Best recording amp

[rymac]

What small wattage kit amp would make a good amp for recording?
Going for vintage blues sound.

[Chuck H]

Hands down the 5f1 Fender Champ clones are probably the most popular kit build for low wattage blues/rock recording amps.

But that means NOTHING. You should find the tone you want and build that. Because if the 5f1 doesn't inspire you, your expression and playing will suffer. And that doesn't sound good.

Chuck

[tubeswell]

+1 for a little single ended 1W-5W champy thing.

Or a low powered push-pull amp with vol, tone and trem controls in the same power ballpark with maybe a pair of 6K6s at a low voltage pushing an old 10W alnico speaker or a celestion blue or something

[Steve A.]

For modern amps the Epiphone Galaxie 10 has a pretty slick design, with a single 6V6 and a single 12AX7. It has a TMB tone stack but for a more tweed-like sound I added a "Texas Tea" control that passes the tone stack with a 2M pot and a .001uf cap:

http://www.blueguitar.org/new/schem/...galaxie_10.jpg

Just my 2 centavos...

Steve Ahola

P.S. I put a KT66 in mine which brings the power up to maybe 12 watts, I dunno... Cool little amp for small gigs!

[mbratch]

"Best" is pretty subjective and depends upon your goals & taste.

I have a small battery of Fender vintage amps from a Vibro Champ up to a Pro Reverb and do occasional session recording. I like to get sweet Fender cleans on demand, and get a good distortion from pedals. The amp I use the most is the Vibro Champ. Put a good recording mic on it, set the volume around 4 or where ever is needed prior to any serious break up with the guitar and it will sound huge tonally on a recording. But that just suits my musical taste.

I have not tried the Tweed Champ. I'll bet is sounds awesome as well, especially if you're looking for pure class A grind.

[GibsonLover]

I love my Lexicon Signature 284 for recording. If you are building from scratch, the schematic has most of the circuits you'd want for recording, so you can pick what you want and go for it. Stereo, great EQ section, cabinet sim, FX loop, balanced out, slave out, SE EL84. About the only thing it doesn't do exceptionally well is a clean Fender sound, but once the track is mixed there aren't too many apologies to be made.

[kldguitar]

good idea

good ideas, we alawys want change our Gt5h into TMB. it is good.

[Bruce / Mission Amps]

For modern amps the Epiphone Galaxie 10 has a pretty slick design, with a single 6V6 and a single 12AX7. It has a TMB tone stack but for a more tweed-like sound I added a "Texas Tea" control that passes the tone stack with a 2M pot and a .001uf cap:

http://www.blueguitar.org/new/schem/...galaxie_10.jpg

Just my 2 centavos...

Steve Ahola

P.S. I put a KT66 in mine which brings the power up to maybe 12 watts, I dunno... Cool little amp for small gigs!

I wonder if that 10uF cathode bypass cap on the second stage of G-10 is actually there... if so, it would just about defeat the NFB loop.

[Chuck H]

Good catch Bruce. Here's the Gibson version of the same amp. Notice a second cap doing nothing (C11). Hmmm... What's really fishy is that when the Epiphone model was made someone caught that C11 wasn't doing anything but they left the loop and V1B bypass cap the same!?!

Chuck

[echuta13]

My go to amp would probably be a 5F2a Princeton with some mods in a Deluxe sized cab & a 12" speaker (Red Fang)