Hey guys,

I thought that I would get some of your feedback on versatile tube amp combos. I've been using modeling amps for some time now (currently using Vox AD120VTX and a Roland Cube 60), due to the flexibility and reliability. But occasionally I do miss having that fatter tube tone, or a smaller combo that packs a lot of punch that I can use for everything.

I've been considering getting a very flexible tube amp combo in the future.
I've thought about the Bogner Alchemist or the Mesa Boogie Express 5:50.

The whole reason I switched to modeling amps in the past was due to tube reliability issues that I had battled on countless times with my old Rivera combo. (maybe this was just a fluke with that model?)

Do any of you have any thoughts about the amps I've listed above, or others like them that I should consider?

My wish list of features are the following:
- quality (I'm willing to spend more for something that sounds good and holds up well)
- tone (it's got to sound great. my current modeling amp sounds great, so I wouldn't switch unless it sounded at least this good)
- versatility (I need it to be super versatile. I play with an oldies band, play for church services, and do recording work whenever I can. The only tones I don't really need are heavy metal. But it needs to excell at clean tones, blues, country, classic rock sounds. I just won't need it to do any dropped-d death metal kind of sounds. I'm way to old for that stuff anyway :-)
- compact and expandable (I need something that is small enough to use for church gigs, but expandable via an extention cab or something for live shows where I need more volume)

Thanks for any suggestions or feedback on the ones I've listed so far.

-- Jim