What a cracker! Budget single channel valve amp recommendations please

paulnb57

So, currently I have an Ampmaker WF55 single channel 4w valve amp and I love it to bits, however its not really gig-able.............any recommendations for a Single channel valve amp about 20w pref with tone stack/master volume for about 300 beer tokens? Something used is fine...learn me!.....
Cheers!

richardhomer

Used AC15 (can't remember what the letters after 'AC15' are).

I played one recently - very loud - great clean-moderate gain tones. New it was about £450 - so I'd assume £300ish used would be realistic.

digitalscream

Jet City JCA20HV?

£240 at Thomann.

ICBM

digitalscream said:

Jet City JCA20HV?

£240 at Thomann.

This. Simple, great-sounding, brilliant build quality - although you'd think they would have chosen one with the grille cloth on straight for the pic . But excellent where it counts.

newi123

^ that's what I gig, with an extra few quid spent on a replacement pair of el84s. Does a great job! 

fftc

Laney Cub 12?

Sorry, didn't realise it was a head you were after.

paulnb57

Not necessarily a head @fftc ;; would a Laney Cub 12 be pub giggable unmiked?

fftc

paulnb57 said:

Not necessarily a head @fftc ;; would a Laney Cub 12 be pub giggable unmiked?

Possibly. @Voxman might know more.

midlifecrisis

paulnb57 said:

Not necessarily a head @fftc ;; would a Laney Cub 12 be pub giggable unmiked?

i have gigged a cub 12 unmikes but not with the standard speaker. with a v30 or similar sensitive speaker it is fine for pubs as long as you dont want pure clean sounds

rico

My old bandmate used to gig a Laney LC15r unmiked - everything maxed, sounded sweet but in no way was it capable of a clean tone. 

paulnb57

Theres an 80's FenderChamp 12 for sale locally, any opinions?

simonk

ICBM said:

digitalscream said:

Jet City JCA20HV?

£240 at Thomann.

This. Simple, great-sounding, brilliant build quality - although you'd think they would have chosen one with the grille cloth on straight for the pic . But excellent where it counts.

Absolutely this. I snagged one recently from the classifieds and they're superb sounding things. I've been gigging it with the matching Jet City 1x12 cab and it makes an excellent rig. OK, I did upgrade the speaker but the stock Eminence is more than capable.

ICBM

paulnb57 said:

Theres an 80's FenderChamp 12 for sale locally, any opinions?

Not bad, but unlikely to be what you're looking for. The clean channel is great as you would expect from a Fender, the distortion channel is as terrible as you would expect from an 80s Fender with red knobs! They aren't a 12W amp either - that refers to the speaker size rather than the output power which is more like 10W, although that's not a big difference - so how much louder it would be than what you have, I'm not sure.

Voxman

fftc said:

paulnb57 said:

Not necessarily a head @fftc ;; would a Laney Cub 12 be pub giggable unmiked?

Possibly. @Voxman might know more.

The term 'pub gigable' is a bit vague to say the least and means different things to different people.  Things I'd like to try and get a bit more info on is the type of music you're playing, line up of your band, and some indication from you as to the size of venue/audience and what volumes you normally play at. 

My Cub12R has been upgraded with a Vintage 30 speaker which is 100dB sensitivity.  That's a lot louder than the budget Celestion Rocket 50 rated at 95dB that came stock when I bought mine.  The latest Cub's have HH speakers that are much better than the Rocket 50, but a Vintage 30 will still be louder.  I did a couple of you-tube demo's of my Cub 12R, straight with no effects - the volume levels in my den were pretty low! (Since the vids I've upgraded the stock Chinese tubes with hand-tested JJ tubes, which are a lot better) e.g.:



I've successfully used my Cub 12R for both rehearsals and un-miked pub gigging.  This was with a blues band, using both a conventional pedal board and a Vox Tonelab LE.  The volume levels were more than adequate with the amp set to clean.  With the Vintage 30, the 15w Cub is giving out the volume of a (circa) 25-30w class AB amp.  

I have a 40w Marshall JCM2000 DSL401. Before I upgraded the speaker (I've since put in a 100dB Celestion Classic Lead 80) the DSL401 was about the same volume as the Cub12R with the Vintage 30.  I've gigged the DSL401 live, open air, un-miked and it was only on about '6' on the clean channel - I used a 'straight' pedal board for that gig.  Here's a clip - I know its not the Cub, but it's very similar volume wise:



When a band I was with did an 'open-mike' at a pub in Archway, North London, the follow on players were so impressed with the Cub that that they asked me if they could play through it for their sets too.  Again, it had more than enough volume for that venue.  

My view on the Cub 12R is that this is a cracking little amp with a big sound (esp with a 100dB V30) and its more than capable of handling an average pub gig (I play classic rock & blues).   

paulnb57

Thanks for that @Voxman ;; amd everyome else!! Food for thought....

Voxman

Actually @paulnb57 ;, I ought to clarify with the 401 that it's a 2-channel amp.  This means you can get a bit more volume clean than with the Cub before it goes into distortion.  Single channel amps are more limited re clean volume but you can probably get away with th Cub 12R with a gain setting of 3-4 and then cranking up the volume, before you noticeably hear it breaking up.  It does also of course depend on your guitar.  You'll get cleaner tones with single coils eg Strat, but you won't get quite the volume of humbuckers.  However, it does mean you can increase the gain (and volume) before getting distorted.

Ooh - forgot to mention. One way you can get quite a bit more volume and clean headroom from an amp is to use an EQ (eg Boss GE-7) or clean boost pedal (e.g. BBE Boosta Grand) through the FX loop (NOT direct - as direct it can add gain)

Here's the Cub 12R with a strat:

paulnb57

Well, after some deliberation and little response from the classifieds Ive bought a new Jet City from Thomann...
Thanks to all who took the time to share experiences, it was a great help, just hope I like it!!

Now....which speaker(s)....... does this madness never end?....

ICBM

paulnb57 said:

Now....which speaker(s)....... does this madness never end?....

Celestion Creambacks - either the G12M-65 (warmer, more mids) the G12H-75 (clearer, more bass and treble) or best of all a 2x12" with one of each - outstanding, at least with my friend's JCA50 (haven't tried it with a 20).

V30s are not a great choice with these.

paulnb57

Thanks @ICBM, much appreciated....

digitalscream

Sorry to contradict @ICBM - while I don't have any hands-on experience with the JCA20HV, I know that a lot of people have used them to great effect with the V30. The HV has much more of a vintage voice which apparently works well; in fact, the cab Jet City made to go with them has a pair of V30s in it.

For the more modern Jet City amps, the G12M-65 sounds good, but my favourite speakers to go with them are the Eminence-branded Jet City speakers in their stock cabs.

paulnb57

Interesting....One mans fish, is another mans Poisson.....