Re: [Harp-L] best small tube amp?
- To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
- Subject: Re: [Harp-L] best small tube amp?
- From: Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2012 23:52:03 -0700 (GMT-07:00)
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- Reply-to: Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
There are a lot of 5 watt tube amps on the market by Fender (Champ), Crate (VC508/V8), Epiphone (Galaxy), VHT Special 6, etc. I love my Crate VC508, which was modified by Ron Holmes of Homes Engineering; for that matter, I loved it before Ron modded it. Paul Messinger uses a Crate VC508 in his band Climbing Jacob's Ladder, and it sounds great to me.
But if I was buying today, and I was going for a small tube amp, I'd probably go for the VHT Special 6, which is the only one of the bunch with a 10" speaker. Speaker size makes a difference--you're going to get more low end frequencies out of a 10" speaker than an 8" speaker, and it'll be louder too.
I wouldn't actually go for a small tube amp, though. The original post mentioned a Fender Blues Junior. For a lot less than a Blues Junior, you can buy a Digitech RP255 plus a Peavey KB2 keyboard amp plus my patch set for Digitech RP, and it'll sound better for blues (and louder) out of the box than a blues junior, and give you a lot of other sounds too. (Not exactly a fair comparison, given that the Blues Junior isn't really a topnotch blues harp amp; but still.)
Regards, Richard Hunter
author, "Jazz Harp"
latest mp3s and harmonica blog at http://hunterharp.com
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