Belated NAD!
So, as some of you will know, I moved to Adelaide from the UK about a year ago and had to leave all my gear behind. I've managed to get three guitars over here, but I have been surviving using a Boss MicroBR and some PC speakers to give me any kind of electrified noise.
I recently bought a
Valvetone Uniwatt, and a
Jet City 1X12 so I could actually hear it.
Valvetone are an Australian brand; read more here:
http://valvetone.com.au/
I wanted a small, all valve amp to try and get back into practising with amplification, and also to get a bit more of an understanding as to what valve amps can really do in terms of feel and response. I really wanted to get something with good credentials as I really haven't owned many nice amps over the 20+ years I have been playing. Valvetone amps are all point to point wired.
I tried a few amps out in shops, but the range is limited in Adelaide and Australian prices are onerously high so I started searching the web for clips and came across an Australian forum based on guitar gear:
www.guitargear.net.au
After doing some research I decided to go for a Valvetone Uniwatt.
Amp Specs:
ValveTone Uniwatt
Output Power: 1.3W @ 4Ω, 1.0W @ 8Ω, 0.6W @ 16Ω
Valve Complement: 1 x 6T10, 1 x 12AX7. Also includes a spare 6T10.
Bias Type: Cathode bias.
Just to be clear; this is a naked chassis with fixing bolts. There is no cabinet supplied. I don't know about the rest of the products they produce.
Build quality is extremely good and the controls feel smooth but sturdy.
In terms of tone, this amp will go from glassy cleans to dirty grit, probably something around the Slash's Appetite for Destruction tones. There is a gain switch which acts as a gain cut in the up position to give usable clean headroom and more dirt in the lower position, with the middle being normal I guess
It is pretty hard to get a bad or unusable sound out of this amp and it is very responsive to changes in pick up and guitar. It probably favours strats and singles on the cleaner settings, but it is possible to get a nice clean sound from a les paul.
On the dirtier settings this amp is a real joy to play with les paul or with humbuckers in general and it gives up some seriously good tones.
It won't do really heavy stuff without a boost, but I understand that it takes pedals well.
I find myself playing on cleaner settings a lot more than I used to with this amp. It is just a joy to plug into.
The speaker is good. It is well made and the option to make it a semi open back gives a little more scope to play with the sound. Not much more to say about that really.
The bottom line for me is this is one of the best I've played and I would no hesitate to buy another. If you are in Australia and need a low wattage pratice amp you really ought to be checking these guys out.
And now some clips:
Clean
http://youtu.be/zYoeksuCQO0
Dirty
http://youtu.be/Q96xzLlmOqA
Dirty (with beer)
http://youtu.be/vNY0Yv5jIAc
