[gwailoh]

I've just gone through the same process. FWIW, here are the choices I made:

Vox AC30 CCH -- the new Chinese-made head with a 2x12 cab. I hear rumors of spotty build quality, but the one I bought is great. I love the fact that it's got both the top boost and the "classic" circuit, and that they can be bridged with the throw of a switch. Also, an output voicing switch, and an output power toggle from 30 to 22 watts. The amp sounds fabulous and all these options combine to offer great breadth of possible tones.

Marshall 1974x. This is their re-issue point-to-point 18 watt practice amp. Nails the Marshall tone at reasonable volume.

Fender silverface Twin Reverb. I already had this amp, but I had it modded for recording. Converted the circuit to blackface spec; put in one Eminence Red White and Blues speaker and one re-issue Jensen; had it re-capped. The total cost, if you bought a used silverface and did these mods, is about what the re-issue blackface Twin Reverb would cost, but, this is the best sounding Fender I've heard in ages. I particularly like the Eminence speaker.

Tone King Imperial. These aren't made any more, the current Tone King model is the Meteor II. Tone King amps nail the classic Fender sounds, IMO better than the reissue Fenders, and they have IMO more character than other Fender-inspired amps such as the Victorias. The rhythm channel is like a blackface Deluxe, with the addition of a pretty amazing 3D projection and tons of character; the lead channel is like a tweed Deluxe, with a "mid bite" knob that moves it more into Marshall territory. The Imperial is a loud 20 watts. I also have a Tone King Comet 40 watt that I love, particularly for clean Fender sounds. You have to shop for these used. The current model, the Meteor II, is a wonderful amp, maybe the most natural-sounding amp I remember hearing. I went for the older models because I didn't really want that much naturalness, rather wanted more character.

I've also got a Mesa Rectifier Recording Pre and a 20/20 power amp. These are ok-sounding, but I don't use them much.

So this is a pretty wide range of tones. I'm really happy with this selection.

Hope this helps!

--Mark