Drdos Posted December 3, 2009 Share Posted December 3, 2009 Anyone try one of these yet, and what do you think. There combo version has a wood housed 3 string reverb unit in the amp. http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product?sku=583597 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twanger Posted December 3, 2009 Share Posted December 3, 2009 Looks interesting. Design by Soldano. Made in China. I see Marshall is introducing yet another low cost alternative, the MA series. Tube amps available in heads or combos in your choice of 50 or 100 watts. Whatever happened with the Marshall Class 5 their 5 watt combo? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drdos Posted December 3, 2009 Author Share Posted December 3, 2009 Talking to a couple of guys on the Orange Amp forum who have tried this amp, and say it sounds like Crapola!:- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrankS1281734010 Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 I'd definitely look into one of these if I didn't already have my Handsome Devil.... [YOUTUBE] [/YOUTUBE] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eracer_Team Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 I've noticed that an amp's sound is also determined by the speaker that its connected to as well. I like my mod'd VJ with the 2x12 British Lead 80's, I like my amp with a 4x12 V30.. but I really don't like the sound of my VJ with a 1x12 Greenback I have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m-theory Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 The speaker is the single most important link in your signal chain, truth be told. Nothing will make a more dramatic difference in tone than a speaker swap. Interesting to see that Soldano is now jumping into the consumer amp market, but not all that shocking, I suppose, when you consider that this is where the growth in the market seems to have been for the past 5 years. I'm sure they'll do just as well as the others, although anytime somebody claims 20 watts from a pair of 6bq5 tubes, I get a tad suspicious. They're either lying or they're pushing them beyond their limits. The youtube clip wasn't much to write home about. Too bad the guy insisted on "room level," instead of letting those power tubes grind. The demo sounded no different than a typical distortion pedal. Face to face, with the amp cranked, would be the only way to really test drive it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaxHart85231281734137 Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 The speaker is the single most important link in your signal chain' date=' truth be told. Nothing will make a more dramatic difference in tone than a speaker swap. Interesting to see that Soldano is now jumping into the consumer amp market, but not all that shocking, I suppose, when you consider that this is where the growth in the market seems to have been for the past 5 years. I'm sure they'll do just as well as the others, although anytime somebody claims 20 watts from a pair of 6bq5 tubes, I get a tad suspicious. They're either lying or they're pushing them beyond their limits. The youtube clip wasn't much to write home about. Too bad the guy insisted on "room level," instead of letting those power tubes grind. The demo sounded no different than a typical distortion pedal. Face to face, with the amp cranked, would be the only way to really test drive it. [/quote'] yea im not the bigest tube expert but my blackheart 5 watter has 1 12ax7 and 1 el84, and what is odd to me is that the new vox ac4tv says its a 4 watter, but i think its only got one 12ax7? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaxHart85231281734137 Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 aahhhhh i knew i was missing something! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swoop Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 Whatever happened with the Marshall Class 5 their 5 watt combo? The Class 5 is available. I know my local chain has it' date=' so I would expect most US stores to have it too. But at $900NZ, it can stay in the store. I was recently in the market for a small tube amp myself. I have a Peavey Classic 50 410 which is my main amp, but of course it weighs in at nigh on 40kg, and it's generally quite large, so taking it anywhere is a bit of a chore. And obviously it's quite loud. I explored the Valve Junior, but found it to be a piece of crap. No offence to those of you who like them, but I'm not a fan. And I did, of course, ponder the popular ones, like the BlackHeart BH5, and the BlackStar HT5. But again, they're a bit expensive, $700NZ - $800NZ for a small tube amp is a bit much in my opinion. I then came across the Laney Cub10, which basically met all my criteria. It's a 10W all tube amp with a 10" speaker. It has two 12AX7s and two 6V6GTs, which makes it a little different to my Peavey, with EL84s, but it's nice to have a slightly different tonal option. It's also a proper push pull tube configuration like bigger amps, which also impressed me. Pretty much all the other little tube amps are single ended. The speaker is also nice, a Celestion. Ok, it's a Chinese Celestion, but that's still better than a lot of the other Chinese drivers that go into similar small amps. The cabinet too, really is an open back. It's covered entirely by a metal grille, there's no wood there at all, so it probably projects itself more than a VJ or similar, which is what you want in your bedroom or home, or wherever. Don't get me wrong though, its well made. About the only thing they skimped on are the corner plates, which are plastic rather than metal, but that's nothng. It's a fantastic looking amp too. I love the angle speaker grille. The controls are very simple, and I prefer their position, on top of the cabinet, not on the front like a VJ. It has a tone control for EQ, so not quite as fancy as a BlackHeart or BlackStar with their full EQ, but really it's all you need on a small practice amp, and it's very responsive. It has a Gain control, and a Volume control. Another nice feature are the two inputs (or is it output, I can never remember?), Hi and Lo. The Hi input is like the drive channel I guess, plug into that and you can really wail. The Lo input is attenuated to about 50% of the gain of the Hi input, so it's great for cleaner stuff, and just a bit of overdrive. Set the gain on about 3 and crank the volume up to about 6 or more and you get that nice sort of subtle crunch of drive. Plus, dual inputs mean you can jam along with a mate if you want which, to me, is kind of part of the purpose of an amp like this. It's the kind of thing you can throw in your car before heading to your mates place on a Friday night to have a few beers and play some guitar on the porch. And, at just 8kg, the Laney is perfect. It's oh so light. You can snatch up your guitar case in one hand, and the Laney in the other, and away you go. The best thing though was the price, just $400NZ. Excellent value for money, that's about $30NZ more than a VJ, and a lot better. Excuse my long post, here's some visuals to alance out the wall of text. [img']http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj91/mk2maniac/Cub1001.jpg[/img] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaxHart85231281734137 Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 Swoooooop my man, that was long but very informative, I like what you had to say, but can you do me this favor.......... show me her guts man, I wana see what makes her tick!!!! the deal is i have a blackheart BH5, but and I would like to buy another small tube amp combo to turn into a head, like make my own head cab for it and what not, but this looks like a good candidate I was also thinkn about the fender champion 600, yall got any opinions on those? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swoop Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 If you don't want to modify it, then I wouldn't worry about the internals. It'll just be PCB stuff like a Valve Junior. The head comes away from the combo cabinet by removing the speaker lead and a few screws, also like a Valve Junior. Easy enough to fit it into your own box. I think it'd be cooler to make a little stack out of it though, make up single 110 cabinet in the same style, with the same kind of vinyl covering and aesymmetrical grille shape. But of course, I can see why you want to use it as a head, then you can plug it into all manner of speakers. I actually plugged my Laney into the speakers in my Peavey, four 10" Blue Marvels. It sounded very nice indeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drdos Posted December 6, 2009 Author Share Posted December 6, 2009 Really nice Laney there Swoop.. Congrats Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tgifntx Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 The speaker is the single most important link in your signal chain' date=' truth be told. Nothing will make a more dramatic difference in tone than a speaker swap. [/quote'] ABSOLUTELY! :- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twanger Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 I stopped by banjo shack today to check out the JCA20H that is a Soldano design. I must say that I am impressed! It's simple, straightforward and inexpensive. Best of all it sounds amazingly good. I tried it out with a 2x12 cab made by Egnator. It's a personal preference but I figure If I'm going to use an amp head I want to power at least a 2x12 cab otherwise I'd wait for the combo. Unfortunately, I didn't have a lot of time to run it through it's paces. Stil, I was able to quickly dial up very good sounds om this thing. Liking rock and blues like I do I was very interested in the clean to early breakup tones. They're in there! I put the master up to about 7 and started with the gain at about 1 with the tone controls all set straight up and the presence was between 6 & 7. Great tone to start. After a little noodling I took the mid control down to between 3 & 4 and I was right about where I wanted to be tone wise. Next I dialed down the master to about 3 and cranked the gain up to about 9. Wow! If distortion can be said to be smooth then this was it. I took the master up to about 5 and it remained smooth and it was pretty clear that 20 watts was going to deliver adequate playing volume for gigs. It looks like after the holiday madness is past I'll be picking up a new amp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.