Time to buy an amp. What?

I'm not making this up, but for a little amp I like the epi valve junior and/or the valve special. They might be too low wattage for you, though.
 
cuffdc said:
I'm not making this up, but for a little amp I like the epi valve junior and/or the valve special. They might be too low wattage for you, though.
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Nah. I've been using 5 watts for a while and it works ok. I was amazed how loud it'll get through a 2x10.
I think I like the special 6 over the Epi though.
 
Elias Graves said:
Whys that?
I certainly like the color of the original better. Not a fan of the surfy colors at all.
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I like the surf colours actually. But when I lined up a couple of original Excelsiors next to the Pros, the old ones just sounded better across the board.
 
Elias Graves said:
Nah. I've been using 5 watts for a while and it works ok. I was amazed how loud it'll get through a 2x10.
I think I like the special 6 over the Epi though.
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That's like me and Marshall v. Fender. On a few occasions I like that Marshall crunch, but overall I can't work with them very well and prefer Fender. I had a JCM900 50 Watt that was oh so crunchy, but I couldn't make it do what I wanted.
 
Elias Graves said:
My cheap ass Champ finally blew up in a puff of smoke and I'm through fixing it. Time to replace.

Here's what I'm looking at...

Laney Cub 10. 12 watts or so and a 10" speaker. 6v6 tubes that supposedly can also take 6l6s. Not sure if that actually gives more power or not. It has some nice features but I'm concerned it's just another cheapie like the Champ. It is a two tube design and is class ab. Maybe a little fuller sounding. It's reported to be a little darker sounding than a lot of fenders and that could be a good thing. The white guitar is very bright in tone.

VHT Special 6 head. Looks like quality is a little higher. Has some nice features and I can run it through my 2x10 cab. Hand wired for whatever that's worth. Single ended class A, which I like. Very lively amps.

The other main contender is kinda off the wall. I'm thinking of getting a Boss 59 Bassman pedal and an Electro Harmonix 44 Magnum power amp. Amp rig on a pedal board has a certain appeal. I could run this into my 2x10 and I can also use the original and replacement speakers from my champ to build a 2x6 for practice. The all solid state does have some appeal. Tubes are a pain in the ass and I find them unreliable.

I think most of you have heard my feeble playing. I like a trashy lo if tweedy type sound. Nothing fancy, just some nice gritty cleans and a little drive occasionally. I only occasionally play with others and when I do jam with Foo and the boys, a mic is always on hand to make a small amp louder so volume isn't a huge consideration.

Any other ideas or thoughts on the stuff I listed? Money's tight right now so I gotta go cheap for now. The 5E3 will have to wait til next year (I hope.)
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What blew up on your Champ... And what are you going to do with it? wave0

Are you looking for a clean amp? A dirty amp? Something with a nice EQ section? Something with a volume knob that you can crank the shit out of for low-volume power tube distortion?
 
Not exactly sure. A few months ago, the power tube went and took out some resistors. Had that fixed, along with replacing the cheap jacks and pot with better pieces.
This time, I was just playing along and I had a loud pop and a puff of smoke then nothing at all. Haven't even bothered to look inside to see.

What am I looking for? I like kinda trashy lo fi tones.
Also looking maybe at a pignose. That should keep me going til I can afford something better and I dig the ones I've tried out before.
 
Never owned an amp with a big EQ on it. I think a tone knob is the most I've had outside the valvetronix. The Champ was volume only and I always liked the tone of it. Replaced the speaker and tubes but it was otherwise stock.
 
Elias Graves said:
Not exactly sure. A few months ago, the power tube went and took out some resistors. Had that fixed, along with replacing the cheap jacks and pot with better pieces.
This time, I was just playing along and I had a loud pop and a puff of smoke then nothing at all. Haven't even bothered to look inside to see.

What am I looking for? I like kinda trashy lo fi tones.
Also looking maybe at a pignose. That should keep me going til I can afford something better and I dig the ones I've tried out before.
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Hmmm... Bad output transformer? Bad power tube? Bad filter cap? What do you think, @wagdog, @realtree71, @Wyatt, and @Modern Saint?

Have you looked at the Vox AC4TV?
 
Also a used Crate Vintage club 20 or 30. Amp from the 90's made in the USA, you can pick them up pretty cheap on ebay sometimes.
 
wagdog said:
It's not a complicated amp. Hard to say without out seeing it, but it most likely blew a tube (again?) and took some resistors in the power rail with it.
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Just headchecking since it happened twice. If you have two power tubes blow in the same amp it's either a shitty supply of tubes, something wrong in the power rail (filtering, bias), or something shorted in the output tranny, right?
 
GilmourD said:
Just headchecking since it happened twice. If you have two power tubes blow in the same amp it's either a shitty supply of tubes, something wrong in the power rail (filtering, bias), or something shorted in the output tranny, right?
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Champion 600, right?

Could be a bad filter cap. I'm pretty sure that amp is cathode biased, so there wouldn't be a bias supply.

Easy enough to go through, hard to do without seeing it though.
 
For what I paid for it, I'm not spending another penny or minute of time screwing with it. It's a disposable amp.

I had an AC4 a while back. Not bad but very boxy sounding. A better made amp than the champ 600 for sure. The AC4C1 looks nice. Added tone controls and a master volume now.
 
Elias Graves said:
For what I paid for it, I'm not spending another penny or minute of time screwing with it. It's a disposable amp.

I had an AC4 a while back. Not bad but very boxy sounding. A better made amp than the champ 600 for sure. The AC4C1 looks nice. Added tone controls and a master volume now.
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My garbage can has room... ahem... LOL

Yeah, the stock speakers are kinda boxy. The stock tubes certainly don't help, either. I put a JJ ECC803S (not ECC83S) in the pre and a JJ standard EL84 and it improved the sound tremendously even with the stock 8 inch speaker (I have the short-lived AC4TV8). I've been meaning to try it in stereo with my Jet City Picovalve since the JC24S cab I have is stereo at 16 ohms a side and I finally have a pedal that outputs stereo.
 
I think the Excelsior would be right up your alley, myself, plus besides the $249 new deal, there are some popping up used at GCs for as little as $149.
 
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