I've managed to accumulate some cash in my gear fund and fancy a small, good quality noise-free valve combo.
I'm not wedded to any particular tone family but want rich cleans up to classic rock levels of gain.
Something in the 15 -30w range ideally as I'd like to gig it when that is feasible again and do need cleans at gig volume.
One channel is fine, reverb would be nice but compact and hiss-free are important. I'd like to keep the budget under £1,000.
I'd love to get some recommendations that the good folk here have experienced .
Comments
The Soldano in the classifieds is the steal of the year for what you want.
*An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.
All the valve amps I've owned have been heads so am curious if anyone has come across small valve combos with low noise.
I've got two Mesa heads which can select 5, 15 or 25 watt settings and are capable of cleans at gig volume, hence thinking of the 15-30w range.
@Gassage, did you mean the Lucky 13? If so, it looks to be quite substantial given it's on castors, so probably physically too big in terms of what I'm after.
Yep- I am gassing hugely for it
*An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.
Obviously the more gain there is in an amp the worse the noise issues.
When designing an amp there are ways to minimize noise, although many amps I see don't seem to pay much attention to this.
The THD Hotplate is an especially good choice for Mesa amps in my experience, and actually has an extra dedicated noise reduction feature.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson
The Johnson noise from the load resistor is insignificant in the noise calculations for either BJTs or valves.
Discrete transistors circuits can also be made quieter than op-amps by the way, although whether there is much practical difference in a guitar amp is a moot point.
Of course they later went on to make the 5150, which is one of the highest-gain valve amps ever made...
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson
Due to restrictions at the moment, it'll be home use mainly but would like something giggable for when normality returns.
I'm sure the Joe Bonamassa Signature MFD would be a big seller.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson
IME In high gain cascaded amps the input grid stopper is often a big noise culpret, thats why some builders use a smaller grid stopper like 10k.
Carr Rambler. Totally silent, loves any peDal.... gain from your pedals.
Has a superb valve "response" and feels right when playing it. With the boost engaged turning the gain up beyond half way just seems to provide more saturation and sag, much like many real valve amps.
The TM DR would be even nicer, of course - but the Blues Cube Hot has a small footprint, 12 inch speak and sounds superb - might be what you're after?