I'm sitting with the same dilemma deciding which mini tube amp to get for playing at home without pissing anyone off. 5W tube is going to be too loud for most bedroom jammers to get the true potential of the overdriven tube goodness. The class 5 even with the low power mode is very loud for 'bedroom' jamming with a good heavy crunch tone. For low gain tones the class 5 could be ideal though, but I prefer a pretty heavy sound.

I'm narrowing it down to a few 5W or even 1W amps but not sure which one yet. DSL5C maybe. I'd love to test drive an Orange Rocker 15 if I could just find one - 15/7/1/0/5 Watt settings. Seems very versatile.

I have a Marshall 18W plexi clone and a Fender Tweed Deluxe clone. Both are fitted with a variable voltage regulator (VVR) which allows you to get overdrive tone at low volumes but also crank up to high volumes if needed. I think Paul E also fitted one. I thoroughly recommend it.

Sorry, guys. Double post. Don't know how to delete it!

Johnny B wrote: I have a Marshall 18W plexi clone and a Fender Tweed Deluxe clone. Both are fitted with a variable voltage regulator (VVR) which allows you to get overdrive tone at low volumes but also crank up to high volumes if needed. I think Paul E also fitted one. I thoroughly recommend it.

I LOVEEEE my vvr, saves my bacon every time! Not sure I'd mod a Marshal Haze 40 with it though. Just seems like a lot of DIY into an already built amp that isn't for modding ?

Paul, yes, Fitting a VVR to a PCB amp might be a hassle, unless somebody handwires it for me... Complete with tube rectifier power supply, but then one can make it any Watts desired.

Must build small amp someday. Soon. Someday.

get yourself a smaller amp, purpose-designed to deliver what you're after. nice, clean tones at low outputs, turn it up and it breaks up. and remember that your amp is not the only thing determining your volume level - your guitar and your fingers can be to blame as well.

i have a lovely little vox ac4h which i can attenuate from 4w down to 1w and then down to 1/4w if needs be. for bedroom practice, i found this thing to be unbeatable. for my money, if you can find something that delivers great tone at between 1 and 2w, you've found your dream practice amp.

why go modding something that does what its designed to do, when you can find something that's designed to do what you are looking for?
dh|

http://www.tubetamer.co.za/

I don't know if Graeme still build these.

I've got a 1W valve amp (Blackstar HT1R), and it is way too loud for my flat. I have to just about tweak the volume above zero for the neighbours not to get pissed. Man, the tone on that amp is simply magic, though!

If you're buying a small combo amp, the speaker will be small. Although the HT1 is noisy, it won't have that bass or oomph of a 12".

I got fed up with valve amps and how "loud" they are, must say im very happy since I went digital with the blackstar ID30 TVP. I find I play waaaay more guitar now as well and the amp can get pretty loud if needs to.

I have a Mesa Boogie Express 5/50, which let's you go down to 5W. But that is still too loud for home use.
I bought a Line 6 Amplifi 30, which is a great little toy and you can operate through your iPad. But it is not brilliant and most of the tones are not convincing.

But I also bought a VOX Mini5 and I have been extremely impressed. I think this is what you might well be looking for and cost me just R 2950.

It has 0.1, 1.5 and 5W settings and some great modeling tones that sound real. I don't bother with the various hand-made effects pedals, etc, that I use with the Mesa-Boogie.
Plugged straight through, with single coils, or humbuckers, you can get some great tone.

I am sure that it is made in China, but this technology seems to be coming on now in leaps and bounds.

All tube amps are too loud for bedroom use, except like maybe a 2W baby amp...

So I have some LOUD amps and no matter what you do they are always going to be loud, but there are some tools which help:

Attenuators:
I have a JP le Roux attenuator. Lots of attenuators, including Hot plates, suck tone... But good ones like mine are fairly transparent. Just buy one with an adequate wattage rating. Mine once got so hot it almost melted my Tolex! Granted I used it to tame 100 Watts of Marshall ROAR

Low efficiency speakers:
So this is an interesting one and a bit of a can of worms. I recently got a pair of Celestion Creambacks which have a sensitivity of 97dB as opposed to a Vintage 30 which has a sensitivity of 100dB for instance. That also brings down the volume slightly.

Preamp gain:
Ok, don't shoot me, please. Some tube amps actually sound good without giving the power tubes a sucker punch. The Soldano SLO100 was designed with a compressor in the preamp to give more compression at lower volumes, acting with some other Voodoo in the amp to give the illusion of the amp being cranked.

Pedals
Ok, now the tube puritans are getting angry. Just slap a Metalzone in there and you're good to go. No.
I have tried many distortion pedals, hated all of them. Just get a tube screamer. It won't help that much, but it helps a little bit. Pedals are the last resort and they're not really going to get you there, but its not a total loss.

No magic solution yet..

psyx

I am wanting a small amp, but I see a 1 Watt tube amp is about the same price as some 15 Watt tube amps... Might look into the Fender Greta later, or really get into it and (at long last) start building an useful amplifier. one. I am currently buying an Ibanez TSH 15 head, so will have a Tube Screamer if I need to convert the guitar signal to a chopped square waveform, which is not the sound one wants anyway, and the amp can be switched to lower output as well. Currently have a Boss DS-1 on the Silicon amp, difficult to get a useful sound. Due to the noise and volume problem, I normally play with small amounts of gain anyway.

Thanks for all the input guys, I shall probably start a new thread asking help with a 1 - 2 Watt build. If anybody in the interim can tell me where to tap off lower voltage on the Haze 40 to supply the tubes, in order to lower the output, go ahead! Connecting up 240 V and not 400 V to the power tubes should help a lot?

You can definitely approach RobbieZ, a member of this forum with practical experience in amp building.
Many others as well.