AMPS

hey everyone,
I am lookin to get a new amp soon. I don't want anything too big since I am still just playin in my bedroom. My price range is bewtween 100-150 dollars, and I am lookin for the best sound. I just need to know maybe the best brand, size, special info or whatever. thanks everyone

Gigging bands are moving away from the 'wall of amplifiers' approach. A small (5-15 Watts) all-tube amp with a DI port, and/or a mic in front of the speaker, has been a common studio rig since forever, but this setup is making its way onto more and more club stages.

You can lug this rig around from gig to gig without bustin' yer arse, or praying for the day you can afford a roadie!

You can get the same sound on stage that you worked so hard on in practice. You can drive the power stage of the amp into the 'sweet spot' without melting the first four rows of your audience. :eek: :eek:

Your sound man can finally balance the FOH monitors with the house sound so that :D everybody :D can hear clearly.

And with a lot of clubs crowding the maximum number of tables into the room by reducing the stage area, you just can't strut your stuff in front of a half-dozen 4x12 cabs anymore! (as if!)

If you're playing the Dome, or Wembley, you're in a position to rent enough gear for the occasion to fill several trucks. The rest of us have smaller-scale scenes to make.

I have an Ampeg VT-22 2x12 combo that weighs 100 pounds before I stuff all kinds of cords, stompboxes and such into the cab. The sound stays clean right up to the point where I need a 20 foot jack-cord to keep from hurting myself!

It makes for gorgeous, ballsy, distortion in the studio, but its just stupid loud in a club. I usually settle for 'front-end' distortion generated by my Peavey Rock Master preamp.

I'm in the planning stages of designing a single-tube Class A power amp combo. Would you believe 2x8? Output will be about 5 or 6 Watts. (For Blues, I expect to spend more time enjoying the 'sweet spot' than playing clean'n'dry). It will have a small equipment rack for my preamp, and whatever.

Check some of the articles posted at: http://www.amptone.com/
and take some time to think clearly about it. I'm fired-up about this topic, so I'll be posting again, for sure. If you have questions, please ask.

I think you've got to keep plugging this too, maybe if everybody starts talking about it a lot more companies will realise how good it would be to have low watt amps. After seeing your last post about this, my 80 watt marshall just makes me think of what I could be sounding like with a smaller amp.

Thanks, Bardsley. I keep thinking that the money I've spent on a pair of 100-lb Ampegs would have paid for a small tube amp that I could use anywhere, plus a massive transistor P.A. amp!

I understand that it will take a while to convince people that it's worthwhile to spend almost the same money for a 5 Watt amp as a 60 Watt head. The front-end preamp would cost the same, and the lower-power components are almost as expensive as the big stuff, especially in small quantities.

I've almost got all of the parts for my home-made 5-Watt amp, (based on a single 6AQ5A or 6V6), and I've spent about $200 CDN. If I added a reasonable fee for my time to design and build the "WeeBeastie", it would be about $500CDN for a one-of custom 5-Watt power amp. A manufacturer would be able to bring it down to about $250 or $300, plus the preamp.

A fella's gotta believe before he'll be willing to part with that kind of cash. Obviously, I believe.

'Anyone else?

I'd actually like to hear that 5 watt amp or any other that you'd recommend. So far all the lower wattage amps that I've tried haven't had the tone that I was looking for. Either it has great distortion and sustain w/o any mids or it has great mids w/o distortion or sustain. It's basically an endless search for me. For the bands and drummers I jam with, I really need to crank my amp.

my next poweramp will probably be a Sunn 1200s... the 1200 stands for "1,200 Watts." But I'm a bass player, so I'm allowed to do that stuff. On a more practical note, it has a kick ass compressor built in, so it does do the "almost quiet" thing.

PLEASE take the time to poke around on this site for a while:

http://www.amptone.com/

Maybe if you read the same story from enough different people, it will start to sink in. There's a review of a studio amp that will use one or two of just about any kind of tube(s), and sounds really good.

That particular amp is meant for use by engineers, in a studio, but there are articles on that site about other designs that would be more suitable for stage use. I'm in the (slow) process of putting together a single-tube power amp to be driven by my Peavey Rock Master preamp.

I chose the 6AQ5A because its a miniature (the same size as a 12AX7A preamp tube), version of the 6V6 used in the original Fender Champions. The specs on the two tubes are nearly identical, so I can change to a 6V6 later, if it turns out that there is a difference in the sound. I also wanted a 5-Watt output so that it would be loud enough to get real acoustic feedback from my guitar. The Fender Champ has long been a popular choice for studio recording, either mic'ed or running DI tapped off the output. I've got a couple of old 12" speakers from a junked film projector that I might use instead of buying a pair of 8-inchers.

Something that really caught my attention was the fact that you have to cut the power to the speakers by a factor of [u]ten[/u] to reduce the apparent volume by [u]half[/u]!

That means a [u]5 Watt amp[/u] will produce [u]half[/u] of the sound pressure level of a [u]50 Watt amp[/u] driving the [u]same speakers[/u]! In my line of work, I should have realized that, but frankly I never thought about it. I now have two big Ampeg combo amps, and a pair of 4x10 cabs, that I can't really use unless I get a gig at a stadium! (O Yeah, that'll happen!) :rolleyes:

heres the setup-
a 15w ibanez practice amp (trust me, they get a good sound
regardless of how small they are). Plug that into a 3000w peavey power amp. its simple but it gets as loud as you could ever want.

I know it's time for a band practice when my Crate practice amp starts to sound good.

I think there's a point I haven't gotten across, here. I'm not talking about some chintzy, low-buck 'practice amp'.

The idea is to get away from the concept of 'a gig amp' vs 'a practice amp'.

I'm talking about a high-quality amp that delivers the sound you want, without blowing the windows out of the venu. We need to have equipment that will consistently produce the same tone [u]anywhere[/u] we play.

You shouldn't have to destroy your hearing, to get good sound. I can't imagine anything more tragic than a deaf musician. Hands up, all you guys who have enough skill at writing sheet music to pull off 'a Beethoven'??

Aargh, my browser is having abad word wrap day.
Anyway, the other point is that a 15w amp is still way too loud. The amps that Lordathestrings is talking about (I believe) are more in the 5w category, or even less. Certainly not a practice amp, because if you look at amptone they cost every bit as much as a large amp; instead, an amp that you can crank to get that saturated tube tone, no matter what the circumstances - even in crowded flats. This then becomes a great studio amp, because you don't have to worry about cranking it heaps to get a good sound, and at a gig can be easily miked to the PA, thus enabling it to better fit into the mix. The only time an amp like this doesn't work is in a band practice/small club type setup, and then still the signal can just be sent to a big set of speakers. To get a great tube sound out of a 15watter you still need to crank it to a point that is beyond an acceptable level in most practice environments, it needs to be a lot quieter.

That high-end studio amp from London Power can be rolled back to the [u]micro[/u]watt level!

BadHorsie, this is a bit like negotiating arms reduction among a bunch of combatants. If all of the band members are using small amps, there's less hassle about drowning each other out. And the drum kit doesn't get drowned out, meaning you don't have to mic them. (Your sound man will be eternally grateful!)

Ok, I understand what you're saying now. But my question still remains. What type low wattage amps can get me that warm, full sound that I'm striving for? And will one 12" speaker really give me an intense tone?

Originally posted by mc9mm
I agree.
I´ve got a 15w marshall which I´ve had since 1995.
The the other day I bought a Ibanez Starfiels 2*12" 150w
all tube. Damn...
I thought it was a pretty nice sound in my marshall, but when I first tried the Ibanez I was in love.
And the best thing was it was actually cheaper than
my marshall was 6 years ago.
My marshall however had a really nice dist.
but just use a dist.pedal and everythings nice again.
But its so much more massive!!!!
I thought I was going to have a heart-attack when I tried it for the first time, and I just turn the volume up to like 1/2 of the capacity!
Tube rules!
And it also works fine in the bedroom.

As you can see mc9mm I deleted your post because I don't like scrolling just to read one post. Do me and everyone else here a favor and change your signature. Thanks.

This is where push comes to shove!

I will cheerfully admit that I, too have some reservations about some of the claims made on the amptone site (you did read them, didn't you?), concerning the sound quality of an amp that can roll back the power of a 6L6 to a few milliwatts.

On the other hand, a lot of my favourite blues recordings were made with a mic'ed Fender Champ. (I really need for 'T-Bone Walker or Buddy Guy to step in here about now). True, a 5 Watt amp driven into power-tube saturation is going to be much too loud to play in an apartment, but it would actually be about right for a small club. And I know its got the sound I want.

The volume level is described as being about the same as a trumpet. I can relate to that; I used to play trumpet in several bands. You would [u]not[/u] want to live next door to someone who played a trumpet in their apartment at :eek: 3:00 AM!! But then, a 100 Watt amp could make anyone within a block-and-a-half unhappy.

I'm taking a bit of a chance by starting out with a 6AQ5A instead of a full-size 6V6, but then the specs are nearly identical. I'm betting the only difference is that some early amp maker used a 6V6 for same reason I'm using a 6AQ5A. It was [u]there![/u]

Im sorry, but I just found out how to remove the signature.
It wont happen again my Lord...
Humble regards MC.