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Best Low Watt Tube Amp?

ourmaninthenorth

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 28, 2009
Messages
7,119
That neat woody one with the glass panel was most awesome! I wanted one bad! What was that again?

My favourite amp of the last decade..easily...

Emery Sound MicroBaby...10" alnico speaker, vintage valves...Brimar 12ax7, Mullard KT61, and Brimar 6x5g rectifier ( although pictured with an RCA..)

mMwNo8C.jpg



An arm and a bloody leg new, and for those of us old enough to remember paying for amps by the watt..a little confusing price wise. If you find one, grab it, you can thank me later :salude

http://www.emerysound.com/
 

Triplet

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 13, 2006
Messages
1,675
I have a well broken in AC15C1 and you would have to look to see if it was a 10 or 12 inch speaker...
 

renderit

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 19, 2009
Messages
10,951
I can only speak of my own personal experience on this but I have played many small venue gigs with a 5 watt amp fitted with a 100db Celestion Blue speaker and I regularly gig with a 12 watt tweed Deluxe style amp also fitted with a Celestion Blue and have never had a problem being loud enough, in fact I'm often being asked to turn down as I am too loud! This is playing with a blues / rock style band with a none too gentle drummer (is there any other sort of drummer! ??). There is very little noticeable difference in volume between the 5 watt amp and the 12 watt amp.

As a guideline and assuming the same speaker configuration if you want an amp that sounds twice as loud as 5 watt amp you would need to go to a 50 watt amp, however if you have a 5 watt amp with a 90db speaker and change the speaker to a 100db it will then be twice as loud. So a 5 watt amp with an efficient speaker can easily be as loud as a 50 watt amp with an inefficient speaker! As for the difference between a 12 watt amp and a 15 or 20 watt amp if they all had the same speaker I doubt if most people would hear any difference in volume level, there would be less than 3db difference between the 12 and 20 watt amps.

Wonderful! Send me all the specs for the currently available amps and how many db they will stomp out with what they have? Or preface any amp choice with a Celestion Blue? Nobody DOES that!

Maybe they SHOULD? Let's see....C Blues run around $279 here. So after shipping the OP has......a speaker. The next question is how do they SOUND in every amp. I guess as an upgrade to a $350 amp he buys.

You out-scienced us with your VERY EXCELLENT TRUTH above. Seriously. I now want to try some super efficient speakers. I have some old JBL D series which are. But I also know they are not a magic bullet in all amps. What are the more efficient ones out there so an array may be tried?

P.S. - all of my 12 amp vs. all of my 20 amp have different speakers (I think) so your last postulate above is hard for me to prove without a ton of wrenching. However, now I will try. Thank you for all of these explanations! You have made this idiot smarter which is not easy to do!

P.P.S. I think he should go with a Blues Junior used.
 

ourmaninthenorth

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 28, 2009
Messages
7,119
Cornell make good quality Combo's but they aint cheap.

Thinking the same thing Keith, the Plexi 7 is tailor made for this geezer, but getting one across the water at the dough is impossible.

Get the kettle on Bro. :biggrin:
 

PaulD

Active member
Joined
Jun 25, 2007
Messages
673
Wonderful! Send me all the specs for the currently available amps and how many db they will stomp out with what they have? Or preface any amp choice with a Celestion Blue? Nobody DOES that!

Maybe they SHOULD? Let's see....C Blues run around $279 here. So after shipping the OP has......a speaker. The next question is how do they SOUND in every amp. I guess as an upgrade to a $350 amp he buys.

You out-scienced us with your VERY EXCELLENT TRUTH above. Seriously. I now want to try some super efficient speakers. I have some old JBL D series which are. But I also know they are not a magic bullet in all amps. What are the more efficient ones out there so an array may be tried?

P.S. - all of my 12 amp vs. all of my 20 amp have different speakers (I think) so your last postulate above is hard for me to prove without a ton of wrenching. However, now I will try. Thank you for all of these explanations! You have made this idiot smarter which is not easy to do!

P.P.S. I think he should go with a Blues Junior used.

Yes, sorry went a bit off topic and probably not being helpful to the OP. I get a bit wound up when people start saying "you need x amount of watts to be loud enough" when there is far more to it than that (rant over!). I was just using the Celestion blue as an example of an efficient speaker, there are many others at a much lower price, a lot of the Eminence speakers are high efficiency. For info most guitar speakers will be in the 90 - 100db range.

There is a great resource here http://myhometheater.homestead.com/splcalculator.html where you can input the speaker efficiency and amp power along with a few other variables and it will calculate the sound pressure level. It's interesting to play around changing the wattage while leaving everything else the same and then compare that with the effect of leaving the wattage the same but changing the speaker efficiency. Just remember that db is a logarithmic scale so a change of less than 3db will be barely noticeable, a change of 6db will be very noticeable (typically being perceived as half as loud again) and a change of 10db will usually be perceived as being twice as loud.
 

Xpensive Wino

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 3, 2012
Messages
6,079
My favourite amp of the last decade..easily...

Emery Sound MicroBaby...10" alnico speaker, vintage valves...Brimar 12ax7, Mullard KT61, and Brimar 6x5g rectifier ( although pictured with an RCA..)

An arm and a bloody leg new, and for those of us old enough to remember paying for amps by the watt..a little confusing price wise. If you find one, grab it, you can thank me later :salude

http://www.emerysound.com/

I once had a emery board. I can only describe it as "gritty". :spabout
 

Pellman73

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 9, 2016
Messages
1,762
My favourite amp of the last decade..easily...

Emery Sound MicroBaby...10" alnico speaker, vintage valves...Brimar 12ax7, Mullard KT61, and Brimar 6x5g rectifier ( although pictured with an RCA..)

mMwNo8C.jpg



An arm and a bloody leg new, and for those of us old enough to remember paying for amps by the watt..a little confusing price wise. If you find one, grab it, you can thank me later :salude

http://www.emerysound.com/

dang that thing looks awesome

office amp!
 

mzblues1

New member
Joined
Mar 11, 2018
Messages
40
I think I'm getting off track here in what I really need. The original purpose for this amp was mainly as a home practice amp so that I can crank it up without having the wife down my back complaining that its too loud.

If it can also be used for small clubs/bars that would be great. But if not, I can always put it through the PA if needed.

I was originally thinking of the VOX AC4C1-12 with EL84 Power Tube, but not sure that I can get the sound I'm looking for out of that amp.

So here's what I think that I really need and what I believe would give me the sound I'm looking for:

A Low Watt Tube Amp running EL34 Power Tube that will give me the crunch of a JCM 800 50 watt Combo at low volumes that I can use to practice in the house under $300 ($350 max).

So far I'm not finding a new one to fit the bill, so I think a used amp would be best.

A lot of the used amps are very desirable and tend to cost as much or more then the new ones!

So any suggestions on a Marshall (or similar) small Combo amp that I could find used, that is not that popular so that it is priced in my budget, but still kick ass would be ideal.

Any amps you guys can think of that fit the bill and are not heavily desired. Maybe something forgotten about that was never played by EC, Page, etc. so no one is big on it?
 

Big Al

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 24, 2002
Messages
14,537
You'll never get the answer you want. You'll have to find it yourself. The $ limit and tube as well as tube type futher limit your choices. I own over 50 amps from 2 to 100 watts and my thoughts are these.

Used is great. From vintage champs and 60's Gibson and Epiphones to the National/Vaco amps there are killer 5-20 watt amps that could do what you want, [you decide],. Basic features, great tone and vibe but getting harder to find at that price point and will need servicing. You can find them with a little effort. Of mine, the 1962 Gibson Discoverer T I found under $300, with EL84's and 12-15 watts would do.

There are a gazzilion newer and newer used low wattage tube amps. That budget limits choice but there are lots used. The "Lunchbox" heads are great options and offer master volume/gain and other features over vintage types. Of the many combo's the Fender Blues Jr stands out IME, and I used them on a wide variety of gigs, including club/festival tours. Used clean ones at your price are common.

Don't discredit Solid State amps. Unless you simply just want a tube amp, I can tell you that there are many good high quality ones available that you couldn't tell were not tube. You will need to employ SS FX to get the Marshall 800 tone anyway and no little EL84 amp will give up EL34 tone.

A bonus with well designed SS amps is you can use higher power amps as they keep dynamic full tone when turned way down to happy wife levels, as you need not push output tubes to "get the tone". You can gig at volume and they are virtually maintenance free.

Just an old mans thoughts.
 

jbzoso2002

New member
Joined
May 10, 2009
Messages
1,089
Check out the Boss Katana 100watt 1x12, has a .5 watt setting
and sounds and feels way better than its price point.

Has effects too.

Jimmy
 

mzblues1

New member
Joined
Mar 11, 2018
Messages
40
You'll never get the answer you want. You'll have to find it yourself. The $ limit and tube as well as tube type futher limit your choices. I own over 50 amps from 2 to 100 watts and my thoughts are these.

Used is great. From vintage champs and 60's Gibson and Epiphones to the National/Vaco amps there are killer 5-20 watt amps that could do what you want, [you decide],. Basic features, great tone and vibe but getting harder to find at that price point and will need servicing. You can find them with a little effort. Of mine, the 1962 Gibson Discoverer T I found under $300, with EL84's and 12-15 watts would do.

There are a gazzilion newer and newer used low wattage tube amps. That budget limits choice but there are lots used. The "Lunchbox" heads are great options and offer master volume/gain and other features over vintage types. Of the many combo's the Fender Blues Jr stands out IME, and I used them on a wide variety of gigs, including club/festival tours. Used clean ones at your price are common.

Don't discredit Solid State amps. Unless you simply just want a tube amp, I can tell you that there are many good high quality ones available that you couldn't tell were not tube. You will need to employ SS FX to get the Marshall 800 tone anyway and no little EL84 amp will give up EL34 tone.

A bonus with well designed SS amps is you can use higher power amps as they keep dynamic full tone when turned way down to happy wife levels, as you need not push output tubes to "get the tone". You can gig at volume and they are virtually maintenance free.

Just an old mans thoughts.

Hi "old man" LOL

I appreciate your "old" wisdom and will consider other options (if they are able to be played locally first), as just reading about stuff doesn't really mean much.

I went to the local Sam Ash & Guitar Center near me (who barely have a good selection of amps of interest) and did get to try a few.

Surprisingly, the marshall ds5c that I tried didn't do it for me. I don't really like that synthetic "buzzing" type distortion overdrive that it (and most of the others with a overdrive setting) seemed to have. Which is why I've been leaning towards a tube driven distortion (if left to do their own thing, can't really sound too F'd up, unless the speaker is just a mess, such as the VOX AC4C1 that I tried which sounded "small" and didn't do it for me either.

Also surprising to me the only one that they had that I thought was able to produce a fat growl of an overdriven tube sound was the BlackStar HT-5R 1-12" and seemed to have several ways to dial in to some different usable sounds. So of the newer amps, I have one so far But still interested in some of those really nice old ones that I'm sure you probably have lying around in a closet somewhere!
 

Xpensive Wino

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 3, 2012
Messages
6,079
Hi "old man" LOL

I appreciate your "old" wisdom and will consider other options (if they are able to be played locally first), as just reading about stuff doesn't really mean much.

I went to the local Sam Ash & Guitar Center near me (who barely have a good selection of amps of interest) and did get to try a few.

Surprisingly, the marshall ds5c that I tried didn't do it for me. I don't really like that synthetic "buzzing" type distortion overdrive that it (and most of the others with a overdrive setting) seemed to have. Which is why I've been leaning towards a tube driven distortion (if left to do their own thing, can't really sound too F'd up, unless the speaker is just a mess, such as the VOX AC4C1 that I tried which sounded "small" and didn't do it for me either.

Also surprising to me the only one that they had that I thought was able to produce a fat growl of an overdriven tube sound was the BlackStar HT-5R 1-12" and seemed to have several ways to dial in to some different usable sounds. So of the newer amps, I have one so far But still interested in some of those really nice old ones that I'm sure you probably have lying around in a closet somewhere!


Don't encourage him. :spabout


This is a pretty good idea:

Check out the Boss Katana 100watt 1x12, has a .5 watt setting
and sounds and feels way better than its price point.

Has effects too.

Jimmy

You're getting some good advice here. They sound great, and are cheap as chips. Plus, brand-new amps are unlikely to have issues (and have a warranty if they do).

Get over your preconceived notions about tubes vs solid-state and let your ears (and your budgetary constraints) guide you.

I fear that at your price point, you may be in danger of getting a money pit you can ill afford, since many older tube amps require expensive work shortly after their acquisition - don't ask me how I know. :dang
 
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