tried a bunch of low watt amps

[gwEm]

I've always been able to use the master volume on my JMP50 master volume and get good tone at bedroom levels. In my new flat it's a little too loud though, so I've been eyeing up some of these popular lower wattage amps. I am just on the way back from Guitar Guitar in Epsom where I tried a bunch. I was after the same NWOBHM tone as my Marshall.

Honestly, 15w is barely quieter than the 50 of my JMP. For bedroom recording usage, I reckon 1w is the way to go. Here are my thoughts:

Orange Tiny Terror: it's the classic and still sounds decent. But I see no reason to pick it these days considering the other options available. Still dislike the 7w mode.

Egnater Tweaker: more versatile than the Orange, sounds a bit better, yet more or less the same price. Clearly it's the midprice option to go for at 15w. For me it's still too loud and furthermore the Marshall setting is a bit too modern for my taste. It is dynamic and hifi though.

Laney Cub Head: less dynamic and defined than the Orange or Egnater. But it sounds pretty good anyway (just a touch boxy) and also has reverb and a 1w option. At 200quid you can't go wrong really. New valves might help(?).

Vox Nighttrain: liked it. Very Voxish though, not my tone. Both pentode and triode mode sounded good.

Vox lil Nighttrain: sounded poor next to the bigger model. Less life to it.

Marshall Class 5: no master volume and far too loud. Would need mods. Basic tone good.

Marshall 1w JVM: far too much gain

Marshall 1w JCM2000: quite nice actually. It's got an FX loop and good volume range. The shared EQ didn't work very well though, I just left it on the gain channel. For me it lacked a bit of character, but it was a well thought out design.

Marshall 1w JMP: it's got 'the tone' sounded *great* actually. I miss a master volume though and the EQ was rather subtle. Gets all the emotion points though.

So as you can probably guess, I saved my money. I'd like to try the 1w JCM800 though.

Frankly only really the 1w JCM sounded as good as my existing Marshall. The rest were less good. The Laney is tempting at the price, and the Egnater blew the Orange away, but too loud for me probably.

So I stick with my JMP50 for now ;)

[gwEm]

All these were head versions into the same G12H 2x12 with my Yamaha SGV

[FernandoDuarte]

Good to hear this test drive :)
I'm a little away of guitar world by now and didn't now marshall was making 1w amp... Awesome!

[juansolo]

My 5W 6V6 MJW is perfect for very low volumes. When you start getting 10w and over things start to get surprisingly loud when you're in a very small quiet room.

[WezV]

I put some TAD tonebones in my 50w selmer.  the triode versions takes it down to 8w, and its a reasonable 8w for home use, but thats a relatively clean selmer.  wouldn't crank it full, but get quite a bit of travel on the volume control before i get moaned at

http://www.tubeampdoctor.com/en/shop_TAD_Equipment_TAD_ToneBone/

[FELINEGUITARS]

Well you know how loud my little 10W MJW power amp is with my rack and that is barely cooking at all.

I have a those little Vox Lil nightrains that I intend to use as power amps for the left and right wet signals.

[Telerocker]

I'm quite impressed by the Valve Bimbo 5 watt with powerscaling. It's Italian handmade and therefore quite expensive, but a great recording tool.

[TheyCallMeVolume]

At least from my experience the JMP-1 is much better than the JCM-1

[gwEm]

I put some TAD tonebones in my 50w selmer.  the triode versions takes it down to 8w, and its a reasonable 8w for home use, but thats a relatively clean selmer.  wouldn't crank it full, but get quite a bit of travel on the volume control before i get moaned at

http://www.tubeampdoctor.com/en/shop_TAD_Equipment_TAD_ToneBone/

Price isn't bad at all! I'll look into it more. I find attenuators pretty expensive, so this may be a good option.

[gwEm]

Well you know how loud my little 10W MJW power amp is with my rack and that is barely cooking at all.

I have a those little Vox Lil nightrains that I intend to use as power amps for the left and right wet signals.

I forgot again how cheap those Little Nighttrains are. Really good value. I did prefer the normal sized one, but its quite alot more expensive of course.

[gwEm]

At least from my experience the JMP-1 is much better than the JCM-1

I remember your thoughts about that on another thread. I agree that the JMP-1 is a pretty serious sounding amp, I'm still thinking about how good it sounded.

[MrBump]

All my low volume needs are met by my RAT modified Blackheart BH5H head.  It's really good.

In fact, I even used it at a band rehearsal once, and it was just about loud enough.  Sounded ace too.

[dave_mc]

i agree with you. if you want power tube distortion at home/bedroom volume you need powerscaling/vvr/attenuator/super low efficiency speaker (or a combination of those). Or super low wattage (under a watt, i'd say) as you said.

I just rely on preamp distortion most of the time. or pedals.

EDIT: nice reviews. :)

[WezV]

I put some TAD tonebones in my 50w selmer.  the triode versions takes it down to 8w, and its a reasonable 8w for home use, but thats a relatively clean selmer.  wouldn't crank it full, but get quite a bit of travel on the volume control before i get moaned at

http://www.tubeampdoctor.com/en/shop_TAD_Equipment_TAD_ToneBone/

Price isn't bad at all! I'll look into it more. I find attenuators pretty expensive, so this may be a good option.

Do you want to borrow some for a week or so, price isnt much, but its a big chunk off the price of a small valve amp

[gwEm]

I put some TAD tonebones in my 50w selmer.  the triode versions takes it down to 8w, and its a reasonable 8w for home use, but thats a relatively clean selmer.  wouldn't crank it full, but get quite a bit of travel on the volume control before i get moaned at

http://www.tubeampdoctor.com/en/shop_TAD_Equipment_TAD_ToneBone/

Price isn't bad at all! I'll look into it more. I find attenuators pretty expensive, so this may be a good option.

Do you want to borrow some for a week or so, price isnt much, but its a big chunk off the price of a small valve amp

Yes thanks alot! In fact I would really love to borrow some for a week or so.. if you can spare them?