Look At The Deal On This 18-Watt Tube Amp!!

Yup! If any of my neighbors were trying to sleep in today, they're up now!

My neighbor and I ordered one each and they came today. I thought I ordered mine from Musician Friend, but I got it from Sameday music. Surprise! They ship from Nevada and are in stock.

Pretty amazing amp for $150! It didn't work at first because the speaker wires weren't hooked up. Then a tube was loose, so I went over it a bit and tightened things up. If anyone gets one, make sure the speaker leads are on because you don't want to burn out the amp while you're trying to figure out what's wrong
It loves humbuckers and p-90's for sure. I ran my Les Paul with the P-rails through it, as well as a stock Es-335.
The amp has definite sweet spots and my neighbor's has different sweet spots than mine but they're there.
Gain on 3 and volume on 6.5 to 7 really sings with the treble up at about 7, mid 6 and bass at 4 or around there. It's pretty muddy sounding a lower volumes even with the bass backed off but it brightens up at volume around 7. Not a quiet amp either! It vibrated my "Complete Far Side Collection" right off the bookshelf in my living room.

The higher gain settings were pretty good but I liked it much more with louder volume and working the power tubes, which are El 84's
I think a brighter speaker might be in order, but I'll let this one break in first to see what happens. It's a crate branded speaker, I don't know who makes it. They're 8 ohm outputs with 1/4 inch jacks, so I may try it in a few different cabinets.
Mine has Sovtek power tubes in it and I think my neighbor's has different ones. They're hard to get to and I'll look later. I'll let them break in a bit to see what happens, too.

Like Ian says, put a fan on it! There's not a lot of air circulation in this amp and a fan should help. I may even cut more vent holes in it.
I mean, hell, for $150 bucks, you can do anything and not worry too much.

Like install one of those bar type bottle openers on the side!

I think mine sounds pretty reminiscent of a Marshall Bluesbreaker more-so than Vox, although the P-90's gave a pretty good Pete Townshend sound like My Generation. With the Gibson ES-335 it had quite the Clapton Bluesbreaker Beano tone, but you've got to play hard and dig in to get that tone no matter what amp you're using.

The reverb. Well, ok, hey, it's 150 bucks!
On 1 or 2 it's passable but turn it up and haha, sort of like playing in a tile shower stall down in a tiled subway station. I have a reverb tank around, and I might just try to plug it in to see what happens. You can buy 6 spring tanks for about 40 bucks, I think.

I'm quite impressed! The amp is going to be on loan to some friends who just started an all girl punk band. Their first gig is on Halloween and they don't know how to play their instruments yet and are just starting to write music now. Sort of like the Ramones started. High energy, but this will be a much better looking band!

ianvomsaal wrote:

Man, what's your hang-up on this Fender Roc Pro 1000
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=fVtRsgGqTec . . . you like this sound?
Okay, yeah there are a few more clips, but from what I've heard the Overdrive tones
(more-so distortion tones) are more geared toward metal than anything else. Did you
take a listen to the V18 ??? Here's an individual link where the guys using a Tele and
a BBE Green Screamer (basically a TS-9 knock-off). He not a really great player, but
at least you'll hear some decent clean tones, and at 3:00 he has the gain wide open.
It's the pedal buzzing, not the amp: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4D_5FXS6bvM
Personally I think for $149 the V18 sounds way better, plus it's loud enough to play
with a full band, and it's a real tube amp (not a solid state amp with a pre-amp tube).

But, hey if you don't like how it sounds, then that's cool - I didn't post this thread to
try and get people to buy this amp, I posted it because there are people on here that
have said they can't afford a tube amp - and this tube amp sounds decent, and costs
about the same price as a low-end solid state amp - I'm actually planning to try and
break it in tomorrow night at a gig - and I'm not going to bring a backup, I'll just put a
small upright fan behind it - who knows, tons of amps don't have cooling fans in them.
(Fender didn't put a cooling fan in their old amps - it should work out just fine)

Hahaha, I just like the Roc Pro's clean sound. I also have a deluxe reverb tank in my amp, too, not stock. I suppose the V-18 would be a nice back up amp.

great bargains there, what i want to know though is do they deliver to australia? doubt it :(

haha deal

just watch any babies you might have though

ianvomsaal wrote:

Yeah, for some reason babies can really piss those ankle biters off. My little boy (now 21-months old) had
a typically very timid (and fairly nice) little dog go after him a few weeks ago. The owners were really
shocked and upset, and kept apologizing (he's never done that before, are you sure the babies okay,
are you sure he didn't get bit). There was a lot of snapping and growling, but thankfully I was standing
right there and was able to snatch him up before the dog got him. Babies tend to grab at dogs, & don't
really realize that they're cornering or smothering or hurting them - so before you know it they get bit.

They also tend to get jealous of the parents spending all the time with the new child and not with the dog and can get fiesty toward the kid.

I give up. This damn amp isn't worth it. I went to the music store to find one and they said they'd have to special order it. I'm not paying for something I haven't tried out...at least that much money. Oh well. I'll wait until I have enough for McCreadyisgod's roc pro head and a nice cabinet.

keeponrockin wrote:

You have to pay when you order something into your store? Wow.

Broughton and Guitar Center