The "best" "small" amp?

[dehughes]

I posted this on another forum but wanted to glean suggestions here as well.
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Yeah, two vague words full of potential contention: Best and Small.

Point: I played a Valve Jr. combo yesterday and actually didn't hate it, so that's one more "small" amp that makes me think building one wouldn't be a waste of time, energy, and money. Valve Jr., Champ (tweed or black/brown), Princeton....all are somewhat compelling.

So what in your (vast and dissimilar) opinion is the ideal small amp? By small I mean few-knobs, throw-in-the trunk, mic-at-the-show, crank-in-the-house, don't-wish-it-was-bigger/louder/hadmoreheadroom small. Champ? Princeton? Other? I've been building big/small/big/small amps, finishing up a Brown Deluxe(ish) and next up is big (JTM-45) and after that (or maybe simultaneously?) will be small once again so I'm gathering info now.

Thanks.

[Glasgow]

The best small amp for me has three knobs: gain, tone, and volume; an old 8 inch speaker; is around 5 watts; and it honks and wails when I drive it from my ASAT Classic.

This is certainly not other people's best small amp.

Brian

[Enzo]

How can we possibly answer that question? You want to know what I prefer myself? Or maybe what is the best seller in a certain category? Best for death metal? Best for blues? Or Jazz?

What is the best thing to order in a restaurant? What is the best looking woman in the world? What is the best song of all time? You think everyone will agree with my choices?

Now when I look at food, I can say I like seafood or not, or I don;t eat meat, or no soup please, or whatever. And women, well, I may prefer blondes over brunettes, but redheads are my fave. And I could tell you I much prefer a woman I can laugh with than a pretty but stupid lump sitting there. Best song? I have no idea, something Hendrix, I suppose. But I can at least start with a few criteria.

What do you want from an amp and how will you use it?

[dehughes]

Well, I kinda included criteria in my original post, and even listed some amps for the sake of comparison. I also left things somewhat vague so as to best leave the thread open for a variety of suggestions. As well, I predicated the rest of my post acknowledging that "best" and "small" are very much relative terms...

I'll probably end up building a Princeton (cathode biased?), but Champs were always to weak for me. Deluxes are great, but more than I'm looking for here. Princetons seem to be in the right range, volume-wise.

Nothing too gainy....probably use a 12" speaker as I'm stuck on those overall. Maybe a Princeton sans-vibrato and with that triode turned into an extra gain stage a la Trainwreck(s) or in a more Dumbl-y fashion.....

Or maybe not, and just stick to a stock AA964 but with a 12" speaker (Greenback? C12N? P12N? P12Q?).

I'm a Tele/SG guy with only one pedal (Tim). Keep it simple and the tone is in your hands kinda playing (or at least, that's the goal). I like low filtering and low(er) voltages in the power section, and find that efficient speakers have their place, but usually not in one of my amps.

Hey, what about taking the PI/Power section of a 5E3 but running the voltages down a bit (to get about 12w or so out of the amp a la the AA964) and running either A) both of the V1 triodes in parallel, or B) working out some sort of tube vibrato deal albeit with the cathode bias setup (6G11?)? Or am I out of space with only a single triode left over....hmmm.....

What I usually do is tinker the heck out of something and then come back to what has been historically proven to "work", so maybe I'm on the tinker swing of the pendulum...

[wrathfuldeity]

My ideal would be 3 knobs, gain, tone, volume; single 6L6, tube recified, with a 12" or 15". Some what along these lines:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEnXEr8_X6Q"]YouTube - Bogen Guitar Amp[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfkpSe026MA&feature=channel"]YouTube - 5 watt tube amp, detuned cab[/ame]