I have written about that amp in a different article, but my thoughts kept coming back to my five watt concept. Present Day - December 20, 2022Īs regular readers will know, since that time, I picked up a Fender Tonemaster Deluxe Reverb in Blonde. Great players have done some great sounds with small amps. Yet what many people believe was an enormous Marshall stack for the sound of Led Zeppelin’s first album was actually a small Supro.
BEST LOW WATT TUBE AMP FULL
There are many stories of Eric Clapton setting his at full tilt to get the sound he wanted during the recording of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton (commonly called the Beano album) and some of the studio folks walking out because even in the studio while they were in the control room it was just too loud. Oh I love the sound of a Marshall reissue 1962 Bluesbreaker, but it is a lot of coin and at 30W is bludgeoningly loud. I may end up with something, I may not find anything that does what I want at a price point that I am willing to spend. I also didn’t follow my own specs of simple as it does (well) more than just volume and tone. I have played one of the Supro Deltas but the one that I played was a higher wattage, I couldn’t get the tone without turning it up louder than was practical for the environment. I figured that if I want to go the route to a purpose built small amp, now is the time to start the search. It does however have a DI out, that is very nice. While it goes to 4w, it was built for 40w and doesn’t sound the same. I even owned a really nice Blackstar HT-5 head and cabinet for a while but traded them for a special edition Blackstar Club 40 that could be set for four watts as well as full tilt. I have been a musician and music geek long enough to know that while massive stacks are great on stage, many ageless records were recorded with very small amps in studio including the old tube based Fender Champ, small Supros and others. Something simple, with perhaps a volume and tone control only. The direction that I think that I want to try next is a low wattage tube amp, that tends to naturally overdrive quickly, and without pedals. Both sound great, but to get that Marshall sound, it’s still rather loud, and by it’s nature not particularly portable.
I’ve used both an OX box and a Wazacraft Amp controller. Time has moved on and while I still love that sound, my ability to play the thing unharnessed to get the sound that I want is increasingly limited. Massively loud, with a voice found nowhere else when turned up and driving a pair of 4x12 cabinets. Power was everything and I worked hard to acquire my first 100 watt Marshall, a 70’s Custom Super Lead Mark II. When I was younger, the thought of a low powered tube amp with limited controls was never on my radar. While we have never met, we have communicated via email and he strikes me as a very find gentleman, so fire up YouTube and search for Five Watt World. Plus, as best as I can tell, while he understands his competence, he comes across as very humble and always open to learning more. He has enormous knowledge and knows what he does not know and engages other experts to fill the gaps. The research that Keith puts into his segments is absolutely incredible. If you don’t know Five Watt, I would suggest that you have a look. However, I never completely ignore the words of my buddy Keith Williams over at Five Watt World. This has given me a lot of latitude in soundscapes and tonal response and except for space considerations have no regrets. Rather that a single board where I rotate pedals, I have built multiple boards for different amplifiers.
BEST LOW WATT TUBE AMP TRIAL
This is awesome and to those who lift their noses at digital, suggest that before you slam something, maybe try it for more than two minutes and invest in the trial with your brain. Key was the ability to run DI out from the amp to the recording interface over a balanced line. I’ve spent most all of 2022 working on the recording side of music creation, so have placed my primary attention on robust digital platforms such as the Kemper, the Quad Cortex. At this time of the year, the thought of new gear gets a boost, particularly when Black Friday sales start at the beginning of November and run right into Christmas and Boxing Week sales.
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