How bad could a $250 tube amp be? - Monoprice 15-Watt Guitar Combo Tube Amp -
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- People have been talking about these budget tube amps for years and I finally got my hands on one, if the hype real?
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I would just add..that was pretty useful. But author's lack of guitar skills make it pretty hard to watch through. Frankly a bit painful after a while. So, well I also suck at guitar, and occasionally post guitar videos of me sucking at it, but I don't hang my wall with 30 guitars and post reviews when I suck. Still, that's ok, review was useful. And review of amp was good, although could have been 15 minutes shorter. Nonetheless exhaustive! Anyway my two cents there. Maybe try and play something musical. Or not play the same riffs over and over again.
This comment is a masterpiece, you should be proud.
Lmfao. I think you're lost. Or drunk.
Or both 🤷🤣🤣🤣
Someone doesn't understand the assignment
🤣🤣🤣 Clue? You seem to be missing.
You're right, you do suck.
Had mine for 2 years. Hauled it across country in my trunk (2700+miles), played every night. Replaced the tubes... no other issues.
yeah, mine sounded a lot better once I upgraded the tubes. the stock Chinese ones were fine, but once I put some higher gain Electro-Harmonics type of tubes in it it was way better.
@@ToneSherpa I went with EH in the power section and Svetlana's in the pre. A Maz Ing.
Any adjustment or re-biasing with different tubes, or is it just plug and play?
@@johng2880 I re-biased. I've got all the measuring tools. I took measurements of voltages at key points and made notes and just made sure they matched afterward. I did note some change in filament voltage and bias. Emitter, collector and grid reference voltages stayed put.
I like the lo-fi characteristics that he doesn't care for and w your comment I'm even more impressed
A brief (okay, long for a UA-cam reply! 😄) History behind this amp. I have the first gen version, I got in March 2016. That was less than a year after they finally released them. They had advertised them for over a year before the released them.
It started as an exact copy of the Laney CUB12R, except for the color & texture of the tolex and a different speaker cutout. It had a TV Front style while the Laney had the slant top speaker opening. Both the Laney and both versions of the StageRight15 are made by Sino-Amp Inc. in China.
Both versions of the SR15 have the same circuit, except the fist gen/TV Front had two input jacks, with a relay to kick the power down to 1 watt, the second gen/front controls has the push button. The 1st gen had the Acctron blue plastic mini reverb tank. ( I, a.k.a., MadJack, did the first known reverb tank swap, as seen in TDPRI's amp owners club. I did the matching of tank specs and first tried my AC15's old Belton tank, big improvement of the Blue toy tank. I then got another MOD tank, which was an improvement too, though not as great of an improvement. The MOD tank has stayed in it.) The 2nd gen came with the blue toy at first, but soon changed to a non-descript metal tank, which was a big improvement.
The 2nd gens went to the front controls, as the other Sino-Amp models have a similar design. It wouldn't surprise me if Laney had a little say in this design change too.
Both gens came with Shuguang/Ruby labeled tubes, but a few months ago, they started loading them with JJ Tubes, which have been a favorite tube replacement for most. The Shuguang tubes were fizzy, a little bright and weren't overly reliable.
Circuit wise, the preamp in the SR15 is similar to the JCM800. Hence, why you get a nice clean to crunch to distorted tones. The Tone control is in between the two halves of the first preamp tube. There is another driver tube (both halves) before the Gain and TMB controls. these come right before the FX Loop/Reverb break-a-way board. (This board is different from the board used on the Laney, which uses a digital reverb.) Finally you get to the EL-84 output/power tubes, output transformer and finally the speaker. Internally there is a bias adjustment pot and a hum balance pot, for the amp techs to make adjustments as needed. Between the preamp circuit with the EL-84 power tubes and the Seventy-80 speaker, you get a Vox-ish output tone, while having a Marshall-esq drive. Like a combination of British tones in one amp.
Yes, many don't like the Seventy-80 speaker (YMMV). Usually they've been replaced with Celestion (or copies) speakers. I've tried Vintage 30 style speakers (WGS Veteran30 & Retro 30), which were good for higher gain/modern styles and/or brighter tones, G12H-30 Anniversary style speaker (WGS Reaper) for fatter tones and what I run for my style/taste, a Celestion G12M Greenback (From my AC15C1) for classic rock styles.
Some others have done tone stack emulations and, with the right speaker, you can go from a sound very similar to the Blue Junior, to a full on British tone of your liking.
Brief?
Thanks for the background information. What would be your pick, the Laney version of the StageRight?
@@sleepymarauder4178 That would depend on whether you want the lesser expensive SR15, with the Seventy-80, real spring reverb, blonde tolex and front controls, or do you want to spend extra for the H&H speaker, digital reverb, black tolex, top mounted controls and then brand name.
Another thing to consider, your geographic location. If you are in Europe, then you should get the Harley Benton version from Thomann, as it's the same amp as the SR15, but with the power transformer for European voltages. They even have the same valve silk screened on the front of the amp.
@@MadJackF1 what's the 15W version like in terms of chassis space and temperature? The 5W one has space to fit an IEC socket in place of the permanently-affixed power cord, but suffers from overheating tubes and tube sockets, at least from my experience.
Great summary,
No joke: this is the best overall tube combo I have ever owned. I had and got rid of a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, Engnator Tweaker 15, Vox AC15, Traynor YCV20 because none of them really satisfied what I was looking for. I then went to modeling for a while. When this came out I thought "why not get a cheap little tube combo just for fun?" But once I started to play it, I realized to my shock, that it was what I was looking for for more than a decade. It kind of occupies this middle ground between brownface Fender, Vox, and early Marshall-- which is perfect for the 60's sound I like. With some well-chosen preamp pedals, you can push it further in either of those three directions. I put in Tung Sol preamp tubes and some NOS Sylvania power tubes. Kept the speaker and reverb pan. I run the loop output into my Tech 21 Deuce Deluxe Power Engine (which I had originally purchased to go with my modeler) for all the volume I will ever need. For drive and dirt have a JHS Series 3 distortion (refined RAT clone that can do overdrive, distortion, and even fuzz) and a Vick Audio Mt. Pleasant (Bluesbreaker-type). These run into an EHX Mod 11 (modulation), a TC Electronics Flashback 2 for delay and finally a Digitech Polara for spring reverb.. This is the setup I've been going for for more than a decade. And dang it if this little combo is not the heart of it.
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@@Maharani1991 Jesus, such a detailed story and all you write is some stupid code? You are too lazy to write what "+" is supposed to mean? Do you understand half the world is angry at you? What the hell is "+" ?!!
@@voornaam3191 The overreaction to a strangers comment about another strangers comment on a UA-camrs video (who you most likely don't know personally either), was almost mythical. Your wife/gf deserves a medal.
@@Maharani1991 +
I like how yer using it, i can't do that with my Blues Jr..i bought a SR awhile ago,i use it for party gigs, the Jr stays at home.Can't keep up with the drummer-what's he miking his drums? this 15 watt amp is easily way to fricken LOUD for a barn,small room..small field party,i love this little guy.how long will it last? as long a $3000 Gibson with a twisted neck i'd guess...
I have the previous version of this amp and it's a Laney Cub. The PCB even has Laney's name on it. I'm very happy with mine and I got it for $200 in 2016 and it's still going strong. Highly recommended.
I got my v1 in early 2017 for 139.99 by stacking a code while they had a discount on it. Got a bunch of mono price guitar pedals and rca cables too. Wish I bought a second at that price for that sweet stereo
With a Laney PCB it makes me think that they are from an "overrun" produced with the same batch(es) of an actual Laney job. Chinese manufacturers have no problem with selling off overs to anyone regardless of trademark and other IP violations.
@@shaft9000
Apparently Laney doesn't care or they are getting paid licensing fees.
I'm a drummer, I have one of these in my practice shed, and one or the other of the guitartists in my band has used it at most practices for the last 6 months or so, and they both love it. I love it too for my own noodling/writing. I think most of the good sounds reside with the bass below noon and the treble and mids at various places above noon (I really like it with the mids pushed hard - but that's a taste thing), but there are certainly a lot of other sounds to be dialed in. We have used it with me playing WITH STICKS on both 1 and 15 watt mode (depending on which guitarist was using at and how crunchy they wanted).
Did the amp stay relatively clean when jamming with you don drums?
@@marcfavreauguitarist8788 on 1w, no, but that wasn't what that guitarist wanted, he wants a pretty crunchy sound already as "his" "clean", on 15w, it had only a little bit of crunch on full chords or very hard played double stops, I would consider it well within what most guitarists would consider a baseline "clean" tone.
Actually glad he choose to use his budget guitar and budget pedals to run into the amp. Hate when I would see "Using my Fender Custom Shop Strat with my $3000 pedal board" into this budget amp. Good on you! Keep up these videos!
Why? Wouldn't you want to make sure the amp is the weakest link in the chain? If the guitar or effects you use are making the amp sound worse than it's potential then it becomes a not so fair review/demo doesn't it? :)
Yeah this way of thinking is totally brain dead.
That's like doing a review on a car engine, but insisting that it smells, look like shit and has terrible tires too.
Not everyone is broke as a joke. Save up $300 a month for your hobby and learn for a few years, mate.
@@noname-ng6sj how about you live in a 3rd world country ? :)
I’m with you. It’s pretty unlikely that this amp will get paired with a $2500 custom shop Fender and it’s pretty unlikely that a Harley Benton gets paired up to a $2500 amp. Budget guitar and budget amp is the most common combo in music.
I detect some snobbery here. I have one of these things. So far it's been great. Now, it probably wouldn't be as serviceable as a Vox AC15 Custom, but it's 20 pounds lighter, has an effects loop and an attenuator, and is $500 cheaper. It would sound as good with a Gibson R9 as it does with a Harley Benton (which are great guitars, btw). With the quality of this "cheap gear" rising continually, the snobbery is getting more and more laughable.
UPDATE: As of 12-29-2022 these are listed at US $279.99. I've had mine for two years now, with no problems. However, the first one they shipped me had a blown speaker, so make sure you check a new one over carefully. Monoprice customer service did a great job with the swap/return. I had the replacement product within a week, and they covered all the shipping costs.
As of 2/3/23 Amazon listed it for 450.24 and 453.58. Probably because Monorice is out of stock😭
Got mine when they were $179.
My mods (not including all the tubes in my sizable collection) was switching the Seventy 80 speaker out for a super efficient Wizard speaker I had kicking around (the larger magnet just fit), and installing a small out of a computer battery powered cooling fan inside the back grill facing onto the power tubes (to keep excess heat from building up to damage to internal chassis components over time).
It's definitely LOUDER and hopefully more reliable.
@@RFXCasey Nope - i kept it and will make good use of it....might even put it back in later.
I bought this amp model Harley Benton with excellent value for money. I just replaced the Chinese tubes with Sovteck and replaced the HP Celestion G12 seventy 80 100w with the Celestion G12 creamback 75w. Now that's a real wonder! The remaining original materials are only transformers, resistors, diode capacitors... Having little influence on the sound. I will never go back to the original configuration. Greetings from France.
LOVE this amp (own one) but the “1w” switch is only a volume attenuator right before the power amp, not a *true* wattage selection circuit like you’d see in other boutique amps. Still an incredible value. I use the gain on the lower range, gets hairy a little quick but alllll good 👍
I got my first one at Christmas 2017, right after this version was released. I bought my second one a couple of years later. The first one, the power tubes went in Summer 2018, so I swapped in some Tung-Sols, popped a 12AT7 into V1, did a bias, and it's such a clean amp. I love the way it sounds. The second one also has a 12AT7 in V1, but the other tubes are stock. I use them as a pedal platform in stereo, and it's a great setup, though I have no problem taking just the first one out for jam sessions. These are far louder than you would expect from a 15 watt amp. All in all, they're an absolute steal.
I use mine with a Gibson Sonex, a Harley Benton CST-24T, an Ibanez, and a really cool old mid-60's Harmony Bobkat, and they all have their own unique character through it.
Ryan - it’s sounding pretty darn good here on my TV.... like REALLY good - the amp AND the guitar!
include solid state. solid state can sound good and shouldnt be excluded simply on that.
yes, i want him to demo solid state and tube to see if the old heads can actually guess right. i bet they wouldnt compared to a nice new solid state
But please no digital amp stuff. So over emulation, and the future only will bring more, and leave the past behind. Tube was and will always be appreciated.
Have had mine since mid 2018; I blow harp through it, and gigged/jammed twice a week in various medium-size dive bars with no reliability problems and it usually keeps up with drummers and reasonably loud guitars. The hum can be reduced by upgrading to jj tubes. Other owners have replaced the speaker for a warmer sound, but then it's no longer a $250 amp. The newer, silver reverb tank is definitely superior to the original black one. The 1W setting is great if you're going to mic it, as you can push the gain and volume to really overdrive the tubes. Bonus : it's one of the lighter weight amps in this class. Biggest gripe is the silver plate behind the knobs, and the permanent-attach power cord.
I've had mine for over a year now. I have to say I love it. The only negative aspect of this amplifier is that currently there is no matching 1X 12 extension cabinet. I'd love a Seventy / 80 white tolex cab to match . Other than that no complaints. These amps are beautiful when you see them in person. I'm prolly going to buy another one, just because. One day people will search high ,and low for these amps.
When I had an Epiphone Galaxie 10 combo, some the best sounds were to be had by turning the master volume all the way up, controlling the out put with the gain control. I would try that approach with this amp.
that is how my Carvin 16 works, volume up, dial the gain
I got the galaxies 10 and it's a great simple amp.
I have one and like it. Swapped the speaker for an Eminence C. Rex, which really improved the already pretty good tone. Now it’s a very nice amp.
I had one (traded it for an amp i couldn't pass up), but from my experience, these come biased cold. Once you get it biased properly and get the speaker broken in (or swapped out if u prefer) it starts to really sound amazing
If you get into doing non-tube amps too I highly recommend the Valeton TAR-20G. It's a teeny little 20w solid state head that actually sounds pretty amazing. I'm loving mine so far, and they're under $150usd
Thanks to the suggestion on the live chat.. I found this video.. This sounds like the PERFECT amp for us to start with.. I need to make sure when tax time comes around that I use this affiliate link!
got mine for $170.00 with free shipping. It was on my front porch in 2 days. Love it. The spring reverb is a nice touch along with a 3 band equalizer.
From?
Keep it Tubes? = yes
Pacifica? = Yes. (make sure they don't sneak in some upgraded pickups in there)
Gain needs a gate at the top end.
Maybe sdrop one in the FX loop? I wonder how much noise that'd cut out?
It'd be fun to see if some A4da-Active-Pickups would get that amp to Chug.
RE: the cleans....I always use Hershel's lines from Wicked Game to test High-Volume Cleans.
Fan noise : this is what Notch filters are for. 60 Hz, 120 Hz, and up over 5 khz
The Spring Reverb : what does it sound like when given the Jon Lord Test?
I don't know if you saw it, but there is a MOD reverb tank that is Amazon Suggested' based on other buyers' purchasing at the at the same time... that might be your key to a more drippy reverb tank? I dunno... just an observation.
Humbucker observation : I hope there's more high-end left on that 3-way EQ...ooooof.
LOVE the sound with the Cuvave...sounds like the amp it ready to fall apart on the sub 200 Hz notes. A little resistor in series with the B+ might lead to some nice sag when hit with all that saturation.
Pedal platform amp? I'd really have to hear it handle some high gain pedals w/o it slamming it's own rails.... I agree on your 'demo'ing the amp' comment... "1" is not a great place to demo anything.
If you have an isolation cab, toss the speaker/cab in there (disconnected from the amp) and break in that crispy Celestion.
If it gets too flubby, you can bring it back to less cone-cry by doping the edges... that's what I did with my pair of Weber Sig C12 and it made all the difference when running it in my old Silvertone 1482.
Great review. thanks... I am very tempted by the amp, and you pretty much sold me on the baritone (tho I might put a Nazgul/Sentient pairing in there.)
BTW the folks at vguitarforums have a thread that includes a schematic..... so if you want to look at making mods, it's a great place to start. Thread ID over there is 21220.0
Just ordered mine. 1-2 week wait for it. Got a Katana 50 at present, and this will be my 1st all tube amp. Looking forward to it as all the reviews are positive. Thanks for your great in depth review.
definitely voxy, i picked up the 5 watt version of this with the 6v6, reminds me of my old little AC4, for 150 bucks cant complain
I got the same one! I like the Chinese 6v6, but put in jj preamp tubes! It sings!!! And quiet, too!
@@tatialo37 Mine's got an old 60s 6V6 in and it made a huge difference. Of course, the tube is probably as much as the amp but hey.
This amp is built very well. I like the attached power cable. You tuck it in the back of the amp and never lose it.
The 5 watt class A version doesn't have all the features of this one but it's great to plug in and play. It's also the price of a cup of coffee 😂
Have one and like it too, happy to hear you like it
A tip, i run an eq pedal on the effects loop, set that eq to cut volume so that i can run the amp volume at max, to feed full voltage into the power up tubes, try it out. i use it clean, with the volume at max, 15w, eq on the loop to cut volume, then pedals in front for distortion, etc... all this at very low level, dont really like to play too loud.
Rumors is that this is a laney cub copy ? dont know..
That's the kind of amp I love to see showing up on a gig as an engineer live. The trick with small amps like that is throw it on an amp stand that tilts it back like a floor monitor and stick it next to the floor monitor blowing towards your face and the rest of the band, that way you don't blow a room away and you have it going right to your ears instead of it blowing at the back of your knees and blowing right at the audience. That brings the overall to volume down so that even on a small room you can mic it up and throw it through the monitors for the rest of the band and will make it so a tech can actually mix it even in a smaller room. You will be happier the audience will love it and the sound guy or sound girl won't want to strangle you because your amp is just too loud to do any with.
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I don't know if this is a common set-up, but I've never thought of it before and I can't wait to try it...and maybe it will be the final reason to buy that Headrush I was thinking of...it's been a toss-up between that amp and this one... patthesoundguy , as an engineer, how do you feel about seeing the Headrush?
I got one of these from a pawn shop that hadn’t been taken care of that well. I separated the head and speaker and built my own enclosures out of pine. It’s pretty cool and works for the cleaner or vintage stuff, and I have a joyo for metal.
I've had this amp for over a year and I still love it. I got the little Stage Right 5w simply because it was so inexpensive ($120) and the 15w was so good, I wanted to see how it would play. It's also kind of amazing. Then I got the JOYO JTA-05 Sweet Baby Tube amp. It was only $229 on Reverb. It has a completely different tone and it's perfect for blues tones and jazz. I'm only a couple of years into playing but to my ears these are awesome little amps. I'm at that stage in life that I can afford to get a name brand but I honestly can't find a reason to pull that trigger. Thank you for this review. You did a great job and I appreciate your work.
definately go around to music stores & try out all the Mesa Boogies,Fenders & all to find out if you can make them sound like something you need. otherwise, find a good sounding amp & if it isn't loud enough, mike it thru the PA...
Orange Crush 20 is a beast and I love mine. And I love this channel. Keep it up.
You should check out the Joyo Bantamp mini amps with a hybrid solid state and a tube. They have been on the market for a few years and seem to be very liked.
thanks for the demo/test!!! of course it makes good sense to test afford-a-board pedals through the front of the amp when what you're testing is the afford-a-board. but here you're explicitly testing the amp so it would have made total sense to use the effects loop.
Been wanting this amp for 4 yrs. I recommended this amp to a friend, he brought it over and we were blown away with its tubey goodness ☺ a wk later it's on sale, I jumped at it for what I paid, it's on sale now guys, $212.49+. Waiting for delivery. What are you waiting for? Pull the trigger on it.
I had a Peavey Viper 20 W Modeling amp... lots of fun!!!
I had the 5 watt version when it first came out in 2017/2018 and was $85 shipped from eBay. Never will touch another Monoprice amp again. Mine was garbage. It never worked correctly out of the box and it wasn't grounded correctly. It wasn't damaged in transit, but was defective straight from the factory. It wasn't worth fixing and Monoprice would not swap it out, so I sold it at a loss disclosing to the buyer it had issues.
For me, an Afford-a-amp is rarely a new amp with tubes. An affordable amp will in my case are always used amps. My used '96 Ampeg Reverberocket R12R was $400 and I got that in Feb. It cost less than the first one I had sold.
If I were to get another low watt amp, I'd purchase another used Vox AC4TV (not the mini). That was a fun amp and had an attenuator. Simple, gets loud, fun to push on 1/2 watt and 1 watt. It didn't have reverb, which was not a dealbreaker and perfect for pedals.
i am a proud owner of a TRAYNOR DG30 solid state with a stock celestion super 65 and there are no reviews on youtube. pretty good for 70s hard rock and many other things. effects are kinda limited but im interested in your opinion.
Even though I like how that Monoprice tube amp sounds I still like my little Blackstar ID Core 40 watt Stereo digital amp with the variety of effects built in and even though it only sports twin 6.5 in speakers, it sounds great for it's size. and I payed just under $100 used at my local Music-Go-Round down the street.and still sounds great for half the size ,It only weighs 15 lbs. I also got a super cheap but still decent Starcaster Strat for under $100 from same store to rebuild and mod the crap out of it. three quad rail humbuckers wired like a Les Paul with 3 vol w/ p/p for coil splitting, 3 tone, 5-way switch and a 12 pin dpdt switch, one side is a bypass for neck and bridge together and the other side a set of 5 -17 mm piezo stick-on tab style pickups wired thru the switch directly to the output jack. plus led,' for pickup coil indicators. yup I went a little overboard but its looking to be a cool and very versatile guitar. doing all the work myself from strip down to final finishing and electronics and final assembly and set up including intonation and custom themed finger board inlays. what a fun for my very first project guitar.
Stay with tube amps. Quite a few folks aspire to get into one, so learning about affordable, good sounding options would be valuable.
i second this!
I say do a blind sound comparison between a new solid state and tube amp and see how many boomers choose the solid state thinking it's the tube amp 😆
i just got one and I love it. I got it from someone undervaluing it at $189
Generally speaking real metal crunch is better when using a pedal on that low wattage an amp. I think it sounds great for what it is. Btw, in your low cost amps reviews should definitely include modeling amps. I'm extremely satisfied with my Blackstar ID Core 100. Granted, I plan to replace the two 10 inch spkrs with Celestions, and definitely working out solutions for plugging into external spkrs but otherwise I totally plan to try gigging and recording with it.
I've got 3 of these amps. I put a 70 factor tube in V1 of the pre amp so it wouldn't break up as quick edge it's awesome!
i picked one up for $140 that had a broken cabinet so I made a custom cabinet (painted) EVH style it works great for 11 pm jam my Marshall is to loud at night but it's a cool little tube amp I'm going to mod it up a little btw my neighbors and I are still friends lol
I tried one of these two years ago, and was flabbergasted at how great it sounded.
I *hate* the look of the control panel, and they're not as good a deal now as they were then.
Good review. I think it just goes to show... any reasonably clipped wave pushed into a Celestion speaker is pretty much the sound of rock, LOL! Add some reverb and delay and you're pretty much there.
Ryan I read where the stage right 50Watt combo amp has a fan in it to cool the tubes
Just watched a youtuber who modifoed, and put a Jensen 1258, a 12Ay7 Tube , and a 3-spring reverb....sounded even better
I've had one for about 3-4 years now. Mine is the top panel and not the front. I put mine in a Sourmash 1-12 USA made birch cabinet with a Greenback. Well right now a Creamback but reverting back.
I prefer it over my Marshall for most applications.
The only thing I didn't like about that amp is that when you plug in an external speaker it cuts the one out in the cabinet that was stupid
I've seen a side by side with a Fender blues Jr.... Which this is inspired by... And while the Fender did sound obviously bbetter side by side ... This got you a lot of the way there.... They tried a tube swap in another video.... It didn't make enough difference to warrant the cost... I think if you we're going to do one mod only.... Probably a better speaker would make an obvious difference. Someone who knew what they were doing could probably replace some cheap components to improve the sound and make it run more quietly.
I'd totally buy this if my budget was strictly $250 and I couldn't find a good deal on something used in good condition. It's really decent.
You know what? We need more of those things. Everything is getting more and more expensive and if there is some cheap but decent music gear some people will bash it but it realy sound ok. Lots of people cant aford tubes. Perfect for a teen or anybody realy who eat lots of mac&cheese
Thanks 😎 awesome... I would like to hear my Les Paul through it...She has single coils and really feeds back...
The Monoprice amps are good - and such a great deal. As an aside, I wonder if the Harley Benton amps are rebranded Monoprice units.
They are
If it has a peddle board in front of the speaker amp, you can probably get the sounds you want. The speaker sounds "stiff" to me. If you were to mod this - skip the tubes - they are fine and you are not going to hear much difference between what the three main manufacturers of tubes put out into the marketplace. Speakers make the biggest difference in a speaker amp combo. If you like the Marshal sound go with a Celestion 30 speaker. If you like an old Fender Amp sound - find and old Jensen speaker. etc. Listen to other sound equipment - and find out what speaker they are using - then replace the Monoprice. I prefer modern solid state speaker amps - because I don't like replacing "bulbs" - but I mix a Celestion with a Wherehouse in a duo cab. Mixing speakers makes for a unique and pleasant experience. Amps are not filters - so you are not going to get much sound difference out of them. But speakers are filters - and that is what the audience actually hears.
Man that AB during the reverb it's crazy how close the two are.
Add a Donner Strat to the afforda collection and prepare to be amazed. Mine was just over $100 when I bought if a few months ago. Definitely a contender. I replaced the pickups with Fender Player series and a Wilkinson trem plus Tone Ninja locking tuners. Still, less than $350 invested. Great modding platform.
Sounds pretty good to me, for what it is. Shame about the lack of headroom, but it does a thing. With all of the #affordaamps coming out and there being a gap in the market for #affordatubeamps, maybe we'll even see a factory making vacuum tubes pop up in China!
Around 14:00 you got a nice big star no. 1 record tone out of that thing. Has anyone recorded with this? Is the hum a deal breaker?
I was a tube-only guy until I bought a Mustang LT50 (for $250.) Now it's my gigging amp. You should review it. N.B. it requires a lot of tweaking in the modeling software to get the tones you want.
Throw in a Cannabis rex speaker and it turns into a great AMP. Love mine and the 50w head they offer. Great products
If you mic the amp then it would not matter how loud the drummer is? I am just saying if you need more than 15W playing with band then mic-ing would solve the problem. The small amp is very attractive to me for several reasons, 1) I can turn up to get that pure tube tone and not blast out the band mix 2) it is light. 3) and is mic-able in live play.
From Leo: The Yamaha Pacifica holds it's own with guitars in the price range. The Mono Price amp looks to be a real bargain. The output tubes are similar to VOX so they will have that signature sound. good program today.
would be nice to hear a comparison with a fender champion 50 xl, same prize range
This amp is now $400 + in Canada. When I first looked in to this amp a year ago here in Canada it was $275.
I’m in Canada , just bought it and it was closer to $500 after tax now. Still a good amp though
I just went to double check. It’s $476 plus taxes. , so over 5 bills. I wish I would of grabbed it a couple years ago but I’m still glad I got it. I wouldn’t pay a dime more though.
sounds good as far as I can tell, but that celestion is 80 watts. I wonder if it would sound better with a 25 watt greenback.
Comparable priced tube amps come from Burgera, and there is a Hartwood amp here in the U.K. that is almost identical with the SR/Harley Beton tube 15 amp. But the Hartwood amp has a removable plug, guaranteed JJ tubes and a better speaker (Celestion Vintage 30) for a bit more money.
Let me update, I bought that Hartwood Interceptor I mentioned in the comment above. So similar to the SR/HB Tube 15 I am sure they come out of the same factory. The Hartwood has a detachable power lead (mine came with both UK and euro leads), a Celestion Vintage 30 speaker, and plywood case rather than MDF. But it does NOT come with guaranteed JJ tubes as I claimed before. The power tubes are JJs, but the pre-amps were not, when I opened up the back. (The Hartwood has a closed-back). I complained to the retailer. And they have since taken reference to JJ tubes off their website.
Not sure who's making these for Monoprice now but the Laney builts from a while back were killer.
I got a Joyo Zombie II XL. High gain monster tube amp head for $200. 25w. If I ever play an arena Ill spend the 250 for a power amp.
What's that microphone? It resembles a Cascade Fathead, but it looks bigger and brassier than the one I saw at Guitar Center.
That’s exactly what it is
Monoprice sounds good. Please include solid state, hybrid, & Vox nutube (also hybrid) unless your prior experience is such that something is so bad it doesn't warrant comparison. Please include the Katana, at least as a comparison.
I have a VHT special 6. Hand wired tube amp for around that $250 range. It has been very reliable and sounds pretty decent.
All I can say is--once I met my first Jensen vintage reissue, I had no amp issues after that.
I would also be concerned about reliability for touring. But, you make a fair point that even having only o e name brand amp is a risk. A decent plan might be to carry the name amp for the gig, but have this as a cheap backup you could leave to the side of the stage or even in your trunk, if you don’t mind a short break in the even you main amp fails.
Any amp could fail. But it just feels more risky when you dont have any experience with the brand/build and you know how little you paid for it. Most people who start to gig/tour are going to have fairly beefy gear, so im sure most people arent buying these for those purposes.
For the next guitar please try the Sire S7 or a T7 or L7 !
Yeah get a Yamaha Pacifica 611. P90 neck, Humbucker in bridge. Love that combo. I don't have one and I'm not one to own 10 guitars ( I only have 3) but my next one will either be that or a PRS SE 24/08. .....or, a Variax. 10 guitars in 1 lol.
Single coils almost sound too twangy, or is it the cheaper strat? I have the monoprice 5w and love it.
I agree. It's a great amp on low gain and for pedals. Mine is a bit noisy. Came with Chinese tubes that I swapped for JJs.
Mine is VERY NOISY !
Can it play clean at all, like a real jazz guitar sound with a good amount of low-mid and bass to it? Or is it all crunch, all the time?
does that HB Fusion2 have the notes on the fretboard?
how did that happen. looked for other vids of this guitar and it just has usual dot fret markers.
edit and answered @39:10, lol
Hey, shouldn't you let the tubes warm-up for 15 to 30 minutes? (I just learned of that recommendation tonight, so I'm being all police-y🤗)
I’m a fan of mono price I’ve had a strat copy an a les Paul as well they’re not too bad considering that don’t have 100$ in the both of them I was a little concerned about the amps but after this demo, sign me up!
2:30 well, check out Blackstar amps. 3 band EQ, tone knob and ISF. Beat that.
I've got another version of this - the Hartwood 15w with a Celestion v30 speaker. It's pretty superb, the speaker is way nicer than the 7080. Compared to my Boss Katana 50 II it's so so much better, it makes the Katana sound like a very cheap thing. The lesson here is not to be a brand snob. If you blind A/B tested this and said it was a Laney or a something at $500, you'd be more than happy.
I suggest you look into the Washburn Sonamaster over the Yamaha Pacifica! The Washburn looks very interesting.
Sounds pretty good - I prefer the clean to the dirt sounds on this amp though.
I prefer single end to push-pull, and 84s are not my fav output, and my Princeton reverb is at 0 all the time, but It sounds pretty good. Seems like an excellent buy.
Epiphone VALVE JR , just got these put celestion blue, MMMMM
don't limit it to tube amps, I would use the criteria that it provides good, usable sounds based on the value. also it would be nice to gauge if it is good for a practice/garage band amp or if it is enough to play small gigs like bars and whatnot.
I bought one of those 5 years ago for like 100-125 $ new on Amazon. I would have kept it but just plugged straight in , it didn't have that sound I expected. Probably my fault because......... it smelled like assfeet so bad, that's why I really had to send it back. The whole house smelled like raid mixed with ether and a little 2 stroke gas blend to boot. Looking at the price they today is amazing. I didn't hook up a stomp pedal to it either. It just smelled so strong I couldn't enjoy playing it.
Harley Benton make really good tube amp as well.
Kramer Baretta Specials are $179 at Sweetwater. That could be good afford-a-strat. It more of a super strat, but still…
Its got a hum to it because of that janky guitar with single coils. Also swap out those power tubes for a matched duet of Genalex Gold Lion EL84. And if you want to try a really good inexpensive guitar then do the Agile AL-3200.
Nice detailed review...
That P90s+low tuning combo was so nasty
Love the 5 watt.
Best guitar player on UA-cam...
pacifica I had one and they are great
I want to know if the katana head is good for practice with the little speaker. Its living room sized but looks like it gigs. Yes, solid state allowed, esp because they seem to work good for home practice.
15w on a 4x12 cab sounds really good live