Low wattage tube amps

kayDUB

So i came accross these cool looking 5W amps... http://www.blackhearteng.com/bh5h_bh112.html
It seems they are comparable to the Epiphone valve juniors; any one had any experience?
Interestingly I was told today that there is no longer a distrubitor for epiphone/gibson in SA - ?

I am guessing a 5 watt tube amp probably won't have very much clean headroom?
I would love to try one of these puppies out...

Garth-S

Hey kayDUB

It's funny you mention those amps. I was just looking at them today. From the look of the customer reviews on the musiciansfriend website, the blackheart seems pretty sweet. Would have to try it out to formulate my own opinion though. It's sad but true about the Gibson/Epiphone distribution, the guy at our local music shop was saying they were expected to sell a huge (compared to the size of the SA market) amount of their stuff to retain the distribution channel, but the target was way too huge so they pulled out. Pity. You should be able to get the Blackheart here though, cuz i think its made by crate...

kayDUB

I made a few phone calls today, waiting for 2 shops to get back to me; another 2 (the biggest retailers around here) told me they don't stock it.

A friend of mine will be going to the States shortly, really tempted to get him to sort me out with one.
Any idea what the custom's duties on music equipment is these days?

Garth-S

I'm sure you only have to pay VAT on it, but maybe i'm wrong.

AlanRatcliffe

VAT only. If you buy the cab too, there's a hefty duty on loaded speaker cabinets, but if you take the speakers out and bring it in as a cabinet and loose speakers, there's only VAT (unless that's changed since I last looked).

Yeah, Marshall lost the Gibby agency and Gibson haven't seen fit to give it to anyone else yet. They are really messing up their sales channels globally. Corporate bullshit. They even stopped selling to 80% of the stores in the US not too long ago. Apparently they wanted every Gibson stockist to carry ridiculous amounts of stock in all price ranges, regardless of what the store knew would move in their own area. I mean, there were stores that sell only high end stuff ($5,000+ Custom shop and the boutique makers like McNaught and Suhr, etc.) that Gibson wouldn't sell to because the store didn't want to stock Epiphone. Also stores in poor areas that could move Epis, but didn't want to buy VOS models. Stupid.

The Blakhearts have been getting a lot of attention lately, as have the new Fender Champs. I've been jonesing for a Cornford Carrera for a year now, but we won't see those here and I'm not going to pay 1,000 pounds for an amp I haven't tried.

I'm quite impressed with the number of companies these days that are bringing out quality low powered stuff like the Blackheart, Orange Tiny Terror and the like. There is a new Peavey that we may see here (I'm waiting to hear): the Windsor Studio - 15W Class A, built-in power soak, and line out with speaker sim. You can swap the output tubes to virtually anything to change the sound/power rating.