Amp advice...

[gouge]

i have a hughes and kettner ats120 that has 3 foot switchable channels with effects loop.

they sell for under $100. i paid about $150 10 years ago.

ch1 is clean, sounds bluesy and is solid state has seperate tone controls. great sounding channel.
ch2 is crunch tube preamp stage, great for distorted rhythm guitar. has a fairly rich sound.
ch3 is lead channel preamp stage, might not be everyones cup of tea. always reminds me of skate punk distrorted type of thing. does metal also.

output is solid state.

these days i use my 1w blackheart instead. most 3 channel heads i've heard tend to end up in the metal camp by channel 3.

[kafka]

The Ampeg VT60 was a really nice amp. No effects loop, though. I had one for a couple of years, and have always been kind of sorry I let it go.

[chaosgow]

I have a 6505 which does most of what you're asking for. Might not be all the tones you're after as most people use it for metally sounds. I don't though and I still love it. You can pick up a 6505+ pretty cheap used since they're not uber expensive new. It also takes a butt load of neglect. I can leave it on overnight with the power section cranked and it's never shown any signs of anything bad (which I have done in multiple drunken hazes).

I've used it for all kinds of styles. It crunches up really nice if you ride the volume knob and not the gain knob - It can get fizzy fast otherwise. Techincally it's 2 channels but the clean has a crunch/boost thing which is foot switchable.

Maybe it's not your thing, maybe it is. You may be as shocked as others are when I show them what it can do. I love it!

Either way, good luck in your search!

[drbob1]

I gotta say, after years of chasing it, I've given up on the "one amp to do it all" paradigm. I've got amps with one good sound, a few with two, and I do the rest with pedals... A great clean tone as a base and then go on up from there: AC30, Fender Vibrolux Reverb or Princeton Reverb or Blond Super or Tweed Deluxe, Marshall JMP or JCM800. Any of those and $150 worth of pedals will get you where you need to be (TS9 derivative, Timmy, Rogue Blues Overdrive).