Small Amps

[Californiaman]

Found this on the Gibson page.

 

Are into the small amps for righteous tones? I sure am.

 

Check it out.

Gibson Small Amp Article

 

I have a five-watt Gibson Les Paul Jr. GA-5 amp.

 

A 12-watt, Fender Deluxe (5E3). Easily my favorite amplifier.

 

And my 18-Watt, Fender Two-Tone. It's a Custom Shop amp based on the Blues Jr. amp. Mine has a larger cabinet featuring 10 and 12 inch speakers.

 

Being able to play at a manageable level is also a plus.

 

I know some of you own the Martial 50th Anniversary Amps how do you like the decades idea? I think it's cool. Your favorite Marshall Circuit in a one-watt head or cabinet.

Edited December 9, 2018 by Californiaman

[Dub-T-123]

Love my 5e3 clone!

[sparquelito]

Properly mic'ed with a Shure 57, and pushed thru a quality PA head with great PA speakers, you can perform live with virtually ANY guitar amp.

 

In my humble opinion, and based upon personal experience.

 

[Retired]

My very cheap Vox amp blew out so I went looking for a new amp. I had Marshall on my mind but everything they had in the store at Dietz was too high over my budget. So I bought a Fender Super Champ X2 14 watt amp and I absolutely love it so far, Still exploring the possibilities.

[jdgm]

Here's my 'Tribute to Cali' pic. Say no more.

 

[brad1]

I have a few:

 

Fender Super Champ XD, 15 watt combo

Orange Micro Terror, 20 watt head

Peavey ValveKing II MicroHead, 20 watt head

Hughes & Kettner Tubmeister, 18 watt head,

ENGL Gig Master, 15 watt head

Bugera Infinium V22, 22 watt head

Marshal Code, 25 watt combo

VOX AD30VT, 30 watt combo

[Californiaman]

Here's my 'Tribute to Cali' pic. Say no more.

 

 

Nice.

Thanks. Flattery will get you everywhere.

 

[Dub-T-123]

Here’s mine

 

[LarryUK]

I recently got a Yamaha THR10. What a great amp. I've not turned anything else on since.

[IanHenry]

I'm a big fan of small amps, the largest one that I use at gigs is a Blues Junior it covers just about every venue that we play in. There's very few places where your ever going to need a 100 Watt stack those days and my hearing is far to precious to me, I'm not going to abuse it.

 

 

Ian

[Cougar]

I have a few.....VOX AD30VT, 30 watt combo

That's what I've got. Like it. It's all I need.

 

 

[Twang Gang]

I never used the smaller low powered amps for years. I tend to like a fairly clean tone, and when playing with a drummer/band when I would turn up the smaller amps they would just break up and my clean was gone. So I stuck with Twin Reverb for many years - clean and loud, but of course have a bad back from hauling it around. As amps and speakers got more efficient I moved down to a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe but even that got heavy after awhile. The first small low powered amp I got, and still have is a Blackstar HT5. I replaced the one and only valve in it to get a little more headroom for the clean side, but it does dirty wonderfully.

 

Now I don't use amplifiers at all anymore - just an Eleven Rack mixed into the PA for shows and monitor with earbuds or headphones.

[tx-ogre]

I have an Epiphone Valve Jr. Head and cab with the Mercury Magnetics mods. And for those times I need something that runs on batteries, I have a Vox DA-5.

 

For the rare occasions I need more power, I have a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe.

[Johnny 6 String]

That's what I've got. Like it. It's all I need.

 

 

 

I've got one of these too, use this Vox most of the time at home right now (almost never get out to jam anymore). I've also got a Epi head and an Orange dark micro terror head. Like the Orange a lot too, and the Epi is pretty good with a couple pedals out front.

 

 

Johnny

[jdgm]

Nice.

Thanks. Flattery will get you everywhere.

 

 

I just noticed my headstock inlay is definitely further up than yours.....

 

:o

[Larsongs]

For small Amps I have a 65 RI Princeton Reverb. IMO they are just about unbeatable.

 

I also have an upgraded Vox AC10C1which is a great little Amp as well.. It has Tung Sol Tubes now as well as a Celestion Greenback Speaker..

 

Both Amps can cover a lot of Sound....

Edited December 11, 2018 by Larsongs

[badbluesplayer]

Tweedle Dee Deluxe -

 

 

One-off modded out Kalamazoo Model 1

 

Edited December 11, 2018 by badbluesplayer

[Dub-T-123]

I just noticed my headstock inlay is definitely further up than yours.....

 

:o

I think maybe it’s just the foreshortening caused by the viewing angle. If I look at the bottom of the G they seem to line up with the same part of the D tuner

 

Either way, awesome looking setup.

 

BBP that’s sweet. 5e3 + Tele is incredible. 5e3 + Gibson is also incredible. Love the 5e3... I’m sure I’ve asked before but do you build your cabs from scratch?

[Californiaman]

I just noticed my headstock inlay is definitely further up than yours.....

 

:o

 

 

I see that now too.

Interesting.

[Californiaman]

BBP that’s sweet. 5e3 + Tele is incredible. 5e3 + Gibson is also incredible. Love the 5e3... I’m sure I’ve asked before but do you build your cabs from scratch?

 

I love the sound of a tele with my 5E3 Deluxe. And hum buckers sound pretty good too.

[surfpup]

I love the sound of a tele with my 5E3 Deluxe. And hum buckers sound pretty good too.

 

Oh, man. I love low-powered amps! I could talk about small amp tone all day...

 

 

A 5E3 is on my hit list.... I'll probably build one like Dub did. I have a vintage SF Deluxe Reverb, but that's a very different circuit from the 5E3.

 

The aforementioned SF DR is 22 watts and my handwired JTM 45 clone is 30ish watts. Everything else I have is less.

 

Here are the ones I use regularly:

 

Silverface Fender Vibro Champ - 8 or so watts... This amp totally kills for small bar gigs (and yes it keeps up with a drummer)

Silverface Fender Princetons - I have two, a 68 reverb and a 69 non-reverb - totally different beasts. The PR reverb breaks up ALOT more due to the extra gain stage. The non-reverb stays clean to 10. Use these for larger bars - or if I am not using a guitar mic.

Marshall 2061X handwired reissue head - 20 watts... this is my new favorite amp for rock and roll in decent sized venues. It's loud with the 4-10 cab... real loud. I use one of my attenuators on it too.

 

Some I use less regularly:

 

A Champ clone made for me by a friend 8 watts with more of a Marshall breakup. Basically a Champ with a Marshall tone stack.

 

Epiphone Electra.... 12 watts - identical to the Gibson Minuteman. Great blues rock amp. Really screams. And I built one of my attenuators into it so it's easy to dime it.

 

Marshall JTM1 head - 1 watt... which is still pretty loud at home. This is a great living room practice rig. Sounds like a JTM should but without the hearing loss.

[badbluesplayer]

I’m sure I’ve asked before but do you build your cabs from scratch?

 

Yup. Applying tweed covering is a little more complicated than tolex. You have to learn a few more tricks like how to make the corners and stuff like that, but the fabric is more flexible than tolex and there's something different about the texture of the tweed and how it feels in your hands and how classy it looks that makes it more satisfying to make stuff from tweed. I swear it makes the cabinets a little more lively too than using tolex. I couldn't say for sure - narrow panel style cabinets are more lively just because of the way they're designed, regardless of the covering. It's taken a long time to get good at it, but it's lots of fun.

 

Here's a recent customized Pro Junior that we did -

 

[Californiaman]

A Pro Jr. How many watts is that, 15?

What type of wood you using in those cabinets? White Birch, Pine, Maple?

 

My 5E3 Fender '57 Deluxe, with the maple cabinet sounds like no other amp I have. It goes from Country Clean to Sweaty Hot Pig. With volume cranked up to about 8. I didn't need any pedals to get a serious vintage 70's rock tone out of it. And that was with my ES-175 with the '57 Humbuckers in it. It sound fat and thick, with lots of mid-range punch. I'm always changing my guitar volume which enables that softer clean up. When it's wide open though. I have to play it on the other side of the room to limit the feedback, but yeah I like that sound. Really responsive with a pick. Pick soft, cleans up nicely. Pick hard, lots of break up.

The 12-speaker no doubt had something to do with it. It's the blue alnico.

 

Do any of you daisy chain them together or use one for rhythm and one for lead? I use and HBE *****enswitchin' to go back and forth between the GA-5 and the Deluxe.

Whoops, the AI didn't like the name of that pedal. If you are familiar with HBE pedals, they're pretty good. If not you can look 'em up. HBE pedals are good. I think they went out of business though. I own a couple and they seem to do the job more than adequately.

Edited December 16, 2018 by Californiaman

[surfpup]

 

Do any of you daisy chain them together or use one for rhythm and one for lead? I use and HBE *****enswitchin' to go back and forth between the GA-5 and the Deluxe.

 

Two small amps together is one of my favorite setup. I don't daisy chain.. just put a stereo pedal last in my chain. Two Princetons will make you wanna slap your granny. So will two Champs.

[Larsongs]

Two small amps together is one of my favorite setup. I don't daisy chain.. just put a stereo pedal last in my chain. Two Princetons will make you wanna slap your granny. So will two Champs.

 

I like to do that too..

 

I use a Keeley 30ms Double Tracker Pedal last in my chain & run it Stereo to my 65 PRRI & Modded Vox AC10C1 with Greenback or 65 DRRI & Vox AC15 with Alnico Blue... Love that blend between Fender & Vox!

Edited December 17, 2018 by Larsongs