Everyone loves the sound of a good tube amp pushed to the sweet spot… everyone except your neighbors, non-musical loved ones and anyone else who doesn’t play guitar. Tubes need a good amount of volume (usually enough to annoy someone in the vicinity or wake up sleeping babies) to reach that sweet spot and even a one-watt tube amp can be too loud for home practice.
So, today I thought I would disregard tubes, specs and wattage and simply share my experience with five amps that sound amazing at conversational volume. While these five amps sound great in the bedroom, they also enable anyone to lay down killer tracks on a beggar’s budget. This article is designed to save money and marriages alike.
Pignose 7-100
When the Pignose 7-100 debuted at NAMM in 1973, the world was introduced to the first truly portable guitar amp. This is the little battery-powered brown bedroom amp that started it all. While you aren’t going to achieve a glistening clean tone or tight, controlled distortion with this classic bluesy bruiser, you can get a really fat, sizzling slide tone with a P-90 loaded axe.
The Pignose 7-100 is great for that early Ry Cooder-era Beefheartian vibe, or any other situation that calls for a rumbling retro cut. Frank Zappa was an early champion of the Pignose and used it in the studio to great effect for wooly overdriven lead lines. He modified his by adding XLR jacks on the backside and you can hear this setup on the live track “Black Napkins” from 1976. The stock 7-100 has a preamp output that you can use to drive other amps. This gives you a midrange boost for purring violin solos, much like Brian May achieved with his own battery-powered Deacy Amp.
The 7-100 is rude, portable, and iconic. Generations of young guitarists have hidden their unmentionables inside the buckled cigar box—I fondly remember stashing naughty smokeables in mine at summer camp. While it isn’t for everyone, it was the first bedroom amp ever and has character to spare. For those who want a furry vintage overdrive, twist the silver snout and let it all hang out.
Marshall Lead 12 Model 5005
If I had to choose one bedroom amp to enjoy for the rest of my life, it would have to be this gold and black, British-made combo. It has that classic 80s Marshall chiming grind and is one of the few solid-state amps that sounds great clean, overdriven and full-on distorted. You can go from Hendrix to Johnny Ramone and even Slayer with a quick twist of the gain knob and sound like you are rocking a stack at whisper-quiet volumes.
Unlike other solid-state practice amps, the Lead 12 eats pedals like candy and the stock Celestion G10D-25 speaker sounds great both cranked and at low volumes. For those that want JCM-800 tones without shelling out a grand, look no further. I have laid down amazing rhythm guitar tracks with the Lead 12 that I actually favored over the JCM-800 50w tube behemoth (partially because I could not wind it up enough in the recording environment).
It is rumored that Billy Gibbons had a similar experience. You can grab these all day long on eBay for $60–100, but it won’t be like that forever. Marshall, if you are listening, please reissue this perfect bedroom and studio machine and don’t change anything about it.
Vox Pathfinder 15R
Another solid-state staple that needs to be reissued is the Vox Pathfinder 15R. Perhaps they pulled it from the production line because it offered too much tone for too little money. Seriously, these things had vintage Vox velvet purring out of the little diamond grill cloth. The cleans are thick and valve-like and the grit is complex and cutting without sounding harsh or shrill. There is more than enough gain on tap for leads, but metal heads would have wanted tighter lows. This little combo emulated the furrier undercoat of its class-A valve ancestors.
When I had my Pathfinder 15R back in the ‘90s, I played a Gretsch Tennessee Rose with Filtertron pickups and I ache for that setup to this day. I used to set the excellent onboard tremolo to a deep pulse and put the hex on people with some dead-eyed swampy surf Vox voodoo in tribute to my heroine Poison Ivy of The Cramps.
The tremolo has that classic fanning waft that could put you in a wind turbine trance if you play against it rhythmically. It is also worth mentioning that the little eight-inch Celestion Bulldog speaker broke up in a really unique way and worked a treat with the voice of the circuit. If you find one, grab it. The Pathfinder 15R was and still is one of the best budget amps ever made.
Blackstar HT-5R
Moving on to a more modern amp with actual tubes under the hood, I must mention HT-5R. This little beast has been out for a few years now and remains one of the best bedroom amps on the market today for the more aggressively modern rockers. The ex-Marshall R&D team at Blackstar ingeniously found a way to dish out the delicious crunching compression of a 100w tube output stage by employing a 12BH7 dual triode tube in a push-pull configuration. This tech-talk roughly translates to sweet spots at any volume.
The tone of the HT-5R to my ears is akin to a hot-rodded ‘80s Marshall or a Soldano Hot Rod 50. You can dial any era of post-‘78 Hard Rock or Metal quickly and easily and the low end is super tight and percussive. The cleans are a tad plastic sounding, but the crunch-to-molten settings are stellar.
What really makes this amp perfect for bedroom or studio use though is the peerless stereo speaker emulated output. You can use this feature with the internal speaker for headphones-free monitoring when recording, or by itself for silent practice and tracking. Add to these features an effects loop, a 4x12 or 1x12 voicing switch and stereo reverb, and you are ready to lay down heavy tracks without the stacks.
Yamaha THR5
For the ultimate in portability and flexibility, you’ve got to go with a modeler. When I read about Yamaha’s Virtual Circuit Modeling technology, I was curious enough to try out the THR5 and it immediately cured my modeling amp phobia. I bought one on the spot, jacked in my Korg Monotribe analog drum machine/synthesizer to the Aux input, and wrote about ten new riffs in no time. It is a virtual butterfly net to capture the fleeting flutters of inspiration quickly before they escape.
Most modeling amps have throwaway effects onboard, but the stereo chorus and flanger effects yield mind bending 3D modulation that reminds me of the spatial swirl of the Roland Jazz Chorus amps. The hall reverb setting makes your guitar sound absolutely huge, ethereal and haunting. It is seriously one of the richest reverb algorithms I have ever heard and I would love to have it in a pedal on its own.
The THR5 has tube-like dynamics (thanks to the modeling of actual circuitry instead of end-of-chain amp characteristics) and works fabulously as a standalone stereo. Whether you want to feel like you are in the mix of your favorite album, enjoy huge headphone stereo guitar tone, or forecast a rig for an upcoming gig or studio session, get involved with the THR series of amplifiers.