My first valve/tube amp (Blues Junior vs Peavey Classic 30 vs Classic 50)

korn101 · 2012-05-15T18:26:46+00:00

Hi all, I'm looking to get my first tube amp. I play a CV50's Stratocaster. I play mostly blues.. Mainly Hendrix, and a lot of David Gilmour (pink floyd) st...

My first valve/tube amp (Blues Junior vs Peavey Classic 30 vs Classic 50)

Norman86

Try an Albion combo too..

TCT35Combo... around the same price as the others too..

Let me qualify...

6L6 tubes, 12" speaker, power scaling to around 12 watts, fender clean type channel;, marshally high gain channel...

and still less than R5k retail as far as i know..

greetings

I had a Classic 30. Great amp, but don't get it. It is LOUD. And I mean LOUD. I wouldn't go more than 15 watts, and preferably an amp with variable wattage.

I also use a 5 watt amp. In my opinion, two 5 watt amps in stereo are all I could ever need with modern PA systems.

The Blackheart Little Giant is a very good option in the 5w range (also has a 12" speaker), but uses EL84 power tubes. As far as 15 watters, the Fender Pro and Blues juniors are nice, but suffer a little from small cab size.

Egnaters are great amps if you can get one.

IceCreamMan

Norman86 wrote: Try an Albion combo too..

TCT35Combo... around the same price as the others too..

Let me qualify...

6L6 tubes, 12" speaker, power scaling to around 12 watts, fender clean type channel;, marshally high gain channel...

and still less than R5k retail as far as i know..

The Albion will be about 60 % of the Blues jr pricing and less than half the PEavey 30 pricing i reckon.

And i concur with the majoirty here, 50 watts is overkill...30 watts is heading towards overkill territpory too but its nice to have a bit of oomph should it be needed.

Reinhard

Like Singe said, don't go for something with a 10" speaker, unless it has a few of them (4x10 ftw).
Classic 30 is a cool amp, owned one at one time, but like others mentioned, beyond loud. I don't ever see you pushing the amp to tube breakup, I still dont believe that amp is REALLY 30w ? So it comes to reason the 50W would be even more insanely loud.
I have owned a Blues Jr too ages ago, but the Classic 30 may just be a better bet. I really can't remember what it sounded like, but I traded it for a vintage deluxe reverb.
If you do go for a smaller tube amp, just make sure you have enough headroom. My deluxe reverb gets louder to about 4.5 and then just dirtier.

So you can go plenty of headroom with pedals for overdrive (easier IMO and sounds great) or go lower watts and tube OD.

ezietsman

+1 to what Reinhard says.

One thing to note. The Blues Jr will give you overdrive at low volumes because it has a preamp gain control and a master volume, as do most of the other amps mentioned. However, the 'Tube Overdrive' spoken about is the drive from the power tubes, and most amps will be plenty loud when those start driving. My vote will be for a 15Watt combo with less efficient speaker (something like a Greenback or other ~97dB speaker) if you want power tube drive too (it sounds great). You mostly won't be getting any of that at home or at night because of the volume, regardless of speaker or wattage choice (unless its like 1 watt or so).

If you are happy to, or want to use pedals for your overdrive, then your choices are expanded to louder amps like the Classic 30/Albion TC35 etc. That said, I played a Blues Jr III the other day and it was great, but not for the price they were selling it for.

Singemonkey gigs my 18 watt amp with an efficient 2x12, mostly unmicd, and it is plenty loud when scaled down to the less than 10 watt he uses it at.

nick

Reinhard wrote: Like Singe said, don't go for something with a 10" speaker, unless it has a few of them (4x10 ftw).

Agreed, but strangely enough I find the Class5 to not sound like a 10" amp

korn101

I may be leaning towards the Albion TCT35... They might be a better bet, and considering my close friend's dad has some kind of contact.. He gets them in for real cheap. Will inquire. Has anyone here had any experience with these? and how do they compare to the Blues JNR and Classic 30 ?

BTW Thought I'd just add: My budget is ~5000

arjunmenon

korn101 wrote: I may be leaning towards the Albion TCT35... They might be a better bet, and considering my close friend's dad has some kind of contact.. He gets them in for real cheap. Will inquire. Has anyone here had any experience with these? and how do they compare to the Blues JNR and Classic 30 ?

BTW Thought I'd just add: My budget is ~5000

Well, there's an Ibanez TSA15 and cab in the classifieds section going for 3500.
From having played one, i found that it has a very punchy clean channel, is 2 x 6V6 based and is switchable between 15 & 5 watts.
Plus it has the Tubescreamer circuit built in and an additional boost function.
Just putting it out there...
I would have bought it if finance wasn't an issue.

Norman86

IceCreamMan wrote:
Norman86 wrote: Try an Albion combo too..

TCT35Combo... around the same price as the others too..

Let me qualify...

6L6 tubes, 12" speaker, power scaling to around 12 watts, fender clean type channel;, marshally high gain channel...

and still less than R5k retail as far as i know..
The Albion will be about 60 % of the Blues jr pricing and less than half the PEavey 30 pricing i reckon.

And i concur with the majoirty here, 50 watts is overkill...30 watts is heading towards overkill territpory too but its nice to have a bit of oomph should it be needed.

i meant second hand fender blues junior. classic 30 i would imagine is closer to 10, so second hand on that too...

in terms of experience, i tried the Fender, didnt like it..
its the EL34's imo. havent tried the classic 30, but its the same tubes, so i imagine it sounds similar!

experience with the albions...
i prefer my the head and cab to the combo... but thats just because of the extended low end! or should i say cleaner low end!

if portability really was an issue, i maybe would have considered the combo!

Arno West gigs with his Albion tct50 combo!

Zulublues

What ez said.

I play a CV 50 tele through a Blues Jnr direct, no pedals at all. The blues tone at "reasonable" volume is great. Pre on 10 and Master on 3.

The best advise though is cart your guitar around and play as many of your shortlisted amps for as long as the shops will allow you. Then make up your own mind. We all like different things, thank goodness ! ! !

korn101

Thanks for all the replies guys ? I ended up giving in to a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe... ? ? ? ?