Tone advice

[Andy123]

Thanks for the input guys. Dedman, those suggestions really had me thinking. Brownsworthy, that Orange looks like a lot of fun, but my OCD would be twitching over the lack of an EQ.

I've spent many years and dollars on using pedals to dress up the tone of solid state amps and putting expensive pick ups in cheap guitars. Hopefully the sale of my accumulated "budget" gear will get me most of the way to one or two pieces of grown up gear.

It's valve or nothing from here on in I'm afraid.

I'm pretty sold on the AMT SS-20 for a pre amp. The question is whether I'd pair it with a rack or pedal power amp, or plug it into a Fender Twin. I was concerned it might not be a good match for a Fender, but it seems to go alright plugged into a Hot Rod Deluxe:
https://youtu.be/jOUHc1yIjCI

If I don't go for a Fender amp, my power amp options seem pretty limited. They're either solid state pedals or rack units that are mostly stereo and so over-powered you could play a stadium gig without a PA system. I really fail to see the point of that. They're also a bit too big and heavy. I'll need to be loud enough to be clearly heard next to a drummer, bass player, and maybe the odd bit of brass - but not loud enough to blow the windows out of the venue.

This seems to be the best compromise I've found: http://rnramp.com/products/PWR_150

...although yet again, its an obscure bit of Russian kit like the AMT pre amp. It's mono, all valve, and has the option of being 20w or 50w - which is plenty loud for a valve amp.

So I guess its that or a Twin Reverb re-issue - unless anyone knows of another power amp option more widely available but similar to the one linked to above?

Oh, and some of you might be interested in something I accidentally discovered along the way on my journey: a pre amp with a power amp tube in it so you can get power amp break up sounds out of a pre amp. It's from "The Tone God" and its called a "Tubeulent" https://www.thetonegod.com/tubeulent_overview.html