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  #16  
Old 06-08-2017, 07:56 AM
flagstaffcharli flagstaffcharli is offline
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Thanks everyone. I should have been more specific.

I am looking for a tube combo that can get dirty tones at low volume. I'm not interested in digital modeling or solid state amps. I realize there are good arguments to be made for those things. I already own some pedals. I just want to plug and play through a tube amp. That's what worked for a lot of my favorite music. I think it will work for me.

I am also looking for a quality cabinet that I can leave in my living room. It needs to be small so it isn't in the way when I am not playing. It's the living room. Looks count at least a little bit.

I know 5W can still be too loud, but some do break up at lower volumes. There are some amps that use built in attenuators.

Believe it or not, Portland has no dedicated boutique guitar shop. We do have several good used guitar shops.
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  #17  
Old 06-08-2017, 08:23 AM
Steely Glen Steely Glen is offline
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Originally Posted by flagstaffcharli View Post
Thanks everyone. I should have been more specific.

I am looking for a tube combo that can get dirty tones at low volume. I'm not interested in digital modeling or solid state amps. I realize there are good arguments to be made for those things. I already own some pedals. I just want to plug and play through a tube amp. That's what worked for a lot of my favorite music. I think it will work for me.

I am also looking for a quality cabinet that I can leave in my living room. It needs to be small so it isn't in the way when I am not playing. It's the living room. Looks count at least a little bit.

I know 5W can still be too loud, but some do break up at lower volumes. There are some amps that use built in attenuators.

Believe it or not, Portland has no dedicated boutique guitar shop. We do have several good used guitar shops.
What's your budget?
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  #18  
Old 06-08-2017, 08:27 AM
roylor4 roylor4 is offline
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Default Get a Blackstar

Blackstar HT-1R

This will do everything you want. The only drawback is the small speaker. It does have the tone though.

My buddy just bought the 5 watt version and it is awesome but probably overkill for your needs.
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  #19  
Old 06-08-2017, 08:32 AM
flagstaffcharli flagstaffcharli is offline
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What's your budget?
At the top end, probably the Swart. I have played the little one with the 8" speaker before. I thought it sounded nasty ( in a good way) with an American Standard Tele.
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  #20  
Old 06-08-2017, 08:56 AM
Steely Glen Steely Glen is offline
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Originally Posted by flagstaffcharli View Post
At the top end, probably the Swart. I have played the little one with the 8" speaker before. I thought it sounded nasty ( in a good way) with an American Standard Tele.
Sounds like the Space Tone, a very Champ-ish platform (tweed, 6V6, 8" speaker, etc.). Michael Swart makes a mean amp, no doubt. With killer looks to boot.

Other makers I'd recommend are Roger Goodsell (Goodsell Amps), Steve Carr (Carr Amps), John Suhr/Steve Smith (Suhr Guitars and Amps), and Brad Jackson (Jackson Ampworks). Jackson Ampworks has an amp called The McFly, which can do both tweed and blackface tone in one amp....and it has power scaling down to fractions of a watt. I don't have one (yet) but it's on my short list. And they have some pretty stunning cabinetry options that would be a real conversation piece in your living room. Brand new they're going for around $2750 (head and cab), but can be had for around $2000-2250 on the used market, in the ballpark of the Swart Space Tone.

Here's a demo of the McFly:

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  #21  
Old 06-08-2017, 09:09 AM
flagstaffcharli flagstaffcharli is offline
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Does anyone own a Vintage 47 they could tell me about? Looks pretty cool.
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  #22  
Old 06-08-2017, 10:07 AM
flagstaffcharli flagstaffcharli is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Steely Glen View Post
Sounds like the Space Tone, a very Champ-ish platform (tweed, 6V6, 8" speaker, etc.). Michael Swart makes a mean amp, no doubt. With killer looks to boot.

Other makers I'd recommend are Roger Goodsell (Goodsell Amps), Steve Carr (Carr Amps), John Suhr/Steve Smith (Suhr Guitars and Amps), and Brad Jackson (Jackson Ampworks). Jackson Ampworks has an amp called The McFly, which can do both tweed and blackface tone in one amp....and it has power scaling down to fractions of a watt. I don't have one (yet) but it's on my short list. And they have some pretty stunning cabinetry options that would be a real conversation piece in your living room. Brand new they're going for around $2750 (head and cab), but can be had for around $2000-2250 on the used market, in the ballpark of the Swart Space Tone.

Here's a demo of the McFly:

That's cool. But it's going way, way up out of my price range. The Swart 5w can be found used in the sub $1K territory. Champs and Vibrochamps for half that.

I'm doing a lot of practicing with the Jamey Aebersold Jazz series right now, trying to grow some new skills. There is a Vintage 47 that has my attention. I could probably afford to buy that for jazz/blues sounds and then eventually add a Champ for more classic rock sounds.
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  #23  
Old 06-08-2017, 10:07 AM
beninma beninma is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by flagstaffcharli View Post
]
I am looking for a tube combo that can get dirty tones at low volume. I'm not interested in digital modeling or solid state amps. I realize there are good arguments to be made for those things. I already own some pedals. I just want to plug and play through a tube amp. That's what worked for a lot of my favorite music. I think it will work for me.
I just got an Orange Rocker 15.. the switchable 15w/7w/1w/0.5w stuff is genius as it lets you get the full range of tones at a full range of volumes. 0.5/1w is more than enough for me at home.

You'd have to figure out what exact kind of tone you want. I have a Tele, I love the Orange with it. Great country type tones out of the clean channel, and then flip over to the dirty channel and get just about any kind of dirty tone you want. But you might hate that British distortion sound. I can't really turn the clean channel up loud enough to put it at the edge of breakup in the house, but I can make it do that with a pedal at a lower volume just fine. The dirty channel can actually do that fine too at lower volumes if you just dial the gain way down. You'd have to get a black cabinet to keep it in your living room though..

I tried a Blues Junior at the store when I was looking at the Orange.. it was horrible from a "in the house" standpoint as it has no ability to cut the power down and it was getting deafeningly loud very quickly on the volume dial. I couldn't see getting anything except a glassy clean tone at home out of an amp like that. I really really love Fender amp tones but they need to make something that can be run at lower power. I kind of liked the Bassbreaker 007 too but I feel like that would have also been hard to get good tones out of at the volumes I can run the Orange at.
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  #24  
Old 06-08-2017, 12:27 PM
aknow aknow is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by flagstaffcharli View Post
I have a PRRI and I like it very much. But I can't crank it at home.

I sold a guitar so I could by a nice tube amp for the living room to use with my new (to me) 335.

Swart, old Fender Champ, or what? I can play clean through the PRRI, so I'm looking for something that will rumble and growl at relatively low volumes. Any and all recommendations are welcome. I should be able to try quite a few locally, though I don't think any Swart dealers are in Portland.
I added 2 amps over the past year which have helped make the transition to bedroom levels pretty interesting. I've had a 1964 blackface deluxe reverb since 1969, so I like Fender sounds. I got a Carr Skylark, (based on the fender harvard) and it rips at low volumes. Also, a Boss Katana head, which offers a 0.5w option, and left out the modeler fizz. I'm wondering how steep the learning curve is for the Kemper? I wouldn't have even considered one of these 10 years ago.
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  #25  
Old 06-08-2017, 01:50 PM
Steely Glen Steely Glen is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aknow View Post
I added 2 amps over the past year which have helped make the transition to bedroom levels pretty interesting. I've had a 1964 blackface deluxe reverb since 1969, so I like Fender sounds. I got a Carr Skylark, (based on the fender harvard) and it rips at low volumes. Also, a Boss Katana head, which offers a 0.5w option, and left out the modeler fizz. I'm wondering how steep the learning curve is for the Kemper? I wouldn't have even considered one of these 10 years ago.
The Kemper is not too bad, especially if you're only using amp modeling. It will respond accordingly as you adjust the knobs (BMT, Drive, Master Vol, Presence, etc.). A Kemper + traditional pedalboard is pretty hard to beat.

For ease of use, I think the Helix is the best of all the top-tier modelers. To my ears, its amp modeling is not quite as realistic as the Kemper (but almost), however, it effects, routing options, and software are better, making it a better all-around package for my needs. FWIW, I have both a Helix Rack and Control for my studio work and a Helix Floor for gigging.
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  #26  
Old 06-08-2017, 02:46 PM
aknow aknow is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Steely Glen View Post
The Kemper is not too bad, especially if you're only using amp modeling. It will respond accordingly as you adjust the knobs (BMT, Drive, Master Vol, Presence, etc.). A Kemper + traditional pedalboard is pretty hard to beat.

For ease of use, I think the Helix is the best of all the top-tier modelers. To my ears, its amp modeling is not quite as realistic as the Kemper (but almost), however, it effects, routing options, and software are better, making it a better all-around package for my needs. FWIW, I have both a Helix Rack and Control for my studio work and a Helix Floor for gigging.
Thanks Steely!
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  #27  
Old 06-08-2017, 03:24 PM
Rudy4 Rudy4 is offline
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Look for a Peavey ValveKing Royal 8, 5 watts, 8" speaker, and very musical tone control. It also has seperate gain and master volume so you can get some nice preamp distortion going before hitting the final output tube.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/ampli...tube-combo-amp
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  #28  
Old 06-08-2017, 06:48 PM
1neeto 1neeto is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sombras View Post
Be advised, 5 watts--heck, even 1 watt--can be loud enough to get the cops called on you, depending on where you live. I was blasting my 5W Blackstar HT-5R today and it was getting pretty intense.


I cranked a HT-5 at a music store and was blown away at how loud that thing was. Didn't buy it because it was just too loud for home.
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  #29  
Old 06-08-2017, 10:15 PM
M Hayden M Hayden is offline
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There was a company in Connecticut years ago that made adapters that allowed the use of 6AK6 tubes in place of 6V6 for power tubes. It took my Deluxe Reverb from 22 watts to about 1-2 watts, and it was still plenty loud, and pretty toneful, too. Smicz Engineering was the name of the company; if you can find the adapters, they work great in Princeton Reverbs, too.
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  #30  
Old 06-09-2017, 06:14 AM
Steve DeRosa Steve DeRosa is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by M Hayden View Post
There was a company in Connecticut years ago that made adapters that allowed the use of 6AK6 tubes in place of 6V6 for power tubes. It took my Deluxe Reverb from 22 watts to about 1-2 watts, and it was still plenty loud, and pretty toneful, too. Smicz Engineering was the name of the company; if you can find the adapters, they work great in Princeton Reverbs, too.
Here's a similar product:

http://www.thetubestore.com/Parts-Ac...ducing-Adapter
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