Small Valve Amp for pennies , opinions

spev11

I have an Orange Supercrush for everything, running into a repurposed CR60 cab (the CR60 is being used elsewhere as a head) plus the option of a two small cabs, one with a 12" 70's Greenback in it the other with a VT Jr (they came up as bargains and I just sort of fell into buying them.
 For some unknown reason I fancy a small valve amp, some sort of princeton type thing or a Champ 600, that sort of small, low wattage vintage (whatever the hell that actually means) amp. As a polar opposite of the Supercrush really.
Budget is £500 , ideally much less.
Current suspects up against the wall are :- 
Champ 600
Juketone something or other ( can't decide but any of em would probably do, leaning towards the head as I have cabs, although a tiny combo would be cool)
Supro Delta King, 10" new is under budget, might find a 12 used if im lucky
Fender Champ 12 red knob, although reviews are not glowing
Princeton, but only if I find someone who doesnt know what it is

I'll be perfectly honest and open but the aesthetic is important for this amp (not sure why really as I'm usually quite practical in an odd way) I've been told the harley benton Tube5 (and the gear4music equivalent ) are great amps for the money but they look awful. I'm also planning on using my paypal credit (i'm selling my roadbike and allocated some funds from there but it might take a while) so needs to be from a shop, ebay,reverb etc. (private sales are most likely not going to be available unless the bike shifts this week)

So , bombard me with reviews, opinions, death threats for being a tart etc etc etc

spev11

also on the list is this
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/135001375602?_trkparms=amclksrc=ITM&aid=111001&algo=REC.SEED&ao=1&asc=20160811114145&meid=4f91d0793dc24379819637ff7a187f72&pid=100667&rk=1&rkt=8&sd=135001375602&itm=135001375602&pmt=0&noa=1&pg=2351460&brand=Robin&_trksid=p2351460.c100667.m2042

HAL9000

Fender Pro Jnr - Used one a couple of times. Great sounding amp and surprisingly loud. Needs to turned up a fair bit though to get the best from it.

Vox AC10 - a friend has one which he uses for snall pub gigs and it sounds fantastic.

Not sure it’s vintage-y enough but I used to own a Blackstar Studio 10 6L6 which I’ve always regretted selling. Sounds are very much in the Fender camp, and the cream tolex gives it a slightly vintage aesthetic.

Kittyfrisk

I just found this & despite having absolutely no need for another amp... I'm very tempted 
https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/265062/fs-modulus-gts-20-w-trent-guitars-cab#latest

Penn

I have a palmer fab 5… probably no help as they are hard to find  and no longer made but I really like it and the attenuation is useful. 

spev11

Pro Jr, I had one, wasnt keen but I may not have given it a fair go (it was black so might need to be tweed)
AC10- dunno, never been keen on the aesthetic and that jangly tone that always seems to be associated with tem
that trent is tempting but the pattern is love/hate and I'm stuck in the middle, and cant use my paypal credit
Palmer Fab 5 ? shall go look and see if it fits the rather silly criteria I've bound myself to

gpw5150

The Pro Jnr is good, but I am biased as I have a USA built one for sale on fleabay.

However, I do recommend the Panama Conqueror if you can get one, it is basically a hand wired 5f2a circuit with a 12 inch speaker in a versatile package of either head/cab or combo with 10 or 12 inch speaker.

I had one which I do regret selling.  

Jazzy_Jake

I had a similar situation to you - I use solid state amps but wanted a token tube amp in my practice room. I looked around on reverb until a nice looking hand wired tweed champ clone (an Eli Abbott) came up and snagged it for under 500 quid.

If you get cheeky with offers, I recon you could pick up a Fender tweed champ reissue for under 500 quid at the moment because the market is slow.

Penn

spev11 said:

Pro Jr, I had one, wasnt keen but I may not have given it a fair go (it was black so might need to be tweed)
AC10- dunno, never been keen on the aesthetic and that jangly tone that always seems to be associated with tem
that trent is tempting but the pattern is love/hate and I'm stuck in the middle, and cant use my paypal credit
Palmer Fab 5 ? shall go look and see if it fits the rather silly criteria I've bound myself to

Fab 5 a early Princeton tweed clone.. I think but I’m not really knowledgeable I just know I like it and it’s a well built little amp. Looks different to. 

stickyfiddle

Laney VC15

Usually sold for peanuts these days and absolutely brilliant little boxes for the cash - e.g. https://reverb.com/item/81344462-laney-vc15-15-watt-1x10-tube-guitar-combo (no affiliation!)

kennedydream1980

Fender Bassbreaker 15. You can pick them up well within your budget.

snowblind

Seconding the suggestion for Laneys. Oddly (or maybe not due to the weight) the smaller ones tend to go for more money than the 2x12s but they fall well within your budget and they sound good. Better than the Bassbreaker I would say.

maw4neu

USA Pro Junior . . . . cracking little amp :-) 

Dave_Mc

spev11 said:

also on the list is this
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/135001375602?_trkparms=amclksrc=ITM&aid=111001&algo=REC.SEED&ao=1&asc=20160811114145&meid=4f91d0793dc24379819637ff7a187f72&pid=100667&rk=1&rkt=8&sd=135001375602&itm=135001375602&pmt=0&noa=1&pg=2351460&brand=Robin&_trksid=p2351460.c100667.m2042

Yes get that. Assuming you like and want a tweed Princeton, of course!

Bear in mind it'll still be pretty loud even if you put a low efficiency speaker into it. 

Pretty much any of the models he offers will be under your budget, if you check his website. He does the usual suspects of the more basic classic circuits- tweed Champ, Princeton, Deluxe, Vox AC15, Marshall 18 watter, 5 watt EL84 (not sure it's a clone, he told me it was more or less an EL84 version of the tweed Princeton) and also a brown panel Princeton. (Bear in mind the tweed Princeton is more like a Champ i.e. 5 watts and single-ended, while the brown panel Princeton is bigger/louder.)

Those cheaper amps can be quite nice too, especially if you get them cheap enough. I haven't tried the Harley Bentons, unfortunately. But my feeling is the Robin Wood would be a good step up from them in quality/tone etc.

Dave_Mc

gpw5150 said:

The Pro Jnr is good, but I am biased as I have a USA built one for sale on fleabay.

However, I do recommend the Panama Conqueror if you can get one, it is basically a hand wired 5f2a circuit with a 12 inch speaker in a versatile package of either head/cab or combo with 10 or 12 inch speaker.

I had one which I do regret selling.  

I could be wrong, but wasn't there some kind of controversy surrounding those Panama amps? Bit like the Freekish Blues/Vertex rebranding type of thing IIRC.

FelineGuitars

Cornell Romany if you can find one

Gassage

FelineGuitars said:

Cornell Romany if you can find one

Or, even better, a Cornell Plexi.

Look also at Cornford amps- brilliant things.

noisepolluter

spev11 said:

I have an Orange Supercrush for everything, running into a repurposed CR60 cab (the CR60 is being used elsewhere as a head) plus the option of a two small cabs, one with a 12" 70's Greenback in it the other with a VT Jr (they came up as bargains and I just sort of fell into buying them.
 For some unknown reason I fancy a small valve amp, some sort of princeton type thing or a Champ 600, that sort of small, low wattage vintage (whatever the hell that actually means) amp. As a polar opposite of the Supercrush really.
Budget is £500 , ideally much less.

Have you already ruled out a Rocker 15 Terror? New prices are (just) at the top of your budget, they come up fairly regularly second hand, as do the various other Orange lunchbox heads. Given that you’ve already got an Orange cab, this would seem to be an obvious choice both aesthetically and in terms of suitable speaker voicing.

Rocker 15 circuit will also go down as low as 0.5 watts. 

personalnadir

I saw this recently on Reverb. Never tried a Harley Benton amp, but I do like the look of it

https://reverb.com/uk/item/56924312-noisy-hammer-vintage-radio-5-watt-tube-guitar-amplifier-2022-vintage-radio

There's also the Vox Mini Superbeetle which I always thought looked neat - and having the separate head seems super useful to take places and plug into a bigger cab. Not tried either of these though

ElectricXII

+1 on a 5f2a. My home amp is a tweed Princeton clone in a Deluxe-sized cabinet with a Jensen P12R. The only drawbacks are that it's not really loud enough to compete with a drummer in a band context, but it's too loud to get amp overdrive at home with other people in the house!

spev11

My head is spinning now, lots of options and thank you all for the suggestions and offers, I’ll be in touch about that. Being an adult has ruined my day so need to consider the options