Great cheap 5-15 watt rocking amps

[Cary Chilton]

I picked up a Valve Junior and had it modded by Rockstah Amps and it does the JCM800 while sounding a little tweedish.

I just the new Vox Night Train and the Blackstar HT-5. Both seem like great amps for different sounds.

Does anyone have any experience with the Blackstar or Vox? I don't if I would buy both, but I am interested which records better. I have heard some youtube clips, the vox distorted clips were wildly different ( recording tech and room sounds) but the BlackStar seemed pretty consistent. The Vox's gain sounded very middy and bloated when at full saturation and the Blackstar seemed to have a lot of low mids, tight bass, but graininess to it's sound. That's all I could pick out from the youtube clips. Anyone?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMCiS5rOcF0&feature=related


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQjADxog0Es&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OqCOPL2_GU - professionally done

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxL04_EKUdI&feature=channel - professionally done

tiny terror

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_VfqiPeTIU&feature=channel - professionally done

Another one: the Blackheart
all clips I have heard sound different, this one was the most metal sounding, most of the others sound like an older Traynor type amp sound

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltVNJvW1NgU&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pB5hV21Y00&feature=related


enjoy


I think the vox and the blackstar are still the best based on youtube's clips. I am interested to see your feedback and comments

[otek]

Youtube clips are notoriously deceptive, not just because of the crappy sound quality but also because of the variety of bad recording methods employed.

A shining beacon of light was a few weeks ago when I saw a guy demoing an Orange Rockerverb miked with a U-67. :D

But I digress.....

I have a hard time believing you wouldn't be very satisfied with the AC-4. I haven't recorded one yet (not for another 2 weeks) but it sound great in real life, and logically so it should when recorded.

Other than that....

How far can you stretch budget-wise? A very nice "rockier" amp is the Egnater Rebel-20, which bundled with a matching 1x12" cabinet, costs about €750 up here.

http://images.thomann.de/pics/prod/238643.jpg

This might IMO give you the "missing link" between the Valve Junior and your larger amps.

There's also the new Egnater Tweaker combo (which I haven't tried yet so handle with a grain of salt), which features a Celestion G12H-30, 6V6 tubes and a bunch of gain/voicing switches for about €600. A head/cabinet bundle costs about €700.

http://images1.thomann.de/pics/bdb/243869/2337598_800.jpg


otek

[Tim Armstrong]

The most glorious guitar noise I ever created happened with a '73 Gretsch Country Gentleman into a '76 Fender Champ that I ran into a closed-back 4-ohm 2x12 Carvin cab loaded with their "British" speakers. I dimed the amp and controlled my volume from the guitar, and it was like a living thing! Surprisingly loud, too, we were playing a wedding gig (full band, the other guitarist was playing through both a real '66 Deluxe Reverb and a 90s Korg-reissue Vox AC15, and our keyboard player was playing through a big ol' wooden Leslie cab). I actually had to pull back a little bit!

Tim

[Damage, Inc.]

Youtube clips are notoriously deceptive, not just because of the crappy sound quality but also because of the variety of bad recording methods employed.
otek

+100...also, I don't believe I have ever found sound clips useful in choosing an amp, other than perhaps the broad strokes, e.g., I could gather from clips that I wouldn't be able to get the Hetfield scoop from a Twin. I have to play it and find out how it feels when I play through it, which is at least as important as the tone. If I'm fighting the amp, it won't work for me, period.

You don't mention the type of tone you're looking for, but I really liked both the THD Univalve and Orange Tiny Terror, esp. with a Tube Screamer in front. They both sound great with all the knobs on ten, and the THD has a hotplate built in if it's too loud for you.

[John Eppstein]

Has anybody checked out the new Marshall Class 5 yet? They just got them in at Banjo Center and my GC Pro guy says he can let me have one for $380 out the door. I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but I was thinking I might get one for a birthday present to myself.... I already have a Valve Junior and a Fender Pro Jr..........

[MKZ]

Has anybody checked out the new Marshall Class 5 yet? They just got them in at Banjo Center and my GC Pro guy says he can let me have one for $380 out the door. I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but I was thinking I might get one for a birthday present to myself.... I already have a Valve Junior and a Fender Pro Jr..........

I'm interested in this one as well... Though I'm not sure I really need it....

Here's some monkey trying it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtFRmlPw3cY


I have tried the Blackstar 5 Watt with the continuous brit/american knob thing.

I found it very clean myself, almost too "clinical". Probably good for some metal shit. Couldn't really get an overdrive sound from it that I would have found useful. The direct outs were surprisingly useable in one context that I tried them in.

[Cary Chilton]

I found it very clean myself, almost too "clinical". Probably good for some metal shit. Couldn't really get an overdrive sound from it that I would have found useful. The direct outs were surprisingly useable in one context that I tried them in.

As Otek said, youtube clips suck arse and are too difficult most times to discern what is it what, but I will I had the impression on about 2-3 youtube clips -that the BlackStar Ht-5 sounded a little sterile.

Otek the Egnator looks cool! Is that a modular amp? I should google it as I am typing but fuck it I am lazy...
I want to hear a clip of Zoesch's Hex amp that he allegedly bought last year or so...

[Cary Chilton]

This is a youtube clip, but interesting and well done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lrnx1fhIVKc

[Dogbreath]

I picked up a Valve Jr head awhile back and thought it sounded a bit too "wooly". Kinda muddy. I found a "mod" which basically came down to clipping a wire to a ....resistor? Maybe? To the tone circuit. Just a clipping of one wire.
Anyway it brightened it up. I pondered putting a rheostat inline to act as the tone knob.

I run this thru my home made 2X12 cab with a couple greenbacks, with my trusty Vox ToneLab SE. This head takes pedals pretty well so I opted to not try an inline tone rheostat.

If anyone's interested, I can find the youtube clip of which one or I can just pull the back off mine and get ya the number and location of which one to cut.
:Coolio:

[otek]

Otek the Egnator looks cool! Is that a modular amp? I should google it as I am typing but fuck it I am lazy...

Egnaters Modular series (the MOD-50 and MOD-100 heads and the M4 preamp) are the only modular Egnater products.

The "budget" lines (Tourmaster, Rebel, Renegade and the Tweaker amp) all have fixed preamp sections.

Both the Rebel and Tweaker do have a lot of flexibility for their formats though - The latter, for example, has three selectable EQ voicings, Hi/Lo gain modes, Tight/Bright and Modern/Vintage switches. Not bad for a €425 amp if you ask me.

Like I said, I have NOT personally tested or recorded the Tweaker yet, so I cannot attest to its sound quality, but if it's anything like the other Egnater amps, it's a pretty damn good deal.


otek

[blackieC]

On my amp ranch I have a Marshall Studio 15. Depending on who you talk to, it pumps out 15 to 20 watts RMS. To the best of my knowledge it is the only Marshall ever to use 6V6 power tubes. It will never sound like the big boys all lit up, but on it's good days it sounds like a really pissed off Fender Deluxe.

http://www.amptone.com/marshallstudio15.htm

[Aviv]

The tourmaster blows me away everytime i plug in, it always feels fresh and exciting and is fantastic to record with, got real balls. compared it in the shop with mesa dual rec, mark 4 and 5, orange rocker 30 and 100 and marshall jvm and 800. dont know, it had what i was looking for in all four channels! tasty!

[jdier]

I love this youtube demo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iT_yY-4V78

57 on the grill
no effects pedals
and a kid young enough that you wouldn't imagine he knew the songs he's playing

[jdier]

He does another great one here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF1TzfNSvJM&feature=channel

[otek]

I love this youtube demo.

I wish he'd tuned his guitar though. :lol:


otek

[moaus]

used the 20 watt eggnater rebel when i was helping out a mates band and wanted to take a couple of guitars so i couldn't take my marshall head on the flight - weight restrictions

took the eggnater rebel 20 watt as CARRY ON LUGGAGE

did the job fucking brilliantly - sounded GREAT

i am thinkin of replacing my peavey classic 50 with an eggnater rebel 20

FYI - i run two amps - i run a JCM800 2203 into a marshall 4x12 and simultaneously run into a peavey classic 50 with a 4x10 box - and the marshall is 60 - 70% of the sound with the peavey filling in some gaps in the lower mids etc

anyways the eggnator = amazing

[otek]

eggnater

It's Egnater, from Bruce Egnater, the amp builder.

Egg-nater sounds like some Yuletide Eggnog spiked 50/50 with 190 proof Everclear. :lol:


otek

[moaus]

It's Egnater, from Bruce Egnater, the amp builder.

Egg-nater sounds like some Yuletide Eggnog spiked 50/50 with 190 proof Everclear. :lol:


otek



haha true

either way - amp does rule

[Saculus]

I picked up the Blackstar HT-5 and it rocks in a studio setting. Everyone is like 5 watts? why did you buy that? Just put all the knobs at noon and they go fuck that is bad ass. It also has a contour knob like the rebel. $175 on craigsalist wasn't bad either. I got a Ampeg V-502 for $250 but it needs some serious work. Good tones by both.

For metal its great. For rock you might be left wanting more.

[Mo Facta]

I'm still backing the Orange Dual Terror. And not just for the sound.

It's carry-on luggage, man!

It's also two channels and it won't break the bank.

Anyhoo, what's cool about it is that at full power it's 30 watts supplied by 4 EL84's so it can be as loud as you want and powers a 4x12 just fine. What's even cooler is that you can change to half power (15W) supplied by all four tubes via the front "half/full" toggle switch, or you can opt to turn two tubes off via a rear toggle switch, also accomplishing 15W. FURTHERMORE, in two-tube mode you can half the power again to supply 7W.

Turn it to 11 and you won't even wake the neighbors.

What I like about it is that saturation and tonal variety is accomplished not by fancy knob twisting trickery (there are only simple "tone" knobs) but by altering the power characteristics of the amp. Also, channel 2 - the "Tiny Terror" channel (channel 1 is the "Fat" channel) - does not necessarily have to be the "distortion" channel. Both channels can supply HUGE amounts of gain, albeit with different voicings, which just offers more tonal variety for different gigs. The clean tone is also sparkly and chimey.

Cheers :)

[eagan]

Thread resurrection! It lives!

A couple of things struck me here.

One is the already mentioned point; I, too, am always kind of puzzled and amused by the idea that anybody ever takes a YouTube clip as any kind of useful reference for anything either sonic or visual.

But the other thing is the kind of common conception, or misconception, about "small amps" in general. There's this really common silly idea among people who live in the world o' electric guitaristas of the Big Guitar Noise Rocken Doodz variety that if you're playing through something less than a minimum of 50 watts or something, you're just not going to get a Manly Man kind of suitably ROCKING sound. Dude.

Yet the fact remains, and is easily demonstrated, that a "little" amp of anywhere from 5 to 20 watts or so, when wound up to its limits and straining at the seams, gets really pretty damned loud if you're anywhere near it, and if you're recording, said "little" amp can potentially be as good as anything in generating a recorded sound that can sound like The Guitar That Devoured Vast Continental Areas.

You don't need to be able to vaporize small animals at 50 feet.


JLE

[otek]

a "little" amp of anywhere from 5 to 20 watts or so, when wound up to its limits and straining at the seams, gets really pretty damned loud if you're anywhere near it.

I find it is as always, a matter of character.

Something like a Fender Deluxe, or any other comparably small amp, will get plenty loud - the main thing that differs is the amount of clean gain you get. Sometimes you want the amp to be loud enough to get good cabinet involvement, without going into distortion. This takes more wattage.

There is also the added sense of weight you get for distortion sounds with a bigger amp. For heavy chug-style guitar, for example, I find that big amps with solid-state rectifiers often do better than small ones. You get a certain amount of low-end tightness and control.



otek

[Pimp-X]

I agree with Otek. The last thing any guitarist wants is to be saggy in the low end.

[eagan]

I find it is as always, a matter of character.

Something like a Fender Deluxe, or any other comparably small amp, will get plenty loud - the main thing that differs is the amount of clean gain you get. Sometimes you want the amp to be loud enough to get good cabinet involvement, without going into distortion. This takes more wattage.


Sure. Definitely.

I figured it was kind of obviously implied in what I was talking about, given the thread title (about "rocking" amps), that we're talking about going for something ranging from fairly crunchy to full-on howl. If you want to be able to get any kind of substantial volume and keep it clean, yeah, for sure, you need something more robust than the range we're talking about.


JLE

[John Eppstein]

As I've mentioned previously, I really like my little Marshall Class 5. Great little amp........

[otek]

I figured it was kind of obviously implied in what I was talking about, given the thread title (about "rocking" amps), that we're talking about going for something ranging from fairly crunchy to full-on howl.

I was. Also.

In fact I am talking about exactly that in the second half of my post (which you didn't quote). :D

Even for distorted sounds, added wattage brings something - so does solid-state rectification. An added solidity in the low end, a measure of tightness and control. And it actually goes for lower levels, too, even though I always strive to get proper cabinet involvement.


otek

[Buzzgrowl]

I played a Blackstar HT-5 combo at a shop today and it's seriously very nice and very usable. Thinking of getting one myself.

Cheers, - Buzzgrowl