some more advice from the experts please.....re tube amps.......

Keira-WitherKay

when in doubt it pays to ask questions on this forum.

so here goes....

i still do my acoustic set and thats cool BUT i recently been playing the jazz part of my repetoire with an electric ...... (ES 175 copy) , and was quite content with just playing the guitar thru a preamp and through the PA and thought about getting a solid state guitar amp .......BUT i made the mistake of going into marshall music and playing on some of their valve amps....and yes .i CAN see what all the fuss is about ......

so the questions i'm posing ..is what valve amps do you guys and girls recommend that can stay pretty clean ........ i don't need lots of volume so prob 20 - 30 W is all i need as i play quiet gigs..... at marshall one of the staff recommended the peavey classic 30 and i played thru a fender blues junior while i was there ......which i loved btw so what other amps would offer a nice fat room filling clean but warm sound........ cos my sound can have that 'halo" of almost breaking up around it but it must never distort totally .... the fender blues junior had me keeping the gain at about 2 or 3 and pushing the volume and wow it was loud ........ so so far that seems an option ....... oh and last criteria it needs to be fairly light ( for a valve amp) and prob only 1 speaker so basically a small combo but it must fill the room with sound.......

so what are my options.....

and yes yes yes to the guys who play electric i can see why valve amps are so popular it's all about the tone

Manfred-Klose

The fender blues junior will do. if it sounds good, then go for it.

MikeM

Manfred Klose wrote: The fender blues junior will do. if it sounds good, then go for it.

+1. Typically though EL84 or cathode biased amps will sound warmer. I will also add that the Classic 30 is the go to workhorse gigging amp. But whichever floats your boat, go for!

ezietsman

Check the Vox AC15 also. They're not that expensive. There's one floating around here second hand for R4200 somewhere. Blackstar HT20 is in that price range too, if you can find one.

AlanRatcliffe

For cleans stay in the Fender family. While some other brands have nice sounding cleans (notably Vox), they are usually more coloured tonally. Also, the smaller 5- 10 W amps (the same is true of virtually any brand) won't cut it for jazz - not enough clean headroom.

If you liked the Pro Junior, also take a look at the Blues Junior, which is the same 15W amp with a 12" instead of a 10" speaker. The newer models like the Hotrods (and even the Pro and Blues Junior) break up sooner than the vintage reissues - especially with humbuckers.

In Fender's vintage reissue range the 22W Deluxe is the one to look at - expensive, but worth it. The Deluxe has enough cleans to cope up to band level, but when it does drive, still sounds great. The 15W Princeton reissue is nice but also suffers from a lack of clean headroom and is very close to the Deluxe in price.

Also check out the Super Champ - an analogue modelling frontend coupled to a 15W valve power amp. Surprisingly nice tone and very flexible.

Gearhead

While there, did you try the Mesa 5:25? It's got more range to adjust your power to the room and the 5W setting is a class A single ended. This will really suit your jazz box since it adds second harmonics unlike all the others (which are push-pull). The thing comes in 1x10 or 1x12 combo and has more tone control so you can get warmth with chime without it ever feeling loud. (GH fan-boy?).
It is however quite a bit more expensive unfortunately. You could pick them up on the bay for significantly less, but the hassle...

Keira-WitherKay

gee thanks for all the replies...... least i know now what i need to look at ..... and lets just say if i decide to take the plunge i want to buy only once... so will spend the extra dosh if i can get what i want and above all like ..... and as long as my current residency gig doesnt fire me ? i will be buying in next month or two . so wanna spend a while checking out everything ...... i also belong to jazz guitar forum so been reading a lot there too .... so if i got it straight from all the feedback ....... here and just threads i read on the other site .. ..... i need at least 30 W or close to it .... and yes i read everywhere to use fender for the cleaner sounds....... @ gearhead i have not tried the mesa yet but i will . ..... this time i'm not gonna rush it and let GAS dictate a quick buy i will research tube amps and pose a few more questions here too if i need to......

but please keep the suggestions and input coming ......... @ mike you mentioned the difference between two types of valves and one is warmer than the other ...... can you give me some examples of which valves do what and which might suit my purposes better.....

as i said earlier i know acoustics backwards and even PA gear but tube amps are foreign to me. cos as an acoustic player i always wanted transparency 100% now i want the opposite i want that coloured tone but still clean .....

and i did mention it i don't want a small sounding amp. i have heard some valve amps that are hectically loud but they not full sounding more piercing than warm . i want to be able to play in a restaurant enviroment and have the amp soft but the sound must fill the room . that fender blues junior seemed to do that at 3 on master volume and the gain on about 2 i was already thinking this was getting loud and it sounded fat even at low volume....... but in all honesty thats about the 1st valve amp i tried so i can't say thats the best for me. but i was impressed, but i also want to get used to tube sound cos in reality even beginners think a squire sounds good untill they get used to what good tone is ....... i'm at step one when it comes to tube amps.....

AlanRatcliffe

Just thinking, I know the Jazzkat amps are popular amongst the jazz fraternity. The Jazzkat is also small and relatively lightweight, which I know you favour. The only problem being that you will probably not find them locally. And yes, they are solidstate, but particularly for jazz, solidstate is an option and shouldn't be discounted. A good amp is a good amp.

Something else I'd also say you must do if you're serious about finding the right amp for you first time around - try both a Fender Twin and a Roland JC120. While they are both totally impractical for your application, they are kind of the benchmarks for clean valve and solid state respectively and will give you a really good idea of what you are shooting for in a smaller package and power rating.

Keira-WitherKay

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: Just thinking, I know the Jazzkat amps are popular amongst the jazz fraternity.

- try both a Fender Twin and a Roland JC120. While they are both totally impractical for your application, they are kind of the benchmarks for clean valve and solid state respectively

thanks for input alan, valued as always .. yes aja from the site has a JC120 i have already spoken to him about trying it out and that will happen soon as i get the time........ so if anyone has a twin reverb in pta or jhb let me know ...........

re the jazzkat amps .yes i have been to their site already ..another amp that the jazz forum mention a lot is polytone..... but so far it seems that for a solidstate amp i may as well just buy a really good preamp and use my PA . cos my ears hear solidstate amps as nothing more than a powered PA speaker except it has a dedicated preamp to it , i must say i was quite happy to go the solid state route but that almost accidental use of the valve amp shook up all my thinking ...... and immeadiately i could hear the difference ....and liked that difference. NOT diss'ing solid state amps tho i will always use it on my nylons tried the genz benz 300W compact the other day ...for that purpose but it sounded again no different to my nylon thru my powered speakers

but yeah thanks again and keep the comments and suggestions coming

domhatch

Hi Keira

A while back, no, forever ago, I was taking lessons with Tony Russell, and I wanted an amp with a nice, clean tone that would break up a little on re-entry if needs be, for instance if I wasn't playing jazz. I was playing an Epi Goldtop with P90s strung with flatwounds which had this beautiful fat tone. One day, while looking for a guitar, and not an amp, I wound up at Andy McGibbons. I plugged a guitar into a (in this thread at least) ubiquitous Fender Blues Junior. Needless to say I walked out with both the guitar and the amp.

I no longer play jazz unless I'm noodling around (I'm more focused on blues), but the Blues Junior was my first (and so far only) tube amp and, like you, I was blown away by the difference between tube and solid state amps. When I get up and gig somewhere, I'll be taking it with me. It's handy and hardy and it's loud if you need it to be. (When we win the Rugby World Cup later this year, I'll be popping it on the patio and playing the national anthem through it for the whole neighbourhood to hear!)

This is by no means a recommendation – I truly believe each guitarist needs to make up his or her own mind – and there are many folks here who are vastly more experienced and knowledgable than I am on this subject. But it's kick-butt for my application.
dh

Jack-Flash-Jr

Plus 1 on the clean channel of the super champ.