Low wattage tube amp recomendations.

Rotti · #1 02-08-2007, 02:45 PM

Anyone have any suggestions for good low wattage (12-25 watt range) tube amps that are reasonably priced? The amp would be used for playing live gigs in small clubs with a mic in front of the amp. Music styles are blues, rock, classic rock and some old school heavy metal every now and then.

voodoo_child · #2 02-08-2007, 02:54 PM

2nd hand mesa F30? They arent cheap here, but I presume they are reasonably priced in Canada?

Rotti · #3 02-08-2007, 03:00 PM

Thanks I'll look into it.

Xerack · #4 02-08-2007, 03:08 PM

You might check out Satriani's new amp:

http://www.***************.com/item--i-PEV-JSXMINI.html

not quite as many watts as you were looking for, but sounds like this might be a very cool little amp!

Cheers,
Xerack

Xerack · #5 02-08-2007, 03:09 PM

haha..oops, didn't realize that would happen. The link was from american musical supply ; ).

Xerack

the.godfather · #6 02-08-2007, 03:45 PM

Do a forum search, low wattage tube amps have been discussed alot in the last year.

Laney LC15, LC15R, VC15
Peavey Valveking Royal 8
Ibanez Valbee

For a low wattage tube amp, its Laney all the way for my money.

pawel · #7 02-08-2007, 08:07 PM

The new Mesa Express would be an interesting one to look at as well. If you wanted to move up in price range, the Suhr Badger seems very cool, considerably more expensive than the other recommendations though.

**elcid** · #8 02-08-2007, 08:17 PM

Im with godfather, search the forums.
Personally I like my orange AD30

David McCarroll · #9 02-08-2007, 09:05 PM

If money is not an object you may want to have a look at the smaller Cornfords. Marshall also do a thing which appears to be called an 18watt Handwired (catchy eh?) which would be a little spanker - cute too, but not exactly budget!

Rotti · #10 02-08-2007, 10:37 PM

Well money is always an issue unfortunately. I'm just looking for things out of the ordinary that I might not have heard of.

Kontalonis · #11 02-09-2007, 12:44 AM

Dunno if you need dual channel, but carvin has a pretty nice single channel 16 watt amp. You can also switch it down to 5 watts. It comes with a celestion V30 stock and has a great vintage look:

It will run you about 430 shipped which i didn't think was that bad.

Rotti · #12 02-09-2007, 01:09 AM

Now thats cool! I'll look into that for sure.

**jim777** · #13 02-09-2007, 09:40 AM

Don't throw rocks or anything, but the 5 Watt Epiphone Valve Jr. is $100 bucks, and sound pretty good on a 4x12 cabinet! There ae lots of mods out there for them as well, so you can customize it for yourself down the road if you get a little bored of it. It actually might be perfect for the kind of music you want to play through it, and leaves you $$ room for an EQ or a speaker upgrade or whatever if you want.

Rotti · #14 02-09-2007, 12:55 PM

Hmm, I know someone locally who has two Marshal 4x10 cabs with Celestians for sale cheap. Maybe two Valve Jr. heads and those two cabs would be an interesting setup.

riggaz · #15 06-26-2007, 01:45 PM

I recently bought a laney lc15r and did a couple of mods, i put some new cryo valves and a jensen p10r alnico speaker in and it has transformed it touch sensitive with crystal clear highs and a lovely sweet tone, it sounds amazing, might not be ballsy enough for a gig on it's own but with a decent mic should be cool. I would try and find a good 30 watt'er preferably with 2 x 10" or 2 x 12" drivers in it, great for practice / recording and will kick on at a gig. If you can afford it and feel like having something special modify it with some new cryo valves and a couple of jensen p10r / p10q for 2 x 10" or Celestion G12 Century Vintage speakers for a 2 x 12" at 101db per watt these go loud but they also sound superb.