Let's see the tiny low wattage tube amps you love

[Life Eats Life]

It's true. I did know that.

Well, I suppose it's all about the friends we made along the way!

Paid friends?
Sounds like the cabinet & the 10…
Resonance.
I’d put a Gold 10 in that Bea’itch.
NOS Tung Sol 6V6, Blackplate 7025’s
-and that little bugger will spank your arse!
Be careful buddy, this is the “paid friends” component of it.
Paid friends are expensive & a sign we were never friends to begin with so stop tryin’ to “convin$e” yourself,
-or dime everything & live with it.
There’s the nugget my dude.


-I put it out there, I want to take Dylana out for a steak & dance the night up in flames.
-burn down the town!
We can make it baby.. me & YOU

 

[Stone]

Congrats JD that looks like a sweet amp, Enjoy !!

 

[Life Eats Life]

Celestion needs to make a G10 Redback.
I recently did a faithful
“Mouse fart volume” speaker shootout.
V-30, Creamback 75’s,Greenbacks, Celestion Heritage 30- the 75.
The Redback SMOKED the other participants.
Seriously, HUGE chugs- and the sun hasn’t come up yet!!
The RB retains a decent top end at those volume pressures, the best I’ve heard yet, doesn’t thin out
too thin.
Stoked!!

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

My take is that <= 5W amps are in that weird purgatory where they are often too loud for home use, but not always loud enough for stage. On top of that the smaller transformers etc they tend to have will make them have less "oomph" to the sound than a higher powered amp.

I'll take a higher power amp that is power scalable any day.

thx for playing, Laxu. The extent to which you need to. All over threads related to stuff you happen to not be interested in makes me wonder if you should see a doctor. Seems medical. It’s a lot of piss and poop.

 

[laxu]

Celestion needs to make a G10 Redback.
I recently did a faithful
“Mouse fart volume” speaker shootout.
V-30, Creamback 75’s,Greenbacks, Celestion Heritage 30- the 75.
The Redback SMOKED the other participants.
Seriously, HUGE chugs- and the sun hasn’t come up yet!!
The RB retains a decent top end at those volume pressures, the best I’ve heard yet, doesn’t thin out
too thin.
Stoked!!

Based on clips online the Redback sounds like it's got a pretty smooth top end and plenty of bass, so I guess those would be preferable characteristics when the volume is low? When the volume goes up the frequencies start to balance better to our ears so highs are less harsh etc.

Which might be part of why I find higher powered master volume amps to often sound better turned down, even though it sounds completely backwards. They tend to push bigger, tighter bass, which sounds bigger even turned down.

A few years back I went to local builder Bluetone who make a 5, 10 and 25W version of their Plexi type amp and I got to try them all. The Plexi 5 sounded good, but the 10 sounded better and the 25 sounded even better. The 5 and 10 used NOS EL91 power tubes, while the 25 used EL34. All cathode biased. Because the 25 was power scalable, just turning it to 5W made it sound very similar to the 5W model and the same was true with the Plexi 10. So to me it would not make a whole lot of sense to go for the lower powered ones, when well executed power scaling can do the trick and leave you options to tailor it for more situations. I find power scaling often has more effect on the feel and character of the sound than it does on actual volume.

 

[jellodog]

My 5 watt Fender Vibro Champ Piggyback

That is a beauty! Such a sweet lil' amp and that red tolex is perfect. I'm in love

What speakers do you have in the cab? I can't quite tell if it's wide enough to be a 2x10?

 

[jellodog]

On top of that the smaller transformers etc they tend to have will make them have less "oomph" to the sound than a higher powered amp.

The Spanky Jr in my original post has an oversized power transformer that's bigger than the one in my Princeton Reverb

I do take your point that a lot of them don't though. And I accept that there's a limit to what's possible in terms of physics. I'm cool with that at home.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

If you want to sound like a big rig at home volumes - good luck. Use a modeler.

Some of us get what Dave Cobb has to say about the Champ in RCA studio that gets more use than any other amp - low wattage amps have an awesome vibe and sound precisely because they have smaller transformers, looser bass, less umph. Over 50 percent of my time on my modelers is using a model of a sub-15 watt amp.

Different folks have different interpretation of home volume. If you are trying to play at a volume low enough that it’s not bothering your kids or spouse watching TV on the same floor of the house - good luck. While a 5 watt amp cranked up to crunch may still be too loud for home use, a 5-15 watt amp can still get well into very sweet levels of non-linearity at volumes that won’t damage your ears or piss off the neighbors (unless your neighbors share a wall in a multi-unit housing situation).

 

[jellodog]

low wattage amps have an awesome vibe and sound precisely because they have smaller transformers, looser bass, less umph.

Thanks for vibing along with me @Boudoir Guitar!

 

[jellodog]

Speaking of vibes.

I nearly bought the 5w Benson Vinny Reverb - there was one in Canada. But it got swiped whilst I dithered about considering the purchase and overthinking the whole thing. Very hard to get hold of these things and I blew my chance.

This one has power-scaling. A very simple amp, but tastefuly done.

Lots of wonderful vibes here:



Maybe there's still one out there for me.

 

[laxu]

Speaking of vibes.

I nearly bought the 5w Benson Vinny Reverb - there was one in Canada. But it got swiped whilst I dithered about considering the purchase and overthinking the whole thing.

Lots of vibes here:



Maybe there's still one out there for me.

Yeah I dig how the Bensons sound and look. Pretty non-existent (or very expensive to import) over here though. Mixwave's Benson Chimera plugin is pretty cool as an alternative: https://www.mixwave.net/products/benson-chimera

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

A lot of big rigs feel to me a lot like a Dreadnought acoustic. Loads of power and projection and sound great at what they do, but they also sound their best when they are shouting. On the one hand, they have a wider dynamic range than a small amp. On the other hand - there is a much smaller window of that range that actually sounds good, at least with my technique. Yes, I can play quietly, but when I do it sounds like I’m speaking in a small voice because I’m afraid others might hear what I have to say. A small amp allows me to play quietly with an emphatic voice, that lets the listener know that I’ve dropped the volume because what I have to say is so important that I want them to listen more closely.

Some bigger amps are like a good OM and can dance in both worlds a little.

But nothing beats a single or double-o when you really want to have a direct conversation with someone, even if you’re just talking to yourself.

 

[JiveTurkey]

thx for playing, Laxu. The extent to which you need to. All over threads related to stuff you happen to not be interested in makes me wonder if you should see a doctor. Seems medical. It’s a lot of piss and poop.

When there's only one knob on an amp; you certainly can't complain about the interface

 

[Alex Kenivel]

This thread is really not turning out quite how I imagined!

That's our TGF™

But seriously, HNTAD. I've never owned a lower wattage tube amp if you don't count the PRS MT15 switched down to 7w mode. Still too freaking loud for the bedroom. Solid state or digital for me at that point. And not just for chuggs, the MT clean channel is right up my alley for Funk and RnB.

Edit: so it had been a while since I've actually played with it, but the MT15 on 7w mode can get quieter than I need most days at 77-79dB and still sound pretty good

 

[Texsunburst59]

That is a beauty! Such a sweet lil' amp and that red tolex is perfect. I'm in love

What speakers do you have in the cab? I can't quite tell if it's wide enough to be a 2x10?

Thanks JD.

Here’s so pic of the backside.

They are 8” Weber Blue Pup Alnico speakers.

 

[laxu]

Different folks have different interpretation of home volume. If you are trying to play at a volume low enough that it’s not bothering your kids or spouse watching TV on the same floor of the house - good luck. While a 5 watt amp cranked up to crunch may still be too loud for home use, a 5-15 watt amp can still get well into very sweet levels of non-linearity at volumes that won’t damage your ears or piss off the neighbors (unless your neighbors share a wall in a multi-unit housing situation).

For home use there's a lot of factors from how thick walls you have, how sensitive your neighbors are to musical instruments, tones you are looking for etc. A 5W tube amp with overdrive can easily put out something like 100 dB @ 1m type volumes.

This becomes a problem on old school amps where volume and drive are tied together, and unfortunately a significant number of low wattage amps are designed like old school Fenders or Marshalls. Plus the feature set on so many is "Volume, Tone" or "Volume, Treble, Bass" which is pretty limited unless it's used as a pedal platform type thing. See @JiveTurkey, I can complain about the interface!

For me the lower wattage stuff works if it's aiming for a tweed type sound where being saggy, crunchy and having a low end that buckles when overdriven are "the thing." That's a really cool sound, but I don't think I'd be happy playing it all the time so I like amps that are more flexible, with more features.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Thanks JD.

Here’s so pic of the backside.

View attachment 9871

Was this something Fender made at some point or boutique? Such a killer rig with the blue pups.

 

[jellodog]

Thanks JD.

Here’s so pic of the backside.

Wow! 2x10 Blue Pups. It just keeps getting better! This is _exactly_ the sort of stuff I was hoping to see

That lil' Vibro-Champ is living its best life for sure.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

For home use there's a lot of factors from how thick walls you have, how sensitive your neighbors are to musical instruments, tones you are looking for etc. A 5W tube amp with overdrive can easily put out something like 100 dB @ 1m type volumes.

This becomes a problem on old school amps where volume and drive are tied together, and unfortunately a significant number of low wattage amps are designed like old school Fenders or Marshalls. Plus the feature set on so many is "Volume, Tone" or "Volume, Treble, Bass" which is pretty limited unless it's used as a pedal platform type thing. See @JiveTurkey, I can complain about the interface!

For me the lower wattage stuff works if it's aiming for a tweed type sound where being saggy, crunchy and having a low end that buckles when overdriven are "the thing." That's a really cool sound, but I don't think I'd be happy playing it all the time so I like amps that are more flexible, with more features.

A 5 watt amp can easily be VERy non-linear with peaks well under 90 dB. Of course home volume is different for different circumstances. If you live in a place where home volume is so low that you need loudness compensation then a 5 watt amp (and this thread) probably isn’t for you. For those of us that enjoy playing compressed and harmonically rich but not overdriven amps and are able to do it in our domestic environment, 5 watt amps (and this thread) are awesome.

 

[norminal]

Speaking of vibes.

I nearly bought the 5w Benson Vinny Reverb - there was one in Canada. But it got swiped whilst I dithered about considering the purchase and overthinking the whole thing. Very hard to get hold of these things and I blew my chance.

This one has power-scaling.

Lots of wonderful vibes here:



Maybe there's still one out there for me.

Man, I’d love to have one of those in my man cave. Their stuff definitely has some mojo.