Recommend a low power tube amp for home practice.

sepultura

New member
Hi folks, I currently have a nice little Laney 15 watter for home use. However after playing on a few tube amps (Fender blues jr, etc) over the past few weeks, GAS has hit hard. These small little amps sound so much better than the solid state amps I've tried, there's that warmth, fullness and sustain which makes it hard to put down the guitar.

So.. is there any decent and affordable (not some exotic boutique stuff) tube amp around 5-15w for home use, available here in Sg? I'm never going to crank up the volume, even 15w is an overkill.
 
I have a Laney LC-15R, sadly with a HH speaker, but still with amazing cleans, especially when I just had the tubes changed to EHs and JJs, meaty cleans without making your ears bleed even when hit with a clean boost. Pity I havent had the chance the crank it loud in my house, but I'll be bringing it somewhere else tomorrow to cook the new tubes loud. If you want nice tube saturation at home levels, 15 watts is seriously too loud, for high gain distortion you can look at the AX84 Hi-Octane on www.ceriatone.com I think a forumite here got one.. Maybe he can give a review? I'm itching for one too..
 
Hehehe that would be me .The amp is around 7 watts muscial output so its load enough to crank all the way up. Its got a bluesy rock tone at maid gain while crunch on high gain. Uses 3 tubes. This amp was my first DIY effort using a mail order kit from ceriatone.
 
Oh do you use EL84s or 6N1Ps for powertubes? I hear you can get more gain out of 6N1Ps with lower output too... What speakers are you using it with? How much did it cost shipped in total btw? How hard was it to fix up?

Oh to the original thread poster, I think power tube saturation at bedroom levels is rather hard, and it may not be heavy enough for you (assuming you play metal, with a nick like sepultura), so you may want to push it with a pedal.

I personally used a Discontinued Sansamp Tri-OD pedal for heavier distortion at bedroom levels, it can actually do hard rock blended with metal type chugga chugga very nicely. Its for sale btw, $180, excellent cond with box and manual. :D
 
I am using the el 84 by sovtek. price wise i'd say that it cost me around the region of $400. I did most of the soldering myself but had to get a tech replace power transformer cause i wired it wrongly.I am also using a custom cabinet with 2 60w sub woofers as speakers.The cab is wired for 16 ohms.

I am not sure about the 6N1P option cause i have been using the sovtek and EH.Since its a low wattage amp, the tube gets overdriven without ear shattering volume.

Now that i have my own fender deluxe reverb, i am actually thinking of lettin the whole set go.
 
! Temptations temptations.. But the Deluxe Reverb is totally different from this no? Hmm how much are you thinking of letting it go for?
 
p00n said:
! Temptations temptations.. But the Deluxe Reverb is totally different from this no? Hmm how much are you thinking of letting it go for?
if you are interested please pm me. Thanks.
 
If you're going for preamp distortion, I'd say get a clean amp and use a pedal for gain, ... should be fine for low volume-bedroom use.

If you're going for poweramp distortion, use a power attenuator to allow you to work ur power tubes at low volume -bedroom levels.
 
imo wattage should not be a deciding factor in the amp that you are choosing, since you need 10x the wattage to have double the perceived volume. Other factors play a part too. I think a 100w head through a 1x12 would sound softer than a 50w through a 4x12.

So if i were u, id choose an amp with the tonal characteristics i like, wattage would be secondary. And of course, budget matters too!
 
Picked up a nice Laney LC15R yesterday, all the tubes were changed to EH's, and there's a change in the circuitry (including transformers) which converts the amp into a class-A.

When I tested it, I cranked it up loud and this baby sings sweetly. It's good for low volume bedroom practice too, quite a bit better than my transistor amp.

I'm now looking to replace the stock speaker with better ones, and many have recommended the Jensen C10Q. Is this available here in Sg or any other alternatives?
 
Hi

I'm currently on a very low budget.
Anyone here owns a Kustom 12? How is it? Gd?
It's tube right?. Wat difference does it make if only pre-amp is tube ?

Thanx

Union..
 
Union said:
It's tube right?. Wat difference does it make if only pre-amp is tube ?

Tons on difference between a full tube and a pre-amp tube only amp. IMO, the pre-amp tube along the reamaining solid state is pretty redundant to tone improvement. A good full transistor amp sound will sound better anyday. More likely it's just a marketing move to entice people wanting some or any tube in their signal chain. You will be better off with good effect pedals.

You can always buy pedals with tubes inside to have that 'tube' pre-amp sound.

A purist tube amp will be one which uses only tubes, pre & power stage, power rectifier tube, carbon composite resistors and special selected capacitors. Design is of course not compromisable.

Like they say, the strongest part in a chain is the weakest part of the link, cause that's where it will break first.
 
gargamelesp said:
imo wattage should not be a deciding factor in the amp that you are choosing, since you need 10x the wattage to have double the perceived volume. Other factors play a part too. I think a 100w head through a 1x12 would sound softer than a 50w through a 4x12.

So if i were u, id choose an amp with the tonal characteristics i like, wattage would be secondary. And of course, budget matters too!
its a bit different for tube amps for home practise... wattage matters as if u're not using a power attenuator, u might not get a good distortion at normal volumes...

so i'd say go for a 5 to 10 watts amp... the lesser the better but not <5w
 
mikemann said:
Union said:
It's tube right?. Wat difference does it make if only pre-amp is tube ?

Tons on difference between a full tube and a pre-amp tube only amp. IMO, the pre-amp tube along the reamaining solid state is pretty redundant to tone improvement. A good full transistor amp sound will sound better anyday. More likely it's just a marketing move to entice people wanting some or any tube in their signal chain. You will be better off with good effect pedals.

You can always buy pedals with tubes inside to have that 'tube' pre-amp sound.

A purist tube amp will be one which uses only tubes, pre & power stage, power rectifier tube, carbon composite resistors and special selected capacitors. Design is of course not compromisable.

Like they say, the strongest part in a chain is the weakest part of the link, cause that's where it will break first.
is it? i thoguht solid states are very very good at reproducing what the recieve? so lets say u have some pre-amp tubes connected to a solid state amp... the colouring of the sound is changed by the pre-amp, and then reproduced exactly the same way in the solid state right?

imho, full tube amps are: 1) hard and exp. to maintain 2)very lil lil lil diff from good pretube and normal solid state 3) not worth it for home practise cuz u'd be doing hours and hours with it and if u play around with a power attenuator ur tubes will get fried faster then KFC...

but thst just me... every1's richer than me so maybe they'd think otherwise
 
imho, it's not about richer, but knowing what individual wants in their tone which inspire them to play.

Never undermine tube amps or any other gear before trying out and hearing the thing itself...
 
brundisium said:
imho, it's not about richer, but knowing what individual wants in their tone which inspire them to play.

Never undermine tube amps or any other gear before trying out and hearing the thing itself...
+1

hey maybe u could try the behringer TO pedal... its a tube overdrive pedal... dunno whether good or not... but from commets its quite ok la...

behringer GDI also not bad
 
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