Recommendations for a tube amp

[Walter Sobchak]

I’ve got a Roland Cube practice amp at the moment, can’t fault it, great little thing but prefer the tone when I plug in at my tutors and thinking I want to get the classic tube amp sound, can anyone reccomend a few to go for?, I don’t want to go too mad say up to £350 but am happy to get something second hand.

[scushing]

What kind of music are you playing, and what guitar(s)? Do you want an amp just for solo practice or one you could gig with?

Many of the big names do lower wattage tube combos, though even low power ones can be pretty loud. Best advice is to go and try out a bunch and trust your ears.

On my to-try list would be Blackstar 1W and 5W combos with a two channels which sound pretty good and are versatile.

Laney do a back-to-basics low wattage tube amp series called the Cub which I think are fabulous value for money tone-wise. Though the looks are a bit marmite. :-) Single channel with 15W and 1W inputs and a nice warm tone. Sound fine stock, but with scope for speaker and valve upgrades too. Would need pedals for crunch tones and effects.

I've also been really impressed with Ibanez TSA15. Sounded very very nice clean and overdrive is basically a Tubescreamer which sounds fantastic. It's a very distinctive tone though and might not be versatile enough if you cover lots of styles. Also might have to travel a bit to find one.

[vournikas]

I use the following with my PRS for "crunchy" blues type stuff:-

Vox VT30

It's plenty loud enough for home / small gigs, and I quickly learned to not use the amp emulator and just use the amp's natural circuitry as it's tone is just fine with just the one pre-amp valve.

Inexpensive also.

[singlecoil]

If you could stretch to £400 I'm looking to sell my virtually unused Laney Ironheart IRT-Studio rack mount amp with an Orange 8" speaker, but that might be rather more than you need.

[JLC25]

singlecoil said:

If you could stretch to £400 I'm looking to sell my virtually unused Laney Ironheart IRT-Studio rack mount amp with an Orange 8" speaker, but that might be rather more than you need.

Even if not, look around Laney - £400 will get you a VC, LC or GH with ease. Also seen occasional Ironheart, Lionheart and VH series in there. Wait around and AORs come up at that price. One of those will nail whatever you need!

[mattnovak]

A small Peavey Classic or Vox AC4 will get you some great tones at low volumes.

[languagetimothy]

Your budget will get you into Fender amps. See attached. Fender hot rod deluxe 40w valve 1x12. Being a Fender it will also be a very loud 40w. Lots of tone.

I use a Fender twin which is mental loud, doesn't get past 2 in a typical pub gig. But I won't use anything else.


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fender-Hot-Rod-Deluxe-Am...

[Walter Sobchak]

Thanks for the recommendations, tone wise more sort of rock and bluesey, particularly fond of stuff like The Black Keys, Clapton and John Frusciantes guitar sounds.
Currently I’ve got a Strat and a Tele both standard single coil variants.

[mrsimmers]

I have a Marshall SL5, which has a 1 and 5 watt setting.

Well loud enough for home use.

[Bristol spark]

Im quite happy with my Marshall DSL15C.
Second hand should be in your budget.

Still amazed me just how loud it is for 15W!

Very impressed with the sound it makes for a "budget" Marshall.

[HarryFlatters]

Bristol spark said:

Im quite happy with my Marshall DSL15C.
Second hand should be in your budget.

Still amazed me just how loud it is for 15W!

Very impressed with the sound it makes for a "budget" Marshall.

I've got the DSL15H, which is plenty loud enough for gigs, practice and is switchable down to 7w for home use. Great little amps.

[dojo]

Are you using it for playing out for just 'bedroom playing'

If its just for home use I'd get one of the class A - 5w amps.

I use a modded Ephiphone Valve Junior - Honestly if you pair with this with a couple of nice pedals you'll be blown away by the sound.

I'm not sure what the lower end valve marshall's are like but I'm always offended by the lower/mid range marshall stuff, sounds so thin and fizzy to me (esp the MG range and the old valvestates)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Epiphone-Valve-Junior-Ho...

That with a nice tube screamer

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ibanez-Tube-Screamer-Min...

And a delay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TC-Electronic-Flashback-...

All within budget and would be a great little rig

Edited by dojo on Tuesday 10th October 12:39

[mondeomk4]

The Marshall DSL for heavy rock distortion at louder volumes.

I have restored and and still amazed by my original and first amp the Marshall Valvestate 40, not on the distortion channel as the valve is only on the preamp stage, but on the first channel it has amazing blues clean-distortion at low volumes in a touch sensitive manner.

Other amps I have used seem so unresponsive even if they have a nice initial sound.

[rlw]

https://juketone.co.uk/product/juketone-royal-bloo...


I've got one of these. It's a brilliant little amp. built like a tank, handwired and it sounds great. very authentic tweed tone and goes very well with humbuckers and single coils.

And don't worry about 4 watts. It's quite loud enough..........

[franki68]

Based on home use ...Black Star ht series Are very good for the money.

[chilistrucker]

A friend I used to drive the trucks with now builds his own custom amps.

SKOG Custom Amplifiers, think he has a FB page. Worth a look if thats your sort of thing.

[gazza285]

Build your own.

http://www.madamp.de