Looking for a small, but tone-rich amp. Any ideas?

Good evening,

I am looking for a small amp (anything around the 15w mark is good) which a) sounds good and b) looks cool. At this point I have been drooling over the prospect of a Orange Blaster Matamp Toaster Amp - except I was cruelly outbid on eBay. Aside from such rare objects I have been lookng at the Danelectro nifty-fifty as well, although I am unsure about it.

Does anyone have any other ideas beyond these two? Any help appreciated.

All the best

CjEggett

http://twitter.com/CjEggett

The Orange would be awesome, but very expensive and hard to come by as a good deal .

I note that you want cool looks, that leaves the mundane or plain Fender Bullet Deluxe Reverb out, while it's 15 watts will drive any cab.

I have one, and bought it to drive a cab like they said, and what do 'ya know, it sounds like nearly 100 watts from a SS or valvestate combo. It does well on its own too, but with only a 8" speaker. It goes 126 db. tested at volume 5, half way.

The Danelectro Nifty Fifty which I bought new is high on the cool looking factor and a tiny terror too, in sound, but not a monster. The 8" speaker holds it back, I'm sad to say. But it has a nicely voiced or shaped sound with headroom.

My favorite, cool looking and sounding 15 watt all tube amp is the Fender Blues Junior with a great big 12" speaker, that delivers body slams, at the rate of many 40 - 60 watt amplifiers when cranked. It is decent on lower volumes too, but shines when turned over 2. The higher you turn it up, the more it will sound as if it has 4 times its power.

A Vox AC15 which I do not own will also do an impressive job but lacks whatever it's bigger little brother, the AC30 has.

Blues Strat with stacked bucker & 10 tones lights up Jr. It is technically not a Blues Amp, but a small Hot Rod with GT's.

Good evening,

I am looking for a small amp (anything around the 15w mark is good) which a) sounds good and b) looks cool.

How much do you want to spend?

Dear Moonrider and Blue Jay,

Thanks for your prompt answers.

So the Danelectro was satisfactory for home use?

I am sure the Bullet Deluxe is wonderful - but as you say, not the prettiest of things. My weakness is that I like my equipment to be quite good looking. You can pretty much sucker me into anything as long as it as decent/interesting tone and a spiffy finish.

Vox may be worth investigating though.

One thing I forgot to mention is that I would like to have a headphone socket on the amp, although this is of lower priority than the other qualifiers.

Price range? Up to about £200 would be the maximum really. But throwing absolutely anything out there, even if only to tease me, is actively encouraged!

Dear Moonrider and Blue Jay,

Price range? Up to about £200 would be the maximum really. But throwing absolutely anything out there, even if only to tease me, is actively encouraged!

In that price range, I'd recommend you look at the Fender Super Champ XD, the Vox AC4TV, VT15 or VT30, and the Epiphone Valve Jr. Stack.

I want to get my hands on an Egnater Tweaker. I hear good things about them.

Can't go wrong with a Blues Jr. Great amp with lots of tone tweaks available. No headphone switch though. They've gone up a bit in price recently, but used would probably be in your range.

Trey