Hi all,

Been hovering around for a while now on the forums, just reading things of interest. I'm at a point now where I'm going to be stepping up to some new gear. I'm a tube amp virgin, hence, need some input.

I'm currently using a 15watt SS Hiwatt mini stack which has been perfect for personal jamming in my basement. I am aware of the beauty of tube amp sound and have noodled on a few in guitar stores, but never owned one. A couple friends came over with 30watt tubes and they blew me away as well as my Hiwatt. In fact my Hiwatt became quite useless next to theirs. I would now like to turn my Hiwatt into a piece of furniture and purchase a tube amp.

I am looking for a tube amp (head, not combo)somewhere between 15 and 30 watts, it's just for basement jamming. I prefer something in the boutique department. Although I play allot of heavier stuff I prefer to have an amp geared to a pure clean tone. I find it easier to make a clean sound dirty than visa versa.

I realize this may be a loaded question, but I am looking for opinions on which of these would best fit my criteria. I don't have the luxury of a large city where I can test these amps.

I've narrowed it down to...

Orange AC30
THD UniValve
H&K Puretone
Speedster 25 Deluxe
Budda Superdrive II 18w
Zinky 25w Blue Velvet

Appreciate any comments.

Thanks

I own alot of tube amps marshall 800 50 watt head,vintage bassman heads,Hughes and Kettner tube series heads etc...

My favorite tube amp is the bassman by far. Most it not all tubes amp companies copied the whole vintage fender era amps. The first Marshall was actually a Fender bassman!

You can pickup a vintage 67-68 bassman 50 watt head for about $300 bucks.

With a couple of mods to it you will have a monster...REALLY.... You can also turn the Bassman into a Vox AC30,Marshall Plexi etc...

There's plenty of info on the net or just ask!


If you play death metal the bassman might not work but for blues,country,rock,jazz,funk it rocks

What kind of music do you like would be a good start

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What kind of music do you like would be a good start

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The best thing is plug into these amps and see what ones you like.

All the amps you listed are great! I still say bassman

I've never seen a head that's only 15 or 10 watts. Heads are usually 50 or 100 watts.