Benefits/Drawbacks of Little Tube Ampfs

[marnold]

I've been thinking about little tube ampfs lately e.g. Epiphone Valve Junior, Blackheart, Peavey Royal 8. The advantages of these amps seem to be the ability to get that tubey goodness at bedroom/recording volume levels. It would seem to me that if you are looking for a blues/classic rock sound, these would be right up your street.

I would think that the disadvantages would be a lack of clean headroom and the inability to get into the hard rock/metal gain territory without help from a pedal. It would seem that the solution would be to get a bigger amph and use a pedal for your metal gain needs. The problem with that is that unless you push the tubes, you don't get the goodness. You basically end up amplifying the pedal which may or may not be a good thing.

I guess at this point it would seem that my AD30VT might be the best bet. I can go clean, bluesy, or metal with a tube to give a touch of that tuby goodness. I suppose if the stuff I like to play wasn't so varied I wouldn't have a quandary. I just wanted to get the input of those who have one of these little beasts.

[tunghaichuan]

That pretty much nails it. The only thing that I would add is that a 5W tube amp is deafening in a small room. You do have to push the tubes to get the amp to give up the goods and that gives you lots of volume.

Some of the metal guys use SS amps anyway, so I wouldn't worry about amplifying a pedal. Depending on your needs, that might be a good thing the tube power section would warm up the pedal some.

tung


I've been thinking about little tube ampfs lately e.g. Epiphone Valve Junior, Blackheart, Peavey Royal 8. The advantages of these amps seem to be the ability to get that tubey goodness at bedroom/recording volume levels. It would seem to me that if you are looking for a blues/classic rock sound, these would be right up your street.

I would think that the disadvantages would be a lack of clean headroom and the inability to get into the hard rock/metal gain territory without help from a pedal. It would seem that the solution would be to get a bigger amph and use a pedal for your metal gain needs. The problem with that is that unless you push the tubes, you don't get the goodness. You basically end up amplifying the pedal which may or may not be a good thing.

I guess at this point it would seem that my AD30VT might be the best bet. I can go clean, bluesy, or metal with a tube to give a touch of that tuby goodness. I suppose if the stuff I like to play wasn't so varied I wouldn't have a quandary. I just wanted to get the input of those who have one of these little beasts.

[Spudman]

What Tung said. :AOK:

[Bloozcat]

All we need now is a little 5w tube amp that does Fender clean with reverb, and we're all set....:D

[piebaldpython]

Hey Marnold,
I've been doing the same thing as you, thinking about tube amps. Tubes are louder than SS or analog and they project a "warmth" that you can't get otherwise. That being said, the amp emulating these days can be awesome (Fender SCXD for example) and then it just breaks down to how much tubey goodness actually means to you. Your AD30VT just has a 12AX7 preamp tube I think. So, that warms things up a bit before the signal gets sent to the SS power section. One reason the Fender SCXD is garnering the rave reviews is because it's tube preamp passes the signal onto the 6v6 power tubes (instead of the SS power section in the AD30VT) and the tubes give the SCXD more power/loudness than an SS power section. Still, the SCXD is still just warming up the DSP from the amp emulating.
DUH, but a tube amp isn't warming up any emulating section at all and boy what a difference that can be. I tested a Peavey VK8 today at lunch. Sounded "Warm", so I took the MV up to 7 and hit a note and it RANG/SANG like crazy. I backed off the volume on the guitar by 2/3 and kept the amp MV on 7. Well, the sound was just so creamy and warm; to die for!!
Gonna test out a Palomino V8 too but my guess is the Peavey will win out by virtue of it's headphone jack.

[tot_Ou_tard]

Hey Marnold,
I've been doing the same thing as you, thinking about tube amps. Tubes are louder than SS or analog and they project a "warmth" that you can't get otherwise. That being said, the amp emulating these days can be awesome (Fender SCXD for example) and then it just breaks down to how much tubey goodness actually means to you. Your AD30VT just has a 12AX7 preamp tube I think. So, that warms things up a bit before the signal gets sent to the SS power section. One reason the Fender SCXD is garnering the rave reviews is because it's tube preamp passes the signal onto the 6v6 power tubes (instead of the SS power section in the AD30VT) and the tubes give the SCXD more power/loudness than an SS power section. Still, the SCXD is still just warming up the DSP from the amp emulating.
DUH, but a tube amp isn't warming up any emulating section at all and boy what a difference that can be. I tested a Peavey VK8 today at lunch. Sounded "Warm", so I took the MV up to 7 and hit a note and it RANG/SANG like crazy. I backed off the volume on the guitar by 2/3 and kept the amp MV on 7. Well, the sound was just so creamy and warm; to die for!!
Gonna test out a Palomino V8 too but my guess is the Peavey will win out by virtue of it's headphone jack.
Almost correct piebald. The amps of the Valvetronix series do have a SS power amp, but they also have a digitally modelled preamp.

So where does the 12AX7 tube go, you ask?

In between the two. Think of it as a 12AX7 power tube (similar to Vood's Little Firefly) that then uses a distortion-free SS power amp to bring it up to volume. That is why it can have the continuous wattage adjustment, you just adjust the volume of the SS power amp.

The primary thing the tube does is give it a tubey feel.

The SCXD probably does a better job with a true power amp tube, but I wouldn't know.

[aeolian]

All we need now is a little 5w tube amp that does Fender clean with reverb, and we're all set....:D

Here's your amp, but it does not come cheap:

http://www.swartamps.com/swart_space_tone_reverb.htm

[piebaldpython]

TOT,
Thanks for the explanation and correction. The SCXD is an awesome amp, emulator or not. It gave me serious GAS. My feeling for myself is that I wanted to have a nice lil tube amp and then I could get all the amp emulating/FX I wanted from a modeller (Pocket Pod/Korg PX4D) or pedals.

[tot_Ou_tard]

Here's your amp, but it does not come cheap:

http://www.swartamps.com/swart_space_tone_reverb.htm

When I had a few minutes to try out some Reverend guitars last week, I plugged those suckers into a Space Tone Reverb.

Sweet indeed. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to really get to know it.

[Jimi75]

There is always pros and contras. I am myself a guy who plays lots of Metal.
So I am happy about having my Line6 equipment that does a good job at any volume level.

The deal about my 5w Fender Champion 600 is that it delivers a very warm and direct sound. There is nothing like tubesound and the feeling is totally different.

I see this as a big advantage because through this new feel you play differently and explore other ground. The blues sounds are more realistic to me. The disadvantage is that you can not dial in a bag full of sounds. I do not put pedals in front of the amp as I like it pure.

Check out some of the above mentioned amps in a good shop. It is hard to describe in words how the playing feels through one of these little monsters. It's great believe me and for the price/quality relation offered you should definitley get one.

One more point - I can not turn my amp up to 12 at home, because it is too loud especially when the kids are asleep, but still on 4-5 I am very satisfied with the sound. Haven't had so much fun playing in a long time.

I am already a 5w addict and don't want to miss my Fender amph.

Jimi
:)

[Bloozcat]

Here's your amp, but it does not come cheap:

http://www.swartamps.com/swart_space_tone_reverb.htm

That's a nice looking amp, aeolian. But I'm thinking of something like my Band-Master clean, only in a 5 watt amp and at a Blackheart price (or even a little higher). That Band-Master can go to ear splitting volumes and still maintain a beautiful, warm, power tube clean.

Who knows, maybe Blackheart will get around to building one someday...

[TS808]

For me, volume is always an issue since I live in a townhouse. I don't want to have neighbors complaining all the time. The amp that keep going back to for alot of home playing the Vox AD50VT 212. It sounds good at all volume levels and I like the versatility. It seems to take pedals well too.

[Radioboy950]

Here's your amp, but it does not come cheap:

http://www.swartamps.com/swart_space_tone_reverb.htm

Ouch...the gas pains. At the very bottom of the page, I just checked out the link to the sound clips on this 5W monster. The Les Paul (and the player, of course) sounds fantastic!

This would be one fine studio/recording amp.

This is what I love/hate about this place. You guys keep finding me all kinds of stuff I've never heard of.

[Radioboy950]

OK...I'll throw one more out there for consideration in the low watt-BIG ballz category.
How bout the new Venus 3?
18/7 watt combo, 6V6s.
I really dig it most on the white finish.
http://rivera.com/products/venus/venus3.php
And here's what it sounds like :
kXYyG-l6yss

[marnold]

Pretty cool, but I suppose for US$1400, it had better be :)