The "best" "small" amp?

[dehughes]

Yeah, two vague words full of potential contention: Best and Small.

Point: I played a Valve Jr. combo yesterday and actually didn't hate it, so that's one more "small" amp that makes me think building one wouldn't be a waste of time, energy, and money. Valve Jr., Champ (tweed or black/brown), Princeton....all are somewhat compelling.

So what in your (vast and dissimilar) opinion is the ideal small amp? By small I mean few-knobs, throw-in-the trunk, mic-at-the-show, crank-in-the-house, don't-wish-it-was-bigger/louder/hadmoreheadroom small. Champ? Princeton? Other? I've been building big/small/big/small amps, and next up is big (JTM-45) and after that (or maybe simultaneously?) will be small, so I'm gathering info now.

[Jana]

My vote would go for a Princeton, AA964. If you're going to build one, leave out the vibrato and put in a 12" speaker. That, in my view, would be the ideal small amp. Simple, easy to carry, enough volume to be heard over most drummers, a pair of 6v6's for tone—the only thing missing is a free bar tab!

[dehughes]

My vote would go for a Princeton, AA964. If you're going to build one, leave out the vibrato and put in a 12" speaker. That, in my view, would be the ideal small amp. Simple, easy to carry, enough volume to be heard over most drummers, a pair of 6v6's for tone—the only thing missing is a free bar tab!

Interesting.....that WOULD be a simple, small amp. 12" speaker would be pretty sweet, huh...

So, without the vibrato triode, would you recommend a long tailed PI instead?

[Bob-I]

I recently built a full on Princeton Reverb, complete with trem and with a 12" warehousespeakers.com G12H30 copy. There's some magic in that PI.

It's the perfect trunk amp. I bring that to an open mike night where I'm in the house band. I use one pedal, either a Zen, a TS-9 or OCD whatever I feel like at the time. All the guys that use it love it. Gig bag over the shoulder, amp in the other hand, done.

[M Fowler]

Depends on the tone your after for chime nothing beats the 18w TMB marshall.

For Fender the Princeton or Deluxe would be good. To make it simple use a reverb pedal if you even need one. Use 12 inch speaker. You can also make a more higher powered 6L6 push-pull like the 5b6 I recently posted it has two knobs but use 12ax7 instead of the octals.

Different layout for the Valve Jr can be found at turretboards.com

[dehughes]

I recently built a full on Princeton Reverb, complete with trem and with a 12" warehousespeakers.com G12H30 copy. There's some magic in that PI.

It's the perfect trunk amp. I bring that to an open mike night where I'm in the house band. I use one pedal, either a Zen, a TS-9 or OCD whatever I feel like at the time. All the guys that use it love it. Gig bag over the shoulder, amp in the other hand, done.

Huh. Interesting. I'm a PT away from finishing my Brown Deluxe-ish amp and have a Top Hat Club Royale 1x12, so I'm set for that 22-ish watt range amp. Looking for something half that range, with a less efficient speaker (have a G12H30 in this Brown Deluxe, and that's plenty loud as-is). M Fowler, I'm definitely looking at something that is smaller (wattage) than the Deluxe or 18w Marshall, though those both are great (have one of each, essentially).

So the AA964 PI is a keeper, then. I don't mind vibrato, so may as well keep it. What is happening in that PI that makes it "magic"? Once you leave the realm of long-tailed PI I'm pretty ignorant...

[MCK]

The question is how small you want to go... IMHO, some of the options you are looking at might still be a tad too loud to crank at home. Have a look at the Lil' Devil https://tubeamparchive.com/viewtopic.php?t=6159 . Amazing tones and very portable. If you choose the build option you could very easily build it into a combo with your speaker choice.

[dehughes]

Interesting, MCK. I hadn't given that Lil' Devil much reading...

I think something in the Princeton range is about right....nothing bigger, though. I had a SF Champ at one time and it was *okay*, but didn't do it for me like a Princeton does. Deluxes are way to big for what I'm looking for, and I already have the "oh my goodness I'm going to die" loud amp range covered.

What about a cathode biased version of the Princeton? I'm a sucker for cathode bias in general. Or would I be tinkering with perfection?

[CapnCrunch]

When you say a Deluxe is too much do you mean Deluxe reverb? Brown Deluxe? I can't remember the wattage of a Princeton, but a 5e3 Deluxe puts out about 12 watts on a really good day. As I recall this is in the same ball park as a Princeton. I like my 5e3......a bunch. It weighs next to nothing, and gives you some really nice cleans (you'd have to mic it if you want stay clean and play with a drummer) to a really classic overdrive. With my Les Paul I can get some really convincing early AC/DC tone. I know there are ways to tighten up the low end and give it even more of a Marshall type tone, but I haven't wanted to mess with what I have.

I have played this amp mostly cranked (which is great) but the other day I had it mic'ed up at church. I set it about half way up so I could go from clean to very overdriven with my guitar volume. I kicked on my delay and found a sweet spot with the guitar volume, and I was shocked. I didn't know that amp could put out that kind of sweet chimey clean. I have come to learn that the Edge uses a 5e3 in his regular line up. I always thought he played AC-30's pretty exclusively, but I can now say from experience, some of his sounds come from a tweed deluxe.

So, a tweed deluxe would have to be at or near the top of my list of fairly low powered small combo amps. Every time I plug my Strat and the delay into it, I get a big smile on my face. I agree with MCK on volume though. Even a tweed Deluxe is too loud for many venues, and certainly too loud for the bedroom, if you want to overdrive it at all.

[10thTx]

I'll throw a couple that I've built into the mix. However, they may exceed your few knobs requirement.

Both are 7-9 watt amps.

There is the Little Wing. Sort of a mini-Bassman with 6BM8's.

Soundclip: http://www.musicwebtown.com/jallenshaw/46763

And the 56T which uses a 5879 preamp tube. The cab is about the same as a 5E3 or PR. It uses a Ragin Cajun 10" Emminence. I play this amp mic'd with a band. Very very touch sensitive amp. It has a VVR installed, so I can get remarkable overdrive at very low volumes.

Soundclip: http://www.soundclick.com/player/single ... i&newref=1
(a window may pop up to close the soundclip, I just hit "no" & it plays just fine).

With respect, 10thtx

[M Fowler]

Dehughes,

Based on your replies here is a layout for the 5E3.

Mark

[MCK]

There is the Little Wing. Sort of a mini-Bassman with 6BM8's.

Soundclip: http://www.musicwebtown.com/jallenshaw/46763

Love the tone and your playing skills! Kudos. Little wing sounds great! Anymore info or a thread on build experience? Cheers

[David Root]

Hands down, BF Princeton Reverb cabinet w/12" speaker.

I had one made a couple of inches deeper, 11" I think, which would work a little better with the bigger than normal speaker. Cannot decide between a Gibson EH150 or a mini-ODS. Depends on how big the iron I could get on the chassis is.

[David Root]

double post.

[Structo]

10thTx,

I'm really interested in that Little Wing amp.
I think it sounds great!

Do you have any interior and exterior pictures of that amp?

So the 6BM8 is about the size of a EL84 tube.

Checking around for them and looking at prices they aren't real cheap for the new ones and the NOS ones can set you back more than $45 each.

You must have found a cache of these, eh?