Small Tube Amp reccomendations...

**CrazyChester** · 06-24-2010, 11:46 AM

Originally Posted by CrazyChester

Is that the speaker that has a cone made out of hemp fiber.

Not a very good choice of material for a musician's speaker. Come back from a break and find little pieces of your speaker missing and illegal smiles on your bandmates faces. No thanks.

**GuyB** · 06-24-2010, 12:16 PM

You could take a serious look at the Traynor amps. There is this class A 15W (YCV20WR) at :

http://www.traynoramps.com/products....&cat=63&type=3

**BigDaddyLoveHandles** · 06-24-2010, 12:30 PM

Mr B: I asked over on TDPRI -- do you still have that Redstone cabinet? If you use an external cabinet that would fill out the bass of the Champ/VibroChamp.

**mr. beaumont** · 06-24-2010, 01:17 PM

oh, yes--I love that cab.

**frogeye** · 06-25-2010, 01:16 PM

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

It should be enough for what I want to do--practice, record, and jam with a piano player.

people play too damn loud, anyway.

thanks for the responses again, all, I've got a lot of food for thought.

(oh, and btw, I have a blues junior, fine amp, but much bigger and louder than what I'm looking for in this thread)

I am sorry for posting all the BJr "blah" earlier not knowing that you are owning that amp already.

Based on your statement above and having by now listened to some of your great playing I'd like to offer some final thoughts from my end.

A friend of mine plays bass and also guitar and we meet regularly to learn some new tunes and to practice. When at his house we play in the living room and I'll be using his 70's SF Vibro Champ that is stock except of the speaker which is a basic Weber 8" replacement speaker.

We practiced last night and paid some extra attention to the amp because of this thread and here are a couple of thoughts from my end.

I'm able to get a really nice, warm, "wood like" sound with the amp using my "plywood" hollowbody jazz box that is equipped with a low impedance pickup in the neck position. Due to the low output of the pickup I prefer to use the "Hi" input on the amp to not have to crank the volume up too far and still have sufficient amount of headroom for living room compatible volume levels. When playing Kalamazoo made "Epiphone by Gibson" Semi-Hollowbody that is equipped with Gibson PAF Humbuckers I use the "Lo" input to avoid the pre-amp circuit starting to break up at already very low volume levels. In regards to playing with other instruments I really like the guitar tone from this amp when playing duo with my friend playing an unamplified upright bass. The acoustic bass tone nicely compensates for the lack of bottom end the Vibro Champ is offering resulting a balanced sound for the combined instruments (for my taste). When playing guitar duo the sound is still nice, however I miss at any given volume level the low end attack that a 12" open cabinet speaker offers or some small closed speaker cabinet. This is in particular the case when playing chords on the Hollowbody that has flatwound strings on it. It is not so much an issue to me when playing single notes. Hence my comments in respect BJr and bigger speaker in my posts earlier. Based on these observations I don't expect the amp to sound all that great if I had to play chords behind one or two horn or brass players with no bass player around. I have no idea how it would sound when playing together with a pianist.

All in all I would recommend a SF vibro champ as a potentially viable, although not perfect solution for what I understand you are looking for. This is only as long as you don't mind the lack of low frequency response. I love the form (and weight) factor! Unless that you already know or own the amp

you may want to check one out if an opportunity exists. At the very least it will give you a point of reference to compare other solutions to.

Hope that you find this to be useful. Good Luck!

**goshawk** · 06-26-2010, 09:50 AM

Well, it's not vintage, but the Epiphone Valve Junior certainly fits your other criteria. It's also inexpensive - a new combo goes for about $150, the head version for about $130.

Of course, you can pick them up even cheaper on eBay, but you need to do a bit of research. The first generation of VJrs had real noise problems. They solved that with the 2nd generation and I understand that the current, 3rd generation, are even better. The 2nd version came out in June 2007 (all heads are at least 2nd generation).

Also, if you're at all handy, there are tons of mods and mod kits available.

I was playing mine last night, and I was able to get a nice, clean tone at a comfortable volume using my ER-1.

**mr. beaumont** · 06-26-2010, 04:19 PM

that's interesting to hear that, as at another page I belong to there's 100 folks talking about their valve jr's, and they never mention the clean tone!

I'm planning on sticking vintage though. I like the hunt, and I like the idea of coupling an old guitar with an old amp...plus, having no tone control on this guitar or the valve junior means I better like what it gives me!

The quest will begin next week Friday, at Chicago's wonderful Midwest Buy and Sell.

**millman** · 06-26-2010, 05:32 PM

The Carvin Vintage 16 is a nice little el84 amp. It sounds great, the price is right @ $369.00 and runs at either 16 watts or 5 watts. And for those who would want to mod it, there's a guy who has come up with a list of mods that is said to make this amp a screamer.

**millman** · 06-26-2010, 05:33 PM

Also it only weighs 31 pounds.

**jazzyjman** · 06-27-2010, 02:17 AM

Hey now id never be smoking no speaker I doing know about you....

**jazzyjman** · 06-27-2010, 02:18 AM

Hey now id never be smoking no speaker I dont know about you....

**mr. beaumont** · 06-27-2010, 10:41 AM

Any other goodies out there, as per my original post?

looks like I'm gonna be checking out vibro-champs and skylarks...did ampeg have any entries into the low watt category?

**mattymel** · 06-27-2010, 11:18 PM

music man amps are also a good value. i know a few jazzers that like them as they are half solid state, half tube or something weird like that.

**randyc** · 06-28-2010, 12:13 AM

Oh yeah ! Music Man amps are FINE amplifiers for jazz and as you note, they are a hybrid configuration. I love 'em but they are not lightweight, 5 - 10 watt amplifiers.

Jeff, no Ampegs were made in that low-power category. You would LOVE my Reverberocket (single tone control) with that Kay, they were made for one another.

BUT it is ~ 20 watts and heavy (expensive output tubes, too). Sometime soon, I'm going to start thinking about divesting some of my stuff - the kids don't want it.

Cheers

**mr. beaumont** · 07-05-2010, 05:45 PM

well, did a day of hunting and pecking, so i'm reviving this thread. Here's what I tried, prices, and what I thought of 'em. Looking to see if anyone had any experience with any of these.

SF fender champs (2), $395 and $425 respectively.

champ one looked like it had been to hell and back. Probably needed a lot of work, as everything was scratchy...seemed like it could fall apart at any moment. Champ 2 (the more expensive one) was great, nice warm midrangey "in your face tone"--but clean up past 7 on the dial--more than enough volume for what I'm looking for--but there was a strange cabinet vibration between low G and Bb--any lower or higher and it wasn't there...wasn't sure if that was something that could be remedied.

SF Fender Vibro Champ, $450

seemed like it wanted to get dirty fast. Not for me-- I'll take the vibe-less champs over this anyday. Ths one was CLEAN, though--too bad--looked like a new amp.

Blackface Champ $800

Not worth close to 400 bucks more than a silverface IMHO. Very similar sounding.

SF Princeton (non-reverb) $650

Probably louder than I need, but that bigger speaker was nice. This baby was also cleanas a whistle, and had a 3 prong cord installed. I could probably use it for jamming with folks too...ah, stop it mind! you don't need an amp that big, right?

right?

Silvertone 1x12", looked like a televsion, just had to try it cuz it was there

sounded like gabage. Hold for Jack White.

Oahu Tonemaster (1x12") $1000

Coolest looking amp on the planet. Very scratchy pots, smelled a bit like something was burning the whole time I played it (smelled like grandma's basement the rest of the time) Excellent tone. Too risky.

Danelectro (didn't get name, 20-ish watt, 1x12", creme tweedish covering) $800

best sounding amp of the day, but volume knob goes from "can't hear it" to "way too loud for my living room" fast. Just more amp than I want, but if there's any Chicago area members looking for a fantastic clean, loud jazz amp, it's at Chicago Music Exchange. It's in great shape--and well worth checking out.

Gibson "Les Paul" model (old as dirt, excellent condition, and way out of my price range, but I had to try it)

nothing to write home about. whew. dodged a bullet there.

Conclusions on the day. Gotta keep looking...I'd be happy with an "issue-less" champ, but I keep thinking about that princeton. Time will tell.

**randyc** · 07-05-2010, 06:03 PM

Recall that it doesn't take a lot of time or $ to make a Princeton from a Champ - just a thought. I posted a thread about this some time back.

Cheers and good hunting.

**SamBooka** · 07-05-2010, 08:28 PM

Originally Posted by randyc

Recall that it doesn't take a lot of time or $ to make a Princeton from a Champ - just a thought. I posted a thread about this some time back.

Cheers and good hunting.

I am going the other way. Made my PR Clone SE. Still needs a couple of minor tweaks and I havent tried getting the vibrato to work. At the rate I am going, by the time I am done I will be old and deaf and 5W wont be enough anymore lol.

**randyc** · 07-05-2010, 08:54 PM

Drew, that's an interesting concept and are you being medicated for this condition?

Cheers,
Randy

**SamBooka** · 07-05-2010, 09:01 PM

Ok.. I am going to work on it NOW.. then bed.

**TieDyedDevil** · 07-06-2010, 01:54 AM

I've always liked the Fender 5E3 Deluxe, also know as the Narrow Panel Tweed Deluxe. The true vintage amps tend to be pretty spendy. There are boatloads of manufacturers who sell a version of the 5E3, in both kit and assembled form, at a wide range of prices.

The 5E3 is simplicity in and of itself, with two volume controls and tone control. The volume controls interact in some very interesting ways to alter the tonality of the amp.

The Victoria 20112 is probably among the most faithful implementations of the 5E3. Its cost is right up there with a really good vintage 5E3, but it'll be trouble-free for a lot longer.

**mr. beaumont** · 07-06-2010, 03:09 PM

went back and picked up the princeton--got it for $575.

It's nice, pretty much exactly what I wanted--it'll work for practice, should record very nicely, and it's just loud enough to take out for small solo gigs or jamming with a piano player or singer.

something to think about for anyone into clean amps--still clean as a whistle on "10" (with single coils, at least)

**randyc** · 07-06-2010, 03:11 PM

Good amplifier - one of my favorites !

**SamBooka** · 07-06-2010, 03:23 PM

Yeah.. I had BF many years ago. Wish I kept it. They are cleaner than the Rev models and that can be a plus. My guitar teacher was playing country rock using a PR and a 12 extension cab and had no issues, even with a drummer.

HNAD!