AC15cc1 vs. HRD vs. Classic 30 vs. YCV40wr vs....

[reaganomics!]

So I have $400 give or take to spend on a new amp. I play mostly indie/alt rock/punk. Smaller rooms and can be mic'd most of the time if need be. I hardly ever use pristine cleans, and if I wanted to tone things down I'd mostly want to just clean up to a just breaking up kind of sound. I will mostly be getting my distortion through pedals, mostly a Rat, Big Muff, and whatever Marshall in a box and light overdrive I eventually get.

The HRD and Peavey Classic 30 seem like the most 'solid' choices in that they're good cleans and pretty reliable. Though, I find their sounds underwhelming; they seem to lack character to me. Although, I could upgrade the speaker and/or do mods to the circuit.

I tried a Traynor YCV40wr on a whim and really liked it. The cleans seemed better than the HRD. I got more of a blackface vibe from it. However, it didn't seem like the most solidly build quality despite being made in Canada, and there's as many complaints about it's quality as there are heralding it as underrated.

The Ac15cc1 is kind of a wildcard for me. I can't find one near me to try, but I'm still really intrigued by the proguitarshop demo. I tried an AC15c1 at GC today, but even then I couldn't crank it. I'm tempted to roll the dice on this one because any AC15 seems to have more character than the other amps. Frankly, in this price range I think I'm not going to be blown away by anything, so I might as well take a chance on something different than playing it safe with 6l6 powered fender/ish amp?

[Citizen_Insane]

The AC15CC1 sounds good, but the Wharfdale speaker is a dog. I sold mine because I couldn't justify upgrading to a Blue.

[Unadan]

I'd go AC15C1 - good to great amp in this price range. The HRD III (which I owned) was too loud and the drive channel still wasn't that usable. I've never played the Classic 30 so I can't comment on that one.

[reaganomics!]

I can't find an Ac15c1 for sale, but I can maybe get an Ac15cc1 with an eminence red fang in it

[cratz2]

I had an AC15CC1 for a while. Put a $50 used ceramic Weber Blue Dog in it... VERY impressive sounding amp.

Overall, between the C1 and the CC1, I'd try to get the C1. I'm not a big fan of Greenbacks with Voxes, but you could always get a Blue Dog and try it... You'll get a lot more for a used Greenback than for a used Wharfdale.

Overall I'd say you need to focus on what type of amp you want. Those are all 1x12 combos, but other than that, pretty dissimilar. The Fender does great Fender cleans but pretty lackluster gain. The Vox does great Vox chimy cleans and very nice cranked Vox tones. The Peavey and the Traynor are compromise amps that do a decent clean and a decent gain, but not aren't very spectacular at either one. I
'd say both are great gigging amps... mixed in with a loud drummer and a bassist in front of a lot of drunk folks... but in a room, comparing the four amps, the Traynor and Peavey can't compete if you just want lower gain tones.

In my opinion anyway.