Best low wattage valve amp?

  • Thread starter Thread starter mighty thor
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mighty thor

mighty thor

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Been looking at a Black heart just wondering if anyone had a better suggestion similarly priced?

I should warn I'm not a modder so it would have to be good from the off. :)


Thanks for any replies.
 
Tell us about the style of music you play, and if the amp will be for gigging, recording, practice, playing with a drummer, etc.

The good news is that there are more and more low wattage tube amps coming onto the market all the time, but that's also kind of the bad news since it makes it tougher to choose!
 
Tadpui said:
Tell us about the style of music you play, and if the amp will be for gigging, recording, practice, playing with a drummer, etc.

The good news is that there are more and more low wattage tube amps coming onto the market all the time, but that's also kind of the bad news since it makes it tougher to choose!
Click to expand...

I play mostly garage style stuff on a hollowbody, I use quite a few fuzz pedals as well. It would be mainly for recording.

I know what you mean about there being more and more out there, I honestly thought there would be a choice or two or three!
 
ive not played on one of them, but i'd point you in the direction of egnater. its more mid-range priced, but if you can stretch it, it would be worth it. As with most things you do get what you pay for, but egnater are the most versatile amps i have ever played! Cracking tone!

look at the egnater tweaker for their low wattage studio amp. I have played the rebel 30, and i want to swap my engl screamer for it!
 
thats why i like forums! saying someones a fool because they put forward an opinion they dont agree with! I havnt tried a carvin amp, but as soon as the opurtunity arrives i will. But i stand by what i said, I think egnater are a good road to go down. very versatile. great tone, bargain for the price.
 
I'm not sure he called you a fool. :)


Thanks for the suggestions guys.
 
lol, maybe not. but it sure aint a fool thing to wanna swap the engl for the egnater. the engl weighs a tonne!
 
Yeah, ocnor is just one of the members who, ummm, well, doesn't always think before he types...:p no, I mean he sometimes goes off half-cock...:o nah, that's not quite it, either, he doesn't pull his punches. THAT'S it, he doesn't pull his punches. Yeah, THAT'S the ticket!:D

But really, he didn't call you a fool. I can be touchy, sometimes, and even I didn't interpret it that way. But, on the other hand, he couldda used different words and still have made the point.

I am watching this thread, not because I have a strong opinion on any particular small amp, but because I want to see some of the suggestions. Well, I do have an amp I would suggest, but it's years out of production, and hard to find: Peavey Bravo. 18-watt, Marshall tones, 80's ugly styling (it looks, for all the world, almost just like a Peavey Rage from the same era) so it will never get stolen. All tube, 'natch. I had one, and when the chance to turn a $25 investment into $250, I went for it. Hard to feel bad about making 1000% profit, but damn, was that a sweet little amp.
 
haha, ok....... maybe was a bit touchy and apolgies! im not really a moody fucker! just a tough day
 
I'll be the first to admit that my personality doesn't seem to translate well over the internet. So if I taunt and tease someone and call them an ignorant peckerhead it's only because....either

{A} I'm joking around

{B} You are an ignorant peckerhead

{C} because I can and it's fun to piss people off
 
does this help the situation ? come on man, i have my sense of humour back
 
Well, if you are back on the market for amps later, the Vox Night Train is my personal favorite. A lot of people like Fender's Blues Jr., but it seems more jazz/bluesy to me. I really want to like the little Orange amps, but even for me, only one tone knob is stretching it a bit (though, in fairness, I have a bigger Orange amp and the dirty channel just has the one knob, which I rather like, so...). If you want a really flexible amp, look at the Mesa Transatlantic. Way too many options for me, but it sounds fantastic.
 
I'm looking at a Vox Night Train - Cheezo, do you have one? Anybody else using one?

Right now I'm using an older Fishman Loudbox which sounds good with my acoustic and delivers clean tone to an ES335 clone and a hollow body jazzbox. But this thing weighs a ton. Like 60 pounds or something. Huge power output - about 200 watts. Way too much. I also have a 30 watt Trace Acoustic which would be perfect except that with an 8" speaker it distorts with acoustic low end. In a church it is fine, but in a bar it's not even a decent monitor.

So I'm thinking about this little number, not only for electric but for acoustic as well. All I want for toys is clean and tubey distortion, both of which this delivers. It also has a headphone output, which a friend has discovered also works very well as a direct recording line. 2 x 12AX7, 2x EL84, 12" Celestion speaker in a separate speaker cab, 7.5 / 15 watts. So I'm thinking time to trade as it fits in my Subaru and all.

Anyone have a few hours on one of these?


vox_nighttrain.jpg
 
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if I were in the market for a low wattage amp I feel strongly I'd try the BLACKSTAR. I've read some awfully good reviews on it but more importantly, know a few people that have one and love it.
I was interested in the Egnater but based on a couple of friends that got the Rebel and immediately got rid of it I cancelled that one from my list.
They didn't say it sucked ...... said it was just kinda bland.
I have played thru a BLACKSTAR 40 watter and it was absolutely wonderful. Lots of versatility and great tone ... clean and dirty.
That Night train also looks interesting to me ....
The TransAtlantic by Mesa's gotta be good but it's like, $900! :eek:
 
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I am a pretty big egnater fan.
if you are into garage punk/rock tones check out the rebel 20 by egnater. i have both the rebel 20 and the renegade and i would say the rebel 20 has a *slightly* better raunchy distorted sound than the renegade)

I have heard that the rebel 30 sounds a bit different but the record out feature on the rebel 30 and renegade just owns for home recording. What i do is run the renegade through an attenuator until it is very quiet (and doesn't sound good in the room) but so the amp it pushing a lot of power out, then put the record out through a preamp and into my mixer and interface. I have the same setup with the line out of my bass amp and i can sit and play bass tracks and cranked guitar tracks through headphones while babies sleep upstairs.

Could i do better with a good mic/pre on a cab speaker being pushed? Sure. Could i do better at "bedroom" volumes? No way. So with this setup i can practice, record rough tracks, and if i wanted could record final takes at full volume when it is possible to be loud. Very flexible setup for what i do 90% of the time, which is play alone to tracks i record myself.


Daav
 
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