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Yet another small vavle amp suggestions thread

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 5:28 pm
by Progrockabuse
hey all

as most of the uker's know, doog is planning the doogfest 2:son of doogfest uk meet up.

at the moment, me, hurb, fran and nickd are planning some sort of roadtrip car sharing thingy, but both cars are kinda limited on space if there's four of us plus guitars/amps/blowup sheep (it is derbyshire/nottingham after all lol) etc lol

i was going to take my blues deluxe, but i think this will take up too much space. so my question is what kinda of small valve amp would give me a similar tone and be small enough to take to doogfest? was think fender pro junior or something?

ideas?

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 5:52 pm
by Doog
Oh lord, don't buy an amp just for the meetup, you gump! Save money for beerz 8)

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 6:00 pm
by Progrockabuse
Doog wrote:Oh lord, don't buy an amp just for the meetup, you gump! Save money for beerz 8)
i want a little amp anyway, so it's the perfect excuse to the missus lol

and dont worry, i have a costco card, bulk beer!!!!!!!

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:29 pm
by astro
I have a Pro Junior. Its loud as fuck, and very portable. But you'll need to swap the tubes: the stock Sovteks sound like shit. Put some real tubes in there, and it'll sound great.

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:34 pm
by Progrockabuse
astro wrote:I have a Pro Junior. Its loud as fuck, and very portable. But you'll need to swap the tubes: the stock Sovteks sound like shit. Put some real tubes in there, and it'll sound great.
is it quite a clean amp? something that would suvive a jam with shortscalers?

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:52 pm
by arcadedave
Yeah, its clean till you hit about twelve o' clock, then it begins to break up nicely.

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:38 pm
by Progrockabuse
i thinking this might be it, found one in my local guitar shop for £200, might get them to chuck in some valves, as my wages praticaly get paid to them lol

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 11:43 pm
by arcadedave
Progrockabuse wrote:i thinking this might be it, found one in my local guitar shop for £200, might get them to chuck in some valves, as my wages praticaly get paid to them lol
I picked mine up for 190 practically perfect, so with new valves that sounds like a great deal.

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 11:45 pm
by Progrockabuse
does it take pedals well?

Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 2:18 am
by astro
Progrockabuse wrote:does it take pedals well?
I find that it does. I use it a lot with my fuzz face clone, and it sound killer. I've tried trems, choruses, those sound good too.

BTW, the pro junior has only a volume and a tone knob. The tone knob is surprisingly versatile for changing the tone. The volume is the other tone shaper. From about 1 to 7, it clean, and from 7 on up, it gets dirty.

And when I say that it's loud, I mean its FUCKING LOUD. I actually use my 60 watt Concert II more for bed room practice, because that one has a master volume. The Pro Junior doesn't, and the lowest setting on the volume knob that gets sound is too loud for my neighbors.

If you get a stock one, you might notice a lot of hiss/noise. This can be fixed. Most of it comes from the garbage stock tubes, which are so bad that I recommend that they be tossed in the trash immediately. I wouldn't even recommend them as spares.

There's a design flaw in the Pro Junior. On the back of the amp, the middle screw that holds the chassis to the cabinet touches something on the PCB (I can't remember exactly what) and this creates a ground loop, also causing some of the noise. Take that screw out, and the problem is solved. The other two screws are more than enough to hold in the chassis.

A lot of people replace the stock speaker, but I've left it in, I found that a tube change was enough to improve the tone to my liking.

Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 2:48 am
by Sloan
Get a Blackheart amp.



NO REGRETS

Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 3:25 am
by JamesSmann
Sloan wrote:Get a Blackheart amp.



NO REGRETS
do you own one of thems? cuz i was really tempted a few weeks ago, and decide agin' it. but now i'm feeling like maybe i'm fer it again...if you ownz, would you rec'mend?

Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 4:07 am
by Sloan
No, I just endorse their slogan.




NO REGRETS