Lightweight, giggable tube combo?

mellowsun

Any thoughts on this? A single-channel valve combo, loud enough for small gigs (corner of pub etc), but weighs under 8kg. Does such a thing exist?

ICBM

Fender Champ.

Loud enough for small gigs if you don't mind having no clean headroom and can mic it.

Unlikely you'll find anything lighter and louder.

Jeremiah

The Laney Cub 10 is just over 8kg, the Fender Pro Junior and H&K Tubemeister 18 are both around 9kg, so almost within the weight limit. If it doesn't have to be valve, there's the ZT Lunchbox.

Loobs

Blues or Pro Junior

Gassage

^ what 'ee said.

Princeton and DRRI too

Or buy @thorpy6 's UNBELIEVABLE Cornell Plexi in the emporium. Those are utterly the bomb.

Loobs

DR is a bit heavy innit?

welshboyo

My Bogner Mojado...ahem...for sale

JD50

I have been using an orange tiny terror combo in the studio recently. Switchable 7 - 15 watts with speaker out options.
I run it at 15 watts with the gain and volume around half way, it keeps up with the other guitarist bassist drummer and keys no problem.

simonk

I have a Laney Cub 10 which I've been getting round to shifting. Upgraded the speaker to a Jensen Mod 10-70. Let me know if you fancy it.

Gassage

Loobs said:

DR is a bit heavy innit?

Yeah maybe....I still say the Plexi is the one

koss59

Princeton, not sure if it's quite as light as you've said but it's well worth it.

meltedbuzzbox

what does the bugera V22 weigh?

HAL9000

Does it absolutely have to be tube? Just wondering if a hybrid could be sufficiently 'tubey' for you without weighing too much.

Lewligan

Loobs said:

Blues or Pro Junior

I'll second this.

A good mate of mine gigs regularly with his Blues Jr.

Lotta volume for such a small amp.

lustycourtier

Blues Junior or Evil Robot.

Voxman

This really ought to be in the Amp section.  But:

Valve amp: I second the Laney Cub - cracking little amps.  However, although it's a little heavier at 11.5Kg, I'd recommend the Cub12R (which I have) At 15w it's louder and with its 12" speaker has a bigger sound with more headroom.  It's also well featured with a decent digital reverb, serial FX loop, 8/16 Ohm extn cab out, and a built in tilt stand.

But for light weight, a modelling amp such as a Vox Valvetronix or Fender Mustang are hard to beat in terms of tone quality, volume, versatility & flexibility.  Because effects are built in you can save weight because you don't need external pedals, and its convenient.

The Vox VT40+ is 10.9Kg (10" speaker); the VT20+ is 8.8Kg (8" speaker).

The 20w Fender Mustang 1 (8" speaker) is 7.7Kg; Mustang II, 40w weighs 10.9Kg (12" speaker). 

One compromise you need to think about is weight vs speaker size.  An 8" speaker is actually fine for small club gigs, but you won't get as full a tone and the bigger bottom end you get from a bigger speaker.  Also, the size of the cab is important - a smaller speaker in a bigger cab can sometimes sound better than a bigger speaker in a smaller cab.  However, all the amps mentioned here are designed to be compact/portable so none of these have particularly big cabs anyway.  

ICBM

Voxman said:

The cmpromise you need to think about isweight vs speaker size.  An 8" speaker is actually fine for small club gigs, but you won't get as full a tone and the bigger bottom you get from a bigger speaker.  Also, the size of the cab is important - a smaller speaker in a bigger cab can sometimes sound better than a bigger speaker in a smaller cab.  However, all the amps mentioned are designed to be compact/portable so none of these have particularly big cabs anyway.

It's probably also worth going for the highest quality amp you can find - a surprising amount of the weight is in the cabinet, not the transformers or the speaker as you might expect, and ply or solid pine is lighter than MDF or particle-board so a cheap amp will be heavier than it should otherwise be possible to make one of the same size and power.

8Kg is *really* light for a giggable amp though - almost all the amps mentioned so far are over that.

57Deluxe

Pignose G40V... 40W from 1x10 2x6L6 3x12AX7

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee301/snotmale/Things that make you go Ding/giggingtwins_zps09f409c0.jpg

stickyfiddle

8kg is not gonna happen for a combo.if you can go to 15ish you're looking at Riveras, Princetons, VC15s etc

Phil_aka_Pip

stickyfiddle said:

8kg is not gonna happen for a combo.if you can go to 15ish you're looking at Riveras, Princetons, VC15s etc

I tend to agree with you. I was going to post thus: "lightweight + valve combo = oxymoron" but left it till now ...

ICBM

Phil_aka_Pip said:

stickyfiddle said:

8kg is not gonna happen for a combo.if you can go to 15ish you're looking at Riveras, Princetons, VC15s etc

I tend to agree with you. I was going to post thus: "lightweight + valve combo = oxymoron" but left it till now …

Not quite, but lightweight + valve combo + more than about 5-6W with more than an 8" or neodymium 10" speaker is likely to be.

The Fender Champ - any version from Tweed to Silverface - is definitely giggable as long as you don't want loud cleans, can mic up, and is under (or dead on, depending on model) 8Kg. I gigged with a Tweed Champ for a while - which might surprise anyone who is familiar with my love of the 100W, 100lb amp I use now, but it was a completely different type of band.

Anything with a similar spec should be as well.