It was a good little amp. Small, attractive and well-built. But, I didn't fall in love with it mainly because the overdrive was the old inverse-parallel pair of diodes in the preamp trick, which never sounds good. Had to use a pedal for dirt, and even the best of those are a compromise to my ears. Clean, it was pretty good. Definitely had that tube vibe. Through a big bottom it was ok if you racked it up to 11. In fact, it was surprising what you could get out of the thing, considering it was only 5 watts. Naturally, the power tube went microphonic after only about 8-10 hours use.
Then, to get some variety I had to run a few effects through it, and it started to lose its appeal as a small amp. I was using up a lotta floor space with pedals and whatnot and if I was going to do that, I may as well just get a bigger amp that has some features to it. So, when Fender came out with the Super Champ XD, I got to kill several birds with one stone. Not very large physically, good sound both clean and dirty, at low volumes and high, with a pile of amp models and special effects built in and a 10" speaker so it didn't sound like a Pignose. Lotta bang for the buck. I think I only paid $250 for it new, so it wasn't a budget-buster at all. In this one, one of the preamp tubes went microphonic early on.
So, that sorta reinforces your thinking - small tube amps are usually one-trick ponies, and modeling will probably serve you better. Although, the Champ certainly isn't very big (17"x15"x9"). I can imagine you being pretty happy with one of those. They don't make the XD version anymore - now it's the
Super Champ X2. Basically the same amp at the same price ($299 street), but they brought out the modeling processor to a USB port so you can tweak it even further with a computer. Also not made in the US, but since it's Fender so it's ok. The Gear Page guys won't kick your ass. Speaking of price, if you're patient, Musician's Friend does the 15% off coupon thing all the time, so you'll get down in the $250 range.
