Need help on 1st valve amp - 20w or 40w?

[Shinji]

Hi all - Been playing the guitar a long time, (should be alot better than what Iam!!) - but I'm thinking of treating myself to my first valve amp, sick of buying equipment and never quite getting the sound I'm after. I play in a band - all original material - I play a washburn idol with EMG actives, my main sounds are a clean delayed sound (U2 ish), and a thick distorted sound, not metal but sort of Foo Fighters / early Pearl Jam 'heavy.
We play average size pub & club gigs, with our own PA. Now, I've read its better to push a smaller watted valve amp, but I'm concerned my clean sound might start to break up at high volumes, so i'm thinking of going for the HT40 club combo rather than the HT 20. Reading this forum, alot of people seem to be replacing the tubes and speakers straight away? I was hoping I could just go with it as it is out of the box.
Will the 40 be loud enough in a live situation? Also, I'm struggling to find a dealer locally so I can try one out - don't really want to part with £550 without trying it. I'm in North East Lancashire if anyone can help.

Many thanks.

[majikmojo]

cant help you much from across the pond mate but i would surely go with the 40 for playing out - especially if you have a heavy drummer
i'm a ht60 owner and have all the clean headroom i'll ever need - i would think the 40 is about the same

the tube and speaker changes are just a matter of personal taste - not required if you happen to like the stock tones - some folks do
most of us here like to experiment with tones hence the changes

sorry i couldnt be of more help

8)

[KKND]

Get the 40, it is loud and full of features.

Or even better, the stage 60 2x12 8)

[gypsyblues73]

The 40 should be plenty loud, and you don't have to change the tubes, the amp sounds great right out of the box, but it just sounds even better with upgraded tubes. You can get new tubes for like, $10 anyway, so it's not a big chunk of change, and they're a breeze to swap out.

[sizzlingbadger]

I decided to replace my Peavey ValveKing with an HT-20 but after a demo in the shop I walked out with the HT-40. Its not much more $$$ but you get the voice switches on the clean and dirty channels and they are awesome. The HT-40 still sound pretty good at bedroom volumes too so don't worry about it being too loud for practicing.

[wildriff]

I've been gigging steady with the HT-40 and the HT 1x12 extension now for about 6 or 7 months playing in a heavy classic rock act and it has never failed to keep up. I did change the pre amp tubes out for JJ's at a cost of about 25 dollars. They definitely made a difference tone wise. The stock speakers are great after they get worn in. I played with some Marshall cabs with vinatge 30's and also some gt-75s to try them out in. I really didn't think the diference was great enough to warrant the swap. The vintage 30's lacked bottom end and the GT-75's sounded close to the stock speakers. The key is to break the speakers in and this is only done over time. Go the 40 watt you'll be happy you paid the extra coin later on.