Thank you, 63supro - many good suggestions there. Got me thinking. The HR is far from perfect. Maybe I'll do like you : Sell it Take a closer look at the Egnater , or even build an 5e3- thing. A friend bought one which was completed- and it sounded d...... good. Hmm - thinking .......

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A-man

Hmm, the plot thickens... I'm going to talk to the guy with the classic 20 tomorrow or the day after, and I just found a blackheart bh15 head plus marshall haze cab for 200 more. Don't think I'll go for that, but, an epiphone blues custom 30 popped up for 100 more than the peavey, and i could probably work the guy down... 30-15 watt modes, 2x12 eminence... I'm intrigued! I'm considering getting this amp and keeping my vibro champ xd for home

Egnator Tweaker 15watt.
Loud enough for what I do, I don't gig though, and I get a lot of different tones out of it.
I have cranked it though and it was LOUD, I felt the air moving the hairs on my legs! It is even louder then my Fender 65fm and totally blows away the Line6 15w I use on the veranda.
I did have a look at the Egnator Rebel but , IMO, I found it a bit too heavy sounding.
Keith

Just saw the carvin v3mc...
now if only it weren't $700...

A-man check this out. There is a video on how to build it. I built a little 5 watt true point to point. No turret board only terminal strips. It was fun and a pain to build at the same time.
http://tubedepot.com/kit-tweeddeluxe.html
Long time member Snowy built one or two of these. The difference is it's built on a printed circuit board. It would be a bit easier to build. Point to point builds are a little trickier. Snowy said the board is high quality and that's the important thing. Be aware that a 5e3 tweed circuit is only around twelve watts and is very dynamic, meaning that the harder you hit the strings, the more natural distortion you get out of it. But man these things are sweet. If you get a nice efficient speaker, it would sound a bit louder than it really is.

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Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

Hehe, Supro- I already watched that one yesterday! Good information there! Really giving me water on the mill ( At least we say so in Norway ) I searched the net more -and found that there were several kits out there , and people discussing what's the best. Not easy for a simple man to find what's best.......but I think it has to be a kit to make it as easy as possible. Plans are growing
And - I heard one of them on a gig a couple of weeks ago . Used to play with that band a while, and was impressed over that guy's sound,which at that time came from a Budda. Now he had changed to a Tweed dlx , 5e3. It sounded GREAT - and was miked up. Worked just superb !

And- best of luck to you, a.ben.e - you've got plenty options

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A-man

Last night, I saw a guy in blues band playing this epiphone amp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHWY4xrsHM0

He was plenty loud enough... Not sure why he was using a drive pedal with it though... He was getting plenty of dirt without a pedal...

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In Reference to Blues Legend RL Burnside:
After a heart attack in 2001, Burnside's doctor advised him to stop drinking; Burnside did, but he reported that change left him unable to play.

I actually like the Epi Valve Jr. way better than the Champ 600. They're pretty easy to mod and someone actually has the plans for a PTP Blues Jr, using the original iron and point to point wiring with quality components. The parts aren't that expensive.

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Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

Hi mate, not sure if you've seen them before but as Supro mentioned I did a step by step build thread of both those 5E3's, heres the links:

http://www.fender.com/community/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=53481

http://www.fender.com/community/forums/viewtopic.php?t=46716

The great thing about those amps is that they actually use Deluxe Reverb power Transformers and Output Transformers and a GZ34 Rectifier so the amp ends up about 18 - 20 watts, which gives you a bit more versatility with a band situation. You sill get the classic fat 5E3 tone and breakup, it just happens at a higher volume than your typical 12 - 15 Watt 5E3. As Supro pointed out when you push that through an efficient speaker, like a Texas Heat for example, you can get some beautiful fat sounds at higher volume. It's like having the 5E3 tone and dynamics on tap at Deluxe Reverb volume levels.

Certainly worth consideration/investigation if you are the DIY type, or even if you had someone with the skills build it for you.

Snowy

The new Ibanez TS amps are supposed to be the cat's meow too,I read a few reviews of them first when they came out and apparently they have the original Tube Screamer circuitry built into them to give you a more desirable overdrive.The Wattages of them has slipped my mind right at the moment.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Hey guitslinger,
I came across these ts amps while looking for the pickup wiring diagrams of my s1520. I was immediately interested by the 15w combo, but I could find any decent videos or reviews (too new still)... Anybody heard one of these?

Update: I just purchased a Pro Junior for less than $100 today. Fifteen watts, 10" speaker. It's plenty loud, I ought to be able to use it for low volume gigs and band practices. But it's already into some heavy overdrive by the time you get it halfway up. That could probably be remedied by changing the tubes to something else or getting a different speaker in there. But honestly, I like my Classic 30 better. It's just a little on the big/loud side as far as playing it in my room goes.

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Website: http://www.rebeccalaird.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rebeccalairdmusic
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Thanks,Snowy ! I just had a quick look at your links right now- and I am sure I am going to read them all through , as I return from work later. In fact, I searched the forum for Snowy the other day , without finding the correct Snowy. Perhaps I was to much in a hurry - switching pickups and playing guitar
I think it is manageable to make one of those, and I am still tempted. I also think that I have one, or maybe two people who could help me out , if necessary.
Ciao- got to work!

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A-man

Hello guys,

So I'm completely new to guitars and amps, trying to learn everything I come across.

I found this particular thread interesting because of the 'headroom' talk. I think I understand what it means now. However, I find that let's say a Gibson Les Paul has that crunchy tone when you play it loud enough whereas a Fender Stratocaster stays fairly clean with the same guitar/amp volume.

Does this mean the Gibson LP needs an amp with bigger headroom, or am I missing something here?

Headroom is basically the clean volume that you have available,for instance a 100W or 30W amp will have way more headroom that a 5W amp.A 5W amp's signal may start to sound dirty when you are just using 3W of the available volume whereas a 30W amp may be using 20W before the signal starts to get distorted.So all in all a higher powered amp will allow you to play clean at higher volumes because it has more headroom-or available clean power.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.