makepeace
Hi guys,
I've been looking at getting myself a small class-A tube amp for home use. So far the models i've come up with are:
Vox AC4TV
Bugera V5
Fender Champ 600
Epiphone Valve Junior
Gretsch Guitars Electromatic G5222
I hope I haven't left anything out.
Has anyone ever owned or played any of these? I've done a bit of research and they all seem pretty strong, its just a matter of choosing the right one for me at this stage.
The Vox looks to be the most expensive, and the others are pretty much the same price. The Bugera and Vox have attenuators to adjust the output, which could be useful. The Bugera has a reverb unit which i quite like the look of. All of them are 5w apart from the Vox which is a 4w. The vox has a 10" celestion which is pretty quality, while the bugera has a selfbranded 8". The Epi has an Eminence 8" and the Fender and Gretsch (which look like carbon copies of one another imo) have 6" selfbranded speakers. All of them have an output jack for external speakers except the Gretsch.
At the moment i'm leaning towards the Bugera for functionality and value.
Thoughts would be much appreciated.
MIKA-the-better-one
those vox ac3tv thingys are great, really great, I would go there... lathough the bugera's overseas do get good reviews.... But I would always wanna fork out that extra bit of cash for that VOX :-[
What other amps do you use?
arjunmenon
Makepeace, if you're based in Cape Town, you should probably consider the Champ and get Matt (matta on the forum) to soup it up for you.
There are many forum members who are happy owners of Mattarized Champs.
MikeM
My vote goes to the Vox. Amazing little amp ?
AlanRatcliffe
I'm still wary of Bugera, so my money would be on the Vox. The attenuator will come in very handy. The Fender is a nice platform for upgrades/mods if you're into that kind of thing.
Wizard was selling a Laney Cub 10 recently...
[deleted]
I love those little Vox AC4s, gets my vote.
They really sound good... But head and cab version 8)
makepeace
Yeah i've heard the Bugeras are basically Behringers in tube form? What are your qualms with them? I think they look like a pretty good option, especially for the price. Oh and yeah MIKA I have also read a couple of great reviews on them.
When I started looking at them a few months back, I was dead set on the Vox, but all these options are making it more difficult. Haha Brent, head and cab is pushing it a bit ?, but if I had cash to hand out I would for sure.
I am based in Cape Town, and I wouldn't mind modding out a Champ if it works out to be more affordable/bang for buck. Do you know what he does to them?
I haven't been playing for very long and I don't own any big amps, mainly due to my time constraints and not being able to justify it. I've played a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe owned by a friend of mine and I really like that.
AlanRatcliffe
Yeah the Bugeras are made by Behringer - and that's my problem with them. Behringer do a few surprisingly nice things and are definitely well priced. However the local backup is not great, they have a tendency of not fixing buggy firmware/drivers and they have a history of stealing other's designs and making cheap and nasty copies. So I approach any item from them with caution.
It's definitely not cheap to mod any amp (the Epi Valve junior is another popular candidate for mods BTW). There is a whole range of stuff you can do from upgrading valves or swapping a few caps all the way up to replacing speaker and transformers. How far you go is up to you, but if you go the whole hog and do every possible upgrade, pricewise you might as well have bought a handmade clone of the original Champ.
kayDUB
You forgot the blackheart little giant... 5W and what i like is the combo has a 12" speaker.
I think someone was selling one on gumtree for 3800 recently. I think new they are around 4500.
I have a hot rod deluxe and the blackheart is my second amp. but if gas has its way I might sell it to fund a strat... :-[
arjunmenon
kayDUB wrote
You forgot the blackheart little giant... 5W and what i like is the combo has a 12" speaker.
I think someone was selling one on gumtree for 3800 recently. I think new they are around 4500.
I have a hot rod deluxe and the blackheart is my second amp. but if gas has its way I might sell it to fund a strat... :-[
+1 Kevin. Your Blackheart is a lovely amp.
Another one that's very nice is the Blackstar 5w.
CDee
I have a Vox AC4TV and I think it's very good for the price. But my advice would be to test out as many of them as you can and then decide. ?
Vick
The Gretsch and the champ are the same amps,and only differ cosmetically....
Depending on the type of tone you want,its between the blackhart and the vox...
Personally,I'd go for the little giant ?
Ray
Now I see on Laney site there is a Cub 12 looks to be head and cab.
Danny-B
What about the Laney Lionheart L5?
A bit on the pricey side, but it's a two channel, 5 watter made in Britain with a Celestion G12H 30.
Riaan
I have a hot rod deluxe and the blackheart is my second amp. but if gas has its way I might sell it to fund a strat...
Let me know if you ever decide to sell it... ?
makepeace
Ok so I've been at the research table again, and the HT-5 stack has really caught my eye. The ISF feature seems pretty kitchy to me, but it looks good otherwise regarding features/versatility. Does anyone own one of these? How does it compare to the Vox tonewise? From the videos I've seen it sounds way more modern higain when pushed.
I've also checked out the Blackheart, and I've got to say I'm not really attracted to it.
I've been looking into the availability of the Bugera in SA and it doesn't seem to be great. The dealer seems to be Proaudio.co.za, but they're not responding to my e-mails. Not promising.
So it looks to be between the Blackheart and the Vox and mod Champ at the moment.
ezietsman
I have the HT-5 combo. I guess its very unlike the Vox and Champ. It definitely sounds more 'rock and f'n roll' than 'classic'. That said, it beats the other small amps hands down when it comes to versatility. Here's a video comparing a bunch of the small valve amps.
Riaan
So it looks to be between the Blackheart and the Vox and mod Champ at the moment.
This was my exact shortlist about a month ago, after spending weeks watching video clips and reading reviews. I couldn't really decide between the Vox and the Blackheart and even imagined owning both at some point.... The Champ was a third choice.
I ended up buying MoJo Joe's Superchamp XD, and I am really glad I did. I'm very impressed with this amp. Might still go for the Vox at some point in future, but not soon.
Wizard
Shew ... they all sound so different.
I quite like the sound of the Strat going through the Marshall.
ezietsman
Yep, those Marshall Class 5 amps do sound good with strats. Check this out. The guy did add delay afterwards but its easily done with a pedal. This is the thing of these small amps, they tend to not have reverbs, which would have made them really really awesome.
