Small/mini Valve/Tube Guitar heads, what are there?

[MetalJonesy]

Right, so i know of the few popular ones, the Orange TT, The Krank Rev JR, the epiphone/harley benton mini valve series and the black heart amps

But was just wondering what other ones are out the, im talking the head versions 5-20w amps

i recall a while back a there were a few posts with other amp makes included, but cant find the post!

im just after a more british sounding amp for clean tones, maybe a bit of pushed OD for another studio amp, or live amp that im gnn a/b with my krank rev jr

 

[Metaltastic]

There's some low-power Egnater, and a Randall RM with 2 EL84's and space for one module...

 

[MetalJonesy]

Egnater, thats the one i was thinking about! cheers marcus!

 

[slashvanyoung]

I'd be interested, too. Been thinking about picking up a Blackheart Little Giant for a while now. I'm just really tired of moving my concrete Engl around for gigging while I can hardly ever crank it on stage and the head is always in danger of getting damaged or stolen. And since going the POD-way isn't really an alternative for me, it sounds like a good compromise... It's certainly cheaper than a roadie haha.

 

[MetalJonesy]

i think im gnna end up getting a small 5 watt harley benton, cant really afford anything more than £100 on this amp, as its not a main amp, more a valve amp for the collection, however if i had the funds, id be very tempted to ship an egnater 20 rebel over to the uk!

 

[slashvanyoung]

Yeah, the Egnater is veeeery sexy. But shipping, taxes and so on ruin the great deal...

 

[colonel kurtz]

there's also the epiphone valve jr. 5W head...

 

[Sloan]

MINIMAT!!!
http://www.matamp.co.uk/minimat.htm

 

[006]

I actually purchased a Valve Jr. a few weeks ago. Surprisingly it is very loud for only being 5w. The total volume of it is close the same level of my 120w tube amp with the master on 2...which those of you with 100 or 120w amps know that is decently loud. I have been using it through my Mesa 4x12 and it actually sounds pretty damn good for having no tonal control. I may try to do some metal clips with it... it's possible, there really is enough gain, but you can definitely tell the low-end response just isn't there like a big amp with a bunch of power tubes to make the fatness.

I plan on modding mine, there are lots of schematics and parts lists that show how to add tone controls, a standby, adding an extra power tube to make it 18w, etc...

For $129US+tax it's a pretty cool amp to have laying around for cleans and overdriven sounds.

~006

 

[Sloan]

Yeah, I bought a Valve Jr. back when they were $100. I actually used it a lot for just dicking around and recorded some song ideas with it too.

 

[slashvanyoung]

Listened to a few Youtube clips of the valve junior before... and loved them! It's just hard to lay of the skepticism towards having no sort of eq at all... But on the other hand, there are so many ways between your hands and the preamp to shape the tone.

 

[Meisterjäger]

Koch Studiotone... It runs at like £600, but it's a very nice 20w head.

 

[MetalJonesy]

wey the valve jr is the same as the harley benton one, and the harley benton version is a few quid cheaper and has a tone control. thanks for the info. that matamp looks prettyt sweet too!

 

[Allu83]

Does anybody ever heard about Cicognani Brutus? it's a 11w valve head.. maybe you can find some info here:

http://www.cicognaniamps.com/?file=guitar_brutus_brutus.asp

sounds pretty good for what I've heard!

 

[Meisterjäger]

Beware... that Harley Benton looks like it's called 'Gash'! And I guess if you're ordering from Thomann, the price may actually differ from what they show, as that's just a currency conversion estimation. If you're getting the HB just so save a few quid, it probably ain't worth it... but it does have that EQ knob.

 

[MetalJonesy]

theres a valve Jr in a local guitar store, think ill go check it out soon, as its around £70, canny big for a 5w guitar amp!

 

[if6was9]

A friend of mine bought one of the harley benton jobs and convered it to a tiny terror- ripped out the circuitry leaving a few parts like the tranny and stuff, then built a tiny terror one and stuck it in there, not sure how much it set him back but he described it as "Mad Cheap" and said the harley was perfect for it, he did one of the combos though. I've yet to try it out but he built a marshall 18 watt before it and that sounded great

 

[TheDriller]

A friend of mine bought one of the harley benton jobs and convered it to a tiny terror- ripped out the circuitry leaving a few parts like the tranny and stuff, then built a tiny terror one and stuck it in there, not sure how much it set him back but he described it as "Mad Cheap" and said the harley was perfect for it, he did one of the combos though. I've yet to try it out but he built a marshall 18 watt before it and that sounded great

Haha! Thats ME!!!!!



ya, i must get around to finishing that amp some time soon.
the circuit has been re-designed a few times so it doesn't actually resemble a TT anymore.

the Harley Benton was pretty cool before i tore out the board, but the speaker is absolute garbage. luckely, theres speaker-outs for 4, 8 and 16 ohm cabs. if you plug in to a good cab it actually sounds REALLY good. aside from a little mains hum it works well and sounds sweet.

i'd recommend it

having said that, i didn't hesitate to tear the board out though