Best Low Watt Tube Amp?

mzblues1 · Apr 23, 2018

sonar said:
Sure. Many ways to solve the problem, but he asked a rather specific question. Also, reading his posts (which I'm unsure if many in this thread did) shows that he is looking at a narrow list of commercially available amps. Many of these amps I and others have played, some extensively. And I am sorry he got answers for amps that cost up to ten times his budget, or adding additional equipment like attenuation, digital sims, etc. Oh yeah, the efficient speaker into a mini watt amp blah blah...
it adds to a conversation, just not necessarily his.

I appreciate you looking out for me and helping to narrow down these responses.

But in truth, I've found all suggestions and comments to be informative and interesting anyway, so no real harm done (even if the suggestion is to get a great boutique $3,000 amp with Gold Plated tubes...LOL).

But yes, I think those that have really been following the thread have a pretty good idea what I'm looking for at this point.

BTW: Do you have any opinions on the Laney Cub 12R or Monoprice 12" Combos and some of the mods that I suggested in order to get me a Marshall like tone with some cleans as close to a Fender tone as possible (although the Marshall tone is more important to me then the ability to get the clean if I need to accept a compromise in one amp's capabilities)?

Maybe which tube would be best to access some additional clean headroom without loosing the crunch: 12AT7, 12AU7, 12AY7 or 5751 (which I am guessing is probably a whole thread already somewhere on this site.

sonar · Apr 24, 2018

mzblues1 said:
I appreciate you looking out for me and helping to narrow down these responses.

But in truth, I've found all suggestions and comments to be informative and interesting anyway, so no real harm done (even if the suggestion is to get a great boutique $3,000 amp with Gold Plated tubes...LOL).

But yes, I think those that have really been following the thread have a pretty good idea what I'm looking for at this point.

BTW: Do you have any opinions on the Laney Cub 12R or Monoprice 12" Combos and some of the mods that I suggested in order to get me a Marshall like tone with some cleans as close to a Fender tone as possible (although the Marshall tone is more important to me then the ability to get the clean if I need to accept a compromise in one amp's capabilities)?

Maybe which tube would be best to access some additional clean headroom without loosing the crunch: 12AT7, 12AU7, 12AY7 or 5751 (which I am guessing is probably a whole thread already somewhere on this site.

Hey, as long as you're enjoying the ride.

Sometimes people get pushed out of their own threads. It's good to read you took it in stride and probably learned a few things along the way.

Anyway, haven't played the Laney or Monoprice.

ourmaninthenorth · Apr 24, 2018

If we're full scale de-railing, lets stop pissing about, and get the big guns out... You'll notice that there isn't an attenuation device in sight, you may not notice that there's no windows left in the house either....:hee

Get one of these...you won't wake the family up, you'll wake every family up.:laugh2::laugh2:

Anyway back to business...what was the question again?

mzblues1 · Apr 24, 2018

ourmaninthenorth said:
If we're full scale de-railing, lets stop pissing about, and get the big guns out... You'll notice that there isn't an attenuation device in sight, you may not notice that there's no windows left in the house either....:hee

Get one of these...you won't wake the family up, you'll wake every family up.:laugh2::laugh2:

Does it go to "11"!?

ourmaninthenorth · Apr 24, 2018

mzblues1 said:
Does it go to "11"!?

Dunno, I've never been past 6 without blacking out...

AA00475Bassman · Apr 24, 2018

Even if they are off 350.00 those are some beautiful amps thank for posting !

Pellman73 · Apr 24, 2018

ourmaninthenorth said:
If we're full scale de-railing, lets stop pissing about, and get the big guns out... You'll notice that there isn't an attenuation device in sight, you may not notice that there's no windows left in the house either....:hee

Get one of these...you won't wake the family up, you'll wake every family up.:laugh2::laugh2:

Anyway back to business...what was the question again?

I love it

:yah:dude::yah:dude::yah

I just want to sit in an English pub with you drinking .. Boddingtons? and just hear you go off on how only lilly livered yankee wankers would even MENTION a word like ATTENUATOR in the same sentence as anything pertaining to amplification.

Now that I think about it

it is an oxy moron. Can you Attenuate the Amplifier

reminds me of George Carlin talking about JUMBO shrimp

ah you made me laugh.

Roman4405 · Apr 25, 2018

I’ve had quite a few amps over the past 7 years since I got really serious with playing, the first 17 years I was just fvcking around apparently. I’ve had the VoxAC4, the one with the 10” and while it sounded cool in my living room there was zero clean headroom when playing with other people. The Blackstar HT5, 12” speaker but tone wise didn’t do anything for me. Silverface champ, much like the Vox, cool at home but tough to get a nice clean tone when needed at louder volumes. Two Blues Deluxe Reissues, these were great in a band situation but kinda difficult to get a good tone at low volumes, basically the opposite of the Vox and Champ.

My last amp was a US made 90’s Peavey Classic 20, I’m not the biggest fan of 10” speakers but this thing was probably the closest to what you’re looking for. Similar to a Pro Jr but with more control of your tone. You can find them for right around your price range but there don’t seem to be too many of them around. Plus the Tweed looks cool.

Ive also had a 50 watt Mesa, didn’t like the tone of that at all and a Fender 20 watt 1x12” combo which for the life of my I can’t remember what the model was but it sounded great, though out of your price range.

Out of all that crap my favorite amp I’ve ever owned is my 90’s Peavey Classic 30 that the previous owner had made into a separate head and cab. I get an awesome tone at low volumes in the house with the kids asleep but can also keep up with a band in a good sized venue with no problems. Plus it takes pedals like a champ and the clean and the drive channel both sound great. And can easily be had for $350.

ourmaninthenorth · Apr 25, 2018

Pellman73 said:
I love it

:yah:dude::yah:dude::yah

ah you made me laugh.

And that was the intention Peter, to have a bit of a giggle, doing my best impression of the mad bugger on the bus type of thing. :biggrin:

The Wife however didn't see the funny side of all the volume issues, she ran away with a one armed bongo player...you could say I forced her into the arm of another....:hee

P.Walker · Apr 25, 2018

jokes on you, i can't hear a word you guys are saying.

Just looking at those amps makes my ears bleed....in a very good way.

renderit · Apr 25, 2018

I dunno. My wife was just over there last week. Said she didn't find ANY Boddingtons in the pubs. WTF? (Where's The Finestuff?)

ourmaninthenorth · Apr 25, 2018

renderit said:
I dunno. My wife was just over there last week. Said she didn't find ANY Boddingtons in the pubs. WTF? (Where's The Finestuff?)

It was brewed in Manchester, sadly the brewery has gone..taken over by someone else I think outside of the city. The brewery building has probably been converted into trendy loft apartments, or torn down to create some glass and steel thing. On a summers day, you could smell the brewery for miles around.

When I drank, I feel as though I played more than my part to keep the concern afloat. Absolutely beautiful Bitter that I could drink till the cows came home...which may explain why I sometimes woke up in a field.

I was in Australia a few years ago, and walked into the first boozer I saw, guess what was on tap...?? yep. I could have stayed at home..:ha

Strangeways Prison ( Manchester Prison ) rather appropriately, is just behind the brewery. That house of fun is still there...

ourmaninthenorth · Apr 25, 2018

Anyway, back on topic.

Amps.

After I'd wrestled the wife away from the one armed drum botherer, with promises to curb my wttage excesses, I ended up with these..50 & 28 watt respectively...

She took one look at 'em, and without putting her bags down, departed the homestead, again...this time leaving me for the 1995 All England Arse Kicking Champion, a feat doubly impressive considering the geezer only had one leg.

..... to be continued

thejaf · Apr 25, 2018

ourmaninthenorth said:
Anyway, back on topic.

Amps.

After I'd wrestled the wife away from the one armed drum botherer, with promises to curb my wttage excesses, I ended up with these..50 & 28 watt respectively...

She took one look at 'em, and without putting her bags down, departed the homestead, again...this time leaving me for the 1995 All England Arse Kicking Champion, a feat doubly impressive considering the geezer only had one leg.

..... to be continued

Buy her some earplugs if she can hear them from the kitchen :salude

ourmaninthenorth · Apr 25, 2018

thejaf said:
Buy her some earplugs if she can hear them from the kitchen :salude

I'll send her an e-mail, there's sharp things in that kitchen you know....

:laugh2:

Progrocker111 · Apr 25, 2018

ourmaninthenorth said:
So as a personal observation, I'd rather run a 1/2 watter at full tilt, just a guitar and a cable, straight in. Than a much more powerful amp where I'm having to put some sort of sonic brake on, to make it usable in my personal environment.

I even indulged myself in a pedal!!! Gad-bloody-zooks...that I also used as a quasi attenuation type thing...

Interesting, cause as i am a dedicated Hiwatt DR103 user, best home tones i achieved with this halfstack and with good OD pedals. I set the volume on pedal on nearly zero and crank the amp over the breakup point, the result was always much better than many of the small tube amps i tried. They all were sounding small, boxy and farty in comparison to Hiwatt, 4x12 cab with Fanes and OD pedal... :hmm

mzblues1 · Apr 26, 2018

Roman4405 said:
hMy last amp was a US made 90’s Peavey Classic 20, I’m not the biggest fan of 10” speakers but this thing was probably the closest to what you’re looking for. Similar to a Pro Jr but with more control of your tone. You can find them for right around your price range but there don’t seem to be too many of them around. Plus the Tweed looks cool. Out of all that crap my favorite amp I’ve ever owned is my 90’s Peavey Classic 30 that the previous owner had made into a separate head and cab. I get an awesome tone at low volumes in the house with the kids asleep but can also keep up with a band in a good sized venue with no problems. Plus it takes pedals like a champ and the clean and the drive channel both sound great. And can easily be had for $350.

Thanks for the information on your experiences. The Peavey seems O.K., but doesn't have the features needed for playing at home and the Classic 30 is a 46 lb amp, which I already have with my Deluxe Reverb that I am trying to get away from and the 60 lb JCM 800 4010 that I also have. Getting too old to lug those around just to get together for a quick jam. I know some might think that is a crazy reason to judge an amp by, but that is actually one of the reasons that I was leaning towards the Monoprice & Laney (at 25.5 lbs) or the Blackstar (at 27 lbs) to keep the weight down. At first I was avoiding amps any heavier than that, but there are actually some amps of fewer than 37.5 lbs that I don't think I shouldn't consider (which is 8 lbs - 23 lbs less than my current amps).The one that I am now seriously considering is the VHT Special 6 Ultra hand wired amp, with a totally variable attenuator built in, a lot of sound sculpturing flexibility and is self biasing (with an included adapter) so that you can switch the Power Tube to anything that you would like to try (6V6, 6L6, EL34, EL84, 6550 or KT88!).Would you (or anyone else on this thread) happen to have any experience with the VHT Special 6 Ultra?

ourmaninthenorth · Apr 26, 2018

Progrocker111 said:
Interesting, cause as i am a dedicated Hiwatt DR103 user, best home tones i achieved with this halfstack and with good OD pedals. I set the volume on pedal on nearly zero and crank the amp over the breakup point, the result was always much better than many of the small tube amps i tried. They all were sounding small, boxy and farty in comparison to Hiwatt, 4x12 cab with Fanes and OD pedal... :hmm

Everything sounds farty in comparison to these behemoths. :laugh2: Those early Hiwatts are just fantastic, and have a special place in my heart.

Therein lay the challenge, and the few dead ends that I mentioned. A lot of the smaller amps I tried in the early stages of the cross over were poor, some didn't last a week...I won't name them, it's fairly pointless to do so.

Some of them however aren't. The Matchless Little Monster, The Emery, Matamp C7, Matamp Minimat, Couple of BadCat Mini's I & II, a little TopHat that I can't remember the name of (5 watter I think?) have got the low powered thing nailed on. The Audio Kitchen Little Chopper, and the pedal/amp The Big Trees were always on the list, never quite got there on those two. Not a farty boxy sound in any of them.

The lowest powered of them all, The Emery, light as a feather, open backed, 10" Blue, totally handwired on the fly, is the only amp I've ever owned that has took me by surprise. If there's a bad sound in that amp, I couldn't find it, and I tried. That amp was the one that told me that I'd finally put to bed my ownership of the big guns. For those whisper quiet midnight moments, a Pete Cornish SS3 in front of it, enabled me to play along with every King Crimson Album, with one earpiece of my headphones on, without even waking up the cat!!!

As they say, job jobbed. :salude

mzblues1 · Apr 26, 2018

mzblues1 · Apr 26, 2018

Roman4405 said:
I’ve had quite a few amps over the past 7 years since I got really serious with playing, the first 17 years I was just fvcking around apparently. I’ve had the VoxAC4, the one with the 10” and while it sounded cool in my living room there was zero clean headroom when playing with other people. The Blackstar HT5, 12” speaker but tone wise didn’t do anything for me. Silverface champ, much like the Vox, cool at home but tough to get a nice clean tone when needed at louder volumes. Two Blues Deluxe Reissues, these were great in a band situation but kinda difficult to get a good tone at low volumes, basically the opposite of the Vox and Champ. My last amp was a US made 90’s Peavey Classic 20, I’m not the biggest fan of 10” speakers but this thing was probably the closest to what you’re looking for. Similar to a Pro Jr but with more control of your tone. You can find them for right around your price range but there don’t seem to be too many of them around. Plus the Tweed looks cool. Ive also had a 50 watt Mesa, didn’t like the tone of that at all and a Fender 20 watt 1x12” combo which for the life of my I can’t remember what the model was but it sounded great, though out of your price range. Out of all that crap my favorite amp I’ve ever owned is my 90’s Peavey Classic 30 that the previous owner had made into a separate head and cab. I get an awesome tone at low volumes in the house with the kids asleep but can also keep up with a band in a good sized venue with no problems. Plus it takes pedals like a champ and the clean and the drive channel both sound great. And can easily be had for $350.

Thanks for the information on your experiences. The Peavey seems O.K., but doesn't have the features needed for playing at home and the Classic 30 is a 46 lb amp, which I already have with my Deluxe Reverb that I am trying to get away from and the 60 lb JCM 800 4010 that I also have. Getting too old to lug those around just to get together for a quick jam. I know some might think that is a crazy reason to judge an amp by, but that is actually one of the reasons that I was leaning towards the Monoprice & Laney (at 25.5 lbs) or the Blackstar (at 27 lbs) to keep the weight down. At first I was avoiding amps any heavier than that, but there are actually some amps of fewer than 37.5 lbs that I don't think I shouldn't consider (which is 8 lbs - 23 lbs less than my current amps).The one that I am now seriously considering is the VHT Special 6 Ultra hand wired amp, with a totally variable attenuator built in, a lot of sound sculpturing flexibility and is self biasing (with an included adapter) so that you can switch the Power Tube to anything that you would like to try (6V6, 6L6, EL34, EL84, 6550 or KT88!).Would you (or anyone else on this thread) happen to have any experience with the VHT Special 6 Ultra?

BTW: It's on sale for $359 till the end of April with free shipping and no tax!

Best Low Watt Tube Amp?

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