I have so many amps.... I really do. It is sort of embarrassing that I don't even know for sure what I have unless I check up in the guitar room. The reason I have picked up so many is I wanted to hear how different amps sound and such. I would normally look at musicians whos sound I enjoy and see what they record with. Eventually (actually this summer really) I decided that any amp over 50 watts was just too loud for me to enjoy. With tube amps, they tend to sound better when turned up and 50 watt amps are too loud for me to turn up past like 2.... That lead me to try to find LOW watt amps that are well built. I picked up the Bumbox Lead 1 first. (1 watt Marshal like head that is amazing.) That is plenty loud. It is the first tube amp I could dime volume and gain without my wife having any issues. When I was shopping for that amp, I was also looking at Peavey heads because I have a crush on old Peavey guitars and amps. They work well and tend to be very solidly built. I haven't ever had an issue with Peavey stuff. I already have a 65 Bandit that I like, but it is too loud for in my living room. I decided to look for something less. There were combos with 10's or 8's, but I kind of wanted a head so I could connect it to a 4x12 or my 2x12 enclosures.
TLDR I found the VSS20. It is 20 watts and has a dirt channel and clean channel, three band eq, and built in chorus. Guitar Center had one used and I picked it up. It arrived a couple days ago and I plugged it in to my empty 2x12 Twin Reverb cabinet. It sounds great. It isn't noisy (aside from the dirty channel), the eq's work great, the dirty channel is really good for an overdrive sound or distortion, and it is is small and light. 4 is about as loud as I want to turn it up, but because it is solid state, you don't have the tube issue of needing the volume up loud to get the amp sounding as good as it can. It has a preamp out if someone wanted to run it to a power amp for more power, but it is totally loud enough. Honestly I would likely just mic it. The only thing about it I wouldn't use is the chorus. It just has a speed control so it just kind of has a warble option that sounds pretty silly. Since it is solid state, it handles different cabinet impedance fine also. I have no complaints. It is amazing and it would be my desert island amp. No nonsense tank built light weight head that sounds great and has serious oomf.
Here are pictures of my baby stack at my desk.
IMG_20211029_195753 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr
IMG_20211029_195811 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr
It might be the one for me.....
- HNB
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It might be the one for me.....
Christopher
Lilith Guitars
Lilith Guitars
- s_mcsleazy
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Re: It might be the one for me.....
baby stack doo doo doo doo
offset guitars resident bass player.
'Are you trying to seduce me Mrs Robinson? Or do you just want me to solder a couple of resistors into your Muff?'
'Are you trying to seduce me Mrs Robinson? Or do you just want me to solder a couple of resistors into your Muff?'
- HNB
- PAT. # 2.972.923
- Posts: 13513
- Joined: Tue May 10, 2011 7:55 am
- Location: Puyallup, Washington
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Re: It might be the one for me.....
LOL
Thanks.... now that is stuck in my head......
Thanks.... now that is stuck in my head......
Christopher
Lilith Guitars
Lilith Guitars