HELP! Maverick or Blue Angel?

[Professorbx]

Found a Blue Angel a few days ago at a local second hand store, plugged in and fell in love. I play mostly blues-ey music with a bit of shoegaze rock (mostly with a Fender Esquire), and it's tone was awsome though a bit in your face. The price was alright-$899 out the door, and I was all set to put it on layaway. Then I found out I can get a Maverick from someone I know for $650. Because of schedule conflicts I won't get a chance to try it out, though I trust the source 100%. I have heard that the Maverick has a bit softer clean, more Fender-ish. Is this true? The progressive link thing is cool, but I am already covered on the small tube amp front in spades, so really all that matters is which has better tone in your humble opinions. So, comments?

 

[cvansickle]

I've never tried a Maverick, but I do love my Blue Angel. Greatest clean amp I've ever played. I keep it mostly on the linkage setting, and the full range of tone is sparkling. Sounds great with phaser, tremolo, or a compressor too.

 

[dylan7620]

Greatest clean amp I've ever played.

+1

 

[Slimey]

I had no interest in a channel switching amp, and am primarily interesting in the non-master volume, power tube breakup thing. The Blue Angel fit the bill nicely.

I have not demo'ed them side by side, but i get the impression that the Maverick has a similar power stage (the 4xEL84 one) with a different, slightly more aggressive pre-amp circuit, as well as channel switching. Look at the schematics side by side and see what you think: http://www.tubefreak.com/schema.htm

So far, I've been very happy with the BA. It's not about the bells and whistles, just good quality Class A tube-amp tone.