Really REALLY great small amps for home use?

stickyfiddle

Very much in thinking-aloud territory here, but humour me...

I currently have a Fender Mustang 1 and a Mesa Express 5:25. Both are excellent at what they do but I'm finding I hardly ever use either of them, not least because neither are handsome enough to live in the living room, but mostly because the Jamup app does modelling better than the Mustang and the Mesa is still really fucking loud for an apartment, even on 5W.

It's a nightmare getting big heavy stuff in and out of the country, but if there was a way, what amp should I replace these with? Ideally I'd be looking for:

-Low wattage. Maybe up to 15 with an exceptionally good master vol and/or attenuation

-Voxy chimy cleans

-Blackface-type drive if possible

-Pretty looking

-Doesn't need to be giggable, DOES need to sound really really excellent at low volume

I must admit there is a part of me thinking "Fuck it, get a Laney VC15 and a new bigger & posh looking cab from Zilla to rehouse it together with a Celestion Blue and an L-pad", but that feels like a bit outlay for "only" a VC15, even though I know I really like them.

Equally, even if I could get a really chunky amount of cash for the Mesa as they're rare out here, that won't get me into Carr Mercury/Skylark territory. What else is there available that would work well for this situation?

digitalscream

Personally, I say do it my way - run a cheap second-hand Eleven Rack (around £300 - £350) into your hi-fi.

chrishill901

Not just because I'm selling one but the Egnater Rebel 20 is a good option. 20w but switchable to 1w, Gorgeous cleans that have that EL84 chimyness to them (as long as you put the output valve knob totally to EL84) and great drive. Very vintage sounding. Not sure if its blackface sounding, not sure what the drive on a blackface sounds like. And it is diddy. And giggable. Im almost talking myself out of selling!

smigeon

Carr Viceroy

guitarfishbay

stickyfiddle said:

Very much in thinking-aloud territory here, but humour me...

I currently have a Fender Mustang 1 and a Mesa Express 5:25. Both are excellent at what they do but I'm finding I hardly ever use either of them, not least because neither are handsome enough to live in the living room, but mostly because the Jamup app does modelling better than the Mustang and the Mesa is still really fucking loud for an apartment, even on 5W.

It's a nightmare getting big heavy stuff in and out of the country, but if there was a way, what amp should I replace these with? Ideally I'd be looking for:

-Low wattage. Maybe up to 15 with an exceptionally good master vol and/or attenuation

-Voxy chimy cleans

-Blackface-type drive if possible

-Pretty looking

-Doesn't need to be giggable, DOES need to sound really really excellent at low volume

I must admit there is a part of me thinking "Fuck it, get a Laney VC15 and a new bigger & posh looking cab from Zilla to rehouse it together with a Celestion Blue and an L-pad", but that feels like a bit outlay for "only" a VC15, even though I know I really like them.

Equally, even if I could get a really chunky amount of cash for the Mesa as they're rare out here, that won't get me into Carr Mercury/Skylark territory. What else is there available that would work well for this situation?

Why not try to make Jam UP a viable practice solution?  You could use it with a hifi or some kind of speaker dock, and set the volume as low as you'd like.

MattG

Swart AST, AST Pro or AST master volume infact just a standard ST would do you

Voxman

Laney Lionheart L5T-112 or (if you want bigger) the L20T-112

Vox AC15

Vox AC4 Hand Wired or AC4 C1, AC4C1 Limited Edition (cream or purple, or blue/white dual colour - very nice looking amps)

Vox Night Train NT15C1 Combo

Blackstar ID15

Peavey JSX 5w Mini Colossal

Epiphone 18w 1x12 75th Anniversary - art deco looks (very unusual) & would look fab in you living room!  Great chimey cleans through to rock raunch

RaymondLin

 

On the more expensive end.

Suhr Corso or Bogner Atma

 

Soooo pretty

 

hubobulous

Suhr Corso. Best looking little amp IMO and sounds absolutely superb. Takes pedals awesomely too.

not_the_dj

hubobulous said:

Suhr Corso. Best looking little amp IMO and sounds absolutely superb. Takes pedals awesomely too.

I'd so love one of those!

Go on Mike, get one ;-)

hubobulous

I find that the core sounds of the amp are excellent in their own right. Gain is not stupidly high, but as I say, it just takes pedals so well. I believe that this was a major consideration in its design.

stickyfiddle

Thanks chaps. I should add I'm only interested in combos and nothing high gain!

Also, living in the UAE makes this all *extremely* pie/sky for now as getting anything imported is a ballache. There is a chap who sells posh gear in Dubai who can probably sort me out if I really really want something.

RaymondLin

stickyfiddle said:

Thanks chaps. I should add I'm only interested in combos and nothing high gain!

That's not Suhr Corso or Bogner Atma then.

 

There was a Carr 3W combo in the classifeld a couple of months back that looked like it fit your needs.

hubobulous

Badger 18 combo. Great tones, attenuation, etc

ThePrettyDamned

Ask MJW or JPF, who are forum members and well regarded builders.  

Probably cheaper than a USA builder if you did want to go "boutique".

The Goldstar jumps to mind, can do 10 watts with EL34 or 5 watts 6v6, and being hand built to order maybe can have a circuit tailored to your ideal sounds? Not sure how set in stone the circuitry is on all models.  Has power scaling, master volume IIRC.  

I'm assuming they don't get much mention on US forum places that tend to make the other builders famous because they're smaller scale brit builders. I doubt there is anything to do with quality.  

http://www.martamp.com/amps.html

MJW and JPF look to be mostly Brit voiced amps, but might be able to tweak it for you. 

Coda has a second hand Two Rock Exo which could do it, but it's still comparable price to a new MJW or JPF.  

ThePrettyDamned

Ooooooo

This was recorded with a single SM57 at 'bedroom' volume - and doesn't appear to have had much work done on the sound either.  I think it sounds really fabulous, and it's super cute to look at.  Has power scaling, too, and 18 watts means it's in the realms of gigging if you want good crunch. 

Dave_Mc

^ Thing is, if you're willing to pay for Power Scaling, does the amp wattage really matter that much?

Maybe it does, I've only tried VVR on an 18 watter clone )

Jalapeno

A cloned Tweed Champ 5F1 with Jensen 8" speaker - you could probably take it as carry on luggage .... there are quite a few boutique makers who build them

ZT Lunchbox is a goodie to, takes pedals well, but can drive a 4x12 as well if needed

MattG

or of course there is a DrZ Maz8

Used there are Fender super champs which are some of the greatest amps ever made

Or a vibro champ of some sort maybe an EC model

but i would deffinitely look at a Swart combo

fastboy

ThePrettyDamned said:

Ooooooo

This was recorded with a single SM57 at 'bedroom' volume - and doesn't appear to have had much work done on the sound either.  I think it sounds really fabulous, and it's super cute to look at.  Has power scaling, too, and 18 watts means it's in the realms of gigging if you want good crunch. 

Why is it that every guitarist who demos an amp will EL84's feel that they have to throw a Queen riff in there for good measure?

Just an observation more than anything else (I've made an assumption it's EL84's as an 18 watter)

Jalapeno

There's always the ZVex Nano Head