Which small vintage heads(up to 80's) apart from Marshall PA20?

[Guitarman555]

I have two wintage pre rola greenbacks G30H(i think type 1917, 75hz), already installed into 2 separate little cabs. Can use both speakers together (8ohm) or separately 16ohm. I plan to have a mini setup for my blues rock band playing in little music clubs. Searching for a vintage head that would have just around 10 to max 15w. I wanna use simple setup for my gigs, just fender guitar and fuzz face. Any thoughts? Of course i know about Marshall PA20, but i wanna find also a bit cheaper and smaller option. Are there other brands, not so famous as Marshall or Orange,Fender, somebody else that made small heads of a good quality? Most of them produced just 50, 100 w, which is useless for me. Also, searchimg for something simple, one channel, three knobs is enough. Thanks for ideas!

 

[gridlock]

Not vintage, but a 20 watt hand-wired Marshall 2061x Lead/Bass. I am running a G12-H30 16 ohm in the Orange cabinet.

 

[68goldtop]

Hi!

... I plan to have a mini setup for my blues rock band playing in little music clubs. Searching for a vintage head that would have just around 10 to max 15w. I wanna use simple setup for my gigs ... searchimg for something simple, one channel, three knobs is enough. Thanks for ideas!

As you are located in Europe you might want to search for German or Italian amps from the 60s. Echolette, Dynacord or BFT - there were a couple of other Italian companies, but I can't recall the names right now...
They all made low-powered heads at the time.
Many of these amps can be found for around 300,- € (+/-), but you´ll have to have them checked-out/serviced before you can use them to play out!

If it doesn't HAVE to be "vintage", I can also recommend the Marshall SV20, the small Blackhearts (Little Giant, BH15...) - or even the Marshall Class 5


cheers - 68.

 

[Vibroluxer]

It's not vintage but it's a great head: Egnator Tweaker 15. There is an eq switch that changes how the tone controls operate and flicking it gives you Fender, Vox, and Marshall tones. It got a nice writeup here:

Egnater Tweaker Amp Review

A variety of tweakable tones in a small box with a small price tag

www.premierguitar.com

 

[Cali Dude]

Contact Skip Simmons up in northern California. He builds great PA head amp conversions. I had one that he made from a Bogen head. He also uses old Neucomb heads. He sells them for a great price.

 

[telemnemonics]

If it needs to be old and cheap maybe not the many many 18w and tweed clones.

The 800 series Marshall Studio 15 is an option, but not very cheap.

 

[Wally]

Budget? Oh well….cheaper than the
Marshall PA 20 opens up the market.
I would say find a used Dr Z Carmen Ghia head and play on.

 

[elpico]

The reason they started separating the amp and cabinet on high power amps was weight. 10 - 15w combos were already light so separating them wasn't common back then. In today's "endlessly remix the oldies" scene you can of course find every wattage in every format with every finish you can think of, but if you really need it to be pre-1980 that gets a lot tougher. I remember there being a small Traynor head. Probably not 10w though. Garnet made the Herzog (1x6v6) and Little Rock (2x6v6) in heads.

 

[Flaneur]

WEM combos turn up, all the time, in the UK. Small, affordable, light, vintage....and great sounding. €350 would get a really well looked after example.
There will be some in France, already. Reverb sellers will ship from the UK.

 

[loudboy]

Not vintage, but Fender Pro Jr's. absolutely rip thru a 2x12.

 

[Guitarman555]

Not vintage, but Fender Pro Jr's. absolutely rip thru a 2x12.

I cannot find any head amp Pro Junior by Fender.. is it just a combo? I am searching for a head amp.

 

[Powdog]

You might try contacting Paul Guilhem thru his website. He is in France and has made many little low watt heads and combos. Really cool stuff.

GUILHEM Amplification

Attention : ceci n'est PAS un site COMMERCIAL ! Please note : this is NOT a COMMERCIAL website !

guilhemamplification.jimdofree.com

 

[Wally]

There is a Carmen Ghia head for sale for £849 on European eBay…..£45 discount coupon…..only two knobs!!! Turret board construction….lifetime amp. You cannot get a better deal than that, ime.

 

[loudboy]

I cannot find any head amp Pro Junior by Fender.. is it just a combo? I am searching for a head amp.

It's a combo, you just plug the cable into the speaker output. It's smaller than any of the heads you're looking at.

 

[Guitarman555]

There is a Carmen Ghia head for sale for £849 on European eBay…..£45 discount coupon…..only two knobs!!! Turret board construction….lifetime amp. You cannot get a better deal than that, ime.

Cannot find it for this price, maybe sold

 

[Wally]

The ad says the seller is ‘away’ until August 6. ????

New - Dr Z Carmen Ghia | 18-Watt Head - Tan Grill | eBay UK

It's as though each note has been granted a sonic magnitude far beyond the constraints of its diminutive 18 watts. It establishes an intimate dialogue with the musician, where the nuance of power tube distortion can be felt with every strum.

www.ebay.co.uk