i've had my ampeg half stack setup for almost 20 years now, and my ss-150 solid state head is finally starting to wear down. I have a 4x12 ampeg cabinet with celestions, and the crunch i got from that head was exactly what i wanted... i've read way too many musicians friend reviews, etc, too many conflicting stories... can anyone suggest a lower priced head that is ideal for crunchy metal/death metal sound? thanks!!

I'd recommend a Crate amp for a combination of price and the solid-state thrash sound you mentioned.

Look at the FW120H - it's a head to go with the speakers you have, and used it should not cost much more than $230 - $250.

New I think it runs around $400- $450?

Most Crate amp models will do the job you need- I think they are pretty reliable.

Dude...if you're gonna go Crate, you have to take a look at the Blue Voodoo head. I think it was probably the only good guitar head they ever made. It's all tube and it has a pretty sweet sound. The guitar players from Asia used it exclusively for a long time around 2 or 3 years ago (they had them when I saw them with Peter Frampton, Nightranger, and Styx). I can't think of anyone else off the top of my head.

You might want to take a look at a used Randall, or maybe even a Polytone so that you can have a really clean amp and rely on pedals for the distortion. Polytones have a great crisp sound to start with. They can make just about any pedal sound amazing and crystal clear.

Good point Shackman. I was going to says that I heard the Blue Voodoo amps were not good at being metal-y- they are great for that overdriven tube sound- but metal guitarists use pedals to get their sound anyway.

My advice- find a good solid-state head and then a good metal distortion pedal to go with it.

The Blue Voodoo is one awesome piece of equipment but, I have to agree with Shackman. The Randall is much better when it comes to that metal sound.