First tube amp.

[mosquito control]

I'm looking to upgrade to a tube amp from my shit Crate solid state. Ultimately the Kustom Coupe '36 has caught my eye, but is a little bit out of my price range. I'm looking for something that has a lot of clean headroom and a speaker simulated out for recording.

Also does anyone have experience with the Fender Blues Jr? There is one on craigslist for $350 with the "Billm" mods. It doesn't have the speaker simulated out, but until I find a deal on something else it may do.

[Gibsonman63]

Trust your ears

Guitar amp sound is subjective. If you like the sound of it, then it sounds good.

I do a fair amount of recording and I have never been very impressed with recording outputs on guitar amplifiers. Why not spend $40 or $50 and pick up a used Shure SM57. It is still the defacto microphone for recording guitar amps even in the larger studios.

[mosquito control]

I actually do have an SM57. Just tends to get noisy around the house, can't always record without picking up other sounds. Do you have any experience with the Blues Jr? How much clean headroom does it have?

[Gibsonman63]

I have a Blues Jr. that I got on a trade. It has had some mods done to it, but I haven't owned it long enough to sort things out. Not a bad little amp for the price and there are a lot of mods and tweaks that can be done if you are adventurous.

If you are mainly using it for recording, then clean headroom (at volume) isn't as much of an issue. Just set the volume where it sounds best to you. The Blues Jr and pre-amp and master volume controls so you should be able to back the pre down can run the master up to get a reasonably clean sound.

As far as bleedover into your SM57, just stick your amp in a closet with the microphone. Preferably a closet full of clothes so you don't have too much reflecton. Play around the the amp placement and microphone placement and monitor on headphones until you get it right.