Low Power Tube amps

[goatboy]

I was wondering if anyone had any experience or advice as far as low power tube amps go. I have a home recording set up and have been using amplitube but I am not too happy with the results so I am looking for a small tube amp to get some nice warm clean tones. I have a Marshall 6100 for live use but it is too damn loud to get a nice tone out of it at home recording levels. Some I have been looking at are:

Gilmore Jr kit - Not sure if it has any clean headroom though
Matamp Minimat
Orange Tiny Terror

Anyone use any of these or have any other suggestions?

Thanks.

[jrsgodfrey]

You might also consider one of these for your Marshall.

http://www.tedweber.com/atten.htm

I've been able to record at living room volume and get good sounds.

[mjau]

http://www.tedweber.com/atten.htm

I was going to suggest the same thing. If you want a seperate, low-wattage amps, there's lots to choose from. I haven't tried the Tiny Terror, but I used to have a 15 watt Orange combo that could get some Marshall-esque sounds. Lately, I've been loving a 20 watt Hiwatt tube combo. My favorite amp I've ever owned, actually.

[goatboy]

You might also consider one of these for your Marshall.

http://www.tedweber.com/atten.htm

I've been able to record at living room volume and get good sounds.

Ah good point I hadn't thought about using an attenuator I always just think of them as your amp has one or not. Does it affect tone much?

[these_go211]

15-20 watts is still pretty loud, isn't it?

[jrsgodfrey]

I have the Mini Mass 25w. It does start to get funny sounding at extreme settings. I don't have big amps anyway (Deluxe Reverb and Pro Jr.), so I don't know about taming a brute like your Marshall. But I can easily cut the volume in half and it retains the tone well enough.

As far as low wattage amps go, I tried one of these little zvex tube amps at a store. Great over the top sound.

http://zvexamps.com/amp_view.html

[kayagum]

What about Fender Pro Jrs or the Epiphone Valve Jr?

You can swap out the preamp tubes for the Pro Jr, tone it down from 12AX7 to 12AT7 - it's very sweet clean, and not ridiculous in volume. Takes pedals well.

I love the ZVex NanoAmp too, but it doesn't do clean that well.

[MD]

Build a Champ. Build a Champ. Build a Champ.

I used a kit from here
http://www.stf-electronics.com/

[leefordwatford]

The little epiphone valve jr. sounds pretty good. Had a champ, another great amp, though I'd probably build one if I wanted another.

[jspartz]

I have been rocking with a THD UniValve 15 watt tube amp head that also has a built in hotplate attenuator. This unit will allow different input and output tubes (auto bias' itself). It has been great.

Jason

[danno2]

http://www.musictoyz.com/guitar/amps/bumbox.php

I have no hands on with this one, but it's 1 watt!!
There are some sounds file there to check out.

[I'm Painting Again]

I have the tiny terror..

+'s

great clean and overdrive sounds
small light cool looking package
good build
low and high power setting

-'s

no footswitch from clean to gain setting
no reverb

[Michael_Joly]

Jule Amps - Sweet Sue 5w:
http://www.juleamps.com/

Beautiful stuff built really well that sounds great. A great guy to deal with.

[Randy]

Does it have to be a tube amp? I made a two-channel Little Gem amp and it records excellently. One guy was in here with a vintage Marshall 50w head and a vintage Marshall cabinet and I split the signal off to my Little Gem with a Recoton Jensen reissue, and we ended up choosing the Little Gem on 80 percent of the tracks. Rich big sound. 1/5 watt.

Runoff Groove's Little Gem page