at a festival a few years ago, the headline act guitarist let me use his matchless DC30.. Blew away everything i'd ever played before. Completely different level. I'm a valve man personally, but there are plenty of good solid state amps that sound great. most fender solid states are decent, the Roland Cubes, JC range, and the old sessionette amps are all very good and perfectly giggable. tried a blackstar ID amp couple of weeks ago, sounded very good to me. for the bang for buck they look very good. guess what I'm saying is that you're best having a look around, and playing lots of different amps.