Tiny Amp

[JD01]

you can easily make a dummy load with these



take an old TS jack off an old cable and wire it to one of these resistors. simple 8 ohm dummy load.

haha, YOU could make a dummy load. I could burn my fingers, swear a lot, certainly break my amp and possibly burn my home to the ground.

One of the reasons I'm leaning towards the Hotone thing. All solid state

[Greg_L]

i dont know if it can be used with no load attached. solid state doesnt automatically imply that you can use it with no load. send them an email and find out.

[JD01]

Cool, I've emailed Joyo (no answer on the phone) and will call Anderton's who supply the Hotone stuff now.

[JD01]

Anderton's were really helpful.
You can run the Hotone stuff without a cab and you can run the micro Terror without a cab.
Also, they recommended the "Terror Stamp"
https://www.andertons.co.uk/orange-terr ... -amp-pedal
Check this out - its basically a Micro Terror in a pedal format with an FX Loop - so I could run the FX send into the FX return of my H&K and basically turn my H&K into a kind of pseudo-Orange

[Greg_L]

ha awesome. that seems good.

[JD01]

ha awesome. that seems good.

I'll see if I get a response from Joyo about weather I can use the BlueJay without a cab, the the choice will be just between the BlueJay and the Terror Stamp. I know I like the tone of the BlueJay I'll see if the Stamp does something useful now.

[Lt. Bob]

'whether'

solid state virtually always means you can run with no load
having a tube in a hybrid doesn't change that because it's in the pre-amp and doesn't 'see' the load.

be safe and check but i would bet money no-load is fine

[JD01]

'whether'

solid state virtually always means you can run with no load
having a tube in a hybrid doesn't change that because it's in the pre-amp and doesn't 'see' the load.

be safe and check but i would bet money no-load is fine

Good point. I discussing weathering a lot at work. I rarely write whether.

[JD01]

OK, down to a shortlist of 2.

Joyo BlueJay:
12AX7 tube preamp. Basic volume tone and gain.
Class D solid state power section.
Doesn't need a dummy load or anything like that.
FX Loop.
Apparently its sounds a like a Blues Jr.
Also, has a bluetooth receiver for backing tracks - I'll probably never use this so the aerial on the back might be more of an annoyance than a useful feature.
Only has a 3.5mm mini headphone jack so I'd have to have a shitty adaptor hanging out of the back of it.

£99 quid from Thomann with 8 quid delivery.

Orange Terror Stamp:
ECC83 tube preamp. Typical weird Orange "shape" control and gain. This one has two volume knobs which are switchable. It is single channel though - more of a live thing so this feature is likely useless to me.
20W Class A/B solid state power section.
Doesn't need a dummy load or anything.
FX Loop.
Its basically a Micro Terror - so that's a Tiny Terror with a solid state power section.
Has a proper headphone jack.

£129 quid delivered from Andertons.

Price isn't really a thing, although its worth noting that when I chuck in a few extra patch cables Thomann will be better value on these bits.

I kind of fancied a Blues Jr for general use, nice fender clean sound for just playing away on and I can stick an OD in front of it when I'm just playing in the evening. If I'm just playing in the evening, I'll mostly be playing clean. I don't think I'll have much of a recording use for it as my H&K has a pretty nice clean channel really.

I also fancied a Tiny Terror for ages and nearly bought one earlier in the year off eBay. Think this would sound great in a mix hard panned opposite my H&K. I've never been able to use two amps in a mix before. Potential draw back - I've no idea if the orange will have a good clean/edge of clean sound which is what it will be mostly used for when playing downstairs.

Anyone got any thoughts on these two options.
Also, what is the difference between Class A/B and Class D? Any reason I should care? Other than its nice to know.

Terror Top.JPG

Terror Rear.JPG

Joyo Front.JPG

Joyo Rear.JPG

[Greg_L]

Also, what is the difference between Class A/B and Class D? Any reason I should care? Other than its nice to know.

no you shouldn't care. for something like this it's not worth worrying about.

in a very general nutshell...class ab is an analog push/pull output arrangement that splits the signal into amplified halves. tube and ss amps have used this arrangement for decades. class d uses digital wizardry to turn the signal into an on/off pulse and then time based modulation and filters turn it back into an audio signal at the output. class d can be very small and very efficient but it's sound reproduction isn't all that great.

[JD01]

Also, what is the difference between Class A/B and Class D? Any reason I should care? Other than its nice to know.

no you shouldn't care. for something like this it's not worth worrying about.

in a very general nutshell...class ab is an analog push/pull output arrangement that splits the signal into amplified halves. tube and ss amps have used this arrangement for decades. class d uses digital wizardry to turn the signal into an on/off pulse and then time based modulation and filters turn it back into an audio signal at the output. class d can be very small and very efficient but it's sound reproduction isn't all that great.

Cheers, that is actually useful. At the moment I think I'm leaning towards the Orange as I think it'll have use to me over and above being something to mess about with in the evening. Although I do still want a small Fender sound.

[Lt. Bob]

. class d can be very small and very efficient but it's sound reproduction isn't all that great.

that's not really true anymore.
there are now even hi-end class D stereophile-level amps and that requires good sound reproduction.
I have a couple of EV powered PA cabs and they sound great.

[Greg_L]

that's not really true anymore.
there are now even hi-end class D stereophile-level amps and that requires good sound reproduction.
I have a couple of EV powered PA cabs and they sound great.

well there ya go. i dont know much about class d cuz it hasnt really trickled into the guitar amp world yet.

[WhiskeyJack]

no you shouldn't care. for something like this it's not worth worrying about.

in a very general nutshell...class ab is an analog push/pull output arrangement that splits the signal into amplified halves. tube and ss amps have used this arrangement for decades. class d uses digital wizardry to turn the signal into an on/off pulse and then time based modulation and filters turn it back into an audio signal at the output. class d can be very small and very efficient but it's sound reproduction isn't all that great.

Cheers, that is actually useful. At the moment I think I'm leaning towards the Orange as I think it'll have use to me over and above being something to mess about with in the evening. Although I do still want a small Fender sound.

I doubt very much you will get anything remotely fenderish out of an Orange product. However, tone is in the hands so they say so i may eat crow on that. Orange can do amazing cleans, it's just not fender clean. Orange cleans are sturdy tight and still thick-ish. It's very doubtful you will be able to muscle in the loose vibe of a fender clean out of that Stamp. Again, tone is in the hands. Watch some vids.

All that said that Stamp was received with a fair bit of praise when it was unleashed and I half considered it for myself. Lots of great positive reviews on it overall, folks at NAMM were eNAMMoured with it ( ) Only negatives i come across were that a few said it was fairly over priced for what it is.

I think though for the tiny nature of both your options you'd likely be pleased with either of them.

[Lt. Bob]

that's not really true anymore.
there are now even hi-end class D stereophile-level amps and that requires good sound reproduction.
I have a couple of EV powered PA cabs and they sound great.

well there ya go. i dont know much about class d cuz it hasnt really trickled into the guitar amp world yet.

yeah ..... it's all over the bass world though because of the high power/low weight thing.
I guess, for some reason, bass reproduction was easier to get decent quality from Class D as they started developing the technology.

So you started seeing it in subs first because they only have to reproduce 200hz or lower and benefit from large amounts of power.
And at first even for subs class D was considered 'so-so' sound quality.

But they got that under control and for quite a while now you've been able to buy 700 watt bass amps that weigh 5 lbs.
I have a SWR bass head that weighs nothing and puts out 500 watts and sounds amazing.

Then I started seeing Class D make the pages of Stereophile magazine and get pretty 'meh' reviews.
But a couple of years ago I started seeing class D amps get positive reviews .... lol, the reviewers always expressed surprise!

I'm not sure class D is likely to make large inroads in guitar amps because one of the points of class D is being able to get lots of power efficiently and you really don't need 500 watts for guitar .... or even 200 or really 100 most of the time.

But for small pedalboard amps it's way useful .... don't need large power supplies is one reason.

And powered PA cabs commonly claim 1000-2000 watts of power per cab.
My EV is rated at 1300 watts and weighs 34 lbs with a 12" and a horn and my little Alto is 1000 watts and weighs 28lbs.

Protip .... take class D power ratings and cut them in half to get an approximation of RMS power which is what we mainly mean when we're talking guitar amps.

For example my EV is rated at 1300 so realistically it puts out around 650 watts.
The only time it'll put out 1300 watts is for a micro-second before it bursts into flames!

But 650 watts is still a LOT of power in a single cab.

[CrowsofFritz]

Cheers, that is actually useful. At the moment I think I'm leaning towards the Orange as I think it'll have use to me over and above being something to mess about with in the evening. Although I do still want a small Fender sound.

However, tone is in the hands so they say so i may eat crow on that.

Arghhhhh!!!!! Had a long argument in HR about this and I was certainly in the minority. While hands do contribute to tone, it won’t make an Orange sound like a Fender.

[Lt. Bob]

However, tone is in the hands so they say so i may eat crow on that.

Arghhhhh!!!!! Had a long argument in HR about this and I was certainly in the minority. While hands do contribute to tone, it won’t make an Orange sound like a Fender.

yeah, that 'tone is in the hands' is bullshit ..... it's just a verbal meme.

It is true that playing styles do affect the tone and it is true that different players can sound different on the same amp because of how hard they strike or how they use their picks ( I ALWAYS use the rounded end of a pick which affects my tone ) but the idea that tone is all in the hands just isn't true.
If it were then when i saw Hendrix on the tour when he used Sunn amps, he wouldn't have been talking on stage all night about what POS the Sunns were because his Hendrix hands would have made them sound just fine.

I have 14 amps and every single one of them sound different even though I always use the same hands and fingers.

[WhiskeyJack]

In the context i mean by tone is in the hands, I mean how it's all in how a person can dial in an amp doubled down on top playing stuyle. It's sort of a multi part equation.

I can make you all a 100 dollar bet right now that i could give my AD30 to Greg and he'd make it sound like a total different amp than what i am used to. Same with Lt.Boob or RayC. We could play hot potato with that same amp and i am betting while it would have all the smatterings and voicings of an Orange, we'd all dial it in and make it different tonally.

The tone hands are directed by ears, skill, and personal preference. We'd all get different tones out of the same amp.

[Greg_L]

In the context i mean by tone is in the hands, I mean how it's all in how a person can dial in an amp doubled down on top playing stuyle. It's sort of a multi part equation.

I can make you all a 100 dollar bet right now that i could give my AD30 to Greg and he'd make it sound like a total different amp than what i am used to. Same with Lt.Boob or RayC. We could play hot potato with that same amp and i am betting while it would have all the smatterings and voicings of an Orange, we'd all dial it in and make it different tonally.

The tone hands are directed by ears, skill, and personal preference. We'd all get different tones out of the same amp.

i think this is true. the amp matters, but how you set it and how you play it makes a big difference too. i 100% believe we'd all sound different plugged into the same setup.

[CrowsofFritz]

In the context i mean by tone is in the hands, I mean how it's all in how a person can dial in an amp doubled down on top playing stuyle. It's sort of a multi part equation.

I can make you all a 100 dollar bet right now that i could give my AD30 to Greg and he'd make it sound like a total different amp than what i am used to. Same with Lt.Boob or RayC. We could play hot potato with that same amp and i am betting while it would have all the smatterings and voicings of an Orange, we'd all dial it in and make it different tonally.

The tone hands are directed by ears, skill, and personal preference. We'd all get different tones out of the same amp.

I’d argue the style would be different far more than the tone would be. That’s usually what people mean. The style is different, and yes, the style contributes to the overall sound immensely, but it’s not toan.