Little amps

[herbychimp]

I am in the throes of selling my Blackstar HT60 soloist (it is proving more difficult than I imagined) and researching a head + cab combo with enough volume / punch for rehersals and small gigs. I have done a lot of youtube research - much of it via 'The captain' and Chappers.. so not exactly scientific. Anyway, I haven't been totally sold on any of the orange products, although the OR15 seemed the most appealing somehow - more vintage in character. Some guy on ebay / gumtree keeps offering my a lil Nightrain head but I don't really dig the sound or the styling. I don't want another Blackstar but I am interested in peoples opinions on Egnater and Hayden amps. Is there anything else obvious that I have neglected to check out?  Chappers and buddy seemed to think that the Dark terror was on a par with the MESA mini-rectifier which I could not agree with less but perhaps pricewise they had a point to make.. Ideally I would want something that I could change valves in if necessary - those EL84s favoured by many small  amp manufacturers seem too dark for my tastes..

Any thoughts?

[Plenum n Heather]

I have a LNT. It's great once you do the bright mod. But it will NOT do high gain/metal

[Mr. Air]

I got an Egnater MOD50 and I really dig it. I've tried an Egnater Rebel 20 and it sounded good as well. The Rebel 30 has two channels and might be better suited for small gigs. The Rebel 20 will propably struggle to give you a loud enough clean tone at a loud pub gig.

If you're not looking for clean tones you the Jet City JCA 20 might be cool. It's a Soldano clone so you get a great gain tone from this amp.

I have played through a Laney Lionheart one or two times and it's a really sweet sounding amp to me. There's a 20 watt version in head and combo.

[Telerocker]

I quite like the OR15. It has a lot of character, to my ears more then the Egnater Rebel-range, which is not bad at all.

[Guitarteach]

You could look out for a Mesa-Boogie Mk3 or MK4 short head and 1x12 cab second hand.

You can swap a pair of the EL34 (tight Marshall) and 6L6 (bell like fender) valves in the Simulclass models - which switch between 15watt (Class A swappable valves) or 75watt with an extra pair of 6L6s for practice/gigs

Not a 'lunchbox amp' though - more a lifetime buddy :)

For a simple sound I did really like the Tiny Terror a lot - but no reverb, loop, etc.

[Telerocker]

You could look out for a Mesa-Boogie Mk3 or MK4 short head and 1x12 cab second hand.

You can swap a pair of the EL34 (tight Marshall) and 6L6 (bell like fender) valves in the Simulclass models - which switch between 15watt (Class A swappable valves) or 75watt with an extra pair of 6L6s for practice/gigs

Not a 'lunchbox amp' though - more a lifetime buddy :)

For a simple sound I did really like the Tiny Terror a lot - but no reverb, loop, etc.

Those Mesa's need a bit of mastervolume to sound good and then they're already quite loud. Mesa's are also not easy to dial in.

[bucketshred]

Just recently sold my Orange Dual Terror and that was 7/15/30w. Great little amp, a little on the dark side but loads of balls to it and cracking overdriven sound!

Paddy

[darkbluemurder]

I build my amps so I am not of much help in commercially available amps but the Suhr Badger amps look interesting.

Cheers Stephan

[Telerocker]

I build my amps so I am not of much help in commercially available amps but the Suhr Badger amps look interesting.

Cheers Stephan

They don't come cheap but they're excellent amps when you want to steer the drive with the guitars volumepot.

[Dave Sloven]

There's always the Laney Iommi 15W amp

Chappers did a video of that

hard to find outside the UK though

[King Zog of Albania]

I very nearly bought one of the little Blackstar amps but it just sounded horribly boxy and "small". Then I nearly bought a Hughes and Kettner TubeMeister 5 but that sounds horribly compressed. I think the best thing to do is to build my own, maybe even using an ECL82 tube that I've got lying around somewhere. Just because.

[Alex]

I have the ENGL Ironball and love it - great amp and great at low volume.

Next on my list would have been the Hughes & Kettner Tubemeister series - also very awesome amp.

Orange would only come after that. The Dark Terror and the Jim Root are cool, but so much more limited by the one-channel design or the lack of an EQ (Dark Terror). I like the Dark Terror more.

[herbychimp]

Agree with a lot of what has been said. Making the right choice involves a series of compromises but then a 5w head is supposed to sound good cranked and I think this is what you have to envisage. If it were within my budget I would probably go for a Friedman Pink Taco - utterly gorgeous plexi tone.. I can but dream.  I really need to go and play a bunch of heads but I won't be bothering with Blackstar (known quantity) or Hughes and Kettner or Vox because I really don't dig the aesthetics - yes it is about sound but given that it is going to set me back £500 at least, I want it to tick as many boxes as possible. Any thoughts on the best place to try out a variety of heads in North London / Herts (aside from Coda)?

[Alex]

There's always the Laney Iommi 15W amp

Chappers did a video of that

hard to find outside the UK though

http://www.bonedo.de/artikel/einzelansicht/mesa-boogie-mini-rectifier-twenty-five-top.html
http://www.bonedo.de/artikel/einzelansicht/hughes-kettner-tubemeister-18.html
http://www.bonedo.de/artikel/einzelansicht/laney-ti15-112-tony-iommi-signature-amp-test.html
http://www.bonedo.de/artikel/einzelansicht/engl-ironball-head-20-test.html

If you don't happen to speak German, just click on "Audiobeispiele" or find the samples in the text. Maybe you can use Google Translate or something like that. ("Weiterlesen" takes you to the next page).

Note that the reviewers are professionals who do lots of studio work; they are very picky about lots of things, but IMO are less interested in roadworthiness than studio performance.

[blue]

If you're talking 5 watts, the Marshall SL5 is one to consider.  I've been quite impressed by it, and it does a lot more than just "Slash tones".  Of course, it is a combo (although with a 12" Celestion V30)  and it doesn't have an effects loop, if that's important