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Recommend me a small tube combo


Wil
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C.Agnew tele through one of the tweed amps.
[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqtjvnuwxQk&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqtjvnuwxQk&feature=related[/url]

Compare it with the real thing here:
[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZarU0Z4SgE"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZarU0Z4SgE[/url]

The C.agnew sounds harsh to my ears.

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In the flesh, the Agnew is a lot sweeter than it sounds on the demo. I wouldn't argue though that that Agnew Gtr and amp will not be quite as good as a decent Fender Tele and a Fender Blackface Champ.

The Fender set up would probably cost at least four times more than the Agnew set up tho.

I reckon the Agnew Champ is a seriously nice little amp tho and a simple Jensen alnico speaker and valve upgrade would probably sweeten it up even more and still be only quarter the price of a real Blackface Champ.

If I could afford it I would take the real deal anytime of course!

Edited by Bassnut62
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Small tube combo = AC30. Nah, never, not in a billion years. I had a 1964 AC30 and had to reluctantly sell it as it was far too loud for home use to get THAT tone
Fortunately I also managed to bag myself an ebay bargain £293 AC15 CC1X before Christmas :D and I'm still wearing the stupid GAS grin now! It's fabulous and works extremely well with my Strat, Tele, Les Paul and even Burns Double 6. It's incredibly versitile and because it's the 'X' version = has Celestion Blue as opposed to those dreadful, dull as ditchwater Greenback things, it has oodles of THAT tone at sensible volumes. Ironically now that I've got the tone I want I don't seem to be playing that quietly either, but still have bags of room on the Vol & Top Boost chicken heads to go! Yes, I'm probably a Vox snob, but if you ain't heard a Vox with Blues, you just ain't heard the Vox tone.

Edited by kristinaelias
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Well, the AC30 arrived, and man, it's heavy! But, it has a master volume, and it sounds damn fine at low volumes to me. Better than any amp I've ever played though, that's for sure! Very responsive.

It's looking more and more likely that I'll be playing guitar in a band situation soon, so I'm looking forward to cranking this thing up!

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Re the Fender Super Champ demo above.
I reckon we at comparing chalk and cheese....
The Fender Tele is actually a G&L Asat Special which is very different from the Tele Deluxe with HBs clone in the Agnew demo.

Fender Champ sounds like it is pegged back for a cleaner and sweeter tone and it is being driven by those incredible and very powerful G&L MFD overwound single coil pups. Whereas the Agnew is at full blast saturation fuzz levels and driven by clone humbuckers. No comparison I reckon.

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To be fair, the sound on those Agnew / Superchamp vids is pretty awful. I'm sure they both sound lovelier in the flesh. In any case a Tweed Champ is a seriously different beast to a Superchamp - circuits here:

[url="http://www.stratopastor.org.uk/strato/amps/twoseriesfenders/super_champ_schematic.jpghttp://www.classictubeamps.com/Champ%20A.JPG"]http://www.stratopastor.org.uk/strato/amps/twoseriesfenders/super_champ_schematic.jpg[/url]
[url="http://www.stratopastor.org.uk/strato/amps/twoseriesfenders/super_champ_schematic.jpghttp://www.classictubeamps.com/Champ%20A.JPG"]http://www.classictubeamps.com/Champ%20A.JPG[/url]

The Superchamp may indeed cost 4 times more than the Agnew but one (possible) justification is that it's got 5,887 more components and eighteen miles more wire. But which sounds better is very much a matter of taste and preference.

For example, I love the 'Tweed' sound on record, but it always seems very muddy 'in the room', which is how I've (thankfully) avoided laying out silly money on those occasions when the Tweed GAS has struck.

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Anyone else think that the Fender Excelsior amp, just launched at NAMM, might be just the ticket? (Going back to the thread meaning [size=2]small[/size], not AC30 [size=6]small[/size]) 14w and 15" with multi-imputs for 'instrument', 'mic' and 'accordian'? Youtube have a couple of demos up already. As a guitarist who wants to learn bass I'm getting rather hot under the collar about the potential of this amp to get that oldschool P sound. What do you think, am I dreaming and just having another GAS attack?

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That's what I'm trying to establish, can/should it be used for bass. The 15" and multi application (in terms of inputs) seems to imply it might. Oh did I mention it also has built in tremolo? I know we're talking home use only here given the 14w, but that's all I'm looking for right now, just with valve tone. Someone at NAMM read this and go and find out for me! Ta :)

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Xb18o1FcsI&feature=player_embedded"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Xb18o1FcsI&feature=player_embedded[/url]

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  • 4 weeks later...

[quote name='umph' timestamp='1330222316' post='1554374']
avoid the blues juniors they tend to explode
[/quote]

They do not tend to explode. They sound good, but I think there are better amps out there. I had a Blues Jr for a few years and it was great. I currently have a Marshall JCM800 combo and a power brake to quieten it down a touch.

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[quote name='JimBobTTD' timestamp='1330242714' post='1554414']
They do not tend to explode. They sound good, but I think there are better amps out there. I had a Blues Jr for a few years and it was great. I currently have a Marshall JCM800 combo and a power brake to quieten it down a touch.
[/quote]

i've had to fix alot of them, they bias the output valves far to high and the speaker isn't really up to the job

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[quote name='Wil' timestamp='1326282159' post='1494806']
The Peavey Classic 30 looks like a good bet - well priced, sounds decent, good size. Looks pretty cool too!

I've been watching a few amp demos on youtube and it hasn't really helped - my favourite tones so far have been produced by the Vox AC30, and those are a few hundred over my budget at least even used.
[/quote]

They are real nice amps for the money

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This? [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HiWatt-Amp-T20-Watt-Tube-Seres-All-Valve-Guitar-Combo-Amplifier-12-Fane-/300668186942?pt=UK_MusicalInstr_Amplifiers_RL&hash=item460138713e"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HiWatt-Amp-T20-Watt-Tube-Seres-All-Valve-Guitar-Combo-Amplifier-12-Fane-/300668186942?pt=UK_MusicalInstr_Amplifiers_RL&hash=item460138713e[/url]

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There are a few Marshall 1W amps, and there's also the Orange Micro/Tiny Terror. Neither are combos, but you can buy a small speaker from Orange (the PPC108) for 100$. So it would be the same (for the Micro and the 108) as a 350$ combo amp, but with the option of hooking up a more powerful speaker if needed. :D

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  • 3 weeks later...

Quick resurrect on this thread.

My acoustic guitar strumming buddy decided he wanted a small tube amp. Roadtrip to a couple of stores and this is what we found:

Orange Tiny Terror head - Loud, middly. Tone controls didn't seem to do much. Low power setting a bit uninspiring. OK, but a bit milktoast. Wobbly mains socket on a new bit of kit?

Dark Terror head - Supposedly one for the metallers (Is it? I dunno). Oh, we liked this. Nice and crunchy, loud, no clean headroom to speak of. But if you were buying this, you wouldn't need clean headroom. One trick pony, but it's a good trick, Sally.

Blackstar 5R combo - Disappointing. So-called ISF control (sweeps from British sound to US) didn't seem to do much. Quite muddy. Uninspiring reverb. Nasty break-up when maxed. 5 watts can sound very loud, but the Blackstar's 5 watts didn't. Son, I am disappoint.

Vox Night Train - Versatile. Nice spitty bright channel, nice roar on gain channel. Tone controls actually do something. Sounds good when dropped to low power. Claims to deliver Vox chime > thunderous OD. Well, [i]almost[/i]. A pleasant surprise given the toastery looks and crap advertising.

One thing that's very clear is that these amps sound nothing like they do on the mfrs youtube vids. Miking is critical, they say. ;)

The next stage will be to check out (maybe) a Marshall Class 5, a small Peavey and a Marshall Haze 15 watter.

I shall keep you posted.

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