Easiest & Most Economical Intro to Tube Amps?

[ESCC]

So friends. Today I ordered the Fender Super Champ 15w head. I will use it with the 12" Quilter speaker cabinet I have from the days when I had a Quilter mini-head.

I will keep you posted, on a NAD thread, how this works out!

Thank you all, every single one of you, for your input and discussion. Every post was a positive benefit to me as I pondered this, and I enjoyed and appreciation every contribution. You folks are seriously a fantastic crew to put such a question to.

Thank you, one and all!

Sounds like a good approach! Looking forward to hearing sound bites, 175, 165, L-5 . . . to name a few.

Enjoy the sound tweaking.

[Max405]

You could always re-cover the cabinet.

Good idea. I never thought of that.
I definitely have an affinity to the tweed. I also grew up on a very old Fender Vibrolux. God I wish I had that amp. Especially now that I am not playing Zeppelin, KISS and VanHalen and blowing the speaker every week..
JD

[Longways to Go]

Superchamp is a great choice! I bet you'll have lots of fun with it.

I had the earlier Superchamp XD combo and enjoyed it greatly. There are lots of good jazz tones in there -- between the clean channel, the jazz voiced channel and the first 3 or 4 cleanish voices -- all kinds of fun tones to work with.

[Boston Joe]

So friends. Today I ordered the Fender Super Champ 15w head. I will use it with the 12" Quilter speaker cabinet I have from the days when I had a Quilter mini-head.

Nice! I think you'll enjoy it.

[Buzzz]

Ampeg GVT 5 head, uber clean, no middle or gain. 6V6 and pedal friendly. Next time I find a used one I'll nab it. I have the 15 watt version with switchable output. I absolutely love this amp. Great for club gigs and small halls. It's hard to overdrive this amp but it takes pedals nicely.
Hughes and Kettner Tubemeister 5. EL 84 and has overdrive. Useable for all styles. Their 18 Watter is full of tricks

Palmer Fab 5, a German take on a Fender champ,

Attachment 47591

their Drei head has 3 three different output valves which you blend for ultra O/D.

All of these deserve some sort of research.

But at the moment I'm really digging the Yamaha THR 10C. Yes, its digital, but it has all the best valve amp simulations.
I was messing around with the Deluxe setting and I thought I blew the speaker coz it farted. Then I realised the sound engineers had programmed the farty cabinet sound as I couldn't make it fart on the other settings. It's also amazingly loud for its size.
It has all the farty tonality without the dying valve headaches.
And its small enough to hide in the parlour without annoying my wife.

I second you on the Yamaha THR10C. Great home amp. Plays the jazz tone in my head when I set it on "Flat" and plug in the Roadworn Tele through a TS808HW Tube Screamer, Boss GE7 equalizer and Mad Professor Silver Spring Reverb. But the reverb on the amp itself is good too.