Low wattage clean amp questions?

[t-rey]

I play at home at absurdly reasonable volumes the majority of the time (like I can still hear myself singing while playing). Of course I do get to crank my amps occasionally, which is always nice but doesn't account for most of my playing time.

I've been wanting a clean amp to hit with fuzz since (for better or worse) I really like my little Blackstar and it's dirt. I am looking to have an a/b/y rig that will mostly be utilized to have boosted amp dirt on one side and fuzzed out heaviness on the other for mah stoner rock jamz. The top contenders are Ampeg GVT15h, Fender Superchamp x2 head, or VHT Special 6 head.

My question is this - since I play pretty quietly most of the time, would a hybrid amp like the Fender (6v6 power section and ss front end) be a bad choice? It's about half the cost of the Ampeg (which is what I would really like) which makes it really appealing if I couldn't hear/feel much difference at lower volumes.

[excane]

First question (which will determine my suggestions).... what's your budget?

[univalve]

If you don't mind getting a separate cab, i really love the jetcity picovalve. You can get into slight crunchy part at bedroom levels on the low wattage setting. They are unter 200 EUR right now over here, so should be even a bit cheaper in the US.

[t-rey]

First question (which will determine my suggestions).... what's your budget?

Less than $600. Can't really justify spending a ton of money on it since it will be used for home - just need it to have good clean toanz at low levels (shouting volume and below) and take pedals well.

[skullservant]

Epi Valve Junior has been my go-to bedroom amp for years now. The 1x10 combo is portable, quiet when it needs to be, screams with ease, and can drive a larger cabinet and actually hold its own. Even better in stereo

[huggernaut]

This is like my biggest conundrum ever. I TOTALLY loved the Ampeg GVT 15.

I got a chance to pick up a silverface Princeton and really like that too, but it's still just too damn loud. Always have to keep it on 1.25 on the volume knob and nothing sounds that great. It's troubling me lately. Thinking of selling it off to grab the Ampeg--seemed like it was a little more low volume friendly.

[t-rey]

Yeah...the Ampeg seems to be an ideal solution since I've yet to see anything bad about them. I don't know why I do this to myself, especially when my gear fund is severely lacking...

[Achtane]

Epi Valve Junior has been my go-to bedroom amp for years now. The 1x10 combo is portable, quiet when it needs to be, screams with ease, and can drive a larger cabinet and actually hold its own. Even better in stereo

Valve Junior really is awesome. I got the super barebones head (all the components in the metal chassis, no wooden enclosure or anything) for $65 and have been loving it through an equally cheap flea market 2x10. For some reason it feels like smacking it with a boost raises the volume without affecting the headroom too much, but the gain increases really quickly with the amp's volume control. Still, it's not sparkling clean so
Running guitar through it and my bass setup in stereo destroys...you just can't turn the bass amp up too much or the Jr. can't keep up.

[skullservant]

Yeah, I've been running my Valve Junior into my Verellen 1x12 and it's just amazing. When I do stereo stuff I break out the un-modded, stock Valve Junior combo to go with it.

There is also a mod, the JP-1 mod, that is simply cutting a jumper. It cleans up the amp a bit, decreases the hair as you move the volume knob up, but with a very slight volume decrease (which might actually help you out). The other mods I did to my VJr are Master Volume (for teh gainz at low volume), swapped out the speaker for a Jenson Mod 10", and replaced the transformer. Not super noticible changes, but its a great player.

[hclapp219]

I like my Silverface Vibro Champ. Not too loud for at home apartment playing (no complaints in the year and a half I've lived here), and I think it takes pedals great. You should definitely be able to find one for under 600, but you might end up spending around that much if it needs work.

[t-rey]

I've actually never played a Valve Jr. I will be on the lookout on Craigslist to see if they would fit my needs.

I would love an old Champ. They are getting a bit pricey though. Do they have an external speaker out on them to run into a bigger cab?

[mathias]

Just because no one else suggested it yet: Get a ZT Lunchbox.

That said, I have a GVT15H now and love it It does the clean thing nicely and still has some gain on tap. You can keep it clean and stack pedals nicely in front of it; let it warm up the signal a bit. Or if you want more gain than the preamp gives you, it seems to take being pushed with a boost or OD really well, and that's how you can get your dirtier tones. Also, the EQ is really nice; but it's boost or cut which is a new-to-me thing for an amp. I haven't pushed it very loud because I'm in a similar situation and can't crank amps in my apartment :/ I only got to really open up the master volume today while I was home for lunch and the downstairs neighbors were gone.

I've also had a couple Epi valve jr's, modded them, Etc. Turned my last one into a Supro circuit (parts from Watts Audio.) the problem with the Epi Valve Jr's that I always had is the volume is also the gain, and it gets dirty. I rather wish it was clean with a gain knob to crank up.

[in_sherman]

i have to say, i fucking hate my valve jr, except with the neck pickup and tone rolled way the fuck back. maybe a new speaker and mods could rectify dis. BUT i have this closed-back ported mesa with a evm12 speaker in it that i've always wanted to sell but i never can do it cause i seriously love it. so strange. such sweet tight fucking bass. recently i feel as though buying a gvt15may be the best for the price, since 'm also in the market.

[Gone Fission]

I used to have an Electar Tube 10, a similarish cheapo single-ended amp that sounds kinda crap through its stock speaker but came to life into a EV loaded TL-806 I have. It's good stuff.

ZT Lunchbox is not a bad idea. The new Lunchbox Jr. is about half the price, has pedal-friendly features, and the 35 watt limit is probably enough for home use. Or do the headroom mod on a Vox Pathfinder (which is actually already pretty clean when dialed for bedroom volume).

[mathias]

I've been solving this problem of a home practice / recording amp for awhile with a small( ish) tube amp and a Weber miniMASS attenuator. But this is the second or third thread about this in a few days.

People seem to get hung up on the solid state or hybrid thing, even though they can't really get a Class A/B tube power amp that's quiet enough. I've been thinking about this a lot, and there are a lot of little mass-produced tube practice amps, and then expensive boutique amps based on a Champ-like circuit, mainly the Swart amps. What do you guys think about the idea of small hybrid combo amps that are lightweight, but handbuilt? I could put together a 12ax7 preamp with a Class-D solid state power amp. (Class D is noticeably better to my ears for hifi than other transistor amps and is much more efficient.) it'd be, in a sense, "boutique", but way cheaper than something likes Swart or the new Marshall 1 watt heads. Focus on the design would be clean headroom with the ability to overdrive the tube preamp nicely, which seems to be what pedal heads are after in a practice amp. And since Class-D amps are so efficient and rather cheap, while it could ship with a small speaker as a combo, it could have a speaker out and 200ish watts on tap to drive bigger cabs. I imagine it'd compete with things like the ZT Lunchbox, which has a hard time convincing people to try it due to its SS nature.

Thoughts?