#nanovalve

[marklester1980]

Bye bye nano valve! Had a chance to hook it up to a 12" 8 ohm speaker in cab (eminence from 90's from vox) and again, I can't emphasise enough how much of an improvement this is to plug into a proper cab. It sounds like a real amp! It needs an eq, a pedal would suffice I'm sure. Never got round to trying that. But, the big flaw, for me, is the lack of headroom when cranking. It's not a little bit overdriven, it's tons!!!! Fine if you were doing solo's, but other than that, no good at high volumes. I tried rolling back the volume and it did clean up but then lost some volume, so no help for me. So I think that's it, no more 5 watt amp testing for me. They're a great idea, I love it, but I need something that I could use at home and take to a studio if I'm feeling lazy. This isn't it sadly. Would be interested to try a zt lunchbox, but one thing is more apparent than anything.......small speakers just don't reproduce the lows a full size speaker does (at loud volumes) Oh well, onwards and upwards!! :-)

[marklester1980]

What’s the point in a 5 watt tube amp???

I finally got my first class A 5 watter. I like it. Sounds like a tube amp just not as loud as a big one!

But what’s the point? I’m struggling to work it out. I had a little jam on my own with the amp on the table. Was good fun. However with everyone in the house I had the amp on 1 and it was barely breaking up, so a clean boring tone was had. Hmm.

I hooked it up to a nice big 12” speaker, the on board 8” is a bit thin and nasal sounding. I’ll change that later but doubt it’ll ever sound chunky! With the big speaker it’s got a much bigger sound, nice sounding. Still have to crank to get some lovely tones. Too loud for a normal house.

Can you gig with it? Well from what I’ve tried, get the volume to half way and above and it’s quite overdriven sounding. Yes rolling off the volume cleans things up but the volume drops a bit. So where you could stick it on full, you probably could use it with a drummer and external cab 8 don’t think it’ll have the volume I need for a gig.

So what’s the point? Too loud for home and not loud enough to gig with…..

Confused?!?’

[marklester1980]

The Peavey Nano Valve. Class A. 5 watts using a 12ax7 and EL84. First off, it's tiny!!! Wasn't expecting that when it turned up! Still, good things come in small packages?? It's light, looks quite well built and is quite sweet looking. Plugged it in and turned it on......took ten seconds for valves to heat and sound to come through..... Went for a nice D open ring strum. Eugh! Ummmm, it doesn't sound the greatest. It's honky middy sounding with a painful edge to it, kinda like stabbing breadsticks in your ears. Still, sounded tube like. Going to do some tinkering with it. Can something like this sound good and more importantly how much headroom is there really in a band environment? I'm curious, have been for years but too scared to try it. Now is time for some fun!