The Valve Amp Thread

[EdwardMarlowe]

Mostly owned hybrids. Do have a great old c.72 Silverface Bassman 100 which I'm going to have to sell as the damn thing is just too loud for my needs. Main amp last decade has been a Vox Valvetronix AD120VT, the original AC30-sized blue cloth one. Great for home (rarely switch above 2x1watt). Still have the 2x12 extension cab as well, but that's going to be sold. I'm inrigued by these new 'Nutone' Vox heads, the tiny ones - quite like the idea of using one of those with a tweedy 2x12, maybe with a contraption or cover to hide the head so it looks more like a Fender tweed (but with the flexibility of being what it is and being able to use it direct into a PA or such). 

[bartelby]

long story:

About 7 years ago a colleague in work asked me if I wanted his old guitar combo. He'd been sorting out his attic and found it and rather than chuck it away he thought he'd offer it to me. I went to his house to get it and he handed me a Guyatone GA-620, looked like a copy of a Fender Princeton Reverb, he told me it hadn't been switched on since sometime in the 70s. I took it to a guy in Bristol for him to switch it on for the first time, I didn't fancy the risk of electrocution. Brizzle guy replaced a couple of dead capacitors in the output and power sections, and replaced all the valves.
When I got it home I found that the volume didn't really work, neither did the tone controls.. nor the reverb and erm tremolo... But there was sound and it sounded good. So I got on the internet and tried to search for info on the amp. But the only results to to photos of it I'd uploaded the day I'd got it. Life got in the way and the combo was put aside. A few years ago I decided to see if I could revive it. In the years that had past someone had sold the same combo on reverb.com and had uploaded quite a few photos, including a schematic! Not having the time to deal with it I printed the schematics and took the amp to a repair place in Cardiff. He had it for 3 weeks before telling me it wasn't worth repairing. I disagreed and asked what needed to be done. His reply was "buy a new amp". Not being one for defeat and being fairly handy with a soldering iron I went off and researched amp repairs.
Last year I replaced all the dead oil in paper capacitors and lo and behold the treble control and volume started working. The bass control had a very minimal effect, but neither the reverb nor tremolo came to life. I bought another new complete set of valves, I then noticed that one of the valves was the wrong type. Stuck in the correct one and the tremolo fired up! I traced the issue with the reverb down to a dead driver transformer and the bass tone control was wired nothing like the schematic was laid out. So I put it back to how it should be, but still it was a bit ineffective. But the amp worked better and sounded awesome, but got noisy after about 20 mins. I replaced some of the valve bases as they were a bit knackered looking.

Life got in the way again. Then last week a post on a facebook group alerted me to a tech who lived a 2 minute drive from me. Yesterday I called him up, "Bring it round now if you can" he said, "It'll save me from having to repaint my kitchen!"

So off I went. Rather than leave the amp with him he started working on it as I gave him the above history. He checked the reverb driver transformer and it had indeed died. So he replaced it and replaced a suspect ground wire. Tested it and the amp now had a fantastic sounding spring reverb. It then took 2 and a 1/2 hours to diagnose the trouble with the bass control. Who ever had altered the circuit had also got the two capacitors on the wrong sides of the pot. 

Tech guy then said the noise, once the amp was warm, was a 95% probability of some of the old resistors going out when warm. He told me the best way to find which were causing the problem. He said he wouldn't do it for me as I'd obviously spent a fair amount of time sorting things myself and getting to know the amp.

At this point in time I've spent about £100 in total on the combo, including over 3 hours of time and a transformer from the tech yesterday.  About another £20 for some new resistors and the amp with be sorted. It sounds so good. Razor sharp highs and warm lows...

It's been a long journey, that's not yet over, but I've learnt quite a lot about amps...

Edited October 7, 2018 by bartelby

[EdwardMarlowe]

Looks pretty cool. Guyatone started in Japan way back; in the 70s they were making cheapo beginner guitars similar to some of the stuff Eastwood does now. About twenty five years ago the brand was revived as a maker of mini-pedals. (I have the Tremolo, it's very nice - the VT2. Can see one in the Wikipedia page entry - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guyatone#Demise_and_rebirth). Interesting they're back in business, and more than just pedals again, too.

I'm a big fan of obscure stuff like this that sounds great; sort of thing that can be a real 'secret weapon' used right. 

[bassbiscuits]

My only real amps have been two Fenders - originally a mid 1990s Blues Deluxe 1x12, and later a newer Hot Rod Deluxe. 

The Blues Deluxe was never the same after a baboon of a repairman 'fixed' a simple fault on it and I eventually ended up trading it in for a tweed coloured limited edition Hot Rod Deluxe with a Jensen P12n speaker. 

Its good. It's really loud. And it's what I'm used to now. 

[Kiwi]

I have a couple of 5E3 based Ibanez TSA5 combos for practice and they are great.  I also have a Burman Pro501 which is ex Lindisfarne and a Fender Concert II (Rivera era).  I'm curious about the newer Roland JC40 amps as I loved the sound of the original JC120.  Also have a hankering for a Mesa Boogie Studio 22 if I ever tire of the Burman.  

[EliasMooseblaster]

I went all-valve on my bass gear a few years ago (Ashdown), but I've only got halfway there with the guitar setup - got a Blackstar HT-1 for practise and recording. I know it's a hybrid, but I wasn't gigging enough on guitar to warrant a bigger amp.

If that does change, I'm tempted by the Laney Cub series - anyone else had a play around with those?

Edited October 3, 2019 by EliasMooseblaster

[EdwardMarlowe]

Has anyone tried one of those little £200 Joyo / Fame five watt Champ clones? Having looked at all sorts of options to replace my big amps, I'm seriouslyconsdidering gonig with one of these for home use - I'll worry abouytg giggability if there's ever a sniff of a chance of me playing out again.

[leftybassman392]

I was in the market for a small, basic valve amp recently, and did consider the Joyo. If you're in that market they're well worth a close look IMHO. I know very little about the company, but they do sound good on the YouTube reviews I've listened to.

In the event I went with a Blues Junior IV. More power than I really need (and a bit more than I was planning to pay), but a great sound straight out of the box combined with plenty of clean headroom with the single coils on my Strat was what swayed it for me. I don't see me playing live again any time soon, but if I did it's good to know the amp could do that job too.

[knirirr]

A long time ago I owned a Marshall Mercury amp which I used for comping in a swing band (playing this guitar). It gave a great clean sound, but needed to be run on full power to be (barely) heard alongside all the horns and after about 90 mins it would heat up and start to distort.
If my guitar playing ever does take off again then a small valve amplifier of some sort that could handle some clean jazz sounds would be nice, hence looking here to see if anything interesting was mentioned.

[EdwardMarlowe]

On 18/01/2020 at 12:55, leftybassman392 said:

I was in the market for a small, basic valve amp recently, and did consider the Joyo. If you're in that market they're well worth a close look IMHO. I know very little about the company, but they do sound good on the YouTube reviews I've listened to.

In the event I went with a Blues Junior IV. More power than I really need (and a bit more than I was planning to pay), but a great sound straight out of the box combined with plenty of clean headroom with the single coils on my Strat was what swayed it for me. I don't see me playing live again any time soon, but if I did it's good to know the amp could do that job too.

Cheers.

If I were to play out regularly, I think nowadays I'd be looking at going for a pedal-to-pa solution, or possibly one of the blues-based AWard Session kits in a tweedy box. The little Joyo is looking like a very good idea for home use, though.

Being in a regularly gigging proper band is still one of my Tests of Manhood (alongside gettinga motorcycle of my own) that I have thus far failed.... (I think I have them written down somewhere from when I was fifteen, probably in crayon.... y'know, "Bike up suicide hill" and such....). If I could get this damn house move over anddone with, I might just think fuck it and put together a fun covers project for regular open mike spots while I wait for death.

Edited January 29, 2020 by EdwardMarlowe

[EdwardMarlowe]

Anyone tried the Sub Zero brand tube amps from Gear4Music?

Not the tweed amps (look nice, but seem to be solidstate), but thre navy blue tolex ones. Got my eye on the 10watt Sub Zero Valve 10, which must sure be worth a punt at £150?

Still got half an eye out for ther Joyo, but they are listed as sold out everywhere.

[MWH]

I don't play guitar well,  I'm here from BC,  but along the way I ended up with a ma-hoosive 100watt rig, had the head amp output reduced to 40 and still deafening,   so,  with a lot of digging around on t'interweb  I came across this secondhand   Morgan, (thought they only made cars !), interestingly  the wattage is adjustable as well as volume,  I'm running it through a 2x10 bass cab as I got rid of the big rig complete.   Well pleased.

[Matt P]

I bought my first Valve amp back in about 1998 i think and have been mostly valve for guitar ever since (with the exception of a little marshall vs15 for bedroom use when i was a student)

in order of purchase:

Marshall JCM600 2x12 combo (still have this in the cupboard, it needs some work as the output jacks have failed)

Orange Tiny terror  (with a 1x12 cut down combo cab)

Bugera V5 (given to me for helping a friend sell his big combo)

Laney lc15 (bought as i had sold the bugera and the tiny terror and wanted something else)

 

in my cupboard i also have a 1972 Marshall Artiste 2x12 combo that i was given by a friend, it's in need of a complete overhaul and probably 2 new speakers and complete set of valves but i don't have a need for it right now (mainly play bass) if i ever start playing guitar in a band again then it will get the overhaul and i'll use it live.

in the course of buying the above amps i have also tested quite a few others, a JCM30 was nice, and an old 70's marshall 50w combo was the second choice when i bought my JCM600, there was also a Blues Junior that i had on test from a shop, it had a great sound but was just so loud and uncontrollable to me that it went straight back.

 

My plan when i sold my Bugera and tiny terror was to find one of the small Mesa Boogie combos, a studio 22 or one of the subway models maybe, but nothing popped up for sale and i was made redundant soon after so it dropped down the priorities.

the Marshall was my main amp for live use for most of the last 20 or so years, including loaning it out to friends for live use, it has a great bluesy tone and a remarkably good clean channel, i've never really gone in for high gain so it's been all the amp i've ever needed, the other smaller ones were bought as i have a bad back and lugging the Marshall round wasn't easy but they have come and gone and the Marshall is still here.

Matt

Edited July 5, 2020 by Matt P

[Matt P]

@EdwardMarlowe i'd suggest  keeping an eye out for the Bugera V5, cheap as chips and remarkably good, especially at home volumes, i plugged mine  into a 4x12 at a rehearsal room once and it gave a surprising amount of volume for such a small combo, the Tiny terror was great too, usable in the house with a small cab and then plenty loud enough for pub gigs when plugged into a bigger cab provided you didn't need cleaner sounds, i leant mine to a guest guitarist for a pub gig we played and even with just a 1x12 it didn't need any help from the PA.

the laney LC15 hasn't been with me long enough yet but i've got plans for a new set of valves so i'll reserve judgement until that's done.

 

Matt

[EdwardMarlowe]

I've hesrdgood things about the Bugera; I also heard there was anotyehr brand (might have been Subzero?) that was the same amp rebadged. DEfinitely will look out at those. The Subzero 10 is nice; I'm also open to the Harley Benton Tube 5, which is switchable to 1w. I really wanted the Fame / Joyo 5 watter, but that saeems to be sold out absolutely everywhere. I need to stop looking at this stuff til I sell a bunch of things (I have two big amps, a 2x12", four guitars and two basses to sell before I am "allowed" to bring anything new in... Decided a while ago that I'm just going to make the jump to a coupel of small tube amps, and if I ever manage to gig again, I'll buy myself a nice amp-repalcement pedal and possible a small cab for use in the absence of monitors. For home and recording, I think it's nice to have a 'real' amp, but I've slowly been convinced of the value of amp simulators in a live envorinment over the last couple of years. Bout three years ago I saws a guy playing heavy rock type stuff with a great tone, plugged into a laptop which was hooked up to the PA. Surprisingly good sound at a relatively low volume level too.

[bartelby]

On 07/10/2018 at 10:02, bartelby said:

 

It's been a long journey, that's not yet over, but I've learnt quite a lot about amps...

 

So 3 1/2 years later I finally got around to sorting the resistors. I bought replacements for every one of them. But only replaced the ones on the preamp board before giving it a test.
It no longer sounds like frying bacon when it's warm. But it has lost a bit of character. I'll go through and test the resistors I removed and but any still in spec back in.

[Kiwi]

Heh, three and a half years later my Ibanez TSA5 combos are wearing out from poor quality components.  So I've replaced them with a pair of cheap hand made 5F2 5w combos which are almost certain to last longer.  Plus there's the matter of the three preamps (Mesa, Marshall and Carvin) and the Marshall 20/20 power amp and the Princeton Reverb II...none of which I've actually laid my hands on yet because they're being looked after in the UK by friends.  I've come a long way from the Mesia (!) combo I started off with in 2007.

[ezbass]

Might be time to think more seriously about solid state...

 

 

[Kiwi]

Yeah its been playing on my mind as well.  But Shugang are actually headquartered in the city where I live so even if things get desperate I'll still be able to buy something.

[Matt P]

this has reminded me that i need to get my Laney sorted, i tested it out last month as our guitarist wanted to try it out, and it was making a nasty buzz/hum. I've got a day off next week so i'll get it booked in with my favourite amp tech.

 

I was considering a new set of valves but as none of them seem to be on their way out i might save that for another day (the price of valves seems to have gone up since i last looked.) I don't think that the LC15r has adjustable bias so i'd be happy to swap out the valves myself (matched power valves of course)

 

 

Matt

[mikel]

Back in the early 70s my first proper amp was an Orange, Picks Only, 100w. It was an absolute beast, weighed an absolute ton, and I rarely got it above half way on the master. Got to use it once with two 4x12s at an outdoor gig. Flipping heck! Talk about loud and touch sensitive, it sang. Wish I still had it, and a roadie to carry it. 

[knirirr]

On 29/01/2020 at 16:57, knirirr said:

A long time ago I owned a Marshall Mercury amp which I used for comping in a swing band (playing this guitar). It gave a great clean sound, but needed to be run on full power to be (barely) heard alongside all the horns and after about 90 mins it would heat up and start to distort.
If my guitar playing ever does take off again then a small valve amplifier of some sort that could handle some clean jazz sounds would be nice, hence looking here to see if anything interesting was mentioned.

 

To follow on from this comment, I stopped guitar for a while as I had other things to do, but now I'm trying again.

I'm still wondering about a small valve amp.
Bugera do a 5w combo which seems to be well received. They also do a 5w head which I could (presumably) plug into my 1x12 Orange bass cab.
Harley Benton's 15w combo looks interesting, as does their 5w one, though I'd prefer something with reverb built in to avoid faffing with pedals.
Does anyone have any thoughts or experience with any of these?

[Crusoe]

1 hour ago, knirirr said:

 

To follow on from this comment, I stopped guitar for a while as I had other things to do, but now I'm trying again.

I'm still wondering about a small valve amp.
Bugera do a 5w combo which seems to be well received. They also do a 5w head which I could (presumably) plug into my 1x12 Orange bass cab.
Harley Benton's 15w combo looks interesting, as does their 5w one, though I'd prefer something with reverb built in to avoid faffing with pedals.
Does anyone have any thoughts or experience with any of these?

The HB TUBE 15 Celestion has built in spring reverb, as does the Laney Cub Super 12(which I believe the HB is based)

[knirirr]

48 minutes ago, Crusoe said:

The HB TUBE 15 Celestion has built in spring reverb, as does the Laney Cub Super 12(which I believe the HB is based)

 

Thanks - that Laney looks interesting, though the price appears to be quite a bit higher than the Harley Benton.
Apparently there's a Vox AC4 available as well, though that lacks reverb.

[Matt P]

if you are prepared to look secondhand then the Laney LC15R is a good bet, I have one and it's got a good blues-rock sound. they can be picked up for 100quid or so. the Laney VC15 is a good option too for a bit more money. My LC15 has the better Celestion speaker and i've fitted Harma retro valves which suit it very well.

 

I had one of the Bugera 5 watt valve amps and it was pretty good but the Laney seems more grown-up and the build is a bit better.