Another low power tube amp thread!

[fuzzy beard]

First off i have been playing for over a year. I am always in acoustic settings and never have a drummer in the mix! We mostly play folk, roots, classic country, And classic rock type stuff. Mostly jams and open mics but we have done a few shows at some dive bars, coffee houses, and one outdoor show.

I use a peavey max 112 amp 35 watts. It has been great and is more than enough volume and power! At the louder events it has been mic'd.

Now the problem. I cant get a matching tone out of it for my older style of music taste. Alot of the music i love was ran thru tube amps.

So since i have not been able to find a Traynor yba 1, fender bassman 50, or ampeg b25b let alone b15. I tried the custom route but almost all of them were way out of my range and the one guy i can afford Bearpaw amps isnt taking orders!

So after that failed attempet i started looking at new guitar heads. Found 2 valve jrs at a gc but they were both blown. Played thru a jet city picovalve but is destorts very fast per design. Also couldnt find a jet city 20,black heart15, or much else in lower wattage tube amps!

Would love to play a ashdown lil bastard to see if i should push my budget but hell what are the chances of finding one! But no matter what head i go with it will be ran thru a BFM omni 15 or a custom high efficiency 15 inch cab from LDS(maybe even flip top!)

Suggestions, comments, flames, and everything else you would like to say please.

[JimmyM]

Obviously Ampegs would be the choice here, but an old Fender Bassman would also be sweet and not too much money.

[fuzzy beard]

Hard to find! Seems like every thing i can find is 500 bucks for a project! I am in the greater Cincinnati area and am a little wary of buying off ebay! I did find 2 silver faced 100 watt bassman amps north of me but they are 500 bucks and way more than i need!

But i am having a real hard time not going after that b18 mentined in the fliptop thread.Its more than i need, it a project, and its ebay. But that is one sweet piece of history! Dont see to many of them!

[PunkRocker33133]

Originally Posted by fuzzy beard

Hard to find! Seems like every thing i can find is 500 bucks for a project! I am in the greater Cincinnati area and am a little wary of buying off ebay! I did find 2 silver faced 100 watt bassman amps north of me but they are 500 bucks and way more than i need!

But i am having a real hard time not going after that b18 mentined in the fliptop thread.Its more than i need, it a project, and its ebay. But that is one sweet piece of history! Dont see to many of them!

Honestly, If you want to keep it clean, the 100 watt Bassman isn't such a bad idea with an efficient cab. It would also give you the option to be a little louder if need be

[Aquila0507]

I'd suck it up and deal with the tone until I found an old ampeg. Try these other search options: B22X and B42X. They are the Jupiter series from ampeg so throw jupiter it there for different searches options as well. There are many many different classified ad sites out there, dont just limit yourself to ebay and craigslist.

The B22X would be a project type since its a guitar combo. The B42X is in head form already. These and the B25/B25B were all derived from the B18 so go after that too. Maybe buy a sansamp VT pedal to hold you over until you find what you want. Patience is a virtue.

[Marton]

My Traynor YBA-200 was pretty loud, but it sounded really good (better in my opinion) at low volume. Pretty cheap too, and light.

[fuzzy beard]

Are there many options using guitar heads? I am not above changing tubes and maybe caps to make it more bass friendly.

[Marton]

1972 Traynor YBA-1 Bassmaster Guitar or Bass Amp | eBay

There's a YBA-1 for $500 on eBay right now, for your information.

[fuzzy beard]

Where can someone even buy a traynor new? And that is also way over kill for what I do! I am only playing with a acoustic or two a lot of ukuleles here lately and a random banjo and mandolin may make its way in the mix.

[fuzzy beard]

It would be over 600 bucks shipped. Is that a fair price for a moded amp with old tubes? Lil bastard isn't to much more.

[Aquila0507]

the beauty of the old guitar heads made by ampeg is that they really are bass amps with usually reverb thrown on for guitar players.

Tubes do nothing for bass frequencies. They just might cause the amp to break up (distort) earlier when you put cheap ones in. It also depends on how the tubes are biased on in some amps you can't even adjust that. Its the way the preamp sections are laid out that help with the bass frequencies. You could mod the preamp sections but all you'd be chasing is the old ampeg sound. so why not just get one.

[JimmyM]

Not sure I agree with tubes doing nothing for bass freqs. If that were the case, I'd prefer SS amps.

[Aquila0507]

I think you know what I mean. Just popping in tubes to try and get a better sound is not the final solution.

You do have a damn good point though.

[Aquila0507]

This might be what your looking for FS: Vintage Garnet Revolution Bass Amp Combo All Tube

[BogeyBass]

Forget newer amps, vintage is a better investment.

dont wanna deal with ebay?

Music go round is a big chain that will sell and ship to any location.

A Ampeg B-15 is going to be much more than 500 and i have seen really junky B-18's sell for at least 700 or up.
Not really worth the price.

Be much happier with a 100 or 50 watt bassman, you can find nice ones in the 400 to 600 range. Easy to fix..cheaper parts.

otherwise you can find plenty of Ampeg B25B's for cheap in the 300 to 400 dollar range.

Here is a few finds

Bassman 100

Bassman 50

another
Bassman 50

Ampeg B25B

another
Ampeg B25B

Here is a junk B-18 missing a few covers and logo glass, and they want too much. talk em down...way down
or forget it

here is a boat anchor V4 not a V4B so it has
the guitar preamp

The V4 chassis is pretty cool with shock mounts.
and the iron is pretty fat so its pretty heavy,
but sounds good.

I would rather have a Bassman or a V4B, new caps new tubes ready to rock, I love the Bassman in the studio.

[johnk_10]

Vintage Ampeg V4's and V4B's sound basically identical. how do i know? (see photo below) :

[Downunderwonder]

Do try out a sansamp pedal. The Peavey you have seems to be doing everything you need except get the tones.

[fuzzy beard]

Bogey bass my budget is over a thousand dollars. But that is for amp and cab!

[fuzzy beard]

So not much love for converting a guitar head?

[IntrepidCellist]

I love the sound of my Mesa F-30 short head through a bass cabinet. Clean, but with a bit of "purr" and a little chewy.