Cheapest tube guitar amp?

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Svart

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 4, 2004
Messages
5,134
Location
Atlanta GA USA
For some reason I've decided that I want a tube guitar amp.  I certainly don't want to buy a good one for loads of $$$.  I want to get a cheap one that I can hack instead.

So is there a cheap( sub 300$ or cheaper) amp that I can use as a guinea pig?

 
If you want something to hack around on and experiment with, you can't beat the Epiphone Valve Jr.  for about $130 or so.  5Watt head with plenty of documented upgrades.
 
The Valve Junior can be very loud. And you could swap the output for an EL34 if you wanted... and then change the power supply.... and the preamp..... and.... everything.
 
Fender Deluxe Reverb is a near perfect amp. Not too big or heavy, not to small or low watt. 22 watts perfect for clubs and practice. Put it up on a chair and let your fingers do the talking.  ;)
 
ive heard alot of good things about the Epi Valve Jr., so +1 on that one. Mercury Magnetics also makes transformer upgrades.
Orange Tiny Terror has a following too.
dont let the wattage rating fool you on alot of these. no use in having a Fender Deluxe in a bedroom that is set on 1.5 with no tone.
 
Svart said:
those Fenders are still pretty pricey..

Peavey made some Fender take offs, tweeds. You can find those pretty cheap. Total gutable, I would have no issue with ripping one of those apart.
 
Hey Svart,

On the budget side there is the Epi Junior, Fender Champion 600, Gretsch Electromatic... all stem from the Fender Champ era and the circuits are near identical and make for easy modding. I own a modded Fender Champion 600, which is a essentially a 'Black Face' Champ with fixed tone stack... I modded mine to to match the classic 5F1, removing the tone stack and adding more juice, swapped out the valves with some JJ Tesla's, new Jensen Speaker, all under $300.

The only gripe is the small 6" speaker, great for some 'indie' sounds not the most usable but the amp will drive a 12" cab and I run it into my 67' Fender 2x12 cab for some great high gain tones.

The Orange Tiny Terror is fun as well, but just a head, not sure if you need a combo or not?

You could prob build a nice Fender Champ/Princeton clone with GREAT parts if you were not worried about the looks and drive a 1x12 cabinet.

Cheers

Matt
 
A little tube amp through a big(ger) cabinet can be a lot of fun. I once jammed with a friend using my homemade 2-watt amp through his 4X12 cab. I was shocked to discover that it was actually able to hang with the drums, and sounded great to boot.
 
Blackheart Engineering Little Giant is in the same vein as the Epi Valve Jr., but with the extra flexibility of a tone stack. They also make a P-P 18W unit. Heads and combos available.

Fender Blues Jr. is also a nice little amp. You should be able to find a used one in your price range.
 
My 5f2a (Fender Princeton) rattles the windows at 7 watts... and is one of the better amps I've ever heard.
Weber amps has got all sorts of schemos/layouts.

5f2a:  https://taweber.powweb.com/store/5f2a_schem.jpg

all the other shcemos @ weber:  https://taweber.powweb.com/store/kits.htm (he's got em set up as kits, but there are shematics and dummy layouts on each of the pages)

Always wanted to build an AC30.....
 
I don't know  , i've had 20 watt amps  [ a fav size ]
that can't cut it clean with a drummer , just not enough power sometimes

but here is a ebayer biz that has a couple of chinese things

http://stores.ebay.ca/Acemate-Music-Emporium_W0QQcolZ2QQdirZQ2d1QQfsubZ0QQftidZ2QQpZ2QQtZkm
 
The Valve Jr. seems to be the cheap amp all the kids are buying and modding out.

My kick as of late is to buy crappy old console stereos and chop-n-bob em into cool guitar amps.  I recently made an old Silvertone console amp into a stereo Marshall 18 watt clone with the OD mod.  It's flippin schweet. 

Amp carcass - $20.00
misc parts - $55.00  (jacks, pots, sockets, and secondary chassis for the preamps)
Lumber - Free

$75.00.....  until you add in almost $200.00 for a pair of Eminence 1028K's.
 
I bought a pair of Epi VJ combo's about 2 years ago and added a gain pot / upgrade and
new OT's
They sound fantastic as a stereo pair and even better through a 1 x 12 or 2 x 12 cab !
Great fun and a nice start to "valve amp" fiddling !
They are loud enough that I can't turn 'em up and stay in the room with them !

MM.
 
The thing I don't understand with the Jr mods are, Used fender silverface champs cost about the same or even less than some of the "modded" jrs with the expensive transformer kits and parts.  PLUS what is your liability if you mod a Jr and sell it when you get tired of it and someones house burns down?  The fender might go up in price, what value is a china made hacked up amp worth?

IMO if you want to build something cool look at some of the 5e3 kits.  Or put together a SE champ princeton copy or a firefly or a TW or a........... Lots of stuff on the web :however like NYD posted some of it is maybe not so good.

  Low power amps into nice speakers and cabs can sound very good.  Try a small solid state practice amp into a nice cab, big difference.
 
I'm in the process of checking out all of your suggestions.  Whatever I choose is going to have to be somewhat rugged enough and loud enough for some minor gigging.

 
I'd be happy if someone found me a deal on a champ ,
i haven't  , but agree why buy chinese quality if you don't have to ?
[ that is if price doesn't factor into it ]

looks like your need a PP 20-30 w , but if it's a combo you can
always lean it in front of you like a vocal monitor
 
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