Re: The 15 to 30 watt tube amp question
Rusty Fingers said:
I'm still wondering about a low wattage tube amp with an attenuator. Would that sound horrible?
Fender/Vox is the basic sound I'm looking for. Feel and openess are the intangibles that I'm hoping for.
I've tried running a blue tube pedal into the digitech to get more "tube feel". For cleans it didn't sound as good (to me), but cranked you could hear the tube breathe, something the simulator alone couldn't do.
Well, I use attenuators with small tube amps. The Blues Jr., Gretch 6150 (Supro 1609), Univox, Valve Jr Head, Tweed Deluxe (clone) head and others. I use a Weber Mass, and Weber Load Dump. They can sound fine and acutally work to make for a more 70's classic rock tone at times. The Mass does a decent job of compensating for some of the lost highs, but you do lose the impack of a pushed speaker and that is important for some amp tones. So I would say it is reasonable.
For a prortable rig I like to take my greenboard Blues Jr with an 12AY7 in V1 for clean (very contry vibe can actually be had this way) and use the Duncan Twin Tube Class, Silver Dragon, 525Q, DD6, SD1 and OD3. This covers clean country, pop, folky, blues, 70-90's rock darn well. I can sorta do ssome metal but not so well without a closed back cab and other pedals.
Is it perfect for everything? No. Is it my Genz Benz? No? It does however kill a lot of tones I hear out there these days from some very expensive rigs.
