Which small tube amp do you like with your tele/strat?

[Marcus T]

Hey kids!

My wife is 40 weeks and 3 days pregnant with my second child. What does this have to do with guitars? My Fender Hot Rod Deville 410 is a little much at times, so I'm looking to compliment it with a small, low watt tube amp (must be tubes, man!) for jams during nap time.

I'm also in it for the portability, as I do a couple 2 song jam nites at a local cafe. Not really interested in lugging the Deville to those. Portability around the house, and to the back patio will also be a bonus!

My options so far are these:

1. Blues Jr. (I like the NOS, but they are a little hard to find. Thoughts on the Blues Jr. iii?)

2. Vox AC4TV. I like it but it breaks up a little earlier than I think I want. Fine for late night, but might be hard to get clean tones at the cafe gig.

3. Fender Pawn Shop Excelsior. Hasn't been released yet, but the promo video on Fender's website is SO awesome, I have to consider it!

Any insight you folks have is much appreciated!

I play a '66 MIA Telecaster, '94 MIJ Strat and '07 SG Special Faded Cherry.

[BackNtheSaddle]

Or, you could look at a modeling amp - and get all those tones (and others). Not Tubez... though - just sounds like 'em. Go listen/play one.

Fender Mustang, Line-6, Vox makes one, too (might even satisfy your tube mandate).

My old tube amps are collecting dust. I got a M-II for playing around the house.

With my tele - I can get *all* the sounds. With my LP - same, too.

[DADGAD]

Egnater Tweaker 15 watt through a single Celestion G12H30. It's an amazing sounding rig. Marshall, Vox and Fender tones are all in there in spades. You can get it in a combo or separate head and cab. Also sounds great though a Greenback.

[jklotz]

You didn't say the type of music you play, or the sound you are after, but IMHO it's hard to beat a little Princeton RI if you like that Fender kind of sound.

[roadkillbill]

Peavey Classic 30.

Very versatile at low volumes, the perfect size, and it gets real loud, too

[gtrguru]

Fender Blues Jr III - it can handle pedals well and covers a broad spectrum of tones.

[notdave]

How small do you want?

This thread may be of use, though it does veer away from the OP's original request of 'sub 5w valve amp'.

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/amp-centr...small-amp.html

[Marcus T]

jklotz - Good point! I play all sorts of music. Blues, rock, spaced out effect ridden nonsense, country, I try not to limit myself.

I've become a little obsessed with blues lately, and this smaller amp will get used to practice scales a lot. Mostly no pedals, looking for all tone.

roadkillbill - Interesting. A Classic 30 showed up on my local kijiji.ca. I kinda wrote it off as I've never been a huge fan of Peavey. I'll have to look into it some more.

BackNTheSaddle - I used to use a Boss GT-8 effects board and grew very tired of the way it took over the sound. It has turned me off the whole "amp modelling" thing. I absolutely LOVE the sound I get from a true tube amp. Maybe it's a psychological thing. You know, "I've got tubes, man!" and all that. At any rate, I wanna stick with the tubes.

Thanks for the input guys! Keep it coming!

[teleblueman]

A Fender through a Fender can't be beat. A Princeton Reverb RI would fit what you are looking for perfectly, and it's sooo much warmer than BJ's EL 84's.

[PeterVV]

I am very happy with my Laney 15 watt

[bullfrogblues]

I really love my DRRI, but without pedals a bit too loud to get the tones.
My Epi Valve Jr. at 5 watts sounds fantastic with single coils, the tele and strat sound great. Humbuckers for some reason have a midrange honk I can't take. But for the singles it's fantastic. And P90s, just think Live At Leeds!

[AndrewG]

The VHT Special 6 Ultra sounds good. It also has a decent 12" speaker to handle those 6 watts. For indoor stuff I would definitely recommend a small modeller; I use a Roland Microcube around the house which sounds great at any 'volume'.(It's only 2 watts!). It also does a good mild break-up that you won't get in an unattenuated 'small' valve amp unless you drive it fairly hard-and even a 5-watter will have the neighbours banging on your wall!

http://www.vhtamp.com/avsp16u.html

[telefunken]

Can't go wrong with a Blues jr.III, I love mine

[AirBagTester]

At first I was surprised to see a 15 watt tube amp on your list, but then I saw that you want to use it for small gigs too so it makes more sense. Still, there's quite a bit of volume difference between "nap time" and "small gig." I would never be able to get away with a 15 watt amp if my wife wanted me to be quiet... that's when I plug my headphones into my Vox VT15. Not tubes of course. Even my Champ 600 is too loud if I want to play late at night. I don't know... hard for me to split the difference with a tube amp between just "quiet" and a small gig. I'd be interested in hearing about what you end up with.

[Marcus T]

Originally Posted by AirBagTester

At first I was surprised to see a 15 watt tube amp on your list, but then I saw that you want to use it for small gigs too so it makes more sense. Still, there's quite a bit of volume difference between "nap time" and "small gig." I would never be able to get away with a 15 watt amp if my wife wanted me to be quiet... that's when I plug my headphones into my Vox VT15. Not tubes of course. Even my Champ 600 is too loud if I want to play late at night. I don't know... hard for me to split the difference with a tube amp between just "quiet" and a small gig. I'd be interested in hearing about what you end up with.

Lol! I hear ya! It's mostly portability and tone that is important to me (not in that order). I LOVE my Deville but playing it at ANY sort of low volume flat out doesn't happen. I'm sure I can get the Junior down to a level that makes it usable at night. As I said, I'm expecting my second child any minute now, so "late night" playing means 9 pm. Not really the "rock star" I used to be! Lol!

[chrom-freak]

for nighttime playing i would suggest a modeller with headphone jack or even a multieffects pedal with amp simulation. i use my digitech rp255 when playing at night. sounds pretty good for the money.

[teleamp]

Little lanilie (SP?), tube amps and baby nap time don't mix. At least not in the same house, or even the apartment next door (below and above too).

Something with a headphone jack will be your friend.

[Marcus T]

Originally Posted by telefunken

Can't go wrong with a Blues jr.III, I love mine

Awesome!

I've heard some bad reviews of the new speaker in the Junior iii. Mostly, I think those people don't like Fender tone, as they complained about the "sparkle" calling it 'ice pick'. I am a fan of the Fender highs, but my concern is in this speakers handling of the lower frequencies. What I like most about tube amps is the "thunk thunk" I get while playing palm muted blues leads. (does that make sense to anyone else?)

In your experience, does this speaker give you all the tonal flexibility you want?

[elmicko]

Originally Posted by Marcus T

roadkillbill - Interesting. A Classic 30 showed up on my local kijiji.ca. I kinda wrote it off as I've never been a huge fan of Peavey. I'll have to look into it some more.

Don't dismiss the Peavy Classic series. I bought a tweed Classic 30 right after they came out and it sounded awesome. I was jamming with some buddies at the time and it just wouldn't compete with the other guitar player's Marshall stack so I traded it for a Classic 50. The 50 was plenty loud and sounded great, but it didn't have the cool tone of the Classic 30. Just one more amp that I'd like to have back. LOL

[BackNtheSaddle]

Yep. The whole tubez & quiet thing doesn't ever work out right. Either you get the sound with too much volume, or you just miss the sound, but the level is low enough.

I wish they had the modeling amps back when my kids were little. If I had a dime for every time my wife told me to "TURN THAT DAMN AMP DOWN OR YOU'LL WAKE THE KIDS" - I'd be a millionaire.

Seriously, I get tubez. But no peddle board will even approach the same quality if tones that you'll get with a good modeler.

Take some time to go try one. I think the Vox model mentioned earlier is a tube one.

Bonus for you :)

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