Low watt amps for home use - 1 watt or less

vincechu89

algroves1 said:

When I get home tonight I'll put a video up of my Marshall JMP1H running through a single G12H30 at home, on the 0.1watt setting.  I bought it specifically for when I lived in an apartment and it beat out my Badcat, Dr Z and Single Rectifier for home playing.

Thanks this will be really helpful - I've looked at amps by the brands you mentioned and some of them sound great on youtube but are so pricey. I am hoping the Marshall I ordered will be OK, but the JTM only has barebones controls...

Exorcist

I've also been through a bunch of amps for home/bedroom use, and for what its worth - I kept a palmer eins (1 watt head) and a Egnator tweaker 15 - its 15 watts but the master volume is great and easily gets as quiet as the one watt without sounding crap. For perspective, I have a 4 watt Fuchs that was WAY too loud for home. So its not just the wattage that makes a difference. I'm still on the look out for a more 'boutique' home amp, but I really don't need one. Believe it or not, The egnator through a 4x12 greenback loaded cab at LOW volumes sounds amazing. I tend to use it clean with various dirt pedals, but it does medium gain well, and takes a cranked TS (bad monkey) better than any amp I have played through. The Palmer, although great sounding, just sits in the box, as the tweaker does it all with more options... I can even noodle through this rig, while my daughter is asleep in the next room, or with the door open and chatting to my wife and daughter while the 3yo gets her bath across the landing.

ICBM

Exorcist said:

I've also been through a bunch of amps for home/bedroom use, and for what its worth - I kept a palmer eins (1 watt head) and a Egnator tweaker 15 - its 15 watts but the master volume is great and easily gets as quiet as the one watt without sounding crap. For perspective, I have a 4 watt Fuchs that was WAY too loud for home. So its not just the wattage that makes a difference. I'm still on the look out for a more 'boutique' home amp, but I really don't need one. Believe it or not, The egnator through a 4x12 greenback loaded cab at LOW volumes sounds amazing. I tend to use it clean with various dirt pedals, but it does medium gain well, and takes a cranked TS (bad monkey) better than any amp I have played through. The Palmer, although great sounding, just sits in the box, as the tweaker does it all with more options... I can even noodle through this rig, while my daughter is asleep in the next room, or with the door open and chatting to my wife and daughter while the 3yo gets her bath across the landing.

This, exactly.

The power of the amp is actually irrelevant, it's the taper of the controls and whether they affect the tone at very low settings that matters. (Apart from physical size, anyway.) It's often easier to get a better sound *quieter* out of a big amp with a good MV than a small amp with a bad one. [/stuck record]

Fretwired

Yamaha THR10C ... I own two 5w valve amps and they are loud .. 1 watt won't deliver the tone you want IMHO. This video explains why:




Yamaha THR10C in action: