5 Watt Shootout

[Brent Hutto]

Originally Posted by Sollophonic

I tried the Champion 600, but the combination of the small speaker, and the lack of a way to run it into a bigger one, plus the higher price, put me off.

There's a regular old 1/4" speaker jack on the Champ 600. You can't see it but it's tucked way up under the lip of the case. Always kind of scary reaching blind into a tube amp, though.

[Boubou]

Originally Posted by Frank_Kimball

$160/watt may be pretty crazy but the Swart Space Tone Tweed has to make the short list.




Whichever comes first, my tax refund or my economic stimulus check - Mike Swart's economy may be the one I'll be stimulatin'...

HUM, I have been gassing for that amp for a long time. But i am interested in the Blackheart little giant Would be nice to have a cab with a 12" speaker that could be used other ways, but then agaian as far as i can tell there are none in canada, howver the Swart is in stock downtown.
Plus, I am depressed, i really need to buy myself a new toy

[Telover]

The Champion is great. One advice: change the speaker immediately, I've put a Weber 6" ceramic (it's the only 6" on the market), and old tubes. The final update it should be to build the cabinet with solid pine wood, but with the modifications I made it already sounds perfect.

About the Epi: I don't like the look, but it probably sounds pretty good for what I've read on the Internet. There's a website about the modifications for it.

[iorr]

My homebuilded 5F2A clone. Switchable to 5F1A, switchable NFB, Alnico Speaker. MasterVol. ....
Not the cheapest solution but way better then the ones listed above.



Karsten

[Flat357]

Originally Posted by Rob DiStefano

Except for the Blackheart, I've owned or trialed all of the above amps and none of them were worth my attentions for one reason, or many.

You owned / tried a Cornford Harlequin and didn't like it ?
Now that does surprise me I have to say , though each to their own regarding tone I guess .

[<jbc>]

5W with 12", reverb and effects loop.

Laney L5T, Cornford Carerra, or Sheldon tt3r.

What else is there?
<laney pic remove 'cause of 4 pic limit>




octal or nonel output tube.



Sheldon se or pp nonel



Lust.

[tdu]

I wish the Reverend Goblin was still in production. I would nominate it. One of the most versatile amps ever made.

[Sollophonic]

Just question, does the Champion 600 crunch/break up earlier then other class A budget amps? If so is it a better tube/practice amp? If so, with its speaker out, it might be a worth looking at as it give a different tonality. I didnt know about the speaker/out as the shop I tried it in also didn't know about it.

Thanks Brent.

Sollophonic

[rolleiguy54]

Rather than buy a Champion 600 and change the speaker, why not buy a Gibson les Paul and keep it stock. It already has a great speaker. It is better built to boot. And on special now.

[jefrs]

Originally Posted by klast

Can you get nice crunch from the overdrive channel at bedroom volume?

The overdrive channel of my Laney VC30 needs to be cranked way above that level to provide nice crunch.

Klas

Well at our age I don't play guitar in the bedroom but yes the L5T can crunch quietly if pre at 9 and post at 1. It's better if pre at 7 and post at 3, but a lot louder too. A 5 watt amp is not quiet - it will give half the volume of a 50watt amp. It is no heavy metal amp either but will do that too if an overdrive box used. If you want the heavy overdriven valve sound try the LC30-II. I went shopping for the LC15R but came out with the more versatile L5T. I tried at the LC15-110, VC15-110 and VC30-210 and saw the L20H/LT212 (20watt 4xEL84 head+cab). The LC amps are overdriven, the VC are cleaner. The L5T sounded best to me, I did not like the 10-in speakers. I later tried the LC30-II with 1x12-in this is a great single channel for overdriven sound but loud. My old WEM does that but it only goes up to '8'. J-)

[mistermullens]

I've have had both the Epi VJr head and C600. Sold the C600 only because I was accumulating a lot of amps and my wife got me the VJ for Christmas. I hated the C600 until I plugged it into a 10in speaker. Holy crap that thing was awesome! The Epi sounded great as well, but sounds even better through a 2x10. I'd really like to hear what the C600 sounds like through a 2x10 cab. I bet I would get another one.

BTW, the only mods I've done to the Epi are tubes. Got a JJ EL84 and an NOS Jan Philips 5751. The cab is a Hartke Bass cab loaded with 2 Eminence Ramrods. AWESOME!

[younkint]

Originally Posted by rolleiguy54

I love my 5 wt. gibson Les Paul. I think Sweetwater is blowing them out. I have not tried the other ones.

I also have to mention the Gibson Les Paul Jr. Amp. Mine is fantastic. I still haven't heard a 5 watt amp that I like better than this (and a Champ). Personally, I like the Gibson a little more than the Champs I've played through.

I checked, and it's true about Sweetwater blowing them out. They have them marked down $300 from what they've been going for, although that pegs them at $400. Naturally, you could buy a couple of VJs for that price, but it's still a LOT cheaper than some of what's been mentioned here for a very well made American amp. That Sweetwater price puts a brand new one into "used eBay" territory.

Maybe Gibson is discontinuing them ...I don't know. I'm sure they'll get real popular once they quit making them (it's some form of GAS... ).

[newtwanger]

$160/watt may be pretty crazy but the Swart Space Tone Tweed has to make the short list.

I'm waiting for the 12" speaker reverb model to show up.
The little 8" guy is mind blowing, but this should absolutely be the best 5 watter going (according to me )
But.... $270.00 per watt.....
http://www.swartamps.com/swart_space_tone_reverb.htm

[Walker]

Originally Posted by younkint

I also have to mention the Gibson Les Paul Jr. Amp. Mine is fantastic. I still haven't heard a 5 watt amp that I like better than this (and a Champ). Personally, I like the Gibson a little more than the Champs I've played through.

I checked, and it's true about Sweetwater blowing them out. They have them marked down $300 from what they've been going for, although that pegs them at $400. Naturally, you could buy a couple of VJs for that price, but it's still a LOT cheaper than some of what's been mentioned here for a very well made American amp. That Sweetwater price puts a brand new one into "used eBay" territory.

Maybe Gibson is discontinuing them ...I don't know. I'm sure they'll get real popular once they quit making them (it's some form of GAS... ).

Does anyone know of a sound clip of one?

[younkint]

Originally Posted by Walker

Does anyone know of a sound clip of one?

[Re: Gibson Les Paul Jr. amps...]

It's actually kind of hard to find a clip. I knew of a place, but it's gone now. I think the problem I've had with searches for LPJ amps is that there's about a zillion web pages covering Les Paul *guitars* and everything sort of gets hijacked to those, even with a very well framed Google search. Further, Gibson denotes these present amps as "GA-5" models (same as the old ones from long ago). That doesn't help, since when you search by model number, it brings up all the old GA-5's.

[GuitarJunkie84]

How is the Peavey Valveking Royal 8? More controls than the champ or epi, and still at 200 bucks. Has anyone played on one of these?

[Pvee]

I recently bought an Epiphone Valve Jr. Head off Ebay for a good price and made several electronic modifications to it.

I put a 10" Eminence speaker in a cabinet I had and that amp is sounding very good.

Most of the mod's were in the power filtering and a few signal chain mods.

The 12ax7 was very noisy. I replaced that and I am waiting on a new EL84 to replace or just keep for backup if needed.

[pwilly]

I've a Gibson Skylarks GA-5 amp for 35 years and it still kicks butt, dimed out with a Tele on the business end of the cable.

[WallyArms]

Has anyone compared the Gibson LP Jr amp and the Valve Jr? I know the Gibson is better made (I would love to have one), but aren't they essentially the same as far as design goes? I am not talking about construction - I know the Gibson is hand wired, etc.

My Valve Jr is not the latest version but also not the first. It is a great amp for my Gibson Melody Maker, but I don't like the sound of my Fenders through it.

[nasonm]

How about the Victoria 5112?
Basically a tweed champ in a 1-12" cab.

[WallyArms]

Originally Posted by WallyArms

My Valve Jr is not the latest version but also not the first. It is a great amp for my Gibson Melody Maker, but I don't like the sound of my Fenders through it.

Well, I will have to take that back - I just plugged my Nashville Tele into the Valve Jr and it sounds great. Funny how our ears change....

[WhiteAsh]

Originally Posted by younkint

I also have to mention the Gibson Les Paul Jr. Amp. Mine is fantastic. I still haven't heard a 5 watt amp that I like better than this (and a Champ). Personally, I like the Gibson a little more than the Champs I've played through.

I checked, and it's true about Sweetwater blowing them out. They have them marked down $300 from what they've been going for, although that pegs them at $400. Naturally, you could buy a couple of VJs for that price, but it's still a LOT cheaper than some of what's been mentioned here for a very well made American amp. That Sweetwater price puts a brand new one into "used eBay" territory.

Maybe Gibson is discontinuing them ...I don't know. I'm sure they'll get real popular once they quit making them (it's some form of GAS... ).

These are great amps - they will become a classic after they are disco'ed (if that happens)

I recorded some tracks for a school project a couple years back, and the instructor/guitarist/engineer was basically incredulous at the sound I got from a simple GA-5.

[OaklandA]

Originally Posted by Rob DiStefano

I just got Jim's 5F2 tweed Princeton chassis that's going into a 1x15 combo cab. There are lots of killer chassis designs that Jim can build ...

I think Jim will build any tweed design if you're serious about it. I've talked to him about building a Pro and someday I'll make that happen.

I wasn't aware of the Princeton deal. Sounds very interesting.

To the original post I'd have to agree with Rob and say a Champster...or really any 5F1 clone would probably surpass just about everything on that list.

[Telover]

Originally Posted by iorr