ampfixer
I've been messing with small single ended amps for the last year. No matter what I try, the big sound at bedroom volume has eluded me unless I run a pedal for distortion. Bat is using a pretty elaborate rig for his tone, so I'm not surprised that he gets good tone.
 
I never liked the sound of any speaker less than 10", so I'm usually building a single or dual 12" for the small amps. The open back 2x12 is my go to speaker cab and I have one in the living room. A 5 watt amp through that cab sounds great. The cab is rated for a max of 300 watts so you might think it would be under powered. With a little amp wound out you are sending the cab a square wave with a ton of harmonic content. I feel the bigger speaker is better at handling that without damage.
 
For a 1 watt amp I'd likely go with a single 12" speaker. Alnico is kind of magic when pushed hard. An Alnico magnet reacts to the voltage generated in the voice coil and acts like a compressor. The voice coil creates it's own little EMF field that counter acts the magnet in the speaker, causing it to temporarily reduce the magnetic flux of the Alnico magnet. The response rolls off under full load. When you back off a bit, the flux comes back and response increases, as if by magic. So, my choice for the 1 watter would be a Jensen P12R or Celestion Blue.

this.
 

bottom line is,
you really have to spend some TIME (and money) and experiment,
to figure out exactly what gives YOU the tone you want.
 
it is a combination of pure dumb luck,
voodoo,
knowledge,
and blood/sweat/tears.
 
no shortcuts,
and worth every minute IF you are on a tone quest.
 
 
if you are just looking for a practice amp,
just buy the little blackstar and be done with it!!
 
otherwise, 
carry on with full prejudice.
 
 

Very interesting, Ampfixer......more studying to do.


Bat, Is the Webber pretty hard on tubes, do you have to change them every 3 months like the site says?

it's no harder on tubes, than if you ran your amp at the same volume without the attenuator.
 
i don't drive my amp wide open very often, and when i do, it's only for saturation of the power amp section and transformer, mostly for compression effect.
 
but, my amp happens to be very touchy on the master volume, between quiet and loud, and the attenuator allows me to get the power section engaged enough to be a tone item, without any real saturation (boogies are made to have high headroom on the power section, and the tone and sustain comes from the preamp)
 
for me, i get the 'sweet spot' of the amp working, but at a manageable volume.
 
my power tubes last just as long as they would if i unplugged the attenuator and just played really loud.

I love my MK IIB. I have a 12" MB Black Shadow (EVM I believe) that I use. To get the tone I want with this setup, it has to be loud.

Bat ain't kidding about the headroom either! To get the power tubes to distort takes a lot of volume. But when it screams, it's beautiful!

I recently sent it through a Egnator Rebel 1x12 cab and the tone was really good at a decent volume level. Made me think that I really was liking the speaker breakup a lot. And this speaker broke up quicker than those MB BS speakers. Volume didn't need to be nearly as loud.

And to add another dimension here, I really enjoy playing a amp SIM out of my KRK monitors. Something about the dampening factor I am guessing. Don't really know. But I do like it.

So to sum it up, speakers make a big difference.

Stopped at GC to demo the Blackstar again. Didn't like it. To fizzy and brittle to my ears. Nasally may be a better description. I think I am learning toward the attenuator idea that Bat has suggested, seeing as I really like the tone of the Classic 50 already. A Webber may be on my wish list.

well, the thing about attenuators is,
if you use them to take a large watt amp down to bedroom volume,
they will sound like sh!t.
 
LOL
they all do..
 
but if you match the best volume of your amp with the master volume as low as it can go and STILL get a really good tone,
then attenuate a few db off that,
that's where attenuators work the best.
 
 
otherwise, any solid state cheapy will probably sound decent at bedroom volume.
 
honestly, if it was me, wanting a 'bedroom amp', i'd buy a POD and put it thru my monitors or a stereo.
 
 

have you seen any of these?
one watt marshall tube amps
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maOuWOJPdNY
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8TB4fhbI8w
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYwWBzS8BcY
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P2OmLNUAvE
 

I have been wanting to get one of these amps for years …
I called Tris up around 5 years ago to find out how long I would have to wait before it shipped …
at the time it was a number of months  ..I passed …fwiw….i still want one 
 
http://www.mahaffayamps.com/little-lanilei-quarter-watt.htm 
 
Kenny

Bat,

Right now I can get a fairly descent tone through the drive channel and just use the Master volume, to lower the level. I can also crank up the clean channel, engage an overdrive pedal and then lower the volume on the pedal down to bedroom level....and that is a pretty usable tone. I was hoping that an attenuator might give me a little more of that power tube magic, get the tubes a little hotter and push them a little more.