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help me find an amp, tube combo class A blah blah


-Assy-

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I want something affordable, possibly modable, class A, preferably single channel all tube amp. I was looking at the epiphone galaxie, those are supposedly extremely great sounding after a bit of modding, but its two channels, and i really like the sovtek mig-30, but i dont really want a head unit.

 

looking to spend under 500 bucks for something decent, not super mesa boogie omgz pro quality, just something for some bedroom jamming and recording, good cleans, decent crunch if i want it.

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i dont know any amp terminology. i just want something thats crisp and warm, all tube, its for a small acoustic band that i will be sitting in with, and for my own recording purposes.

 

Does that mean you want an acoustic amp?:confused:

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Mods, probably Blackheart or even a Valve Junior.

 

I have a Blackstar HT-5s mini stack which is great, but you can also get the head with speaker as a combo.

 

If you're not gonna to push the overdrive into metal-land, you might check out the Bugera V22 ($350). I thought it sounded great clean, right out of the box, with no break-in. I got a 4x12 Bugera cab yesterday (same speaker) and it's really good. Very well defined and articulate. I can hear alot more texture in what I'm playing. Not sure what Bugera/Behringer is doing in their China factory...a new speaker approach or copies of tried and true, but I am really impressed with the sound of their speakers.

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I'd get a Blues Junior for $400 and spend the rest on a great sounding speaker like a Jensen C12N...If you buy the Blues Junior used you might get the whole thing done for a bit over $400.

 

You get 15 watts...more headroom and better cleans than those 5-10 watt single ended one-tube "class A" amps. It also would have a master volume so you could get some overdrive at lower volumes.

 

As for mods...there's a website run by Bill Macrone that has a whole bunch of mods. They make the amp have shimmering cleans that remind be of something like a Matchless. The overdrive sounds are decent after the mods too but maybe not as great as a Deluxe Reverb....but awesome clean sounds.

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Crate V33.... Two channels, nice cleans stock, dirty channel sounds killer with some easy mods....

 

I have a lightly used V33 2-12 that's stock except for the speakers (the new ones are Peavey Blue Marvels) that I'd sell you for a reasonable price. I haven't done any mods on it, although I did mod the last two Crate amps I had. If you are seriously interested in purchasing an amp that will meet all of your criteria right when you open the box on it, I could mod the amp using the "Soldano SLO" conversion put up by Steve Ahola of BlueGuitar.org for you, which turns it into a 3-channel screamer, and sell it to you that way. After the mods, you still retain the very nice cleans from stock, add crunch channel, and the dirty channel will blow your socks off...

 

PM me if you are interested at all....

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By the way, there always is the orange AD 5 - small 5w combo, pure class A. That one is pretty cheap(ish) new and comes with a celestion speaker.

 

I love it - the controls have 2 knobs - one for tone, the other for volume.

Don't think I know of a simpler amp..... Also means you got to push it to get tube saturation. 1* EL84 & 1* 12AX7.

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If you are looking for bedroom levels don't get anything over 5W if you want some tube crunch. I had to put an attenuator on my Blackheart 5W combo just to get it to accectable levels when overdriven.

 

It's a great amp and there are a few cheap and very effective mods that you can do to it. The Bitmo Triple Bypass mod is about $35 and gives it 3 very usable voicings. The most important mod IMHO is a new Weber WSE15 output transformer. You can use the Hammond 125ESE, but it's the same thing for almost half the money...both sound amazing.

 

Oh and the BH5 is built like a tank. :thu:

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