Looking to buy a small Amp for home recording.

[Supreme Pancake]

For years I've been recording my guitar through a Sansamp GT2 into my DAW. I've never been really happy with the sound, but I've started micing my amp which I think sounds so much better. The problem though is that my amp is a Fender Twin Reverb. So as you could imagine my family isn't super crazy hearing it.
I've been thinking for awhile to get a smaller tube amp that sounds great, good for recording, and not terribly loud. I live in a town house and though I haven't had any complaints. I want to keep it that way. I've been looking to get either a Fender Pro Junior IV, Vox AC15C1, or Vox AC10C1. I'll also point out that at the moment no one around here his these amps to try out. I consider myself mostly a "Fender guy", but I'm open minded to other brands.

[Larry Mal]

Fender Princeton is a strong contender for what you are looking for.

[Pepe Silvia]

Add a VHT Special 6 to your list. Basically a Champ clone and it is hand wired. It also accepts 6V6 and el34 tubes so you can mess around with finding the right sound.

[marqueemoon]

If you have the budget I can't recommend the Swart SRT Tremolo enough. 5 loud watts, great sounding reverb and tremolo, a 12" speaker, and a nicely designed cabinet (doesn't fall apart when you plug a humbucker guitar in and switch to the neck pickup).

Here's what sold me on one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSz9mVbT6EE

If you can't swing that I second the Princeton Reverb, though you may still need an attenuator depending on your family/neighbor situation.

I had the head version of the Special 6 for a while. It sounds good clean, but gets a little weird and grainy when pushed. The onboard boost is also not good. Set conservatively it does a reasonable approximation of a BF/SF Champ though, and takes pedals well.

[marqueemoon]

If you're happy with the sound of your Twin other than the volume, you might also consider a load box/IR loader kind of situation.

[Supreme Pancake]

Yeah the Swart is way out of my price range, but thank you for recommendation.
Big picture is that I want to sell the Twin Reverb and switch to a Princeton Reverb. Ideally what I've envision for my amp collection is a Princeton and some kind of Vox. The AC10 or AC15 not worth looking at?

[marqueemoon]

Yeah the Swart is way out of my price range, but thank you for recommendation.
Big picture is that I want to sell the Twin Reverb and switch to a Princeton Reverb. Ideally what I've envision for my amp collection is a Princeton and some kind of Vox. The AC10 or AC15 not worth looking at?

Vox has some nice small amps. I like the AC4 too.

A lot of folks here seem to like the Strymon Iridium's Fender and Vox sounds. Never tried one myself.

[somanytoys]

I would recommend a Vox AC, they have a very distinctive sound. An often love or hate sound.

Which one depends on what you want out of the amp.

The AC4C1 is great for a small amp that will get you coffee shop volume, but may be breaking up pretty well once you get the volume up pretty high. This is the top boost channel.

I haven’t played an AC10C1, and I’m not familiar with their features. but if you want something capable of being louder than the 4 but not a beast, this would probably be pretty ideal.

AC15C1 has reverb and tremolo, and 2 channels (normal & top boost) . Loud, big, beautiful and heavy.

If you go with a smaller one, you should also consider if you want a 12” speaker, or are okay with a 10” speaker and plugging out to a 12” cab sometimes. It’s a big difference.

[jvin248]

.


Check out this recording studio tour, at the 4 minute mark see what Sylvia is cooking with "I recorded a whole album with one of these amps"
https://youtu.be/u6RD7te0lQ4?t=242

Or this group of amps demoed by Johan Sageborn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKWhhRznr54

And have you tried a Joyo American Sound pedal yet? It can emulate a lot of cabinets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Uo6gmOIduM

.

[Larsongs]

If you go Vox you'll be wise to get it with the Celestion Alnico Blue Speaker... Awesome sounding Amps!!!

If you go Fender the Princeton Reverb is the one for what you're going to do....

Better yet get both! I have both & IMO it doesn't get any better for the Studio...

[andy_tchp]

Townhouse = shared main walls between premises and quite a number of them in a suburban setting right?

Most of what's been suggested (aside from jvin248's post) is still capable of being unacceptably/anti-socially loud in that kind of environment.

Slight detour, but have you considered trialling some amp sims in your DAW? I was pretty skeptical myself, but some of them sound really, really great.

[øøøøøøø]

If Twin Reverb is what you like, I think the Princeton Reverb is probably the move out of the choices presented so far here.

[somanytoys]

Isn’t the Lovepedal Les Lius supposed to be the Twin sound? Never tried one, but almost bought one (wish I had, instead of what I got), and there may be other pedals that are better, especially for tweed sounds.

A good amp that gets you there is always good, but also having other options/sounds with pedals is nice as well.

Many Fenders are supposed to be good platforms for a lot of different types of pedals, aren’t they? I know that’s what Howard used to use as a baseline for the Catalinbread pedals, and a lot of pedals sound really good through my Deluxe clones.

[Nevets]

I have a Princeton Reverb and a Vox AC10 (and live in a townhouse) and they are perfect amps for me. I can't turn either up very loud but get a nice overdriven sound out of the AC10 with the master volume. The Princeton is a classic but the AC10 is a really, really great sounding amplifier.

[Supreme Pancake]

Thanks everybody for your suggestions.
I pulled the trigger today on a Vox AC4C1-12. Hopefully I'll get it next week.