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Small amp advice please?
Hello All.
Could I ask for the wisdom of the hive on this one please? Sorry this is a bit long…
I am looking for that unicorn, the great home volume-friendly amp that will give that nice progressive and responsive valve breakup sound at low volumes (I mean low). I have tried and failed to tame my fantastic Supro Tremo-Verb, it’s a great amp, but it’s just too loud and attenuation isn’t really working, it sounds artificial. I will be selling it or trading for something more suitable for me.
I think I need a tube amp, but happy to be persuaded that I am wrong, if tech has moved on since I last tried, but as good-sounding as solid state or hybrid amps might be, they are just not responsive as tube amps are, imho anyway. I am not entirely sold on the claims for master volume controls either. I have read several threads on this topic but things do move on and the perfect solution may just have appeared.
I have picked away at all the offerings I can find and at the moment I seem to be looking at a small Swart maybe with night light or Tone King with IronMan most likely, but am aware of amps from other makers that might fit the bill, but am also constantly coming across tiny boutique manufacturers that I had never previously heard of and so want to be sure that I am missing nothing before I take the plunge, as while I have and use several different guitars, I will only want and use one amp. I don’t need lots of options, I’m a plug and play player, and only use a couple of essential pedals and those are not for tone, only time effects. I would like onboard spring reverb if possible, and a very low noise floor is important for me, otherwise open to suggestions….
Cost wise, something more or less swappable for the Supro or a little bit more and I am happy to buy used, especially here. I guess that’s £1,000 - £1,200ish. But I can always sell another guitar I suppose.
My dream tone can be heard on Alex Chilton playing ‘What’s Your Sign, Girl?’ at the Cooper-Young festival in Memphis:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96eUR0fizQ0
(not sure if the link will work….)
All advice and info gratefully received.
Many thanks.
Chris
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Comments
At the minute I get into that type of ballpark at home with a Tonemaster Deluxe Reverb and a Sweet Honey Overdrive. No tubes, still very responsive.
I'm not a big pedal user either fwiw, never been a fan of the tap dancing or having plenty to carry, but in terms of for home or something that can be always on I think there's an exception to be made.
You may not like this answer but the easiest way to get the tones you want at low volume (into your current amp or a neutral powered speaker) is to buy a quality modeller. I have 3 nice valve amps but can dial in a sound like you referenced in 5 mins on the gt-1000 I have.
Yes a tweed is on the list of contenders....
There are a number of amps out there that have in built Two Notes tech. The Revv G20 & D20 have this. Victory have recently released their range of amps in a pedal based format with this tech (I'm selling my Sheriff V4 in the classifieds!!). Also Laney have just released an amp with this tech as well. On the higher end Suhr also have their PT15 amp witch IR tech.
My advice? You've got a smashing amp there for home AND stage use.
Buy an overdrive pedal (Boss BD-2 or thereabouts) - £70? - set your crunch. DONE.
Plug in, learn to play and sing his back catalogue and have a blast.
There's absolutely no need to spend thousands disappearing down a rabbit hole for "tone". I sometimes wish that word had never been used in connection with guitar playing.
had a Tone King Gremlin before and couldn’t get along with it at all. The Falcon Grande on the other hand was superb!
I mainly sold mine because it was very expensive and I couldn't justify it with my ability but i've not had anything better since
So my current favourite options look like:
try harder with my current amp
633 Dragonfly RT (v interesting...)
Tone King Falcon Grande
Swart Space Tone Jr with Nightlight
the above 3 should just about come in at £1200 used.
Does anyone think the cheaper Vox AC4TV or Blackstar HT5R Mk2 are any good?
chris
I did get hold of a 633 Dragonfly RT thanks to a fellow FBer and it is fantastic, just what I wanted. Very responsive and will break up naturally at very low volumes indeed, no need for pedals.
Got my amp choice right at the 4th attempt (previously Fender, Supro and Vox).
A lot of money but I guess you get what you pay for.
I now have a Supro Amulet which is well worth the extra £200 over the 64 reverb. You get a lot more amp for the money.
MK II EX & Spark Mini and they do the job. You could always buy something like the Boss GX-100 multi effects and the amp
sounds are really good in that not only that but they also feel like a valve amp. Hope this helps. Good luck.