I just spent spent several hours in a store checking out some amplifiers that fit my needs (small combos and heads with small cabinets), and while I couldn't quite find all the amps on my to-try list, I managed to find a Fender Deluxe Reverb '68 Custom, Fender '65 Twin Reverb Reissue, Fender Princeton Reverb and Fender Super-Sonic 22 (the last of which wasn't even on my list). I sadly couldn't find any of the ENGL, Hughes&Kettner, Egnator or Blackstar amps I'd been meaning to try, but at least I got to try out some of the Fenders.

Starting with the Twin Reverb, I knew right away that it was too loud for my needs. But it was there, and it's a famous amp, so I just had to try it out. And it sounds very good with pedals. The Deluxe Reverb '68 Custom was kind of a disappointment. I love the sound of a slightly overdriven '65 Deluxe Reverb, so I thought the '68 Custom would be just as awesome or even better. It wasn't. For one thing, they've replaced the Deluxe Reverb's tone-stack with a Bassman Tone-stack, giving it a slightly different sound. Secondly, it turned out that I would have to turn the volume up way too much to get the tone I want, meaning it would be impractical for home-use, unless I want to replace the windows every time I practice. The Princeton Reverb, on the other hand, sounded much like the Deluxe Reverb I like, but still didn't break up at low enough volumes for home-practice.

And this is where the Super-Sonic 22 comes into the picture. It was by far the best amp I've tried in the last year. It's a two-channel amp with a single input, which is cool I suppose. It's a Super-Sonic after all. Its Clean Channel is for all intents and purposes... a Fender '65 Deluxe Reverb! Granted, it's a '65 Deluxe Reverb with a Fat-toggle, that lets you add more mids to the Clean channel, but a '65 Deluxe Reverb nonetheless. Same tone, same awesomeness. Still needs to go loud to break up, though... The Burn Channel, on the other hand, is more forgiving. It has two Gain controls (Gain 1 controls the Distortion, Gain 2 controls sustain and compression), and can cover all the styles of music I like. It can easily go from ZZ Top-like crunch to Mötley Crüe-style Metal to mellow Blues to classic Arena Rock with the turn of a few knobs, and being able to go from clean to distortion and back with the footswitch eliminates the need for my Overdrive and Distortion pedals completely! Amazing amp, and it even sounds badass at home-friendly volumes! And even better, I tested it with my own guitar that I was actually there to pick up from the repairshop, and then tested the SS22 with an Epiphone Les Paul 100 with Ceramic pickups, and it sounded badass no matter what I threw at it!

I'm going to continue looking around, to see if a better match for my tastes exists, but I highly doubt it! Until then, I'll have to try and see if I can recreate the SS22 with my Mustang. Shouldn't be that hard, when I know which models to use :) Now the problem is to save money for it...

The funny thing is that my favorite amp-model turned out to be a massive disappointment, while the amp-model I hated the most, because its presets in my Mustang have all kinds of weird effects and noise, turned out to be a truly epic Tube Amp!