Best Tube Head under 20 watts

Double

Double

New member
I am looking for a all tube head under 20 watts that must have good clean and overdriven tones. I have read a little on the Blackheart amps and the Krank Rev Jr. amps but would like to hear from some of you that own and use these type of amps. Any recomendation would help. Thanks
 
buy an Vox AC15 Custom Classic with the cheaper speakers. replace tubes and and any other parts if you see fit.

unplug the speaker and use your cab instead of a combo...15 watts of super awesome sound, it'll do both clean and OD, half decent reverb, sweet tremelo....all for 600 plus new tubes if you're into that sort of thang!
 
Just saw the thread about small amps it was what I needed. Sorry for the repeat did not notice it before.
 
Vox AC15 1000 bucks for 15 watts? I don't think so I played through one although a good sounding amp I just can't justify paying that much money for a 15 watt amp no matter how good it sounds.
Egnater Rebel 20 if $600.00 is not out of your price range it is worth considering. excellent on both clean and distortion probably even better than the vox but it is a 20 watt amp so it may be a scratch from your list.
Black Heart 15 watt
Best bang for the buck all around without a doubt is the BlackHeart 15!

Man, everyone's taste for tone is so different what I like you may hate
my best recommendation is to go try one out and see if you like it or not.:)
 
LOVE my Fender Blues Junior...

It has a great overall sound at 15 watts. I'm curious about the Blackheart though...I'll have to check them out.
 
This is one amazing sounding low watt amp, bit over priced and not the prettiest,almost bought one last week but cant afford the divorce at the moment.
 
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Roguetitan said:
Vox AC15 1000 bucks for 15 watts? I don't think so I played through one although a good sounding amp I just can't justify paying that much money for a 15 watt amp no matter how good it sounds.
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Whatever floats yer boat. I paid more than that for my 22 watt '64 BFDR and have never regretted it.
 
Well, the thread does ask for "Best Tube Head under 20 watts," with no mention of price, so I suppose the best way to answer would be to ignore price.

Now, if it had been "Best Tube Head VALUE under 20 watts," I would say, based on my own experience, buy a Pevey Bravo112 or a Fender SuperChamp XD, and make it into a head...
 
stevieb said:
Well, the thread does ask for "Best Tube Head under 20 watts," with no mention of price, so I suppose the best way to answer would be to ignore price.

Now, if it had been "Best Tube Head VALUE under 20 watts," I would say, based on my own experience, buy a Pevey Bravo112 or a Fender SuperChamp XD, and make it into a head...
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I was hoping to find one under $600. I have a Blonde Blues Jr with a Celestion V 30 in it which is "just" ok and the Peavey Bravo and Super Champs are not that great sounding either IMHO but again I am looking for a head. But Thanks for the suggestions.

So far I think it’s down to these; Egnater Rebel at $600 the Vox Night Train at $500, or the Black Heart BH15H and the Epiphone Valuve Senior at about $300 each.
I tried the Orange Tiny Terror which had great semi distorted and distorted tones but it was not that great at clean sounds.
 
the cool thing about the egnator is that it has variable watt output(not just between 7 and 15 for example) and you can choose between two el34's and two 6v6.
 
A Gibson GA-20 (with the metal preamp tubes of course), a Gibson GA-40 (chocolate Godzilla!) a Lancaster Brutis 15 or Leedis 15, or any Magna Electronics Magnatone.
 
Double said:
I was hoping to find one under $600.
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How much do you need in the way of options? The best low-wattage amp I've ever played was probably a Dr. Z Carmen Ghia - 20 watts, single channel, just two knobs, "Tone" and "Volume." I want to say they go for $800 new... You'll need some sort of external OD (or just crank the thing WAY up) for gain, but that and a Fulltone Fulldrive 2 and my strat into a custom 1x12 a buddy's dad built was probably the best blues/rock sound I've ever heard.

http://www.drzamps.com/ghia.html

Looks like they go about $1100 new these days, so $600 for a used one would be a serious stretch... But man, is it worth it. Neil Zaza described his Dr. Z Rt 66 as sounding "...like angels flying out of my speakers," and that's about the best description I've ever heard.
 
I know this thread died about three days ago but I just stumbled onto an interesting article in Guitar World. I'm a big fan of Peavey Tube amps and their value, they have two new hand built custom shop amps coming out. Fully customizable with some pretty cool features. Heres the description from Peavey.com:

The Sensation is a 20-watt amplifier available as a head or combo and based on three 12AX7 preamp tubes and two EL84 cathode-biased output tubes. Standard front-panel features include pre gain, treble, middle, bass and post (master volume) controls, with optional reverb. The rear panel consists of two speaker outputs with an impedance selector. Effects send and return jacks are included on models equipped with the effects loop option.


Ideal for recording studios and small rooms, the 1.5-watt Peavey Studio Special allows players to achieve "cranked" amp tones at a very manageable volume level. The straightforward, single-channel layout includes volume, treble, middle and bass controls and a Fat switch to boost the midrange, with two 12AX7 preamp tubes and one 12AU7 tube configured in class AB for the power section.

I think the 1.5 watter is a very cool idea and bet it can be had for a decent price. Just thought I would add these into the debate. More info here:
http://www.peavey.com/news/article.cfm/action/view/id/359/cat/1/article.cfm
 
didgijimmy said:
The Sensation is a 20-watt amplifier available as a head or combo and based on three 12AX7 preamp tubes and two EL84 cathode-biased output tubes. Standard front-panel features include pre gain, treble, middle, bass and post (master volume) controls, with optional reverb. The rear panel consists of two speaker outputs with an impedance selector. Effects send and return jacks are included on models equipped with the effects loop option.
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Except for the (optional) loop and the multiple speaker outputs, it sounds a lot like a Blues Jr.
 
ggunn said:
Except for the (optional) loop and the multiple speaker outputs, it sounds a lot like a Blues Jr.
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Similiar I suppose except it's Peavey, custom shop, and 20 watts. I thought the 1.5 watter was the neater concept out of the two, but the sensation was under 20 watts so I figured I'd throw it in there. They are coming out with a 50 watt model through their custom shop too.
Like I said, can't attest to how they sound since they are unreleased thus far, I just thought they were a neat concepts, and I love Peavey.
 
I just love my Univalve. It's set up so that you can plug and play a wide range of tubes into both the input, inverter and output stages without biasing. It has a built in Hotplate making it even better for getting tube saturated sounds at low levels.

Check out the THD website.
 
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