A beginners guide...

Andy79

ok so I’ve used an acoustic for 20 years. Never even held an electric. Recently had the bug to get something going. I’ve nearly completed my partscaster project but need something to plug it into. 

Ideally I’m after lightnin Hopkins sound from the early 50s.
Like this

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1OaPsSHlsiU

Im a one trick pony player so I don’t need lots of varied sounds.
Now I do get it, he was probably using some holy grail fender amp that I’ll never own or need to own. 
BUT. Given a modest budget what could I look for on the used market to get close? 
For home use only so keep the wattage down. 
Thanks in advance for any and all advice 

ICBM

Bugera Vintage 5.

Probably the cheapest valve amp with reverb you can get, 5W, with master volume. (5W is too loud to crank a non-master amp up in the house.)

There's one on Ebay just now with a knob missing, but that's easily fixed.

Andy79

Thanks man. Who knows how you have accumulated the knowledge you have....

ICBM

Andy79 said:

Thanks man. Who knows how you have accumulated the knowledge you have....

33 years of being an obsessive geek working in guitar shops, mostly .

HAL9000

Rather more expensive, but the Roland Blues Cube Hot would probably give you what you're looking for.

Andy79

30w I fear will be too much for my situation 

ICBM

Andy79 said:

30w I fear will be too much for my situation 

Power is irrelevant actually - all that matters is whether it has a good master volume. A 100W amp wouldn't be too much if it has a good one - at least if you can physically make space for it. Although the sound you want is more of a small-amp sound.

ecc83

"Bugera Vintage 5." Naughty ICBM, naughty.

Ooops! Sorry I thought that was the HT-5 rip. Still, you can bet that is stolen from SOME poor sod?

Dave.

mbe

If your budget is low may I suggest a Peavey Blazer? 15 watts, reverb, 8" speaker and go for £30-40 on ebay.

EricTheWeary

There is a shed load of reverb on Lightning's electric sound so unless you also want to get into pedals get an amp with built in reverb. The examples given so far all have that. 
I'd guess that Hopkins himself used whatever was available which would have been small valve amps. Very much the amp as a make louder device rather than for some specific tone, I'd suggest. 

ICBM

ecc83 said:

"Bugera Vintage 5." Naughty ICBM, naughty.

Ooops! Sorry I thought that was the HT-5 rip. Still, you can bet that is stolen from SOME poor sod? 

Probably, but it's such a generic feature set - apart from the reverb - that it could be almost anyone...

It's the reverb that's unusual in that style of amp, and what makes it good for what the OP wants.

I'd have liked to recommend the HT-1R, but it doesn't have that sort of sound unfortunately - far too smooth and modern, even if you crank up the clean channel instead of the overdrive one.

Andy79

Thanks guys. Budget really isn’t the thing. Small size is more important. Plus I don’t want to spend £600 as it just won’t get the use. I don’t gig and still spend most time acoustic-ing. The Bugera does seem a great option. 
I do like ICBMs comment about not being limited to 3-5W as long as there is master volume. And after all I won’t be spending much time on harder volumes, I prefer cleaner tones for what I do. 
Would I really be better off spending an extra 300 on a Blues junior or whatever? Maybe not until I find my amp feet

ICBM

I wouldn’t spend £300 on a Blues Junior, let alone an *extra* £300.

You can pick them up second hand for about £250, which is about what they’re worth. (In my opinion.) Although they do at least sound better at low volume than high... 

Just to be clear, not all amps with master volumes are suitable - some MV circuits work much better than others - some go from off to too loud with a tiny turn of the control, and others sound poor at low settings. But if it’s a good one, it doesn’t matter if the amp is 1W or 100W.

Bear in mind that even a 1W amp will probably be too loud to crank up fully in a house with family members or thin walls.

oldfoxy

Andy79 said:

30w I fear will be too much for my situation 

The blues cubes have built in attenuation, there's a half watt setting

Andy79

I bought the eBay V5. Cost £87 to my door. Thanks ICBM, it’s right up my alley, sounds great. This is a demonstration of the benefits of this forum. Thanks for everyone’s input. In 3 months I’ll need talking down from blowing 1500 on a 50s tweed.