Looking for lightweight tube amp! Princeton alternative.

[jzjazz]

In Polish unfortunately. Maybe Kris can help out, he seemed to have some kind of endorsement?

I'm already in contact with Kris And I'm in Poland so Polish shouldn't be much of a problem

[bananafist]

Sounds to me like a Princeton is what you've got your mind set on. I swapped the 10" for an Emi Cannabis Rex, then a Red White and Blue - both 12", but now have an Emi alnico 10", and it has that Princeton tone, so I'm sticking with it. Prefer it to my SFDR.
That Chubster sounds like a bargain, if you like how it sounds.
Good luck.

[Little Jay]

I'm already in contact with Kris And I'm in Poland so Polish shouldn't be much of a problem

Cool! Let me know the outcome! I might be interested in one of those amps too.... if he exports to Holland ;-)

[Lobomov]

It is just me .. I find the BJ heavier than the PRRI?

[jzjazz]

Must be you - according to thomann.de it's 1.6kg lighter

[jzjazz]

Cool! Let me know the outcome! I might be interested in one of those amps too.... if he exports to Holland ;-)

I guess there shouldn't be any problem with that. And it costs less than a used Princeton. The only downside would be the re-sale value. On a used princeton you won't loose anything. With this little amp you're stuck for good

[Jabberwocky]

Piping in: get someone to build a single-channel Deluxe Reverb. Small. Portable. About the size of a Princeton Reverb.

Second, a Fender-style or Octal tubed preamp stage and a solid-state Class D amplifier. All the essential tubey goodness with the power output of a solid-state amp minus the weight of the output transformer. For example, Kingsley Squire BF pedal -> AI Clarus or Quilter Mono -> 1x12 pine cab with your favourite 12" driver. The Fryette Power Station 2 has a nice clean 50W 6L6 power amp stage in a 2U rack format. Could be an alternative if you want a pure tube path.

[Greentone]

Love the Princeton and Princeton Reverb amps. For reasons of weight/sound, though, I play old tweed amps now. A tweed Vibrolux or tweed Deluxe (or clones) are quite light, are in the same power range as the 60s Princetons, and get terrific sound.

Bucky Pizzarelli played his guitars through the tweed Vibrolux for about 50 years. Pretty good endorsement.

[bananafist]

Another thought, Rift amps in the UK build Princeton clones, but that put out 18 watts (PR18) or 35 watts (PR35 with two 6L6s). Demos on Youtube. Not personally tried these though, but good reviews.

[citizenk74]

I am using a Fender Super Champ X2. It is a 15watt tube amp with some modeling and effects built in if you want to use them, but they can also be disabled if you want a pure clean tone. I bought it as I have a bad back and this was one of the lightest Fender tube amps I could find and like you I had to have a tube amp, period. I love this amp, it has a very nice clean tone and I usually play with just a touch of reverb and maybe a bit of chorus too. Point being it is a very nice small tube amp. It also has a line out so you can connect to a larger cabinet if you need more sound for a larger venue.

1)

2) I've read a lot of good things about these. How's the reverb?

[Sunfist]

1)

2) I've read a lot of good things about these. How's the reverb?

It is quite good. Not the equal of a Boss RV-6 pedal but quite good for a built in reverb. What makes it particularly useful are the positions whereby you can pair the reverb up with either delay or chorus. I actually plan on getting an RV-6 but I have been using the reverb as is ever since I bought it and never found I needed a lot more.

[jzjazz]

I played the Rivera Clubster 25 today. Nice small, pretty light (13kg), but the sound just isn't it. It has that tube-magic, yes. But it lacks depth. I had a Mambo 10" with me and it was warmer than the Rivera. The rivera started sounding good with treble at 1 and presence at 1. But I would have turned the knobs further if possible