I want to buy a small amp!

[Toonster]

My local musicstore is closing forever But the good news is that he is having a sale!

At the moment I need a small amp, that I can easily transport while walking and making use of public transport. I prefer tubes.. I don't know what he has in the shop at the moment, but maybe he has some of the suggestions you guys are giving me..

So what should I look at?

[hclapp219]

Off the top of my head:

Vox AC4TV
Marshall Class 5
Fender Princeton Reverb RI
Fender Mustang Series
Fender Super Champ/ Vibro Champ XD
Fender Pro Junior

[ifeellikeatourist]

You absolutely cannot go wrong with the vox ac4

[Toonster]

Yeah, a friend of mine also uses an ac4, I hope the shop has them^^

[Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D.]

was gunna say vox too! now i feel like a third wheel...

[Toonster]

was gunna say vox too! now i feel like a third wheel...

[mathias]

Not necessarily cheap, but if he has one of the ZVex amps, that's about as small of a guitar tube amp as you can get. (I've noticed a lot of guitar shops with have one or two zvex pedals on hand, which never seem to sell next to the $30 Boss DS-1s.)

Fender Champs, Princetons, and the various Blues Junior models are all great little amps for the money, and if you want that American sound. The bad thing about these for me (and maybe nice for you) is they they get loud and clean then overdrive; they don't saturate at low volume levels at all. So if you're going to be carrying this thing to band practice and need to be louder than a bassist and drums, the Fender amps are worth playing around with.

Other small amps worth considering if he has one:
The Vox Brian May amp. It's solid state, but it sounds so good, and they haven't made them for a few years, so they're getting rare.

Attribution: Image from masked elwood. It's his amp.

Expensive and rare, but the various Matamp mini-amps are worth looking at.

If you don't mind a head (ie, you can manage to have a speaker cab at wherever you're taking the amp), look at the Orange Tiny Terror, Vox Night train, etc.

A little bit bigger and quite a bit heavier than the others, but a Vox AC15 is a great amp, too.

Hope this helps!

[Toonster]

Yeah that helps! Personally I am only looking for the clean sound in the amps, as overdrive and such don't sound good with the instrument I will mostly use it with..
Is there some Mesa mini amp worth considering, cause he mostly has a few mesa's in store..

[univalve]

VOX ac4
Or, if they have it: Jet City pico valve (nö Combo though)

[mathias]

Mesa made a head called the Transatlantic, but it isn't going to be as cheap or as clean as most practice amps.

Mesa made practice amps in the 80's but they were solid state, I think, and are going to be fairly rare in working condition. No idea what they sound like..

Googling found something called a Mesa Boogie 5:25. Looks like it toggles between 5 and 25 watts and that should give you a lot more headroom. No idea if it is that portable to be considered a practice amp.

[Toonster]

Yeah, portability is key for what I look for, so if it's too heavy I don't want it^^

[MEC]

http://www.mesaboogie.com/Product_Info/Out_of%20_Production/Subway_Series/Subway_Blues/subway_blues.html

This is the one I was trying to think of when Mathias was looking for an amp a couple of weeks ago.

Sounds good and pretty versatile it will break up at higher volumes though.

[Toonster]

http://www.mesaboogie.com/Product_Info/Out_of%20_Production/Subway_Series/Subway_Blues/subway_blues.html

This is the one I was trying to think of when Mathias was looking for an amp a couple of weeks ago.

Sounds good and pretty versatile it will break up at higher volumes though.

That one seems small and considerable!

[sylnau]

Mesa Boogie Express
http://www.mesaboogie.com/Product_Info/ ... xpress.htm

[MEC]

http://www.mesaboogie.com/Product_Info/Out_of%20_Production/Subway_Series/Subway_Blues/subway_blues.html

This is the one I was trying to think of when Mathias was looking for an amp a couple of weeks ago.

Sounds good and pretty versatile it will break up at higher volumes though.

That one seems small and considerable!

They haven't been made for a few years now so if he has one it's probably been there for a while. Here, in the States $400 would be considered a good price on a used one and $500 wouldn't be considered way out of line.

Here is some more information specifically comparing it to the Fender Blues Junior http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/237950/fender_blues_junior_vs_mesaboogie_subway.html