lucky Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 Has anyone heard or tried or have any experience at all with Palmer amps? I'm really GASsing for a new little valve amp and I've been oggling these for a while.. There's the little combo which is all valve down the rectifier (I've never used an amp with a valve rectifier so I'd be interested to know if it makes much difference?) with 3 different power options to allow the valves to be pushed at without waking the neighbours and it's a one hand carry combo which makes it very portable without a car [url="http://www.palmer-germany.com/mi/en/FAB-5-5W-All-Tube-Guitar-Combo-PFAB5.htm"]http://www.palmer-ge...Combo-PFAB5.htm[/url] Or there's the little 1w Eins head which would need a cab to go with it (Palmer offer a huge range of speakers in their cabs), but which has a choice of outputs so it could be DI'd or used a pedal etc etc whereas the FAB5 would have to be mic'd if I ever wanted to use it as more than a glorified practice amp [url="http://www.palmer-germany.com/mi/en/EINS-1-watt-all-tube-guitar-amplifier-PEINS.htm"]http://www.palmer-ge...ifier-PEINS.htm[/url] The majority of use will be home use and jamming sessions with a double bassist and another guitarist in a bluesy band, and I've got a couple of bigger amps should I need volume. So does one of them make sense or should I stop being silly and just haunt ebay for an old cornford or similar small (ish) valve amps for the same money? I know Blackstars are very popular but I'm not a huge fan, other than that all suggestions welcome Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ancient Mariner Posted April 12, 2015 Share Posted April 12, 2015 Palmer make some of the best speaker sims, so they seem to know tone. Valve rectifiers - they produce a slightly lower voltage compared to typical SS rectification, so depending on the power transformer used this may have a little less clean headroom. In a push-pull design they can cause a certain amount of sag when running hard compared to SS (although this is easily simulated in SS) but single ended amps don't sag because the single ended design is always running at full current, even when silent. If you want a small amp then by all means try one if possible. Also look at the vox AC4, Marshall class 5 (if it's still made) Laney Lionheart series and anything by bad cat and VHT. A used Univalve might be nice. Consider also something like a WF55 kit amp from www.ampmaker.com. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ancient Mariner Posted April 12, 2015 Share Posted April 12, 2015 Just listened through the first demo clip of that amp. I know the speaker they use too - I have a Ragin Cajun in a Pignose G40V (like a tiny Fender bassman in a practice amp sized 1X10 combo - it'll shake the floor). The amp sounds fairly typical single ended - does nice cleans, can get a little fat, gets congested when overdriven instead of giving a solid crunch. They've done good work on tonal optimisation, so the congestion isn't bad, and the speaker really helps here too, being quite bright and crisp (and VERY loud for a 10"). The attenuation is nice (wonder if they've used a variable voltage circuit?) if it's been done well. It might be the player, but that amp didn't really sing for me. A lot will depend on what you want in a small amp Check out these demos of the Marshall class 5: http://www.harmonycentral.com/forum/forum/guitar/acapella-28/1459205- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwi Posted April 13, 2015 Share Posted April 13, 2015 These came up in my own research. They came highly recommended on various review sites and Youtube. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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