Suggestions for a Modern Low Volume Crunchy sounding Valve Amp for recording

I suggest an effects pedal. Cheaper and can run with any amp. Maybe one of the effects gurus can chime in.

 

- Ashdown Engineering

 

you simple just dont do "low volume"
all joking set aside best thing for recording is Guitar Rig by native instruments
and that is from a guy that has recorded a lot of cranked up tube amps

 

While Guitar rig is very good and very economically priced the noise gate sounds a lot less natural on the dirtier sounds than the kempers we use live, we like to model our sounds from the real amps used on the albums rather than just use presets, also native instruments had some strange compatibility issues in Avid Protools 12 HDX systems and stand alone is far more useful. The bias moddeling amp is getting some very good reviews recently.
But the original poster is looking for a real tube amp I thought?.

 

Mesa d180 with a high gain bass

 

Any amp with gain and master controls.

 

It might look right, but how are you going to get any drive out of it w/o a gain knob?

 

A clone 5e3 tweed deluxe will overdrive real easy at low volumes. For bass, you'll need a different cabinet. Some boutique 5E3 amps can be tweaked to run hotter with GZ34 rectifers or solidstate rectifiers for less sag which can yield a tighter overdrive. Some even use 6L6 power tubes for more power and headroom.

 

Bassman Pro


Those Ampeg PortaFlex tube amps are popping up at decent prices used.



add: This Traynor should do the trick as well:

Traynor Yba200 Tube Bass Amp Head

 

+ This. I'd recommend the Two Note "Le Bass" pedal.

 

I imagine the OP wants low wattage so the amp can be run hot enough to overdrive the output section. The Ashdown CTM-30 would work fine... you don't need a gain knob for that purpose, and anyway you can pop a boost in front of it if necessary.

 

If you record "crunch" in and later find it's too much it will be hard to get out.
Do yourself a favor and split the output of you bass.
One into a DI track - clean. Tracks are cheap
You can always re-amp (using any or all the above mentioned amps) or use plugins to get the final tone. This is often done in recordings.

 

He is looking for a recording amp. So to get distortion he's gonna drive it hard. We know the drill there is a lot of well known decent formulas out there to achieve this.

And going live I wouldn't want anything else but real tubes. Studio wise. No matter what you do its gonna be louder than #### and going low budget could be decent. But your stuck with character of one amp.


For most part defining distortion is class ab distortion and either pentode or beam tetrode. Or smaller classic class a amps. So without going through a massive list and price tags of all those amps. Cost of a mic that gets pounded by high SPL. And basic limiter and compression techniques to get a digital recorder to capture that and not sound like hundreds of average recordings

. Its much easier to get 20 different models in software. Lots of effects and no mics no processing it just goes to "tape" lol. Trust me live nothing will touch a real amp. In studio. After the room the mic the pres the limiters the compression the master then mixdown. Even at professional levels the sound degrades with full mix drums , bass, keys , vocals etc etc.

The audible difference between a " real amp" recorded at home and a " real amp" in a studio. Software emulation gives you studio quality tracks....at home. With probably over 60 plus grand of tone options you'll never see or touch. Guitar rig being affordable and very good and all the various packages by IK multimedia /Amplitube series.

 

Super Champ X2. It's about the cheapest push pull head available and breaks up quick. Swap in JJs for a sealed cab or EHX for ported cab which is how I use it now for practice.

 

5w class A el84 guitar amp into a small bass cab.

Anything from an epiphone valve Jr , bugera V5, up to a more expensive amp like a boogie ta15 with 5w class A mode

 

I'm not surprised that guitar amps are being recommended. I had a Tubemeister from Hughes & Kettner & it could easily pull off crunchy timbre at a low volume.
The EQ might be a challenge though, but if you're recording through the DI that won't matter.

 

If you're not in a super rush, Broughton Audio (TB member Azure Skies) can likely do up or already has some electronics wizardry that will get you the sound you're looking for.

If you want genuine late 60s early 70s overdriven speaker sound, I don't know what to suggest since you have to crank to get that. So you'd need a speaker that breaks up at low volumes to get you there but which still sounds like a bass amp.

You could build an isolation box and get around it that way. I've seen that done in some small studios. Basically it's just a relatively soundproofed box big enough to accommodate the cab and a microphone whose lead feeds out through a jack. I've got plans for one if you need them. PM if you're interested.