5W tube amps personal experience?

5 watts is a strange rating for a tube amp or at least the ones I own, I have a marshall class 5 head and a Blackstar ht5 head and they both sound best when run loud, too loud for a house unless your neighbours live out of eyesight. I get better sounds out of solid state like from a hotone purple wind or blackstar fly 3 when playing lower volume. If you can get the volume up on the 5watts then they sound better.
In saying that my next purchase will be a champ clone and i'll probably end up needing to put a pedal in front of it like the others if I want it to sound best at lounge volume.

 

Ive had a few Vox AC4's - combo and head versions. The head and cab I thought was pretty decent with a bigger speaker, and even gigged with it occasionally (mic'd up).
For home practice it was fun. Full band practice, not loud enough.
Few issues I found was the little head room, and that they didn't hold up well to longer gigs, towards end of 4 hr gig they started to play up (think it was a heat issue).
However for home, these are pretty neat.

 

Rather partial 5F1 with a 12 inch speaker.

 

Another vote for the Epiphone Value Jr. / Bugera V5.

I have the V5 and it's a really great amp with a $10 12ax7 swap. Speaker takes a while to break in, but is really well suited to the amp.

 

I've had mine for a decade....great little amp. The cabinet alone is worth the $99 it cost me.

 

I had a Kustom Defender 5H MOD. The MOD is a genuine Kustom model. Single 12AX7, single EL84, volume control and a bass contour.

Many fine sounds to be had, and the bass contour works extremely well. Offers 4, 8 & 16 Ohm taps. A stink-loud beast of an amp! You'll need a cab of course, and 100Yds between your house and your neighbours. 5 Watts is loud. The Kustom seems to take 'loud' and says 'Hold my beer'

In a combo, you may come across the Hayden High Five. If you do, buy it. Fine sounds, and rather more refined than most two valve amps I've found. I had one, then got an offer I couldn't refuse.

The Vox AC4TV-10 can make some good sounds. The combo is cab limited. Remove around 1/3rd of the back and ( to me ) the sound improves. The AC4C1-10 offers another valve in the pre-amp stage and requires some surgery to the back to get it to breathe, but you may want to look at 2x12AX7 + 1xEL84. The addition of the second valve really seems to open them up.

 

5W tube amps personal experience?

I built them... To my taste...



The Roland MicroCube (a wonderful little amp, that said !) is here to give the scale.

The VOX is a tube-conversion that I rebuilt from a dead 1968 Escort solidstate , precisely using an EL84/6BQ5 and an ECC83/12AX7 :



-tbln

 

another vote for the blackheart little giant. like an idiot I sold my first one, a head and 1x12 cab. just acquired another with 2 of the 10" cabinets that were intended for the killer ant ... love this amp

 

SWART makes some models with reverb (Atomic Space xxxx...), but it's 6V6 powered, IIRC.

I don't think that there is an affordable production model today with one 12AX7 and one EL84 plus reverb circuit... But I may be wrong !

I know that there is DIYer (on DIYstompboxes forum) that followed my steps about the VOX Escort, and even went further than me, because he could add a tremolo facility inside...

But no reverb...

-tbln

 

Epi VJr is a pretty decent amp, for what it is. I bought an old V1 (possible V2) combo years back, loved the sound but it was inherently noisy. Stumbled across a V3 head and cab for dirt cheap (had read the possible easy fix, which worked) unboxed but new, with warranty, because it only needed the contacts for the fuse to be scoured......put the V3 chassis in my old combo, and use the cab with my Tweaker. It's not a bad amp at all, for being a one trick pony.....did the JP (Jumper 1?) mod, and replaced the AX7 for a AT or AU (memory fails me, here), I like the amp enough, it sits in my living room atm

 

Bassbreaker 007 is such a beast. I use mine daily

 

In my first guitar life, where I never learned poop, I had a Les Paul, a Twin Reverb, and a Supro 1606 five watt. I’d pull out the Twin and turn it up - someone would call the cops or come over to complain. They’d say “turn it down!”.

Then I’d pull out the supro and crank that puppy, and 99% of the time get away with it, because, well, it wasn’t as loud as the Twin

 

lotta bang for buck

 

https://www.bugera-amps.com/Categor...plifiers/V5-INFINIUM/p/P0B02#googtrans(en|en)

 

I've been through the whole Epi Valve Jr "thang" and honestly I don't think I'd mess with them them again unless I found one $100 or less which is way lower than what they are on Reverb right now. Over the years and at 59 I find that messing around with Chinese/Taiwan cheap amps aren't worth the effort. I would find a Fender Blues Jr for less than $350 and it smokes anything in that price range, The Super Champ XD's are a good value but I wouldn't pay more much than $250 for one of those. Both have a master volume, reverb etc, push/pull EL84's and are perfect for recording/living room and small gig venues. JMHOYMMV

 

I tried a Bugera V5 but just couldn't get past the dark sound.

i also had a Vox AC4-12. Tt was pretty nice and more versatile but a bit to bright for me, even after the bright cap mod.

This little guy sounds better to me than either of them. One 12AX7 and one EL84, volume, tone. Made from a classroom record player and sounds pretty sweet. I based it on a Gibson/Kalamazoo circuit.

 

My favorite 5 watter is my '74 Vibro Champ but that uses a 6V6.

 

I love small amps like that. If you've never messed with any in that power class before though, they can still be plenty loud.