First foray into valve amp territory...

EvilGrin

EvilGrin

EvilGrin

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Joined
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Aberdeen, Scotland
Hey guys, I've got a max budget of 300 notes and I'm looking to take my first tentative footsteps into the land of valves. I've been doing a ton of reading up on the subject the last day or two, and I'm slowly getting closer to an answer, but could really use some advice.

First of all for this budget, I'm quite sure that I'm stuck with choices between various combo amps (unless someone can point me in the direction of a deal of the century head/cab). To clarify the use - it'll be 100% for jamming in my house and will be replacing a solid-state Fender M80 Chorus 2x12 80watt per channel amp. It's just far, far too loud, I can't turn the volume knob past 1 1/2 without incurring the wrath of my wife. I'll possibly keep the M80 incase I ever decide to jam or join a band (can't see this happening any time soon).

With the above in mind, I'm going to have to make sure that whatever I choose can squeal the way I want it to at relatively low volumes and generally doesn't sacrifice too much tone at bedroom volumes.

I'm hoping for something pretty versatile as I play (and am still heavily learning) a variety of styles of blues (BB King to Clapton to SRV), all different kinds of rock (Foo Fighters, Pumpkins, QOTSA, Zep etc.) and a bit of various metal (Killswitch, Metallica, Opeth etc.).

I'm quite sure that I won't get everything that I want in one nice amp package especially in this budget, so I'd like something that can cover the majorty of what I want, and then gradually invest in some decent pedals to cover the rest (Suggestions to complement an amp would be fantastic).

From my own research, these combos are what I'm looking at, along with a little description of what I've noted from soundbytes I've heard:

  • Blackstar HT-5 - No Reverb, Cleans aren't amazing (but I think I could live with them), Rockin' drive channel.
  • Bugera V22 - Nice cleans, cheap, quite a vintage tone and drive channel sounds a little thin?
  • Laney VC15-110 - Nice cleans, more of a vintage tone, drive sounds better than the Bugera, but I think overall more suited to light rock?
  • Laney LC15-110 - Pretty nice and cheap amp, but put off by it being only one channel...
Bedroom volume level thick valve tones on a shoe-string budget... tall order? :D

All comments/suggestions much appreciated guys. :)
 
I guess either amps aren't an exciting topic or it was tl;dr, so summary is this: Have a budget of £300 max, want a good valve combo amp that will sound good and distort well at bedroom volumes without sacrificing tone. Looking to get something within the next week or so, so any help will be greatly appreciated.
 
HT-5 owner here. Pretty much spot on with your short description. Cleans are so-so but usable and the overdrive channel is really versatile. I've no trouble recommending it.
 
Thanks for the replies guys, good to hear from someone who's used the HT-5. It's really the amp that I've been leaning towards all along, but didn't want to make an ill-informed decision as even though £300 is small in the grand scheme of amps, it's still a lot of cash to me.

@Gustov - Any recommendations for pedals etc. to kick the gain higher? Also planning on picking up a Big Muff Pi fuzz box - I play quite a bit of the pumpkins' stuff, so I think that'll be a good place to start.
 
Another vote for the HT-5. Although I haven't tried the other, I have an HT-5 and it's really good.

As for boosting, I've got a Big Muff (lulz :D) but using it in conjunction with the overdrive channel on the amp just makes a big noisy mess.

Something like a Tubescreamer might be a better option. If you're any good at soldering, you get get one of these for about £65.


Best thing to do would be to try some stuff out though.


Edit: Despite only being 5W, it can still go pretty bloody loud.
 
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EvilGrin said:
Thanks for the replies guys, good to hear from someone who's used the HT-5. It's really the amp that I've been leaning towards all along, but didn't want to make an ill-informed decision as even though £300 is small in the grand scheme of amps, it's still a lot of cash to me.

@Gustov - Any recommendations for pedals etc. to kick the gain higher? Also planning on picking up a Big Muff Pi fuzz box - I play quite a bit of the pumpkins' stuff, so I think that'll be a good place to start.
Click to expand...

Depends what your budget is really. You'll be much better off geting a boost / overdrive than a direct distortion pedal. From my experience distortion pedals give you a completely different tone whereas an OD just compliments your original tone and pushes the amp a little bit more.

My suggestions are

Fulltone OCD
Ibanez TS-9
Xotic ac booster
 
Dingleberry88 said:
Another vote for the HT-5. Although I haven't tried the other, I have an HT-5 and it's really good.

As for boosting, I've got a Big Muff (lulz :D) but using it in conjunction with the overdrive channel on the amp just makes a big noisy mess.

Something like a Tubescreamer might be a better option. If you're any good at soldering, you get get one of these for about £65.

Best thing to do would be to try some stuff out though.

Edit: Despite only being 5W, it can still go pretty bloody loud.
Click to expand...

That BYOC looks awesome, I've been known to do a touch of soldering before, so that'd probably be a fun wee project! Is the end result worthwhile though, or can a better pedal be had for a bit more money? Have one yourself btw? :D

Yeah, I'll have to look up some soundclips of a tubescreamer. Shouldn't the Big Muff really be run through a clean channel though anyway? I might be showing my complete ignorance on the topic here, but I was always under the impression that external drive/distortion/fuzz pedals should always be run clean?

Is it the Combo HT-5 you have by the way, or the head + cabs?

Gustov said:
Depends what your budget is really. You'll be much better off geting a boost / overdrive than a direct distortion pedal. From my experience distortion pedals give you a completely different tone whereas an OD just compliments your original tone and pushes the amp a little bit more.

My suggestions are

Fulltone OCD
Ibanez TS-9
Xotic ac booster
Click to expand...

Cheers for the suggestions, only heard of the tubescreamer before, but it seems probably on the money with what I'd have budget wise - I won't be buying anything right away anyway, but I'd expect to spend ~£100 on a pedal/pedals at some point in the not too distant future. I'll definitely check out the other suggestions though.

Cheers guys
 
EvilGrin said:
That BYOC looks awesome, I've been known to do a touch of soldering before, so that'd probably be a fun wee project! Is the end result worthwhile though, or can a better pedal be had for a bit more money? Have one yourself btw? :D

Yeah, I'll have to look up some soundclips of a tubescreamer. Shouldn't the Big Muff really be run through a clean channel though anyway? I might be showing my complete ignorance on the topic here, but I was always under the impression that external drive/distortion/fuzz pedals should always be run clean?

Is it the Combo HT-5 you have by the way, or the head + cabs?
Click to expand...

I do indeed have the BYOC :). It's supposed to be a clone of the TS-808, and though I haven't had chance to try them side by side, it sounds pretty similar to me. I just couldn't justify buying an 808 when I could build my own for less than half the price. It's got a separate clean boost too!

I thought you were meaning you were thinking of using a Big Muff as a boost. I always run it on the clean channel. There's no right or wrong way to do things though, just whatever sounds best to you...

I've heard good things about the Fulltone too.


And I have the head + cab. :)
 
Dingleberry88 said:
I do indeed have the BYOC :). It's supposed to be a clone of the TS-808, and though I haven't had chance to try them side by side, it sounds pretty similar to me. I just couldn't justify buying an 808 when I could build my own for less than half the price. It's got a separate clean boost too!

I thought you were meaning you were thinking of using a Big Muff as a boost. I always run it on the clean channel. There's no right or wrong way to do things though, just whatever sounds best to you...

I've heard good things about the Fulltone too.

And I have the head + cab. :)
Click to expand...

Sweet, did you buy it from that American site? Might be a bit pricier now with the crap exchange rate + customs whacked on top, or do they send as a gift? :D Did you go for the Mosfet conversion btw? Just looked up the price of the TS-808 and jeez, this looks like the way to go!

Yeah don't think I worded the post so well, had definitely intended to use the muff on clean chan. But yeah, Big Muffs might be a one-trick-pony, but they're a pony I'd happily ride, haha!

Nice, using the Blackstar mini-stack, or different cabs?
 
You can't buy from them directly. You'll need to use their UK distributor: http://vibe-o-tronic.co.uk/, but with that you won't need to worry about customs charges or any other rubbish.

I didn't get the mosfet kit, but if I was building another I probably would as there's not really much different between the normal clipping and the LED clipping that it replaces. So the mosfet option would just add a little bit more variety.

They didn't have the kit in stock when I bought the pedal though (and it seems they still don't), but all the parts are detailed in the instructions so you could probably just pick up the extra bits from somewhere like ******. It's still a great pedal without though. :)


Even if the price of the 808 is a bit steep I'd still recommend trying one (or something similar) out just to get an idea of the kind of sound you'd get (don't expect a huge change, more of an addition and bit of extra push).


I'm currently using the cab of an old solid state Marshall, but looking to get an Orange 212 soon. :)
 
Dingleberry88 said:
You can't buy from them directly. You'll need to use their UK distributor: http://vibe-o-tronic.co.uk/, but with that you won't need to worry about customs charges or any other rubbish.

I didn't get the mosfet kit, but if I was building another I probably would as there's not really much different between the normal clipping and the LED clipping that it replaces. So the mosfet option would just add a little bit more variety.

They didn't have the kit in stock when I bought the pedal though (and it seems they still don't), but all the parts are detailed in the instructions so you could probably just pick up the extra bits from somewhere like ******. It's still a great pedal without though. :)

Even if the price of the 808 is a bit steep I'd still recommend trying one (or something similar) out just to get an idea of the kind of sound you'd get (don't expect a huge change, more of an addition and bit of extra push).

I'm currently using the cab of an old solid state Marshall, but looking to get an Orange 212 soon. :)
Click to expand...

Cheers for the link, I've popped them an email asking about the mosfet kit, but if they aren't getting any I'll do like you said and find some components elsewhere - I work at an Electronics company anyway, so I could probably find most of it all on the shelves here!

Yeah, I'll definitely have to have a go of some pedals to get an idea of what I really want. Local music shop is a blackstar dealer anyway, so should be able to get some good tests on the go locally. :)

Wonder if I could chuck the HT-5 head through my Fender M80 2x12 Cab... Hmmm... I'll have a look at it tonight! :P
 
To update: Ordered up the Blackstar HT-5 mini stack 'bay on the for £300 + £20 delivery (cost him £45 to ship it - 38 kgs!!), under 4 months old. :) Will be getting it on wednesday, can't wait. :)
 
Whilst you're waiting for it to arrive, re-string your guitar. Tube amps sound much better with a reasonably new set of strings on imo.

Congratulations on your purchase.
 
Dingleberry88 said:
Not a bad price - I'm sure you'll love it. :)

What guitar(s) are you using btw?
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My favourite guitar is my MIM strat:

DSC01129.jpg


I just recently bought a Custom built Tele, solid mahogony body, P90 @ bridge, humbucker @ neck with a Bigsby b5 trem. I'll get some decent pictures of it up later and update this thread. :)

I also went halves with my wife on an Ibanez ART120 in silverburst (lovely looking guitar, taking a while to get used to playing it though). She has an Ibanez S520ex in matte purple and a Gibson SG Goddess in violetburst. So really we have a nice wide range of guitars to play with. I need to sit down some day and get some good pics of all the gear. I suppose the forthcoming New Amp Day will be as good a time as any! :)

@Gustov - Cheers for the advice on the strings, just fit a new set of ernie ball 10's on the tele, will do the same with the Strat as the old D'addario 9's I had on it are starting to get a little pitted anyway!

Cheers guys :)
 
Dingleberry88 said:
Has your amp arrived? What's the verdict?

Think I remember the thread on that SG - really nice guitar. :)
Click to expand...

It arrived and I love it. I do miss having reverb in the amp, but that's only a minor gripe, the amp sounds great and I've been getting some great tone out of it. Was playing "Born under a bad sign" the other night and I had a gorgeous, thick, bluesy tone wailing out of the amp. I was well chuffed. :) I've been lazy recently and haven't taken any decent pics of my little music corner, I'll sort it out soon and get them up later. :)
 
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