Home Practice Amp

[Instant Dan]

I use a Orange micro crush with the head phones out as the walls in my apartment are pretty thin. When no one is around (Saturday afternoon) then it's time to crank the Epiphone Valve Jr. combo.

[warwick.hoy]

Pignose G40V has 3 eq, master volume, and presence. 40 watts of power to with 8 and 4 ohm outs. around 300 or less. Tubed and basically a bassman circuit. it's my go to small amp for 3am playing. Can get really loud, lots of head room because of the master volume, and takes pedals really well. Breaks up with a really thick warm sound when pushed with the volume. Srsly, check it out.

So I wound up picking up one of these Pignose G40Vs for at home use. Not too thrilled on the tubes,...but I've got an old Hammond organ sitting in my garage that I'm going to poach the Mullards from. I think I can at least use the Preamp Tubes (not sure if they are AX's,AT's or AU's) but I don't know if the poweramp tubes are 6l6s or something else. It sounds good but I think it could sound better.

Have to do some research on BIASing too.

I did see a mod to include a standby switch,...but it has a slow warm up cycle when powering up,...so I don't think it's a necessary mod.

May also upgrade the speaker.

Picked it up in used but excellent condition for $150

Can do low volume pretty well and I love how my Supercollider sounds through it. Seems to handle bottom end really well.

I originally wanted to get two of them and turn one into a bass amp for home use,...but I think I'll just pick up a Single 12 bass cab from Avatar and pair it up with that for bass.

[Ilikewater]

Nice, I'm always surprised how much air it can move on the low end. That little 10" kicks it out. The tubes in mine right now are EL86s I think...and I have a delta demon in there. It can get pretty dirty, I like running it dirty with the LAL88 going into it and my Bari driving it all. Plus, all that power with such a small light footprint is pretty rare on the cheaps. Getting an extension cab really does make a difference.

[warwick.hoy]

Here she is on the bench,...replacing the stock Chinese made tubes with some old Dutch Phillips (Amperex) 12ax7s that I pilfered from a disused and malfunctioning Hammond Organ I inherited.









And to hear how it sounds (a 4 track set with compare and contrast Chinese made and Dutch Phillips tubes please forgive my out of tune-ness [attempting drop B],...needs some better tuners on my guitar me thinks).

[soundcloud]http://soundcloud.com/effectsjunkie/sets/pignose-re-tube[/soundcloud]

I think there is a bit sweeter top end with the old Dutch tubes in there.

and to hear how much warmer the Pignose sounds in comparison to a Fender Frontman 15r with the same guitar (albeit in Eb [4 track set]).

[soundcloud]http://soundcloud.com/effectsjunkie/sets/tele-deluxe-thru-solid-state[/soundcloud]

Also note that I'm playing both these amps at roughly the same volume and it's right around what I would consider a respectful volume for a house. Would I piss of some neighbor if I lived in an apartment? Maybe. Would wake my wife up if I tried to get in an early morning practice sesh in my basement? Probably; but neither of these amps are cranked when I'm playing and the Pignose can be turned down and still sound good where as the Frontman goes from barely audible to to loud and harsh too soon on the dial.