Pedal Friendly Tube Amp

SamIV · Fri Dec 02, 2022 1:40 pm

Been away for a while. Wife had medical issues but much better these days. Looking for suggestions on a pedal friendly tube amp. Something that can be serviced for years to come. I have some, but lunch box type, and not service friendly. Not interested in a modeling amp even though I am going to pick up a desk or floor based modeler, but for headphone use only. Trying to keep between 500 - 1000 range and can be used. What you enablers suggest. I play mainly classic rock, late 60’s through early 80’s.

tonebender · Fri Dec 02, 2022 6:01 pm

Peavey Classic 30 - always a winner, covers anything.
Vox AC 15 - One of my favorite amps when I was gigging a lot.
Ampeg J20 - Still my go to amp to this day. Pure tone goodness and takes pedals well.

SamIV · Fri Dec 02, 2022 7:37 pm

Guess I should have said I have to play at lower volumes as well due to my wife’s condition. I did own a Classic Thirty with the extension cab, but gave it to my brother along with my Fender Princeton years ago. Well I left it at his house for him use. Guess it worked out that way. Also owned an AC15, and it sounded great, but was loud with pedals. It did sound wonderful. Maybe an AC 10? Going to have to look into that Ampeg. Thanks.

Rollin Hand · Sat Dec 03, 2022 7:57 pm

Take a look at the Blackstar line. They have 5w tube combos with power scaling.

Also, Marshall DSL 5 combo.

andrewsrea · Sun Dec 04, 2022 12:24 pm

Lots of good suggestions so far.

My advice is assess your likely applications to determine wattage. If you need to keep up with a drummer, then think 15w to 22w. You can always mic into the PA system for a little extra volume help. If you are just jamming to MP3's at home, 5w to 12w is perfect.

Next, assess your clean preferences which typically fall into three camps: American Blackface (scooped mids), American Tweed: warm & on the edge, then British clean: tight and flat.

Pedals and multi-effects can take you the rest of the way. IMHO, pedals it is easier for a Blackface amp to replicate Tweed and British cleans and gain, versus the other way around. So IMHO, a Fender Princeton Reverb is a great home amp and a Fender Deluxe Reverb is a great band amp.

SamIV · Sun Dec 04, 2022 3:12 pm

Thanks for the replies. Think I am going to go the Fender blackface route. Videos I have watched seem to all point toward pedal friendly and hopefully serviceable down the road. Maybe some type of deluxe. Might be a bit over budget, but would be my last. The only stadium I will be playing is in mind in my office, so it will be ample power. I know I could go with less power, but I would rather over buy just a tad. Using a 20 watt amp with pedals now and it works fine. Looking at a digital processor as mentioned before as well. Looking into something for silent playing. Looking at the new Boss GX-100 unit. Thanks again.

tonebender · Sun Dec 04, 2022 7:31 pm

I forgot about the Blackstar 5W amp. I had one of them for years. It has the absolute best sounding drive channel of any tube amp I have ever owned. It was not loud either. It was lesson amp. It sat by my desk and any time I wanted to learn a song I would pull up the song lesson on youtube and use that amp. I had one of the mini stacks, the head and two little marching cabs. I got it in a trade for a vintage Univox amp. I really did not want it and thought I would have no use for it but it turned out to be most useful.

I second the motion on the Blackstar 5W 2-channel amp.

golem · Sun Dec 04, 2022 10:02 pm

I have an Ampeg J12T that I'd argue is great with pedals. Vintage clubs aren't bad either but get into Marshall territory real quickly with the gain up.

SamIV · Mon Dec 05, 2022 5:25 am

tonebender wrote: ↑Sun Dec 04, 2022 7:31 pm I forgot about the Blackstar 5W amp. I had one of them for years. It has the absolute best sounding drive channel of any tube amp I have ever owned. It was not loud either. It was lesson amp. It sat by my desk and any time I wanted to learn a song I would pull up the song lesson on youtube and use that amp. I had one of the mini stacks, the head and two little marching cabs. I got it in a trade for a vintage Univox amp. I really did not want it and thought I would have no use for it but it turned out to be most useful.

I second the motion on the Blackstar 5W 2-channel amp.

I actually owned the Blackstar HT5R twice. Hard to beat it’s Marshall goodness at low volumes. It’s not a 100% tube amp though. Just curious down the road if it is just a disposable amp if service was ever required. I used to work on tube amps years ago which is old technology. Newer solid state technology, I am not so versed in. It is really hard to beat the low volume over-driven sound that comes out of this amp.

tonebender · Mon Dec 05, 2022 8:32 am

I loved the drive sound from the 5W Blackstar and could not get if from any other amp or amp and pedal. I went to check out the other larger models offered by Blackstar but did not find the drive channel to be the same to my ear. Yep if you want an amp that sounds like a Marshall 900 dimed in a stadium, but at a very low volume, this is the one. Great for recording.

andrewsrea · Mon Dec 05, 2022 1:25 pm

golem wrote: ↑Sun Dec 04, 2022 10:02 pm I have an Ampeg J12T that I'd argue is great with pedals. Vintage clubs aren't bad either but get into Marshall territory real quickly with the gain up.

I'd put your Ampeg J12T in the 'Fender BF clean' category and agree, it is a very good pedal platform.

golem · Wed Dec 07, 2022 1:37 pm

andrewsrea wrote: ↑Mon Dec 05, 2022 1:25 pm
golem wrote: ↑Sun Dec 04, 2022 10:02 pm I have an Ampeg J12T that I'd argue is great with pedals. Vintage clubs aren't bad either but get into Marshall territory real quickly with the gain up.
I'd put your Ampeg J12T in the 'Fender BF clean' category and agree, it is a very good pedal platform.

Yes, I don't quite know how similar it is to any specific Fender amp but agree it's definitely closer to Fender blackface clean than anything else. But, it really does well pushed with pedals. I think it's better at higher gain than most BF Fenders I've tried. To me, at least, it doesn't sound as much like a Fender Tweed or BF based amp as you push it to further break up.

The Create Vintage Club, I assume, is based on a Marshall because Obeid was asked to design it as an amp he'd want to play and he loves Marshall Plexis. All he ever gigs with is Plexis according to his bass player (bass guyworks for the shop you do amp repair for occasionally). Because it gets dirty faster then the Ampeg I'd be inclined to say that you have to think carefully about what gain pedals you want to use.

All it takes for me to get JCM800 like higher gain tones out of that is to use a Boss EQ7 and reduce the high end while lowering the 400K (if my memory serves) to get reduce a tad bit of muddiness. I find it a bit trickier to get the volume and gain controls to get the lower levels of gain I like out of Marshalls and that doesn't require any boost (but the reduced high end is still nice).

OMB · Fri Dec 09, 2022 1:02 pm

Hey Sam glad to hear your wife is doing better. A reissue Ampeg takes pedals quite well and does great cleans. They are all (Jets and Jet II's) very loud. If you need quiet then a small solid state or hybrid is the way to go and most of the modelers really don't need pedals in my estimation. As you probably know a 5 watt tube amp can be very loud as well. The problem is most modern day tube amps from the 90's forward can be challenging to work on. Most of my amp guys prefer vintage stuff.

SamIV · Fri Dec 09, 2022 9:45 pm

This amp is supposed to be pedal friendly. Fender Deluxe Reverb. Had to take a drive to pick it up used for a very decent price. About 6 months old as he was in need of quick cash apparently. Will see how it goes over the weekend. Sounds very good loud and clean. No pedals yet, but the wife and a son who is under the weather went to sleep. So will have to wait

SamIV · Fri Dec 09, 2022 9:47 pm

andrewsrea · Sat Dec 10, 2022 12:01 pm

SamIV wrote: ↑Fri Dec 09, 2022 9:47 pmimage.jpg

HNAD!

looking forward to your review!

deeaa · Mon Dec 12, 2022 8:09 am

I've had a BUNCH of 1-20W amps at home and I do mean a bunch.

Blackstar is pretty damn nice; I've had the HT-1 twice, a 5 and a 20, and all were really good. Great drive sounds, but I just grew bored of them. Prefer that Marshall bite/wild quality to the sound.

Also have a Victory V30. Incredibly versatile an amp, semi point-to-point, power modes, takes EL34 as well as 6L6...but quite expensive. Great sounds, a bit roundish and warm.

On cheaper end I can't recommed a Marshall Origin 20 enough. It's got an incredible, warm clean that takes pedals excellently. Also has three power modes and sounds great also quietly. Can be had used for like 250 or so. Loud enough with the band easily if need be, too, with the right cab.

The internal drive is pretty nasty, single-tube fizz, but I modded mine with a Headfirst mod guide to pretty much JCM800 specs and I love it. It's what I use as my main amp with the band.

But the original was a great pedal platform indeed. It's kinda quirky in a strange way, they made the EQ and the cathode follower resistors odd so it's a little different to dial in than many other amps, and you might also need an EQ if you want to alter the sound more...but I really liked the warm cleans, much like an 1978x.

All that said, nothing really beats a modeler at real home volumes. Nice as these low power tube amps can sound at low level, I always feel the urge to turn them up at least a bit, because they do sound even better then.