and typically start out with lower quality parts to begin with. You’re throwing good mony towards bad at that point. 

Second, if your after something older style but can’t afford an older vintage amp to begin with, consider a hand built amp either by a company that is hand building amps now, and there are to many to mention, or find a used hand built amp that is what you wanted to start with. Deals are all over the place and all you really need to do is look real hard. Be sure to consider what the tonal result is even though they might be well built and considered good stuff, do they sound good?

Third, if your not able to afford or find the amp your looking to buy, consider a kit amp. these are good products that offer a fine alternative to buying a more expensive boutique amp but without the labor and sometimes you have the option to buy them with standard grade or upgraded parts.  This is a fun and cool way to learn and enjoy the whole process of of getting your new gear.

But not everyone can build an amp or wants to build an amp. I can think of a lot of people who just want to get a great sounding amp that they can plug in and play. If your one of those people, you need to do some research for sure. If your in any of the three previous categories you also need to do some research and be sure you learn a bit more about the topic before pulling the trigger. I suggest the Vintage Amps Message Forum for starters. This board offers a Vintage amp index, A modern amp index called the Modern Zone, a do it your self builders forum, and finally a place to figure out what you need to get your favorite tone, a forum index called Getting Great tone. This index includes a section called signature tones and tubes transformers and components. All of these forums are of high value to the new amp or tone hunter.