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My mate is chasing a 5 watt combo amp, he currently has a fender hot rod deluxe and a super champ xd.

he wants sometihng that sounds fairly different to the fenders.

what would you guys reccomend? im thinking maybe the marshall class 5 as it has the eq's or maybe the vox atv4?

They all sound different to the Fenders. Is he after just dirt, or does he want some headroom?

The Orange Tiny Terror. However, I'm sure there is a better bang for your buck.

Actually, fuck an tubes.

Get a Vox VT15 or something. It'll sound better than any tube amp of comparable price.

The Blackstar HT-5 is great. I have the head version.

The Class 5 was good when I tested it, although it was an early generation model and had quite a rattle to it. If I were to have to replace my modded VJ I'd probably go with the C5 next.

The Epiphone Valve Juniors (stock) are decent for the small price you pay, they're quite a bit dark compared to your typical Fender sound though. Also if you're in the UK there's the Harley Benton 5 watter that's the same thing under the hood.

VHT has a very nice Champ-ish clone - the Special 6 that is getting great reviews.

he doesnt want anything to loud, something fairly small and that sounds decent enough at lower levels,im thinking the vox atv4 maybe as its small and has the switchable output levels.
anyone have any thoughs on these?

we live in australia so mostly the name brands are the easiest to get.

i just told him to try the marshall class 5, vox actv4,blackstar ht5 combo these 3 are readily available to test out to see which one hes likes best.

cheers for the replys

5 watts can be a bit deceptive - if he wants to overdrive the amp it's going to get quite loud.

Any of the 3 you mentioned should do quite well though.

Of the ones that I've played, I really liked the Fender, and the epiphone, although they do need to be modded slightly to sound their best. I played the Bugera the other day and it sounded like absolute garbage. I was really disappointed in it, especially since I really liked their 22 watt combo.

I really want to play the VHT and the Vox and the blackheart as I've heard good things about all 3 of those.

Oh and Orange also makes the AD-5. I haven't played it, it's in a completely different price range from all of those amps.

Vox AD4TVs sound pretty good and decidedly not Fenderish. Even at the 4watt setting, you're not gonna get very loud before it starts to break up but at least you can go to a quarter watt and get some dirt at bedroom level.

I've never really gotten along with low watt tube amps, might as well go solid state. They'll sound clearer, have good headroom, and features like headphone outs and simple effects that you wont get on tube amps. I picked up a Vox AC15r pathfinder. nice little solidstate ac15 with an 8" speaker and line out, headphone out, and speaker outs.

the pathfinder is not truly a solid state ac15. the model number is actually V9168R (w/reverb). the cambridge 15 (V9169) is the hybrid version and sounds even closer to an ac15 (using 1 12AX7), but neither are really related in any way other than cosmetics and single speaker combi design.

http://voxshowroom.com/equipment/index.html

Bugera V5. Power adjustable from 5 watts to 1 watt to .1 watts. Headphone out, decent reverb and takes pedals well. New for $150 and cheaper used.

ill tell him to try out the little 5 watt vox tube amp and the solid state vox's aswell.

ive had the bugera v5 and it was a decent enough amp but i found the tone knob did nothing, especially when you switch to 0.5 watt it got to muddy
but they are really cheap.

i forgot about the blackheart, i have seen them around but not alot. ill see if i can find one for him to try out.

i dont think he wants anything with effects,as he already has heaps of pedals.

i love the fender amps, ive got a superchamp xd and its great.

I have one of ac4tv8s (ac4 with tiny speaker) and it's pretty good little amp

The epiphone valve juniors are pretty nice, i tried one in a guitar center out of curiosity and ended up buying it.
it was the head and extension cab though, not the combo. i am really happy with it.