Tube Amp recommendations

[HamishR]

Probably not very helpful but I think the Blues Junior is horrible. So are the cheaper Voxes. Just ghastly. If you can get your pedals to sound good through a Blues Junior that doesn't guarantee they will sound good through anything else either.

A used Hotrod or Blues Deluxe would be vastly better. The annoying thing is that small amps don't have to sound terrible but tend to because manufacturers want you to buy a more expensive amp so cheap out on the small ones. On any of the Fenders check out Psionic audio on Youtube for simple fixes to make them sound better and last longer. If you can make a pedal you can do some of his fixes as long as you learn how to drain filter caps.

 

[Erik S]

I’ve been real happy with it.

the Blues Junior is horrible.

Welcome to the internet.

I don't have a lot of amp experience, so I probably don't know what I'm missing in terms of nicer amps. Mine did come with a swapped speaker, so maybe the stock ones sound worse, not sure.

Interestingly, the only other amp I have a lot of recent experience with is a blues deluxe, and I hate it! HA!

My neighbor/ jam buddy has one. Sounds fine, but the volume control goes from -no sound, to - I need hearing protection without any middle ground. I certainly wouldn't want one for the quiet solo basement jamming I'm usually doing.

I'm not really out to defend the Blues Junior, but If you don't know any better you can have a good time with one.

 

[Joben Magooch]

Probably not very helpful but I think the Blues Junior is horrible. So are the cheaper Voxes. Just ghastly. If you can get your pedals to sound good through a Blues Junior that doesn't guarantee they will sound good through anything else either.

A used Hotrod or Blues Deluxe would be vastly better. The annoying thing is that small amps don't have to sound terrible but tend to because manufacturers want you to buy a more expensive amp so cheap out on the small ones. On any of the Fenders check out Psionic audio on Youtube for simple fixes to make them sound better and last longer. If you can make a pedal you can do some of his fixes as long as you learn how to drain filter caps.

I would echo this. Not a Blues Jr fan at all. If anything I’d sooner recommend the Pro Jr for a smaller fender.

 

[jwin615]

I'll throw another hat in the ring.
The Epiphone Valve Jr. 5W class A. 1 knob.
The epi cab/speaker is trash but if you can find the head alone and use your own can or swap out the speaker, can be decent. There are several documented mods documented for it as well. There's the Peavey Micro Valve which is the same/similar circuit. Additionally, the Peavey Valveking Royal 8.
All great if you can pick one up for $100 and don't mind tinkering.
If you want to mod, I would go that direction as the monoprice does have a decent amount of smd and the others are all through hole.

 

[Barry]

I have a Vox AC4TV, I use it mostly for harmonica, don't know that I would use it for testing pedals.

 

[Barry]

Small amps all sound slightly muffled to me, to really test a pedal I'd think you'd want an amp that really opens up. I use a twin reverb, just because that's what I have. I'm sure there are less pricey options.

Welcome to the internet.

I don't have a lot of amp experience, so I probably don't know what I'm missing in terms of nicer amps. Mine did come with a swapped speaker, so maybe the stock ones sound worse, not sure.

Interestingly, the only other amp I have a lot of recent experience with is a blues deluxe, and I hate it! HA!

My neighbor/ jam buddy has one. Sounds fine, but the volume control goes from -no sound, to - I need hearing protection without any middle ground. I certainly wouldn't want one for the quiet solo basement jamming I'm usually doing.

I'm not really out to defend the Blues Junior, but If you don't know any better you can have a good time with one.

Put a 100K pot in a small enclosure with 2 jacks and have your buddy put it in his effects loop, or he can buy one from JHS for $65.00! That'll tame that Blues Deluxe

 

[Giorfida]

One thing to remember- just because it has tubes, doesn’t mean it’s going to sound good (especially overdriven! )
Also different amps respond differently to drive pedals. The scooped bass heavy black/silver Fender based amps respond better to lower gain, and mid-focused pedals. Something mid-forward like a tweed fender or Marshall is going to sound better with flatter response pedals (but can also take mid boosted pedals decently as well)… but may not do as well clean.
Single ended amps (5w/single power tube), are going to sound completely different than ones with a push pull output, and there phase inverter types can make a difference. It’s why you can get serviceable crunch out of a deluxe reverb with a decent boost… but a cranked up Princeton sounds like a battle between a wet fart and a swarm of angry bees.


My suggestions which may be a bit different: if you want clean then Princetons are nice. They also sound great with pedals working as standalone distortion (not pushing the amp). You want that fender tone but a bit of crunch when pushed, then the Deluxe Reverb would be up your alley.
For more rock crunch and stacking drives, and you like Marshall/tweed type tones, the Fender Bassbreaker and Marshall Origin 20 are nice amps that can be found for cheap.
Then if you like the Vox sound, which is an outlier, I’d recommend the AC15, avoiding the AC10– especially if you are looking to boost it for “tube drive”, as the AC10 is hybrid design

If you want a good fender clean AND switchable tube crunch, don’t overlook the Fender SuperSonic 22. Not the cheapest, but can be found reasonably priced used if you keep your eyes open- they are great delivering true black panel fender cleans and fat crunch spanning the tweed-brown fender era (yes can sound Marshally as well)

Blackstar makes some fun little amps for a fair price, but like the new 5150 “iconic” line, they are more solid state than tube. In fact, I’ve had better luck finding better tube tone and feel with all solid state Peavey Transtube amps than some of the other budget tube amps

Just my opinion though. Use your ears and try a few!

 

[finebyfine]

I will echo the recommendations of the Monoprice amp (if you're in Europe Thomann sells the same amp rebadged under Harley Benton and it may be cheaper with shipping factored in). I have no experience with it but have done plenty of research on it and am surprised I don't own one yet. I would imagine there's decent used listings for them as well.

It's not full tube so it may not be the exact and or best sort of testing platform you're looking for but the Joyo Bantamp hybrid tube heads are absolutely killer too. They're the size of a small purse and are around $150-200. The attenuator I have for my tube amp is larger. I have their version modeled after the Orange Micro series (called the Meteor, and IMHO it's far better than either Orange hybrid head both in sound and features) and use the the clean channel with the gain set to what I think of as "warm clean"

I do also believe @Giorfida is right on the money and was about to type out similar sentiments before I saw the "a new message has been posted" as I was writing this.

 

[Guardians of the analog]

I know it's popular to buy something cheap and maybe do a speaker swap or mod it, but my experiences have never been positive buying cheap stuff. If you want to dip a toe in amp modding, repair or building I recommend getting something like an old silverface champ and recapping it. You will have a quality amp that will outlast you and should you ever decide to sell it you will turn a profit. That's what I did last year when I decided to replace the champ I regretted selling almost a decade ago. Or just buy the monoprice
https://forum.pedalpcb.com/threads/vintage-vibro-champ-restoration-wip-thread.19345/

 

[Coda]

JC-22…

 

[benny_profane]

JC-22…

Solid state?

 

[Coda]

Solid state?

The folks at Texas Instruments tell me it’s the future…

 

[pingpongcomputer]

I've got an Epiphone Valve Jr combo that I bought in the early 2000's and I've done many mods: Master volume with treble bleed, Bright/Dark or High/Low input cap toggle, bigger Nichicon power filter caps, Hammond 125ESE output transformer, 4, 8, 16ohm speaker taps, orange drop coupling caps, and other internal stuff that I don't remember specifically. It currently has a 60's Jensen alnico full range 8" speaker from a hifi console that's super bright unless you roll the tone control way down, but might be good for testing pedals, or I could switch back in the stock speaker. I would sell it for $150 + shipping, definitely less than the coast of parts, but all the mods were done years ago and I've had my fun with it so don't mind losing money.

 

[Giorfida]

The folks at Texas Instruments tell me it’s the future…

Works both ways: I still see people on Internet forums and Facebook spouting off a lot of “marketing BS” that started with a Guitar Player magazine article in the early 1990s where they compared like 25 amps, and of course the “this amp sounds better than the others, likely because it used unicorn mane hair as filament wire insulators” and so on— instead of the truth: “we are going to say this ampmsounds best because the builder paid us more than the others, and the only reason the unicorn hair that doesn’t affect the tone was used was because he bought 10 lifetimes supply from a store going out of business”.

True story: my first real amp was a Peavey Bandit. Loved it, but sold it to buy a “real tube amp” and I bought some odd year Carvin where the circuit was different than other years. My peavey sounded more tubelike- the cleans on that Carvin sounded more like a JC120 than the Fender Twin as they claimed… and the “tube distortion” sounded like a Boss DS-1 in front of said JC120. Sold that boat anchor quickly before going down thr road of classic amps and eventually building

 

[Diynot]

Done the blues jr route and get the “meh” reaction to it. It was nice, but nothing exceptional. Also had a deluxe for a hot minute and it was way too loud. If you can find one of the Fender Champ 600 reissues with a speaker cloth and speaker upgrade they are a great little option (very similar to the valve junior). They are easily moddable as well.

 

[jimilee]

I have a Blackstar HT-40 that’s pretty killer. I have a VOX AC4-C1 that’s just meh. My Princeton 68 reissue is great. My Blues Jr. is my go to. I have a Blues deluxe that’s great, it’s just kind of heavy. I have a Hotrod deluxe I’m working on modding right now; I have high hopes. So, it really just depends on what you’re playing and what you’re looking for. The Blackstar is a little more generic sounding, out of all of them.

 

[Giorfida]

I have a Blackstar HT-40 that’s pretty killer. I have a VOX AC4-C1 that’s just meh. My Princeton 68 reissue is great. My Blues Jr. is my go to. I have a Blues deluxe that’s great, it’s just kind of heavy. I have a Hotrod deluxe I’m working on modding right now; I have high hopes. So, it really just depends on what you’re playing and what you’re looking for. The Blackstar is a little more generic sounding, out of all of them.

I honestly think in their price point, the Blackstar amps are a lot of amp, and can cover pretty much anything most cover bands could want. May not be the “pure” hard driven output crunch etc, but they sound pretty good at all volumes. If I was gigging again, I’d likely be looking at them myself.

 

[benny_profane]

This initial question was about a cheap bench amp, right?

 

[darwin999]

Another option to think about is a tube preamp + a super-cheap solid-state power amp module - like https://www.pedalpcb.com/product/tpa3118m/ but with a volume control

 

[chris.knudson]

This initial question was about a cheap bench amp, right?

Correct. Trying to find a low-power, low-cost, and decent-sounding bench amp. I have amps for gigging. I'm just looking for something that I can have on my bench that is tube based, and that I can push into overdrive without waking up the neighbors.