So I'm after a low wattage tweed-style amp...

[Andrew W]

Hi guys and gals.  I'm on the search for a new amp for the house.  Currently I have a Cornell Plexi Seven which I absolutely love for its rich overdrive and British amp grit.  It isn't so hot for cleaner 6V6 type sounds of course.  So now I've nearly finished modifying my Highway One Strat to my preferences I'm looking for a cleaner, tweedier amp to use when I'm not in the mood for full on Robin Trower face-melting guitar tone. 

There are a few restrictions on what I can have: first it has to physically quite small - I live in a small flat and space is at a premium.  Second, it has to be low wattage so I can get a decent noise without the neighbours hunting me down with pitch-forks and flaming torches.  The final restriction is price; I don't really want to (for which read, "I really shouldn't") spend more than a grand on it.

There are two candidates I've found myself, one is Cornell's Romany Plus and the other is the Swart Space Tone.  Is there anything else that meets the criteria out there that you think I should try?  At present no-one has a Swart or a Cornell in stock so I'm twiddling my thumbs and waiting.  Thanks very much for any advice you have.

[Twinfan]

It sounds to me that something along the lines of a Fender Tweed Champ would suit you?  Great clean sound at reasonable volume, one volume/one tone control and a 8" speaker.  Small, compact and home friendly?

[roland_rat]

I have a Cornell Romany unfornatly it is not the plus.   Its a great little amp but it really is crying out for built in reverb.  If you do go for Cornell make sure you pay the extra and get the Romany plus.   I can not comment on the other amp you mentioned only that I found the romany reliable. 

One other possibility may be to have a amp made to your spec.  Pheraps martamp or matamp maybe. I would have thought they would both be able to make somthing to fit your requiremnts  and be in the price range.


Best of luck

[Adam.M]

I have a Cornell Romany unfornatly it is not the plus.   Its a great little amp but it really is crying out for built in reverb.  If you do go for Cornell make sure you pay the extra and get the Romany plus.   I can not comment on the other amp you mentioned only that I found the romany reliable. 

If you need it that badly (and i would too, i need a touch of verb!) why not ask him to turn yours into a reverb model? surely he would do it... or someone could put a loop or something in there.

[Madiac]

Theres  a guy at ebay (andydokken) who mods amps and adds powerscaling aswell as many other functions and sells them on Ebay, they go really cheap aswell. Saw a tweed style amp there at 5w (with powerscaling ofcourse) for around 400 GBP, but i think it got sold, but you can ask him when hes putting up another one, ive ordered a modded Epi clone from him, so i can tell you how it works out if your curious.

[dave_mc]

i've only tried the cornell romany plus you mentioned, i thought it was great. :)

[jpfamps]

Tweed Champs don't have that much headroom, although one might have enough for you if you play very quietly.

I would also have a look into a Silverface (or Blackface if you wanted to spend the extra money) Champ (or Vibrochamp). These have more head room than the Tweed Champs.

[FELINEGUITARS]

If you could live without the  reverb and low power options - this would be a great bargain for you

http://www.felineguitars.com/shop/shop_ampsandfx.htm



Cornell Stinger(what it was called before it was called Romany) - £399

[HTH AMPS]

something custom with a switchable tweed/blackface tonestack would nail what you're after. 

the tweed amps' tone control doesn't attenuate the signal much at all so you get that raunchy tone they're famous for.  otoh, the blackface tone circuit attenuates the signal quite alot, so the amp overdrives less.  I'm oversimplifying of couse, but that's it in a nutshell.

you could quite easily add a trem circuit and reverb in there too - I'd go with the three-knob Fender reverb circuit if you're going to the trouble of having it.

[Elliot]

Fender Blues Junior?  I realise it doesn't match up to the extreme gear snobbery the bareknuckle boards are famous for - but it has tweedy tone (especially in the tweed version), reverb and the master volume allows you to play juicy stuff quite quiet.  Add the easy to do BillM mods and you have an even better amp.

[Twinfan]

I believe the build quality of the Blues Junior is a bit suspect, PCB mounted pots etc.  Copuld be a good thing to get cheap and mod a bit though as Elliot says???

[Andrew W]

These are all great suggestions, thanks very much.  At the cheap end of the scale I was completely unaware of the Fender Champion 600.  There seem to be many mods available and whilst some don't sound that great to my ears, the tone on this one seemed impressive, especially for the money.  Has anyone had experience of switching out the speakers on one of these tiny fellows?  My experience in the past has been swapping out speakers on combos was fiddlier than I'd thought.

I'm quite keen on the idea of having some reverb so if I went the Cornell route it would definitely be the Romany Plus. 

I also think I was mis-understanding what is meant by headroom, sorry.  I think I'm so used to the Marshall-like response of all the amps I've ever owned that, to me, even the tweed seems like it has much more in the way of headroom by which I mean it has a more bell-like quality and not such a mid-heavy response albeit at lower volume levels.  Perhaps that's not a quality of the head-room on the amp after all?

Anyway I'm really grateful for all your suggestions so far and if anyone else has an opinion I'm eager to hear it.  This is my first foray into this style of amp and I'd like to gather as much knowledge as I can.

[the_bleeding]

why dont you try building a champ? Sounds like its right up your alley.

[Elliot]

The Champion 600 is actually a silverface champ behind the 50s exterior -  Its a great amp for country style or clean blues guitar but despite some of the things said about it, it has none of the growl of the old champs (and needs traces cut to make it that way).  And no 6" speaker sounds good - to get the best out the champ 600 you need a 1x10 at the smallest (I have tried pretty much all of them in mine, so I know).

I would make a 1x10 or a small 1x12 amp the basis of my choice if I was you.

[Andrew W]

why dont you try building a champ? Sounds like its right up your alley.

I love the idea of this but think I lack the electrical engineering nouse.   I can install my new pickups but that's about the limit I'm afraid.  The thought of me fiddling with high voltage devices is a bit scary.