I've been keeping my ear to the ground for a nice American style 5-10 watt combo for a bit ('60 Ampeg Jets, Black or silverface Champs, Vibro Champs, etc) w/ great cleans that takes pedals and turns down well for a bit. Previously my GVT-5H would fill this spot of clean low key jamming/solo practice/bedroom amp but it was almost too clean and I sold it about a year ago. When this one came in, all original and vintage near mint-y such as it is and made the same year I was, my interest was thoroughly piqued and I arranged to take it home for a test drive before putting it up on the block.
It's sounding pretty great and detailed and dynamic when clean down to sub conversational levels and up to probably the top end of where I feel comfortable w/o earplugs . It's got a fair amount of body clean considering it's only an 8" in there and I like the saturation and breakup character of it as well, but it gets a bit thin w/ the fairly decent cross section of dirt I've fed it so far. Driven the speaker seems to be a bit more anemic than I'd like and farting out on the transients when beefing it it up at the amp's tone stack or on the pedals. My instinct is that the original speaker's probably mostly OK if a bit tired but isn't enjoying the modest boost, which brings me to my first question:
Do you find you can get a bit of solid driven punch out of these sticking w/ an 8" speaker? I'm not looking to djent w/ it or anything, but ideally I'd be able to feel the attack in my chest a bit when I've got it cranked a little. I spent a few minutes scoping out some options for a replacement speaker and was thinking either the Weber Signature Alnico 8S or 8A125H seemed like they maybe good options for me, but if what I'm looking for defies the laws of physics for a 1x8" Champ I'd probably wind up passing on this one unless there's a fairly non-invasive way to get an external cab hooked up.
Which brings up question #2: Is anyone aware of a fairly plug and play solution that would let me easily swap between the onboard speaker and an external cab on one of these w/o surgical modification? It's got kinda funky screwed in speaker leads coming out of the chassis so the best/most reversible solution I've come up w/ would be to solder the speaker end of the leads to a 1/4" female jack, and a 1/4" male terminated set on whatever speaker was going into the combo.
And then onto question 3: I've been happy w/ the results and had no issues running any of my other old Fenders at 50%-200% of the standard impedance load. Should I expect the same out of one of these OTs?
And I guess question #4: I'd wind up paying what seems like maybe median to high-ish median ($510) for it if I want to snag it, you think I might be better served going the kit or builder route in the end? I feel like I'd probably encounter few issues assembling one of these simpler circuits, and I'm generally into the feeling of DiY-ing stuff but time is at a bit of a premium for me. An Allen Classic 10 seems like it might be an attractive option for me, but I've never had the opportunity to play one. Price on a new one starts feeling slightly uncomfortable to me though. Any recommendations/opinions/thoughts on alternatives to a Fender?
Thanks for any input you can provide!
