need to reach out to the STW guitar geeks
I'm thinking about treating myself to a 5w valve combo I've seen the Fender Champion 60, and I think Peavey and Vox do them too
so - anyone using one? any good? I'm interested in good natural tone without having to turn the thing up too high. More interested in the lower end of the distortion scale if you know what I mean.
i had the vox valvetronix vt15 ( i think)
http://www.voxamps.com/us/valvetronix/vt-series/
it was marvelous.
lovely low volume sound, really customiseable, and had a host of effects, and preset amp sounds.
low volume sound is really good, and lots of clean tones and effects to pick from too, not just a load of different distortions
pretty cheap at about £150, sounded really good with a mid range squier tele
I'm thinking about getting one at the moment and there are quite a few about... The Blackstar 5W always gets really good reviews and it's pretty cheap too, other than that I love the Victoria 10" 5W combo and the Cornell Rambler. Cornell also does a small Plexi style combo too, and both of his have an attenuator (of sorts) built in which take the output down much lower...
One that's worth noting is that 5W is still really loud (technically half as loud as a 50W amp), what you sacrifice is clean headroom, so it will break up earlier, but won't be much good for late night practicing...
I've been looking at the Blackstar HT5 which seems to get good reviews.
that blackstar looks great
shame my local guitar shop doesn't seem to stock them (and its a big shop)
I have the Blackstar HT-5, combo is a little boxy sounding, but sounds great with an external cab. It's loud as **** though, you still need a powersoak if you want to drive the output stage at domestic volume.
Built my own 5W combo using Ampmaker's kit, custom pine cabinet and a Celestion AlNiCo blue. Sounds great but cost a mint! I'd have got better value going for a manufactured one but would have lost the satisfaction of self-build.
Hey Rabyoung, I'm building the Ampmaker 18W kit as soon as I get a spare moment (late August then...)
I do have an Epiphone Valve Junior, which is ace. Five loud watts, only limited a little by the 8in speaker. I got the upgrade kit (guy on ebay does them) to give me a 4/8ohm switch (which they may come with now) and it sounds great through a Marshall 2x12 cab 🙂
I'd love some reverb on it, but apart from that, it's great. I sometimes run a Boss FDR1 pedal into it for some reverb and a little bit of drive and it sounds fab. Despite having a JCM800 and a Boogie, I nearly always use the Epiphone.