Recommend some High Gain Low Wattage Tube Amp

S

ShreddingZ

New member
Dear all soft users,
I'm currently keen to get a HIGH GAIN tube amp that has low wattage that can be cranked at home without overly pissing my neighbours off. I'm keen to get a head and a 2x12 Cabinet to go along with it.
Budget would be:
$1000 or less for head
$500 or more for the cab.
As long as budget dont exceed 1.5k.
Keen on the american voicing type amps.

Gear:
I'm using an ESP Eclipse with EMGs.
Various pedals i.e. DD-6,CE-2 Mark Tremonti Power Wah, Noise Gate, Ge-7, Goose boosty etc....

A must have for the amp is a footswitch to toggle between channels.

I play and cover bands such as:
1. BFMV
2. Black Veil Brides
3. Escape The Fate
4. Falling In Reverse
5. Children of Bodom
6. Devil Wears Prada
7. Bring me the Horizon
etc......

Looking for some advise.
 
Your best bet would be the blackstar Ht5 ,you don't have to crank it to get a good tone and it sounds great at bedroom levels. The only drawback is that the gain of the ht5 alone might not be enough to get you a good high gain tone. But that can be easily solved by running an overdrive pedal in front like the maxon od808 or any other tubescreamer pedals.:p

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aynUeOnDl60
 
Last edited:
The Egnater Rebel 20 would be a good way to go as well. Any high-gain amp with a master volume control is what you should be looking for. As for your 2X12, you could order a custom-made Lopo cab from Ebenex, but I reckon you're gonna have a tough time finding good speakers to squeeze into your budget. Unless you don't mind the two 1X12 cabs that come with the Blackstar HT-5RS Mini Stack that shredofaster recommended.
 
Check out the Jet City JCA50h! Based on the Soldano Atomic 16 if I'm not wrong, can't really remb. I know the JCA20h is going for $290, the JCA100H is going for $650, so i'm guessing it'll be 400+ Great amp!!
 
Cos it does have enough gain for good high gain tone! Shit now I'm gassing for the JCA50H after recommending it. It sounds insane!
 
haha. I think you misunderstand me. The blackstar ht5 does have decent amounts of gain which is good for mid gain tones for playing classic rock stuff and early metallica stuff. However the gain alone is not enough to give a tight saturated tone of the bands the ts is into. The overdrive pedal is just used to tighten the low end and it realy improves the tone alot! you should try it..
 
shredofaster said:
haha. I think you misunderstand me. The blackstar ht5 does have decent amounts of gain which is good for mid gain tones for playing classic rock stuff and early metallica stuff. However the gain alone is not enough to give a tight saturated tone of the bands the ts is into. The overdrive pedal is just used to tighten the low end and it realy improves the tone alot! you should try it..
Click to expand...

'Mild gain' tone.. That's enough for most genres of metal, me thinks.
 
haha i get fooled into checking my ht-5 everytime somebody says that. but just to be doubly sure, i did check again. i don't listen to the bands stated by ts regularly, but i went to youtube to search for some stuff and my ht-5 was able to get a more saturated gain at 10 compared to these guitar tracks in the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xccC0wKpHh4

i compared it with live tones because at live venues, guitarists from metal bands are reduced to one amp head whereas in albums, riffs are most probably double / triple / quad tracked. the distortion of one amp cannot match the tone you hear from 2 to 4 very well polished and EQ'ed guitar tracks, even with more distortion. drive pedals and clean boosters will definitely make it more monster, but by itself, should be able to handle most of those when drive is around 8 to 10. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1K7VqvYfI0

and regarding the feardse vid that was just posted up there. from his previous videos that i've watched before, i'm pretty sure you are hearing at least 4 guitar tracks, 2 panned on each side. to hear what just one of them sound like, go to 1:23. my ht-5 is able to get that level of distortion without the maxon, so i'm guessing he did not max his gain on the amp.


@ShreddingZ: i'm having a lot of fun with low end on my closed back 4×12 blackheart eminence cab. the sound is pretty huge with some delay and reverb in the effects loop. if you're not into 4×12's, the two 1×12's that comes with the mini stack should be great too.

apart from blackstar, i've heard good stuff about jet city's JCA22H. i'm guessing from the gain stage / schematics, it should be have more drive than the ht-5 and it should also feel closer to a real classic tube amp than the ht-5.

on a side note, a 20 watt amp should be 1.5 times louder than a 5 watt amp.
 
MadWerewolfBoy said:
haha i get fooled into checking my ht-5 everytime somebody says that. but just to be doubly sure, i did check again. i don't listen to the bands stated by ts regularly, but i went to youtube to search for some stuff and my ht-5 was able to get a more saturated gain at 10 compared to these guitar tracks in the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xccC0wKpHh4

i compared it with live tones because at live venues, guitarists from metal bands are reduced to one amp head whereas in albums, riffs are most probably double / triple / quad tracked. the distortion of one amp cannot match the tone you hear from 2 to 4 very well polished and EQ'ed guitar tracks, even with more distortion. drive pedals and clean boosters will definitely make it more monster, but by itself, should be able to handle most of those when drive is around 8 to 10. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1K7VqvYfI0

and regarding the feardse vid that was just posted up there. from his previous videos that i've watched before, i'm pretty sure you are hearing at least 4 guitar tracks, 2 panned on each side. to hear what just one of them sound like, go to 1:23. my ht-5 is able to get that level of distortion without the maxon, so i'm guessing he did not max his gain on the amp.


@ShreddingZ: i'm having a lot of fun with low end on my closed back 4×12 blackheart eminence cab. the sound is pretty huge with some delay and reverb in the effects loop. if you're not into 4×12's, the two 1×12's that comes with the mini stack should be great too.

apart from blackstar, i've heard good stuff about jet city's JCA22H. i'm guessing from the gain stage / schematics, it should be have more drive than the ht-5 and it should also feel closer to a real classic tube amp than the ht-5.

on a side note, a 20 watt amp should be 1.5 times louder than a 5 watt amp.
Click to expand...

Thanks for bothering to reply me with such a long suggestion!
I'm quite keen on the JCA22h! Looks crazy for the price. Just one question, what soldano head does the overdrive channel model after? Anyone tried it before?
 
Unless you're staying in a private estate, cranking your amp and sounding good and with a 2x12 cabinet, is almost IMPOSSIBLE...Provided you're happy with the overly compressed tone, plus master volume knob less than a hair up.
 
This one models after the Soldano Atomic 16 or something, if I'm not wrong. I'm going to go reserve a JCA50H for myself this weekend. haha.
 
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