Well, you already mentioned the Laney stuff. And they are my personal favourites, the LC15, LC15R and VC15 are all really great amps. Great for anything and everything. I know Crate also make the V58, thats a 5-watt class A tube combo. If you a low-wattage tube head, the Zvex Nano is awesome! Thats half a watt.

 

The Crate, with a single preamp tube, basically HAS to have some significant solid state assist to get the sort of gain it can produce, but I was actually very pleasantly surprised by the one I played. One volume, one gain, one "tone," but the resulting sounds were actually quite useable in most positions.

Run it into a proper speaker cab (the 8" isn't bad, but, well, it's an 8") and it'd probably be a pretty seriously cool low-wattage amp. I'm with you, smaller amps sound a bit rounder and "spongier" to my ears, and I dig that. I'd kill for a good high gain three channel head running 10 watts.

 

Crate (as mentioned) as well as Epiphone.

 

The Crate VC-508 has an op-amp before a 12ax7 for pre-amp gain, but from the sound clips I've heard it doesn't sound bad at all.

Here are some clips I found:

http://www.guitarnuts.com/amps/vc508/index.php

 

Sheldon amps all the way, the do a 1watt model which is a tone machine, Cornford amps do a brilliant 6watt model too. These are both class A or A/B amps.

 

Here's another one (from harmony-central):

Mesa Subway rocket (20 watt 1x10" combo)

4x 12ax7
2x el84
2 channels 3 modes.
1 clean
2 overdrive
3 overdive + contour (this sweeps the mids so you have more of a metal sound)

each channel has gain and vol.
treble, bass, mid, presence are shared by both channels.
channel selctor switch, standby and powerswitch

on the back is a speaker mute, a fxloop (mono) and 1 8ohm output and 2 4ohm outputs. there is also a record/headphones output wich can be used as a recording out or to connect to the pa.

 

VHT and Cornford both have killer combos.

 

Vox AC15, Dr Z do things like 5 watt tube amps, Gibson GA15, Fender Princeton at 20 watts, THD do some stupendously good low wattage amps - millions of 'em! An old tweed Fender Champ (5 bone crushing watts!) with a P90 equipped guitar is tone to die for!

 

I've bought three "no-names" off the 'bay. All of these are Fender Champ
derivatives, PtP hand wired, ranging from 10-22 watts. One was a little
combo with an unlacquered tweed cabinet, the other two were naked
heads (no cabinet). All were in the <$200 range. They all sound great,
but none have any bells/whistles (equalization, reverb, tremolo, etc).
If you don't care about the sticker on the grille, there are a lot of possibilities
out there, for pretty cheap $.

 

1/2 watt, 2 watt and 8 watts, build it yourself - http://www.guytronix.com/

 

There is also the AX84.com Firefly project (1/2 watt). This was the only 1 watt and under amp that I could find that sounds like it has a decent amount of gain. The definition of 'hi-gain' seems to vary depending on who you ask

Thanks all, I've procrastinated at work for several hours already looking all these amps up.

I might give one of the DIY amps a shot.

 

I only have 3 tube amps and they are all low watts, I would suggest either of them
1)Orange AD30 HTC 15 watt head
2) Epiphone Valve Jr 5 watt head, and cheap
3) 1964 Fender Princeton (possibly an early Boogie) Modded - 15 watt combo, probably not too easy to find another one, but I had to list it since it's a low watt tube amp.

 

How do you like the Epiphone Valve Jr. head? how does it sound? what kind of cab do you have hooked up??

 

I have been looking for more info on it too actually. I have a Marshall 2 x 12 cab that I think it would go lovely with. All it has is 1 single volume knob, nothing else. So its pretty basic. But I bet it sounds great cranked-up with a few pedals in front of it.

 

There is a Hughes and Kettner 20watt combo

 

I think I'm just going to get one and try it. For $100.00 why not. I have a 2x12 cab that I'm waiting to use too.

 

For $100 you can't go wrong, I haven't gotten to really work it out yet (it just came in 2 days ago), but I would reccomend it to anyone who wants an inexpensive tube head or a low watt head. I have used it with my Marshall 4X12 and it's plenty loud, I am building a 1X10 for it though so I'll let you know how that sounds. They seem to be easy to mod too, so I plan on giving that a try.

 

My $100 rides on the upcoming reviews.

 

I'm curious about this Epiphone Valve Jnr head too. I have a solid state Kustom KGA65 which has a 12 inch Celestion speaker in it. Would I be able to use the Epiphone head with this amp's speaker (bypass the amp part of the Kustom), use the Epiphone as a power amp (just a clean dry signal) and use my Zoom G7.1ut essentially as a pre-amp?

I want to get more into a tube setup but the budget prohibits currently. I could however probably afford to buy one of these Epiphone things.

 

I would imagine you could run the VJ into the Kustom speaker, but without knowing anything about the Kustom, I couldn't say for sure. As for using the Zoom as a pre amp, I don't think you could unless you hooked the Zoom up like a pedal. The VJ is a very basic amp. One input 3 speaker outs for different Ohm values, a power switch and a Volume knob. Still for $100 nothing else touches it.

 

I'm curious about this Epiphone Valve Jnr head too. I have a solid state Kustom KGA65 which has a 12 inch Celestion speaker in it. Would I be able to use the Epiphone head with this amp's speaker (bypass the amp part of the Kustom), use the Epiphone as a power amp (just a clean dry signal) and use my Zoom G7.1ut essentially as a pre-amp

That should not be a problem. The Valve Jr. has a switch for 4, 8, or 16 ohms. Just set it right for the speaker and you may have to disconnect the speaker from the Kustom and make up an input jack of some kind to go direct to the speaker.

 

It's actually a separate output jack, not a switch, but it's the same idea, just plug into the correct output for the speaker.

 

Doesn't sound like it would really work for me then. Oh well, thanks for your help all anyway, sorry for the highjack.

 

How about the ValveKing Royal 8? EL84 output and 12AX7 preamp tubes, 5 watts, 8" speaker. http://www.peavey.com/products/brow...ction/detail/item/116552/number/00585110/cat/308/begin/1/ValveKing?+Royal+8.cfm

 

I have been really wanting to get one of these. You have to put it together though, but it's a pretty decent price.

http://www.torresengineering.com/newintintons.html

 

The royal eight is looking good to me!