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Alright dudes, I need a new amp for playing at home in my living room.

I tried the digital/modeling thing for home use (Fender Mustang III) and just wasn't happy with the way it sounded taking pedals, so it's getting flipped.

Obviously it needs to sound good with pedals. Really, I only need a good foundational clean tone, from there I can take care of everything else off the board.

I've heard great things about the VHT Special 6 Ultra, but my only concern would be clean headroom.

Anybody play one? Or have recommendations for other sweet little tube amps?

How loud is home volume?

Fuzzy Picklez wrote:How loud is home volume?

^ Need to know that.

'Clean headroom' is the bane of all the 5 watt amps, and you're not going to notice a ton of difference between the volume of a 6 watt VHT and a 50 watt tube amp unless you pair the amp with much less efficient speaker(s). You can just make the 50 watt louder and drive your speakers harder.

I use a Blackheart Killer Ant fractional wattage amp for low volume practice, and I'm trying to keep it to 80-85 db. It's a nice amp for the price, has a sweet tube sound. The clean headroom goes from off to about 8-9 o'clock on the volume knob, not very loud.

The other way to go would be finding a 6" or 8" speaker you like the sound of, and just use your regular amp, watching that you don't blow the lower wattage/ volume speakers. But you may end up running into clean tone issues there as well, cuz the smaller speakers are easier to distort.

Get a decent attenuator (Ho / Ultimate / Hot Plate / Weber).
Use your normal rig but control the output.
I can play my AC30 cranked at home when the baby's asleep.

Home volume is pretty low. I live in an NYC apartment building.

devnulljp wrote:Get a decent attenuator (Ho / Ultimate / Hot Plate / Weber).
Use your normal rig but control the output.
I can play my AC30 cranked at home when the baby's asleep.

This was my original plan, but packing a half stack into my Manhattan apartment has my gf (who also lives here) a bit distraught.

My thought was, at that point I'd be buying a smaller 1x12, which is a pretty similar price to the VHT Special 6 Ultra anyway.

Not gonna lie, Fender Champ 600 is pretty rad and cheap

If you live in an apartment, try a vox pathfinder.
Awesome little SS practice amp.

Fuzzy Fred wrote:Not gonna lie, Fender Champ 600 is pretty rad and cheap

The complete lack of eq scares me a little. When does it start breaking up on the volume knob?

Traynor Dark Horse. I love mine.

AC15. Plenty of headroom, great clean tonez.

huggernaut wrote:Home volume is pretty low. I live in an NYC apartment building.

Then you're looking at fractional wattage / one watt amps, attenuators, or small speakers - for 'high quality' sound. A six watt tube 1x12 combo is more than enough to piss off apartment neighbors. If you're really looking for just clean sound to use with pedals, a solid state amp you like the sound of would work too. An old solid state Traynor Guitar Mate 10 with a 1x6 is what I use to dual amp with my Killer Ant.

The Megalith thru a fractional wattage amp is full doomy cuteness too.

blahquaker wrote:Traynor Dark Horse. I love mine.

I would luvs to try one of those!

grindonomicon wrote:
Then you're looking at fractional wattage / one watt amps, attenuators, or small speakers - for 'high quality' sound. A six watt tube 1x12 combo is more than enough to piss off apartment neighbors. If you're really looking for just clean sound to use with pedals, a solid state amp you like the sound of would work too. An old solid state Traynor Guitar Mate 10 with a 1x6 is what I use to dual amp with my Killer Ant.

The Megalith thru a fractional wattage amp is full doomy cuteness too.

blahquaker wrote:Traynor Dark Horse. I love mine.

I would luvs to try one of those!

The VHT has a wattage attenuator deal and can apparently be brought down to ~1/2 watt. I figured that could work like your Killer Ant does. Would the Killer Ant do apartment levels?

I'd love to try the Traynor as well. A little pricey just for home use though, considering I'd need a small cab too.

I love my Fender Pro Jr for bedroom levels. Very warm sound and great with pedals. They come pretty cheap too, second hand.

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.

huggernaut wrote:The VHT has a wattage attenuator deal and can apparently be brought down to ~1/2 watt. I figured that could work like your Killer Ant does. Would the Killer Ant do apartment levels?

I'd love to try the Traynor as well. A little pricey just for home use though, considering I'd need a small cab too.

1/2 watt is great for apartment levels, but like I said, you only have a small amount of clean headroom on a fractional wattage amp. The Killer Ant is a micro-Marshall. Clean for the first quarter turn, overdriven in the next, gained on the third, and [sometimes-cool] power amp sag in the last. But at juuuuust enough power to not fully drive a guitar speaker. You'll have to see how you like the half-watt setting on the VHT. Honestly, I'd bet it's better EQ'd than the Killer Ant.

I tend to dial the Killer Ant volume between 9-11 o'clock and then use fuzz or boost to push the amp's volume up. It's 'loud' like listening to music on a stereo, or a bit louder than a TV. I tried an attenuator, and one of the small speaker Valve Jr's, and for about the same price, I like the Killer Ant more for what it does.