Need help choosing a clean sounding amp!

JC-120 is a wonderful amp, but I think there are some better clean sounding amps in that price range. Acoustic Image Clarus II is a great head, the California Blonde is a fantastic clean amp, a used AER would be in that same price range and that's a terrific amp, and you can't go wrong with an Evans. I have a polytone mini-brute (joe pass used 'em) and it's a wonderful little amp.

Hollowbody clean tones are not catered to by the Guitar Center amp folks. You can get amps that are ok from those stores, but rarely. Fender all tube amps (not the modeling amps) have great cleans, but for the most part, if you want a great hollow body clean tone, you want to stay in the boutique digital amp arena.

The cube is very sterile and not really versatile.

Disagree -- The Cube 30 has very good JC120 and pretty good tweed and blackface models. And I'm comparing that to both solid state and full tube amps I own. The 30 is a good choice for smaller gigs, and is certainly an excellent first amp. Given its capabilities, it's a bargain at $225 US.

The cube not versatile? How's that?

noone needs that much headroom I think.

A player with good dynamics playing an arch-top without a compressor will have transient peaks of up to 25db. Rock guitars through a compressor have transient peaks of about 6db.

Those little vox and roland cube amps can not handle dynamic playing without clipping. There's a reason the JC-120 has been around for as long as it has . . .

noone needs that much headroom I think.

A player with good dynamics playing an arch-top without a compressor will have transient peaks of up to 25db. Rock guitars through a compressor have transient peaks of about 6db.

Those little vox and roland cube amps can not handle dynamic playing without clipping. There's a reason the JC-120 has been around for as long as it has . . .

More than 25 dB -- even from my S-500 (Strat) ...

But you have lost sight of the original intention -- first amp, beginning player. Let's not turn this into some impractical, faux-purist discussion. Unless one is playing at band/combo levels, the small amps certainly do have the dynamic range (ratio of max signal output to output noise floor), just at lower peak volume levels. Those peak volume levels certainly are adequate for a new player.

I went back and re-read the original post -- I did miss that it's a beginning player. Yes, the JC-120 (and everything else I mentioned) is more amp than you need.

Ignore me :)

It's all about tone. The cubes are nice - but the tone is blah and is probably something you will get bored of or grow out of in 6 months. At any given time there are 50 for sale on ebay. The tone is sterile. If your goal is to get an amp that is somewhat reasonably priced - the cube works. For the same money, however, you can get an amp that will give you head turning clean tone. The performer will also allow you to rip it if you want. I've had mine for 10 years and it is the one piece of equipment that has never even crossed my mind to sell.

As for the cube, I reiterate my statement the cube is not versatile because it has what seems to be one use - beginner guitarist bedroom amp.

I've heard B.B. King and his backup guitarist sound pretty good through Cubes.

It's all about tone. The cubes are nice - but the tone is blah and is probably something you will get bored of or grow out of in 6 months. At any given time there are 50 for sale on ebay. The tone is sterile. If your goal is to get an amp that is somewhat reasonably priced - the cube works. For the same money, however, you can get an amp that will give you head turning clean tone. The performer will also allow you to rip it if you want. I've had mine for 10 years and it is the one piece of equipment that has never even crossed my mind to sell.

As for the cube, I reiterate my statement the cube is not versatile because it has what seems to be one use - beginner guitarist bedroom amp.

Yes, tone is important. So then it's also important for a new player to understand that most of the tone begins right at the fingers on the fretboard. If that is blah, ain't nothing going to fix it. A common noob belief: "If I can only get that particular piece of equipment I will have that killer tone." Not true.

I am one of those players who has no problem using the Cube 30 for small bar/coffeehouse gigging -- and I do own a number couple of "player-respected" tube amps as well. It's all in what the player can do with the equipment. So we disagree.