Classic 30 preliminary

[Duff]

The Classic 30 came and I plugged it in and adjusted the dials and the reverb started to howl without even a guitar plugged in when turned up, maximum feedback almost squeal at twelve on the reverb knob all volumes and gain turned off.

Turning down the reverb still has a drone and howlish hum and hum at lowest levels with or without guitar plugged in but the reverb tone is awesome and the speaker sounds great and it is a loud amp that has decent clean channel breakup and good overdrive tone.

It came with four JJ power tubes and I'm not sure what preamp tubes.

It is packed up and ready to go back for a replacement or else a different amp but I'm leaning on waiting for one of these to come back into stock later this month because it sounded so good.

Thought about a valveking but dismissed that thought. Still consider the Bugera that Spud is happy with. Maybe even a Fender Blues Jr., but like the Classic 30 and am willing to wait, build quality was superior by far to many of my amps and it doesn't sound anything like my Delta Blues when A B'd. It is much louder, maybe the Delta needs new power tubes. It's over a year old. The reverb is also much stronger on the Classic 30 and the tone is way different with the twelve inch speaker. Great overdrive and driven clean.

Thought you all might want to know.

[marnold***]

I'm obviously biased, but check a Jet City if you get a chance.

[oldguy]

I'm obviously biased, but check a Jet City if you get a chance.

+1 if you want great gain and overdrive but no reverb.
The Bugeras are getting rave reviews on the combos so far, as well as the Jet City combos, which you can get with reverb.
And of course, there's always the Hughes and Kettner Statesman combos.

[ZMAN]

That sucks Duff: It sure doesn't give you a warm and fuzzy feeling about this amp. Supposed to be made in the USA. Not much to be said for quality control. It had to have shown up on the post build inspections. Maybe it was banged around in transit. Planes, Trains and Automobiles can take there toll!

[Spudman***]

I played my Delta all night last night. There is no way I'll be going back to the C30. The Delta roars. If tubes is all you think yours needs why not just get some new ones?

Marnold has the Jet City and he's pretty happy with it and I really like what I've been hearing as well. If you want another lower wattage amph why not check into those? But if you really want to stop your amph purchasing frenzy then look into the Marshall that Robert has or the Engl Steve Morse head. You'll find everything you need from those.

Robert's Marshall Demo

[FrankenFretter***]

I bought a ValveKing Royal 8 some time ago, and have never been happy with the sound. I finally decided to sell it and buy a different small combo for taking with me to guitar lessons. Two people tried it out, and didn't like it for the same reason I didn't, the kazoo-like overdrive. The last person to try it out suggested that it wasn't inherently the amph itself, but something wrong with the electronics, or tube(s). He said that the clips he'd heard of stock Royal 8s didn't sound the way mine does. I wish I'd realized that when I first bought it, so I could've sent it back for replacement. I just thought that it was the way the amph sounded. Now I'm going to try replacing the pre-amp tube, and if that doesn't do anything, I'll replace the power tube.

Sorry you got a lemon, Duff. I hope that whatever you end up with is more to your liking. Even though I don't own one, I'd also vote for the Jet City. I may pick up one of their Pico Valve heads when they're available. They look very promising.

[Duff]

I bought a Royal 8 for my fiance's grandson. I really liked it a lot and got lots of good tones out of it.

I have read that if you put a new speaker in it, I forget which one, an Eminence or Weber or something, but a good one, and a new set of good tubes like JJs it will sound incredible, relatively speaking. Supposedly a major improvement of the sound like a quantum leap. This would not cost much and you might be able to do it yourself except for biasing the tubes if needed, I'd check to see, in the manual, if it's self biasing.

Just played my Delta opened up pretty good on the drive channel, some Gary Moore stuff, and it roared indeed, but the Classic 30 still sounds great. I considered a Valve King 100 watt 212 which is awesome and Loud like I want but it is built not as well as the Classic 30 in my opinion but has a lot of different sounds and 6L6 tubes instead of EL84s.

[FrankenFretter***]

I bought a Royal 8 for my fiance's grandson. I really liked it a lot and got lots of good tones out of it.

I have read that if you put a new speaker in it, I forget which one, an Eminence or Weber or something, but a good one, and a new set of good tubes like JJs it will sound incredible, relatively speaking. Supposedly a major improvement of the sound like a quantum leap. This would not cost much and you might be able to do it yourself except for biasing the tubes if needed, I'd check to see, in the manual, if it's self biasing.

I did swap the speaker for a Weber Mod. No change. The power tube doesn't need biasing, btw.

[markb]

I love the Valveking's clean sound (I've only played the 50w 112 combo). Pure smooth 6L6 tones that absolutely purred with a neck 'bucker. The drive side was a wee bit excessive for my purposes but I could live with one of those.

[wingsdad]

I briefly owned a VK Royal8 and the only reason I didn't keep it was to trade it in toward the purchase of my Tech21 Trademark 60 1x12 that had surprisingly turned up on a trade-in just a month after getting it.

Personally, I like it for the low volume small space amp a 5W, 8" speaker amp should be expected to be useful for, that, and nothing more. That it has a headphone jack is a hint to that limtation. I like how it can be worked to match up efficiently with different gain pickups by picking the correct input jack.