Best low-watt guitar amp?

[cozmik_cowboy]

Just another of the strange things that run through my head.


For my money, it's the Paul Rivera-designed early-'80s Fender Super Champ; 15 all-tube watts through 1x10", with not only as fine an iteration of the  classic Fender clean tone as Clarence Leonidas his own self ever turned out, but, with the volume knob pulled out, an overdrive tone that I have always thought was smoother & more musical than any other cascading-gain amp I've ever heard (pure magic with a '59 ES-330-TD!).


Your nominations?


Peter

[peoplechipper]

You sell it well; now I wanna go try one out...I never tried them out before because I've always hated too many knobs and especially pull pots!

For size that super champ's got it, but old Princeton's are cool...I know! how about the old Hiwatt bulldog combos? compact fury!

[lbpesq]

Those Rivera era Fenders are sweet.  I've got a Rivera Princeton Reverb II - 22 watts, 1x12.   Great little amp.  And I am thoroughly enjoying my new Quilter, variable from 0-50 watts in a big sounding tiny and light package.

Bill, tgo

[edwin]

Those Rivera era Fenders are sweet.  I've got a Rivera Princeton Reverb II - 22 watts, 1x12.   Great little amp.  And I am thoroughly enjoying my new Quilter, variable from 0-50 watts in a big sounding tiny and light package.

Bill, tgo

I just ordered a Quilter Bass Block for some fly dates. Will arrive later in the week. Very curious as to how it will sound and whether I can replace my Crest power amp with it.

[cozmik_cowboy]

I hit reverb.com to see where Super Champs are these days; learned 2 things.

1) When they were new, i was selling them for about $350; now they're about 3 times that.

2) I disremembered the power; they're 18w, not 15.

Peter

[lbpesq]

Beatcha by 4 watts!

hehehehe

Bill, tgo

[gtrguy]

I used to own a real Super Champ. It had a nice clean sound but I thought the OD sound was just bad. I do wish I still had it.

I have a Zinky Blue Velvet that I love. It has a lot of power, so I would not call it low watt. I used to own a Mesa Subway Blues amp that I really liked. However, for some reason you could not hear it when playing with a band. It had plenty of volume though.

I used to have a 1965 Fender Blackface Champ that sounded good, but just did not have enough headroom. I even modded it so that when you plugged into the 2nd jack it bypassed the tone stack. This upped the sound output quite a lot, but it still did not have the power.
 
I played through a friends 1968 Fender Princeton last week at a jazz jam and it had great tone and headroom.

Typically, I use my Catalinbread Topanga reverb pedal with amps that do not have reverb, and it really helps the tone.

[keith_h]

One of guitar players in my old three guitar front Southern rock band used a Super Champ. I liked it better than the Twin Reverb and Marshal combo used by the other guitarists. We mic'ed all of the amps and in order to get a good volume the larger combos had to be turned down losing some of their tone. The Champ on the other hand was just about the right size where it could be turned up enough to get good tube compression. 

[cozmik_cowboy]

We mic'ed all of the amps and in order to get a good volume the larger combos had to be turned down losing some of their tone. The Champ on the other hand was just about the right size where it could be turned up enough to get good tube compression. 

Powerful amps: The soundman's bane!

I once mixed for a power trio where the guitarist would go into rooms that a Super Champ would be a bit much for, hang a 57 by its cord over his Marshall 4X12", then a packing blanket, then his 100w Marshall head - and dime that sucker!!


"Billy, could you turn it down a little?"


"I'm just trying to get a sound, man...."


"Have you tried a smaller amp?"


"Huh??

I would gladly outlaw all guitar amps over 50w - and only reason I don't say 25 is that the amazing Rivera Jazz Suprema 25 doesn't come in the 1X15" combo, and the equally amazing Jazz Suprema 50 does (OK, and Super Reverbs .......).  I mean, c'mon - a 100w stack was a fine thing 50 years ago, but then Alembic & the Grateful Dead invented sound reinforcement, ya heard?


On the other hand, when we got a new drummer, he brought a pair of 18" scoops, which allowed us to go 4-way instead of 3.  First night with the new stacks, the bassist (who owned the PA & had hired me, and played through a 3-way rack system) stepped out onto the floor in the 3rd set.  Did a quadruple take: the stacks, me, the stacks, me.  Kicked a chair over in front of the left stack, sat back with his feet crossed, and played the rest of the night there with a huge smile (well,  he did go back onstage for the songs he sang - but then right back in his chair).


After that, his cabs stayed home; I pushed him a little in the monitors & a lot in the mains.


Had to quit after 3 months; couldn't handle Billy any more (last I knew, he was running a website for going to Russia to "meet and date hot, single Russian women": I figure that pretty much means he was a pimp).  The bassist, on the other hand, hired me for 2 more bands; it was, in fact, his soundboard at which the Lovely and Charming Mrs. Cowboy picked me up.


Huh - I seem to have gotten to rambling a tad.  Oh, well - if I can't hijack my own thread, who can?


Peter

[5a quilt top]

Don't know about the "best", but I've been surprised by my Laney Cub 12.

Cost me $300.00 and was upgraded by the previous owner with a Celestian Vintage 30 and JJ tubes.

Set everything about 1/2 up and hit it with a Zen Drive set at moderate gain for more girth - very nice with semi-hollow guitars with PAF-style humbuckers.

Remove the Zen Drive and go straight in with a big hollow jazz box - a little head-room challenged if you need a lot of volume, but offers quite a bit of warmth at lower levels.

[gtrguy]

The only amp I ever heard that gave a convincing Marshall 'brown' tone at an ear friendly lower volume is this Randall BMF that I own. It has a low power switch that you can kick in and it stills sounds killer. However, the thing weighs about 100lbs (just the head alone) and is very rare.

I posted this YouTube video of me playing it some time ago:

[rv_bass]

Cool video, sounds great!

[the_home]

My favorite low-ish watt amp is a Speedster Deluxe 25. Very out-of-the-ordinary looks, with sweet 6v6 tube tone. I have one of the early first issues with the chassis bearing Michael Soldano's signature. Unfortunately the entire line has been out of production for a while now. The amps are still available occasionally in the secondary market, and are not inexpensive.

[lbpesq]

Those were cool.  Kind of looked like an old jukebox mated with an old tube radio!   There are several on reverb - you can get one for under $2K.

Bill, tgo

[rv_bass]

I just picked up a Quilter Bassblock 800.  Nice little amp, very light, portable, and powerful, with nice tone shaping controls with some, but little coloring (to my ears anyway).  It won't replace my power amp with F-1X/F-2B, but nice to have for those quick smaller rig portability gigs.