Looking for good small tube clean amplifier for home use

Lux84

New member
As i have most of hi gain tube sounds covered by Randall Diavlo RD5, i would like to add another tube 5 watter for clean tones. With clean tones i am more into fendery type of sounds.. Line out option would be really cool for direct recording, but it's not that important. Fx loop would be good feature but also not totaly necessary. RD5 has only one channel and it covers hard rock/metal type of sounds. But getting cleans from RD5 is almost impossible, so i need another amp with especialy good fendery type of cleans. As far as new stuff goes i found out Bugera T5 Infinium head, which could be the thing, it's cheap as f..k, but it has no line out and no fx loop. The other one i found would be good is Fender Bassbreaker 007, which has line out but is much more expensive than Bugera. I previously owned Blackheart Handsome Devil 15, and liked the sound, but sold it because it was too loud. So, i found out someone is selling a little brother Blackheart Little Giant 5. The price was too high and in the end i didn't bought it. Also i had Blackstar HT-5 in the past and didn't liked the sound at the end at all.

Are there any other good options out there? I am also considering hybrid tube amps, so it hasn't had to be 100 % all tube. For the cabinet i use, it's Orange PPC 112 cab, with Vintage 30 inside. I use both, humbuckers and singlecoils. Crunch sounds are not that important, because i already have that Joyo clone of Fulltone OCD, and i can cover crunch with a help of that pedal. All recommendations or hints are welcome. I am from Europe.
 
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Re: Looking for good small tube clean amplifier for home use

Maybe look into the Ampeg GVT5H. It's discontinued, so keep an eye on the used market.

 
Re: Looking for good small tube clean amplifier for home use

Check out the VHT special 6 or one of the amps in the VHT range
 
Re: Looking for good small tube clean amplifier for home use

Old Guy: i can go up maximum to 300 bucks.

Rex_Rocker: thanks, i'll try to find one.

PierceOkken: thanks for the hint. i almost forgot about VHT stuff.
 
Re: Looking for good small tube clean amplifier for home use

If you want it for purely clean tones, you may want to bump the wattage up. You don't have to use all of it but you'll have more clean headroom. I can't think of any 5 watt tube amps that aren't going to break up some when you goose the volume knob.
 
Re: Looking for good small tube clean amplifier for home use

I've heard great things about the small tube amp from Monoprice, but have never used one myself.
 
Re: Looking for good small tube clean amplifier for home use

I’d consider a Blues Jr.
 
Re: Looking for good small tube clean amplifier for home use

Maybe look into the Ampeg GVT5H. It's discontinued, so keep an eye on the used market.


I came here just to recommend the combo version of this amp. If it had an effects loop it would be a perfect little unit.
 
Re: Looking for good small tube clean amplifier for home use

Clean-clean sparkles only? Or just low to moderate classic gain, without moddern gain without pedals?

Epiphone Valve Special wasn't bad especially into a good speaker cab. Had master volume and EQ and everything....as well as soso digital reverb and corny dfx optional, but just ignore that and it's all good

Epiphone Valve Standard = same thing, but with 12" speaker chassis if you wanna go upgrading and have familiar options.


Both discontinued afaik. Muuuuch better than the smallest and second smallest Bugeras and Blackhearts imho. Stomps the microscopic vox, for sure. Also imho somewhat better than the smallest tube Marshalls.

The epis are lightly distorted classic rock and blues type plug-straight-in amps at heart...or if you got a 4x12 extension cab and a stombox or dime the thing with high output pickups, you can blast some 80s metal tones loud enough to bother the next street over, too.

For pure clear chime with zero smokiness, though, buy a Fender or maybe a vox
 
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Re: Looking for good small tube clean amplifier for home use

I usually sneer at anything Epiphone, but that's the one amp I actually miss.
 
Re: Looking for good small tube clean amplifier for home use

I usually sneer at anything Epiphone, but that's the one amp I actually miss.

Funny, I'm the opposite. I have a positive view on almost everything they produce, with their guitars being even better value and sometimes quality than their more expensive cousins. But I could never bond with any of Epiphones amps (or there gothic series, but that's another story).
 
Re: Looking for good small tube clean amplifier for home use

Funny, I'm the opposite. I have a positive view on almost everything they produce, with their guitars being even better value and sometimes quality than their more expensive cousins. But I could never bond with any of Epiphones amps (or there gothic series, but that's another story).

Have you tried Valve Special/Standard/Senior models? Not the Juniors, one gain knob no tone no master is a bit TOO basic

1) prerty sure they were loss leaders for promoting the brand or stealing a march on the competition, since they arrived pretty early in the Chinese cheap tube amp revival and then got discontinued after a while despite strong popularity

2) pretty sure they were ghostbuilt by a factory that previously had nothing to do with Gibson or Epiphone before that



These things were a LOT more full featured and better sounding than the barebones stuff the competition had for the price point.


Their sole weakness, really, is that the small and light Jr. is just too dang basic... while the other combos are nowhere near as small or light as the rest. They're midsize not subcompact. And hefty.


Oh and they don't modern metal buzzsaw gain, if you go with the flow you generally get late 60s and 70s classic rock or psychedelic tones.
 
Re: Looking for good small tube clean amplifier for home use

I'll say I did not like the blackheart 5W, it's very basic in features and sound. It is a somewhat flat sounding amp in my book. The Vox Ac4 sounds sweeter and more interesting to me. Haven't tried an AC10 yet but I bet it walks on the blackheart. But I mention that because I found the Blackhearts not so fendery, but a tad voxy. small vox.
You said hybrid is a consideration, the Princeton setting on the Super Champ X2 is very good and so is the tweed champ and tweed bassman. Theres three excellent clean or cleanish tones in your pricepoint. I kinda like the twin one but prefer the 3 I mentioned. But that's a mountain of clean tones to explore.
I think they sound good and it's not too loud. You can crank the amp a little more if you get the 10" combo. It makes the princeton model sound more accurate in combo form I think.
Blues Junior would be good. They need not be loud for sweet fender clean sounds. Reverb is essential to me these days, especially for fender cleans so.. something to consider.

Egnater Tweaker has nice clean tones, a little warmer than the blues jr.
 
Re: Looking for good small tube clean amplifier for home use

You might want to check out the Vox AC4 (4W 1x12"). Andertons has a video:

 
Re: Looking for good small tube clean amplifier for home use

I see there is not a lot of choices.. i'll keep checking for something used, and if i won't find nothing, i'll get that Bugera T5 Infinium. I am from Slovenia, there aren't a lot of options on used market, plus if something interesting shows up, it's overpriced. Someone wanted over 190 bucks for used Blackheart Little Giant, i wanted to drop the price to 140 bucks with no luck.
 
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Re: Looking for good small tube clean amplifier for home use

I wanted to ask, how Vintage 30s goes with Vox amps..
 
Re: Looking for good small tube clean amplifier for home use

ehdwuld: i heard those are the clones of blackstar ht5, since i didn't liked the ht5 at all this isn't a right choice, plus i already have a cab.
 
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