Low wattage tube amp

B

beaverbiscuit

New member
In a previous thread somebody listed www.amptone.com as a good resource site for the question at hand. I checked it out and found a link to a site that's dedicated to home-brewed amps. These amps are all tube but low wattage (I think all of them are under 10 watts, except for the modifieds). Here's the link to the one I'm interested in:

http://www.ax84.com/hioctane.html

Check out the MP3 samples to hear how it sounds.

Do any of y'all use something like this? I like the idea of a tube amp's sound minus all the high wattage, and this amp seems like a good way to go. Plus you can buy one prebuilt for $305 (barebones, no enclosure). It seems like a great deal, but I'm always interested in getting fellow homereccers' perspectives.

So any opinions or helpful thoughts on this, eh? Thanks in advance. :D
 
Thanks for the link, TR. I sent a message to Cornford asking about pricing, since I couldn't find anything in the US distributors' sites about cost. Probably will be more than I can afford, but I agree with you that the Harlequin is a sweet amp.
 
Woe is me!

Man, I knew it was gonna be out of my range, but I didn't think it was gonna be that far out. Serious bummage.

pauses for bout of weeping

But I'll be okay. No, really.

:D

And thanks again for your input.
 
Lots of options in lots of price ranges.

New
-THD Univalve --- $650-800
-Emery Superbaby --- $650-800
-Groove tubes makes an amp similar to univalve
Fender Blues Jr. - $300+/-

old
-Old Fender Champs, Princetons and all their variations -- $200-700
-Old Silvertones - Amp in cases 2-8 watts, or single 1x12s, about 18 watts -- $100-400 (high end comes w/ a guitar too!)
-Old Supro's, danelectro's, other odd balls
 
Carvin makes a triode 16/6 (16 watts in normal pentode/6watts in triode) comes in an enclosure w/ 100w 12" spkr. for $349.99. You can hear it on their website @ www.carvin.com. I'm thinking real serious about it.

bd
 
Well, I checked out several of the amps youse have mentioned. The Carvin is nice but not dirty enough for me (at least based on their sound samples). Of the ones listed so far I really like the THD Univalve, so maybe that's what I'll save toward. Anyone own one to give a testimonial, eh?

I'll keep checking on the others. Thanks for the fresh suggestions, dudes (and dudettes, if any :D ).
 
A few years back Peavey came out with a series of amps called I guess "Classic" series. They were tweed amps, all tube. They had Classic 10, Classic 30, Classic 50....I have a Classic 10, which is all tube, 10 inch speaker, 15 watts...It screams like a beast. Its kinda like a Tweed Champ or something along those lines. Great for blues and roots music. Definately not for metal, but it gets a good ZZ Top tone going. Great clean too.
 
Hi Mr. Beaver,

I built an amp from the ax84 website also. The p1. It's different from the hi octane in that it has one extra 12AX7 tube and hence translates to you being able to dial up more gain.

I wld recommend getting from there only if you plan to get into a bit of DIY amp-ing yourself coz I see no service warranty for the kits there. But as for sound quality I can vouch that despite the simplicity of the circuits, it sounds brilliant. Match the amp with a good celestion/jensen speaker and use real good tubes, and u'll have a tube amp that will rival many of the commercially built ones out there.

And 5-7 watts is f***ing loud enuf to do small (50-100) gigs!

Cheers!
Kartik
 
Thanks for the info, kartikbala. If I went with one of their amps, I would probably just buy the pre-assembled Hi-Octane version from the Doberman Music site (both sites are run by a guy names Chris Hurley), since I don't have the time to build my own. And you're right about their tone, too; the sound clips at the ax87 site are pretty good.

But as I said before, I will probably start saving toward a THD UniValve. It has everything I want, including the power attenuator, and I don't have to bother with building an enclosure for it (the pre-built Hi-Octane doesn't come with one — just the metal box itself). Got a lot of thinking to do before I buy anything, however, so who knows?

Thanks again.
 
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