Yeah, I need something small and portable. BUT it has to have tone...

I want something I can take with me to jam with friends and shit, something that sounds decent too. maybe a mini tube combo.

I considered mesa f series combos and the mark series but they're still pretty pricey. New, I heard the vox valvetronix practise combos are pretty good.

they're not truely tube though. Considering I want a decent sound compared to my 'real' amps, it has to be something special, so don't come up with the idea of buying a marshall mg

Orange has a neat new amp, the rocker 30c, but its like 1050 euro's and thats just way to much for a practise combo. Same goes for Engl thunders/screamers. I recently bought a Powerball, I don't have money coming out of my ass or something so it has to be affordable. buying used is no problem. I also heard great things the Rivera combo's, but they must be pricey too...

Don't know, the vox things have impressed me in the past, even the SS ones, so I'll have to try one of those.

def asking for amp info?!

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not asking for amp info, just asking if anyone has experience with small tube combos or other 'good' combos that don't cost a lot of money...

everything is welcome, I've played most smaller tube combos but they're still really pricey. and as for american stuff, we don't have a lot of that over here, so stories about experience, reliability etc are all welcome, might come in handy if I decide to buy a used mesa or something.

Didn't you have an ENGL 60 watt combo?

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nope, seperate savage head... rare in holland

does engl make combos? if yea then why not go with that?

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money?

they're like 1000 bucks. and not really available used.

I've seen an ancient Engl straight 50 for like 400 once though, but it was gone really fast.

ah $$ is always a bitch

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Why not buy a 2x12 cab? Carrying a small cab and a head will be much easier than a fuckign combo that wieghs 60+ lbs and has no side handles...

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errr, because my flightcase with top is like 50 times heavier?

plus I keep my tops at our practise room now, so I only have a laney hc combo to use. I don't need a big combo, just something small with tone.

I don't like carrying around 200kg flightcases with expensive tops every day.

http://www.carvin.com/products/group.php?CID=VINT

http://www.yorkville.com/products.asp?type=32&cat=18

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Mm, Carvin is pretty rare here, the 112 nomad thing looks interesting. unfortunaly with Carvin beeing rare, the amp is like 750 euro, so that's more into the 8-850 bucks region. That's too much for me and I can get an engl thunder for 100 more or something.

Traynor is even worse, they're not around. I don't think they're sold here at all, never saw one and can't find anything on the web in holland. that YCV20 thing looks really promising (actually, that would be exactly what I'm looking for, a small tube combo that I could hotrod with a proco rat or ts9)

thanks for those links, maybe I can find something on ebay...

Search here: Combos at MusikProduktiv
and get a review at www.harmony-central.com

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h&k?

mesa is hella expensive for you, so i wont mention it... how about marshall?

maybe a little orange ad5(5w class A with a single speaker and full of TONE) and a proco rat for more gain?

you guys get marshall stuff for reasonable prices right? maybe a marshall tube combo?

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Oh jesus I totaly forgot about the you live in another country part.

This may seems kind of far fetched, but if you know your way around electronic are you're looking for a project there are piles of schemetics and step by step intructions on building small 5-15 watt class A tube amps. Ofcourse it would be alot cheaper, but if you don't want to spend the time to learn/do it scratch that idea.

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+1

you could learn alot from the experience of building your own little amp... and then once you're done learning... you get an amp out of the deal
little medium/low gain fender clones n' stuff... then just use a rat or muff type pedal for your drive.

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They make kits too, they always seemed pretty neat to me.

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Hmm, I heard about those, I might look into them.

the problem is though, I don't really have a lot of spare time, I go to uni, play guitar, visit my girlfriend and in the evening I check out the green screen and in the weekends I work and booze. lol.

Those Orange AD5's sound mighty interesting, but I haven't seen them around here so they are probably pretty expensive (I figured since a 30w tube combo by orange is like 1000 here)

I did check out some marshall tube combos, there are these 30w versions of them too, they even have a v30 in some cases. I haven't played them, but they are around used for pretty good prices I might add.

they've got 1 ax7 and 2x el34, here's one for sale for 350: http://www.gitaarmarkt.nl/index.php...etails&id=31889

Now I wonder, these probably have a ss preamp with a tube in it and only a true tube poweramp which means I'de have to crank it. but 30 watts is still plenty loud.

I missed out on an auction yesterday, it had a engl thunder that went for 400. not a bad price either even though it was the old model.

I think I'de really like a small marshall though because they sound pretty good cranked, if they're anything like old jcm's, maybe get svetlana powertubes in, a sovtek ax7lps in the preamp, use a powerbrake between the amp/speaker and a ts9 or rat to boost the gain? (talk about a hotrodded combo, haha)

H&K doesn't really have small tube stuff, but they do have some pretty good ss amps, like the blue edition, it needs a distortion boost, but the cleans on it are awesome for such a cheap amp. (I bet I can get one for like 150-200 here!)

thanks for the ideas so far guys

That 4203 is true tube i reckon.

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nope, the ax7 is part of the phase inverter, so only the poweramp is tube, the preamp is ss, basically a hybrid amp.

or at least, thats what I read about it, maybe it is the same system as avt's or something likewise, but its not a full blown tube amp

but if you send a hot signal in and crank it....

that's the way hybrids should be... tube poweramps... because that's where the most audible tube sound comes from...

don't you already have a rat? that would probably be titties with that amp.

30w tube pushing a 12" speaker could get pretty loud, especially if it's an effecient speaker like a vintage 30...

then an attenuator to keep the volume down a bit when you need it.

sounds good to me.

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You should check out the Epiphone tube amps. Very inexpensive.
You could also give a Peavey classic 30 a try. Only has thirty watts, so you can get some power tube distortion in there to spice it up a bit.

Both of these are relatively easy to find as well.

well easy here, hes from holland so...

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hey def, something like this?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...ssPageName=WDVW

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sovtek mig 30... plus a 1x12 cab

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Thats a fucking bargain
Too bad he doesn't ship outside the states

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oh he doesnt? then nevermind def

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I was too late, bidding ended. rofl, buy now was 1.100

those are not really ones for the metal tone though, the jive and straights are better (oldskool engls, early ones and affordable)

Sovtek Mig 30, xdx? I didn't know they had those, I only played a MiG60 and MiG100 which are basically jcm800 clones.

peavey classics are hardly around (5150, xxx, xxl, jsx, etc. are around) and epiphone isn't around, only their (shitty) guitars...

I think I'll just have some patience and see if I can get a good deal on an engl straight/jive/thunder or whatever, I don't care if I have to drive to germany to get it.

yep it's just a 30 watt one, there is also a mig 50(which is kinda weird imo, also having a mig60 available... it's just 50w)... they're pretty much all old school marshall-ish clones(mostly if not all based off the 800's)... it would be tits with a rat type pedal ... and they go for pretty good prices(even in europe i think).

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man my sneaky Russian brothers are making a KILLING importing sovtek's in Russia a Mig-60 would cost about 200 USD!

Edit: since wages are so low, thats still pretty expensive for the average russian non-oligarch!

?!

...wait thats not a mig-plain nvm

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haha

I'll see if I encounter a Mig 30, sounds really interesting (even more so then that marshall artist thing)

Laney has a 15 tube combo too. I saw one used for only 200 bucks, 2 el84's and a ax7, don't know about laney, the one I have is pretty shitty.

Laney is hit or miss from my experience. I've played an old Laney head that, with a 15 band eq, had some of teh greatest clan and distortion tones I've ever hear when cranked, but I've also played through a few which sounded no better than your average Marshall solid-state.

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I tried these amps this week in stores:

Line six spider: shit
Roland cube: shit (but ok cleans for a cheapass amp)
Fender junior: shit
various AVT/MG's : obviously shit
Laney HCMR's : shit (couldn't find the tube ones )
Mesa Boogie Mark 3 : nice. but still 750 used.
Engl Thunder : I allready knew this one, great little combo for metal and cleans, still pricey.
Vox Cambridge : shit. (but I once played an el cheapo pathfinder and was impressed)
Orange Crunch : wheres the friggin distortion. crappy ss amp, shit cleans too.
Brunetti Maranello : nice... but again,800+ for a small combo.

Hm. a least I 'm orientating a bit more in the world of combo's. haha.

you might as well save up a bit for a good combo that youll like

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just hang around a local venue, when nobody's looking, swipe an amp...

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you might want to try the THD univalve head.with the right tubes it sounds pretty metal(btw it has auto bias so you can switch to diff. tubes anytime).
its noly 15 watts and small. but,class A is class A.its got a power attenuator (spelling) and hot plate built in .i know your looking for a combo but this thing is pretty small.

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if you havnt gotten one already herea another small engl combo
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...ssPageName=WDVW

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