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Posts: 888
Location: Louisville, OH 44641 | Anyone have a reccomendation for a low wattage tube amp for electric guitar? I'm hoping to play some blues with it. I'm thinking something in the 5 watt range.
Thanks.
Jim |
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Posts: 4072
Location: Utah | Blackheart Killer Ant. |
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Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Find an old Kalamazoo I or II amp on ebay. Killer amp and based on the circuitry of the legendary Fender Champ.
It will give you everything you need. |
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Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Ohhhh,
I think I remember Al having one about 6 months ago. Not sure if he sold it or not. |
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Posts: 888
Location: Louisville, OH 44641 | Thanks guys. I'm digging into both suggestions right now.
Jim |
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Posts: 1445
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Good idea, stellarjim. I have two vintage Fender Princeton amps that I use for everything I do. The '55 tweed is a mighty 3 watts and the '62 brownie is about 14 watts of sweet 6V6 power.
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Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | my brown princeton has a celestian bull dog copy 12 in it. IT ROARS |
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April 2004
Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | I have a 65 blackface Princeton but at 14 watts it can get loud enough to peel paint.
Al,
didn't you have a Kalamazoo for sale a while back? |
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Location: Upper Left USA | I have a Blackheart 3/5 Watt with the 12" Celestion speaker. |
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | St28; Yes, 14 watts is loud enough for any gigging situation, especially if you mike it, but it also sounds warm and sweet at low volumes.
Al; Mine has a 1960 Jensen p10q speaker.
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Posts: 3111
Location: Nashville TN. | I have a Fender Champion 600
5 watt all tube
nice warm sound |
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June 2004
Posts: 375
Location: Rocky River, Ohio | Make sure you check out the Swart Space Tone.
http://swartamps.com/amplifiers_tweed_tone_6v6se.htm
This is a great sounding 5W amp. |
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Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | The Fender Champ reissues can be found relatively inexpensively on the Bay. Even the genuine vintage units are still relatively reasonable, all things considered. |
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Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | Carr Mercury
from .1 watts to 1/2 to 2 to 8. |
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Posts: 3736
Location: Sunshine State, Australia | Get in touch with this guy and tell him what you want. He'll pretty much build you what you want, he's cheap, he posts overseas and his amps are great.
Here's the 5 watt one he made for me;
You'll just have to source a cab or make one yourself, like I did.
have a look at TAFKAR's Ning page and you can hear me blasting his dog with it - but using a blues harp, not a guitar. |
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Posts: 1128
Location: NW Washington State | Originally posted by stephent28:
Find an old Kalamazoo I or II amp on ebay. Killer amp and based on the circuitry of the legendary Fender Champ.
It will give you everything you need. Pretty close to a Champ, but it uses 6X4/12AX7/6BQ5 instead of 5Y3/12AX7/6V6. Anyway, any small amp with this 3-tube configuration is fun if you can get it for a reasonable price.
I got a Valve Jr. from some guy here. I think it would be a nice inexpensive amp if you almost always want some overdrive/distortion. Not so good if you want it to be clean at moderate to high levels. I'll have to get it out and try it again.
- Ste3ve W. |
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Posts: 1071
Location: Carle Place, NY | I have a 5W Epiphone Valve Junior, a 15W Traynor YCV-20 and a 30W Line 6 Spider. I did some electronics mods to the Epi and the sound is OK. It sounds much better with a Boss Fender Deluxe Reverb pedal, but only at low volume. The 8" speaker doesn't provide enough sound.
Traynor is a much overlooked brand of amplifiers. I put an Eminence Cannabis Rex speaker in mine and it is by far my favorite amp. It has two EL84 and three 12AX7 tubes, two channels, each with a bright/boost extra punch, reverb and a foot pedal. It goes for about the same price as a Fender Blues Junior but IMHO sounds much better and it has more features. I'd recommend it.
I don't recommend the Fender Champ 600 re-issue, the Epi Valve Jr, or anything else with less than a 12" speaker, a gain pot, two channels and reverb. The small 5W amps I find to be too one-dimentional and you will tire of the same sound all of the time.
That said, solid state amps have come a long way in recent years. I like the Vox Valvetronix (which do have one small tube in the circuit) and the cheap 30W "modeling" amps like the Peavey Vyper and Line 6 Spider. If all you're looking for is something to play at home with or jam with friends, these amps sell brand new for $199 and can be tweaked for a nice variety of tones.
A full featured 15W tube amp is a thing of beauty but costs well over double that of the solid state amps. You won't get all of the tone with the SS amps, but unless you're an experienced electric guitar player a nice SS may be all you need. I play my 30W Line 6 Spider almost daily. It's head and shoulders better than the Epi Valve Jr and has a headphone jack and a CD input too. It allows me to play late at night with "jam trax" CD's which are ideal for developing your chops.
Tube amps aren't always the best choice particularly if you want a nice variety of tones at a low price. If I had my choice of ANY amp I like the Mesa Boogie Express 5:25 but it's over $1200 and my skills don't warrant it. Don't be stuck on a tube amp. Think about what you want to do with it and get the amp that gives you the most bang for your hard earned buck. |
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Low Wattage Tube Amps (for Electric Guitar)
