Tonefiend Forum

Hey, I'll toss out my first post here'bouts... !

If you haven't tried out any low-watt tube-amps other than Champs and the like, you really owe it to yourself to crank one up and "play the amp" old-school via your "touch" and your guitars volume-knobs.

I've got and LOVE a 7 watt Fuchs Lucky 7 head, an older, original single-channel model with no reverb, boost, etc. as found in the newer "II" model and "Casino" line. I plan to eventually pair it with a Fuchs/Feiten Vintage 212 cab, which will probably be loaded with a Scumback H and a Scumnico. I find the amp to be a little fussy with speakers and cabs- although it may just be ME that's fussy...

Otherwise, the amp gets on well with any guitars, pickups, pedals, speaker emulators, attenuators... I use it most often with no pedals at all, just turned up to about 3:00 O' Clock with the aforementioned "play the amp" touch and volume-knob approach. It's easily been able to keep up with loud drummers, bass, other guitar players- including one that abused used a SS 120 watt 1x15 bass combo... ! It manages to sound better in a live band-mix setting, even un-miked, than it does playing by myself; and it cuts through the mix with excellent presence VERY well.

I actually rarely ever use the Plexitube-pedal with the Lucky 7 (as seen seen below), though they can work well together to garner a couple of virtual, progressively gainier extra channels that, with a little knob-twiddling on the Plexitube, sound like extensions of the same amp...

Quote from Schrodingersgoldfish on August 14, 2012, 13:50
Having just got my first tube amp, I have been loving just this. It's a little 10w Gibsonette combo. The responsiveness to dynamics has absolutely rocked my world. Effects are definitely a trickier proposition with tube amps. There are just some combinations that work and some that make noise rockhorrible cacophonies.

That's great!

Gimmee some examples of your favorite pedal combinations with your Gibsonette; and some examples of those that result in "noise rock horrible cacophonies"...

Try a good, stout "clean boost" to overdrive the amp. The buffer/boost on a TC Electronic Stereo Chorus/Flanger actually makes a KILLER overdriver for tube-amps, with or without the modulation-effects engaged.

With the amp cranked, any means of creating volume-swells gains cool animated textures as the clean-to-mean-to-scream factor ramps-up with the swell. Your pinkie on the guitars volume-knob, a volume-pedal, "Slow-Gear" type pedals such as a Guyatone SV2 and SVm5 or a VFE Bumblebee... any of these will be just swell.

Try something like a Foxrox Octron with the Gibsonette cranked, controlling overall volume with your guitars volume-knob(s). "Hey, hey, MY, my... !" ( ;B^]=

Sit as close to the amp as possible- on it, if plausible- letting the back of the lower-bout of the guitar hang down near the speaker, and/or contacting the cabinet. When cranked, you should be able to vary feedback effects from subtle sustain and overtone enhancements, through warm, singing tones loaded with harmonic-overtones, to out-and-out glorious squawks, shrieks and sonic Colour Out Of Space apparitions...