Tube Amp Recommendations?

[Tipperman]

I have a Blues JR currently. My planned "mods" are.... standard tube replacement, and a speaker replacement (I am thinking either a Cannabis Rex - not because of the hemp cone but the sound, my friends got a Blues JR with one and I like it - or another Eminence speaker. Up for suggestions on that, too) I'll look into the Deluxe Reverb. I was basing my interests on two amps I have played and heard, and liked. My cousin Joshua has a vintage Twin Reverb, is that similar to the Deluxe Reverb in any sense? It's probably my favorite amp, along with the Blues JR (NOT the Version III, the II.)

 

[Jusatele]

oh version III has some of the mods built in, it is an improvement, I own one and love it, much more clean tone and head room

the twins are usually 100 watt amps, kind of hard to play that big of an amp unless it is a large area, you have to cut down every thing, with modern micing systems I love the 15 to 30 watt amps, you can crank them till they sound really killer and they still can go into the pa to be balanced, with a twin you are usually turning it down so others can be heard.

 

[thewrathchilde]

for a much more reasonable price if you are looking for something for home use the Crate Blackheart's are decent amps. I have the 5 Watt and really enjoy it. Low enough wattage, can set to 3 Watts, that you can push it into overdrive without blasting the family out of the house.

 

[D-rock]

Check these out. Plus you can get a custom amp made from these guys to get just what you want. http://www.verellenamplifiers.com/verellen.html

 

[riverbluff]

I have plugged into a ton of amps and to this day nothing compares to my Marshall JCM 800, been going strong for 22 years now with only 1 tube change.

 

[ihavenothingprofoundtosay]

I have to give a mention to one of my fav American companies: Carvin, who makes some seriously nice gear for decent prices.

Here may be found a few categories of their guit-fiddle amp selections.

I've had three different bass amps from them (all different generations on manufacture), and all 3 were fantastic; apart from the one that was so fantastically loud I couldn't use it to rehearse with, even with volume at 1! Great tone, though; I just couldn't handle 500 watts in that particular context.  I've not personally tried their guitar amps since I moved away from SoCal a decade ago, but the examples they have give a good idea of what's possible.

Also: their warrantee & product support is second to none, especially for a major factory manufacturer. The only problem is you'd have to by direct & do the trial period, rather than try one out first.  I can't imagine you'd be dissappointed.

 

[elfro89]

oh version III has some of the mods built in, it is an improvement, I own one and love it, much more clean tone and head room

the twins are usually 100 watt amps, kind of hard to play that big of an amp unless it is a large area, you have to cut down every thing, with modern micing systems I love the 15 to 30 watt amps, you can crank them till they sound really killer and they still can go into the pa to be balanced, with a twin you are usually turning it down so others can be heard.

+1 Your application should be a big factor when choosing an amp too. If you intend on playing with a heavy amount of tube saturation absolute filth ( :laughing7: ), then a 100 watt amp will be significantly louder, not because it's a higher wattage, but since you will need to crank it to get it's sweet spot - for a small pub this is usually way too loud. If your more of the clean type then it will give you the headroom to stop it breaking up at low volumes. Having said that, experience tells me the best option is always to have fairly low wattage amps and to mic them up, you get a far better overall sound, the people that bring the stacks usually have a noisy and poor performance at venues like a small pub. If your playing bigger venues that's when the headroom really makes a difference on the clean channel, but I'm sure someone can argue there is nothing wrong with a smaller wattage amp for clean since it will be mic'd up anyway...

If all you intend is to play in your house then of course that's an entirely different circumstance. Just take a moment to consider your own needs and what you will use it for. Low wattage amps are the best all rounders, you can gig with them and practice in your home.   :icon_thumright:
 

 

[stubhead]

There are a lot of amp guys - builders & techs over on my "other" forum and they are universally quite down on the modern Fender amps. If you're sure the place you buy it can give you a loner while your Blues Jr. is being "repaired"... the issue is the same one plaguing every amp that's made with absolute economy - everything's on the circuit board, or maybe two circuit boards. If you bump a knob, you're flexing the solder connections on the whole thing because the pots are epoxied to the board, the tubes are socketed right to the board. This started with Fenders back in the 90's, Marshall has been back and forth on it with different models succumbing in different years, every one of the "2nd line" stuff - Crate, Bugera, newer Peaveys etc. is built this way. The actual sound of the things may be very pleasing - I'm not one of those that's convinced "point-to-point" is always going to be sonically better, as long as the right levels of current get to the right places, these can sound fine. But some problems on them are a nightmare and/or impossible to fix. If you're still under a Fender warranty, they just yank the whole board and put in a new one. Once the warranty's done with, some thing just can't be fixed. It's pretty easy to see - what are the tubes and pots attached to? Disposable amps - what will they think of next.... :icon_scratch:

 

[Jusatele]

Stub, point to point is in style right now, I can argue the benefits of both circuit board and point to point, but bottom line is that the blues Jr has been a circuit board amp from the start, it is one of the worlds best selling amps, it has one of the best aftermarket support of any amp and it is truly proved how dependable it is. and is on its 3rd generation.
now if you want point to point, the Ac 15 or 30 can be bought point to point, circuit board or hybrid, lots o choices there.
And can I ask how many of those point to point experts actually make their living working on amps? because if the board had 1000 members that would probably be 3 times the amount in the USA that do it full time not just fiddling on one every 6 months or so.

 

[mayfly]

There are a lot of amp guys - builders & techs over on my "other" forum and they are universally quite down on the modern Fender amps. If you're sure the place you buy it can give you a loner while your Blues Jr. is being "repaired"... the issue is the same one plaguing every amp that's made with absolute economy - everything's on the circuit board, or maybe two circuit boards. If you bump a knob, you're flexing the solder connections on the whole thing because the pots are epoxied to the board, the tubes are socketed right to the board. This started with Fenders back in the 90's, Marshall has been back and forth on it with different models succumbing in different years, every one of the "2nd line" stuff - Crate, Bugera, newer Peaveys etc. is built this way. The actual sound of the things may be very pleasing - I'm not one of those that's convinced "point-to-point" is always going to be sonically better, as long as the right levels of current get to the right places, these can sound fine. But some problems on them are a nightmare and/or impossible to fix. If you're still under a Fender warranty, they just yank the whole board and put in a new one. Once the warranty's done with, some thing just can't be fixed. It's pretty easy to see - what are the tubes and pots attached to? Disposable amps - what will they think of next.... :icon_scratch:

I often think about this very topic.  I've seen a lot of amps with knobs punched in and the metalwork bent from a fall on the face.  The PCB amps that have had this are usually not repairable without a new PCB.  This typically means that the owner won't agree to have the work done and just get a new amp - and then not pay for the bench time to quote the job which sucks from a repair business POV, but that's another story.

I actually think that the old boogies - MKII and the like - were done pretty well.  They used PCBs, but the knobs and sockets where chassis mounted AND the PCB was foil side up so you could actually work on it when the PCB was in place.  Made simple things (like a cap job) actually simple  

If I were ever to get into repair again, I think I would just publish a list of amps I would work on - and the only PCB amps in there would be the old Boogies.

 

[Cagey]

If I were ever to get into repair again, I think I would just publish a list of amps I would work on - and the only PCB amps in there would be the old Boogies.

Yeah, no kidding. A couple years ago I was making a few bucks buying up Bugera V22s and V55s during the period when they weren't installing heatsinks on the +15v regulator. Things would go tits-up pretty easily and early, and a lot of them were floating around for next to nothing. People were just dumping them, saying it was because they were Chinese junk and they'd never work well. Apparently, the engineer(s) didn't derate the part for its environment. Lotta people thought it was a batch of bad regulators, but it was just that they were overheating. Put a $1 heatsink on them, and everything was just ducky. Fix 'em and sell 'em on eBay. But, getting to the damn regulator was a nightmare. It was like trying to get at the back three spark plugs on a transverse-mounted V6 in a mini-van or something. Had to pull the engine and tranny and half the suspension to replace $6 worth of parts, so it cost a million bucks to do it.

 

[pabloman]

Check out the Humboldt Hot Rod Blues Jr. III.  Not bad for $529. Has all the upgrades already done and its purdy
so everyone will know its special!

http://proguitarshop.com/store/amplifiers-fender-amplifiers-c-4_5/fender-blues-jr-humboldt-hot-rod-p-3268

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

I have to give a mention to one of my fav American companies: Carvin, who makes some seriously nice gear for decent prices.

Here may be found a few categories of their guit-fiddle amp selections.

I've had three different bass amps from them (all different generations on manufacture), and all 3 were fantastic; apart from the one that was so fantastically loud I couldn't use it to rehearse with, even with volume at 1! Great tone, though; I just couldn't handle 500 watts in that particular context.  I've not personally tried their guitar amps since I moved away from SoCal a decade ago, but the examples they have give a good idea of what's possible.

Also: their warrantee & product support is second to none, especially for a major factory manufacturer. The only problem is you'd have to by direct & do the trial period, rather than try one out first.  I can't imagine you'd be dissappointed.

I'm not prepared to do a full +1 on the Carvin stuff yet.  I have a small Vintage 16 I haven't put in enough time on to speak for it's durability, but it is made in the USA (with many Chinese components), and though it does not have the online mod following, there is some out there.  I'm on my second bass amp from them, and after lurking on their forum, I'm the only one that hasn't had trouble iwith mine.  I seem to be the exception and not the rule.  A forum member had one of the V3s that crapped out on him.  It did it right out of the Warranty period and Carvin was no help in producing a schematic for him to try to fix it.