So I"m a bass player by trade but I've been playin guitar for quite some time now. I have an electric and acoutic and lots of effects. The last thing I need is a guitar amp. I have a MIJ Fender Jaguar. I'm looking for something thats well rounded. Something that can sound good clean and sound good with distortion. So I'm just not sure at all, my knowledge in this regard is for bass. SO what fender is good clean but not for distortion. Mesa is the opposite and Marshall maybe what I'm looking for. Yout thoughts, your amps?

you planning on gigging or just using it to practice? my advice would be to write off a weekday afternoon (if possible) and hang out in the music store for a few hours and try out everything in your price range. if the staff knows you WILL be making a purchase and not just wasting their time they're usually very accomodating. but i wouldn't try this on the weekend, just way too busy in stores.

myself i used to use a 40W marshall for jamming with friends and a 15W peavey rage for practicing at home. in terms of distortion you're right but it also depends on whether or not you plan on using your pedal or the amp gain. with the peavey i always use a pedal (same as i would with a fender amp) but with the marshall the only time i ever used my distortion pedal was for a few solos when i needed a ridiculously overdriven tone for the lead.

my little cousin who's done some international touring is a big fan of digital combo amps too, i think the last one he has was made by yamaha. it sounded cool but the pricetag never made it worthwhile for me.

like i said at the start the best way would be to take an afternoon and try out as much as you can, judge the amps with your ears and not your eyes and you might be surprised with what ends up sounding best for your style. that's how my dad ended up with an ampeg bass amp for his classical guitar.

. . . and make sure to take your guitar with you. That way you can hear what it's really going to sound like. When I went looking for my bass amp I drug my bass around all day and plugged it into everything that had power.

Yeah, there are so many factors that can influence sound and how you feel about an amp. First...as mpittman said...you have to hear your own guitar through it to find out if it's compatible. I tried one guitar through an amp and it sounded fine then tried a different guitar and it really sounded like crap...not that the guitar was a hunk of junk but sometimes equipment is 'just not right for each other'.
Like panbient said...your needs will be different if you plan on gigging than if you don't. Furthermore it may be better to start off small with a practice amp because if your needs change and you require something bigger later on then you will still have the practice amp when you get a big amp which will save you from using the big one every time you want to play. Imagine the Marshall half stack in the bedroom...not that there's anything wrong with that!!
You may also find that years down the road something that was fine for you in the beginning sounds like crap just due to your familiarity with guitar and music.
I have had an 80's Traynor, Crate, KMD, Marshall in the past and they truly have all had strengths.
The 80's Traynor (Bloc100) was a great amp for cleans...but its own gain or overdrive was terrible...so a good distortion pedal sounded excellent through it.
The Crate was a nice amp...60 watts and a really nice distortion 'contour' control...dialed in anything from classic rock to metallica and beyond. I actually ended up using that one for vocals in a jam room. It worked perfectly!!
The Marshall (Master Reverb 30) is a nice little amp...I still have it. It is only a single channel but it sounds great and is near perfect for studio work. If it were a tube amp it would be perfect.
The KMD 100 watt I still own as well but it is currently lent to someone. It is in the same world as the 80's Traynor actually in that it doesn't have good distortion but has a nice clean sound...therefor...great for a nice distortion pedal...and huge on the power too...
I currently have an all tube Traynor YCV-40WR. It's one of the 'new' Traynors and I've only had it for 6 months. It is in a different world alltogether. Tube is so much different from solid state...but there is always the wear and tear to think about with tube amps.
I think the big problem for you will be that there is SO much on the market today that you won't know what to buy. It's a tough decision so that's why I recommend the small practice amp first...depending on your budget of course maybe the VOX AD30VT would be the one for you...it's got some 'modelling' options to be able to cover a wide range of sounds and is still small enough to use as a practice amp yet large enough that you could mic it if you needed to use it for a gig before you upgraded.
Here is a link:
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/AD30VT

liek everyone before me im gonna have to say it depends alot on what you want, i personally use a solid state amp (roland jc-90) adn kleep it on the clean channel, becase solid state distortion blows, and run my boss ds-2 distortion pedal when i want some grind in there. But if you really want the creamy smooth amp distoriton, then you gotta go with a tube amp, theres jsut no other way to get that perfect tube overdrive.