Small tube amp suggestions???

Chovie D · December 31, 2010, 09:00:22 PM

Quote from: SunnO))) on December 31, 2010, 12:10:22 PM
Quote from: Chovie D on December 31, 2010, 11:46:07 AM
Thats a score. Supposed to be similar to a fender deluxe(the best guitar amp ever made). Get some new tubes in there, it may need a cap job too. Tubes and caps and labor can be expensive so even tho free, you'll still be sinking a little dough into this one. Im guessing it would be worth it tho. It appears to have an SS preamp which is unfortunate. i bet the trem and reverb are great tho.

Musicman HD212, HD130... etc.

Yes I own a 70's musicman with the SS pre, it is unfortunate in that amp as well. Leo Fender was an old school electrical engineer and his primary goals in designing amplifiers were more volume with less distortion. Hi-Fi. He never really understood that guitar players LIKED that slight harmonic distortion. Switching over to the SS pre at Musicman was a mistake for him and, those amps , tho still good, suffered for it. Its one reason the HD130 makes a better bass amp than guitar amp. Im sure its still a good little amp, it does appear to have one tube for the trem and reverb which is a great thing. For me part of the charm of these little combo tube amps is that tube pre tho.

Its definetly worth saving and will rock. I saw a lesser model alamo today for $350 at the store, didnt have time to try it out.
I think you definetly scored.

clockwork green · January 01, 2011, 06:16:46 PM

I found a guy that's building me a narrow panel tweed box for my Champ so I can rehouse it as a 1x12...I'm excited to be able to switch between the two cabs and speaker sizes.

Ranbat · January 01, 2011, 06:27:28 PM

That's a really cool idea. Hope it works out well for you!

eyeprod · January 01, 2011, 09:28:05 PM

I've got a '65 gibson falcon, and I swear it's an amazing little amp. ugly, but hey. I can't remember what I paid for it, but it was either 60 something or maybe about $100. People know about them now, so they go for quite a bit more. I wish it had more power, but as it is it's totally useable with the addition of a speaker jack, then going into a bigger cabinet. Parker from radio moscow uses an old gibson titan head, which is similar to my falcon (I a/b'ed them), but his doesn't have that godly reverb or tremolo that really makes the amp what it is.

dk419 · January 11, 2011, 05:05:26 PM

Vox AC4 or AC4TV. I'm probably gonna pick one up very soon. Supposed to be pretty sweet and not too expensive.

hayseed · January 12, 2011, 01:19:07 AM

I vote for Vox!

chille01 · November 30, 2015, 04:04:12 PM

Reviving this old thread based on the magic of search. Just at work now on lunch, so only took a skim through the already posted suggestions. Anything new anyone wants to add? Seems a lot of the original suggestions were very small, though I'm open to anything up to about 20 watts. I'd like to find something that sounds good for home practice that isn't too loud, records well, and possibly workable in a small gig situation - though I have other amps of course for gigs if need be. Still - getting lazier in my old age and something I can carry with one hand is appealing.
Thanks all!

RacerX · November 30, 2015, 04:42:59 PM

Aha.

Check this out, then:

everdrone · November 30, 2015, 08:56:18 PM

one day imma get me a orange or15 or a hovercraft dwarvenaut

zachoff · December 01, 2015, 11:59:06 PM

Always been a fan of the Bassman. 50W isn't exactly "small" but they're pretty rad. MusicMaster is also a good find. I have a single-knob Epi Blues Jr. It's OK for practice at home, but pretty much a one trick pony and not that awesome.

chille01 · December 02, 2015, 12:15:26 AM

I've got a pretty big boner to try this thing out, but so far the guy hasn't got back to me:

http://vancouver.craigslist.ca/pml/msg/5335707690.html

jibberish · December 02, 2015, 02:13:49 AM

i scored one off the floor in GC for $249: Egnator Tweaker 15

it has 3 tone stacks and a bunch of other "tweaks"
so for playing around you can really change the sound of the amp.

I like the AC3 tone stack and sort of a deeper, less tight settings
however, the marshall tone stack and modern input settings is the one to impress guests. it screams.
anyway, I've had it for a year and still haven't explored it fully

http://www.egnateramps.com/EgnaterProducts/Tweaker/TweakerHead/TweakerHead.html

here is a demo by this Swedish guy. he really works it out nicely. I like the 4min sound and the 6min sound a lot
he is using the egantor 1x12 which has a 30watt greenback in it, which is why I didn't buy it because it was as much as the amp

here is a real tweak demo, flip a switch, play, flip another switch, play, etc. also a great demo. check out the 3min mark

chille01 · December 03, 2015, 09:57:10 PM

Yeah, there is one of the Egnater's on the local craigslist so I might have to check it out. They want $450 CND for it though, which seems a bit steep. I also was kinda hoping for a combo. I like the idea of a grab and go amp. Not ruling out a head mind you, but I don't own a single combo either.

jibberish · December 05, 2015, 02:15:58 AM

i use the egnator as a pre-amp too. it stays quiet with master down and the gain is the pre-out level to drive w/e other amp.
it is richer than my 1-tube Greta pre-out.

some day i would like to build a rockerverb50 pre-amp section, then use it to drive other power amp sections.
then you could have a whole selection of different power outputs still using that nice pre-amp. it really nice. that's what makes that amp IMO.
Plus it should be wai-cheap(relatively speaking), since there is no output iron to deal with.