What's the smallest valve amp you have successfully gigged?

frictionfraction

Been thinking about this and considering how good pas now are what's the smallest amp I could use with a few pedals that would give me enough backline to hear and a good sound mic'Ed up.  What are you using that fits the bill?  Not interested in Kempers/Helix/etc ... I'm a Luddite 

professorben

50w


I draw your attention to the word 'successfully' in the thread title.

professorben

I like big amps and I cannot lie, all you other brothers can't deny, when a girl walk in with an ity bity board and a big cab in your face.... Etc.

dcg

Hopefully appealing to your (entirely correct) analogue sensibilities, I have played out with a silverface Fender Princeton reverb (with a 12" speaker conversion)...surprisingly loud at 12watts (although mine actually measures 15watts).  Plenty of people out there with Vox AC15s as well...though all depends (of course) on your drummer, the room, and the band dynamics

simonk

12w Princeton, no drama.

IvisonGuitars

15w Bad Cat Black Cat with headroom to spare.

ICBM

Fender '59 Tweed Champ - 3-5W depending on how you measure it. Not mic'ed, and up on a bar stool.

Got told to turn it down . Admittedly in a piano-bar blues band with the drummer using brushes…

That's only with an 8" speaker of no more than 95dB sensitivity. With a good 12", I think 1W would be usable in the same sort of situation. I did once try my ZVex Nano (0.5W fully overdriven, but only about 0.1W clean) at a quiet band practice, but it was almost inaudible so I never tried to gig it. It would probably have been fine mic'ed, but I like to hear the amp on stage.

timmysoft

20w Laney Lionhearted into a Marshall 1936, it was also one of the best tones I've ever had. Never struggled for volume, even in a two guitar band.

Grumpyrocker

15W Laney  Cub 12R combo.  That was in a church setting, but it was plenty loud. Fab natural reverb.

Played a wedding gig - big room, over hundred people, loud drummer - with a  Line6 Spider III 75W.

Boromedic

Orange TT Hardwired no issues and with clean headroom to spare as well. Indie band so no pounding metal drummer though.....

kennedydream1980

I recently switched to a Blackstar HT5R head with a victory 1x12 cab. Using it regular 2 to 3 times per week in my covers band, gigging weddings, local pubs, clubs and corporate events.

I can hear it absolutely fine on stage and it has enough clean headroom. I'm typically running the volume on both channels up around 3 quarters. Mic'd up It's been more than enough in my situation. 

My amp amp before this was a Blackstar series one 45 2x12 combo. I got fed up with lugging it around, the HT5 and the victory cab weigh far less combined, they are a breeze to lift into venues.

Voxman

Grumpyrocker said:

15W Laney  Cub 12R combo.  That was in a church setting, but it was plenty loud. Fab natural reverb.

Played a wedding gig - big room, over hundred people, loud drummer - with a  Line6 Spider III 75W.

Ditto re the Laney Cub12R (upgraded with Celestion Vintage 30 speaker).  I depped to help a 'start-up' band I knew do a 'mike-night' gig at a pub in Holloway and used my Tonelab LE through it.  The Laney sounded so good that others there asked if they could use it, so I let two other acts play through it too.  

richardhomer

This thread's almost the Four Yorkshiremen sketch in reverse - "I used a Z-Vex Nano through two Marshall 4x12 cabs at the O2 Arena and was asked to turn down".

"Aye - and you try telling that to the kids of today - and they won't believe you".

digitalscream

Amp with smallest power capacity - Jet City JCA22H (20W).

Amp on lowest power - R&R SOLO (50W normally, but run in 15W mode).

Grunfeld

15W
Blackheart Handsome Devil
What a great little amp!


EDIT:  Damn, I've missed a trick:
It was my tiny little Marshall JVM 410 100W head.  I have it for sale at a really nice price (and probably nicer if you PM me).  It just about struggled through each gig... *cough*

GoldenEraGuitars

The last amp I gigged with was also the lowest power rated one i owned - Fender HRD 40w 1x12. Plenty of EVERYTHING. Tbh if I was doing it again I'd get a Fender Blues Jnr 

Lebarque

Yep, agree with the above. 12-15 watt amps are great for gigging as long as they have an efficient 12 inch speaker.

sticker

I've used a Laney VC15 in the past for a functions band gig quite sucessfully

p90fool

With monitoring, a Princeton, without monitoring I need about 30w with a quiet-ish drummer, because I need clean headroom.

I'm currently gigging a pair of Jet City Custom 22s, I can get away with just one if it's pointed straight at my head, but only just.

MikeDearing

I regularly gig with a modified blues junior 15 w or an excelsior 12w or a MJW 18 w (2x10) with Fender what I tend to do is throw the original eminence speaker away and get celestions with less break up to make certain for head room and I run the gain stages quite low... both the ramparte and the pro junior are too overdriven at higher volumes to push... ive also used the small black star as well - which sounded nice but didn't like long gigs - as it got hotter the reverb seemed to go a bit wayward...  in fact I havent used big Amps for a long time - I have them in my lockup in flight cases ready to be sold some day :-)   as I was told many years ago it's easy to make a racket and way harder to make music - that usually starts with playing half the volume you think you should....

viz

100w