[Jeff Flowerday]

What's everyone using?

I've got two:

-Tweed champ clone that I built. It's in a tweed Princeton cab with a Weber 10A125 speaker. I've tweeked the circuit a bit to brighten it up. Tweed champs are pretty dark by nature.

- Bad Cat Mini Cat II. She's a master volume single ended monster. 1 El84 with 2 12AX7s putting out maybe 5 watts. I've put one of my early 70s G12H30s in it. You can get some good gain at liveable volumes.

 

[Jeff Flowerday]

Hehhe... well, I do want a little grab and go kind of practice amp. Not about to lug a head (no matter how elegantly designed) and cab for a bit of clam filled wankage.

What I would like is a Peters practice amp. 5-10 watts, 10" speaker, maybe the RamRod from Eminence. Master Volume, with a gain, treble and bass controls nothing more. Heck, I'd help fund the research and take the first mutt. Anyone else in?

 

[Jeff Flowerday]

If you mean something like an Electar Tube 10, or Epiphone Galaxy 10, I see no point in making it. It's been done, and there's no way I can compete in a lower-end price point market. I'm barely able to compete where I am as it is.

Anyway 5W-10W is not suitable for most of my designs, because of the lack of headroom alone. The higher gain designs just can't do what they're supposed to with that low headroom, the clean designs don't have enough power for most jamming situations, and the medium gain designs don't show their strengths nearly as well as they should. I'd also like to remind you that small combo amps simply don't sound right for the designs I make--they cannot not do them justice. If I've ever heard a small combo that actually sounds great, I might be more inclined to change my mind, but out of all the amps I've tried I haven't heard one yet.

Beyond that, my 20W class AB designs sound more "full" and "deep" than the 10W amps ever did, have extremely useful master volumes, and also have "low power" options which (if you really want to) will lower the headroom. My current class AB amps also allow for very useful features which the lower powered designs simply couldn't.

If you want a "Peters practise amp", look into the 20W Custom Dual Channel amps. Or perhaps even a 50W Custom Dual Channel, since it will still sound excellent at low volumes but also keep up with most "100W" amps in jamming situations. And if you don't believe me, you live in Calgary so you can come try one.

I wasn't thinking in that price point. More along the lines of $800-1000CDN. Competing with the the Nova, MiniCat and Mini Z. A little more umph though. God, I hope I never have to keep up with a 100W in a jam, that's just wrong.