WTB: 15-watter

[sloop_john_b]

AC-15, book-teek, whatever, let me know what you've got. Would like to spend around $600-$700. No solid-state, plz.

[jps]

Save up a bit more and get this:

http://www.samash.com/catalog/showitem. ... itemsearch

[sloop_john_b]

Thanks Jeff, but I'm more into the Class A/Vox type thing (as nice as Fender amps are).

[jps]

Just put the PR in a paper bag.

[BlueAngel]

Thanks Jeff, but I'm more into the Class A/Vox type thing (as nice as Fender amps are).

Voxes (apart from the AC4) are not Class A.

They are Class AB cathode-biased, which is an important distinction and which you need to look for if you want that kind of sound - it's the cathode-biased bit that's important, not the so-called Class. The lack of negative feedback is also a characteristic of Voxes but is not related to the Class, likewise nor is the use of EL84 tubes. You can have either Class A or Class AB in either bias type, with or without negative feedback, and using any kind of tubes.

Some Fender amps (including the Tweed Deluxe) are also cathode-biased, no-negative-feedback Class AB amps... usually using 6V6s. (The modern Pro Junior and Blues Junior are in fact fixed-bias and with negative feedback though, using EL84s.)

Unfortunately the use of the term 'Class A' has been so abused by marketing copy writers and people who assume that one or more of those circuit elements imply Class A (which they don't) that it's almost meaningless when applied to guitar amps now, and if you buy an amp on the basis that it's described as Class A, you could be getting more or less anything. TRUE Class A amps don't in fact sound like what you're looking for, in particular they don't have the characteristic compression which ONLY occurs in a Class AB cathode-bias circuit.

Probably 99% of the amps which are marketed as Class A, aren't. The only ones which are likely to be are small single-ended amps (one power tube in almost all cases) - which of course sound quite different - and although there are a tiny number of larger amps that are, none are very well known and some not even widely described as Class A.

For what it's worth (and despite what it says on the front panel) the amp I took my forum name from, the Mesa Blue Angel, is also not Class A - it's a cathode-biased Class AB amp WITH negative feedback that doesn't sound much like a Vox, so you probably don't want one!