Ibanez Valbee 5W amp

[ash]

I just did an evaluation on one of these little things. Its very cool.

http://www.ibanez.co.jp/world/product_n ... index.html

One 6L6 driven by one 12AX7 driven by a few JRC4558D op-amps with the usual gain, T/M/B, presence, master controls etc into a 6.5" speaker.

Its an ugly blue colour and the speaker is poo, so I felt obliged to rip it to peices and plug it into a 15" Black Widow speaker cab. Yee Haaarr! A decent quad would have been even better. Much louder and clearer through the big speaker although a little farty if the bass is up too high and shrill if the treble was too high. I think that is partly due to the reject speaker cab.

Mega gain on tap, not much clean headroom as you might expect. With the little speaker it was loud enough that you'd have to shout to communicate with anyone. With the big speaker, hand gestures would also be required Perfect volume for this kind of thing.

For now there is only one in NZ, but if this is your bag I recommend begging to an Ibanez dealer (like Kristie ) for them to order one. I think they will be around $350-$400.

[angry_young_poet]

cool

how about those epiphone valve juniors?

[Gelato]

I was wondering when these would make it here. Looks like a very cool little amp

[IkeKrull]

Man, thats gotta be the worst casing i've ever seen on an amp. Cheap and nasty.

Plastics like ABS are potentially quite good sonically, if the cabinets are designed with thick enough walls and baffles, but that thing looks like a Fisher-Price 'My First Amp'.

Still, 5W all tube with plenty of gain on tap at a budget price... i wonder what cheapo solid state practice amp speaker/cabinet combo would make the best donor for a Valbee graft?

[ash]

The cab is a vinyl covered MDF box wit a steel chassis just like any other cheap combo. This one just happens to be ugly blue.

[crushing day]

sort of looked a bit 'fisher price' from the photo .. like one of those toys you have to put the different shapes in the right holes . I wonder why they made a selling point of 'no black tolex here' .. surely in hindsight that may have been a good idea . Still, good to see some more of the 5w mini tube amps coming out that can be plugged into larger cabs .. bring it on .
I've always liked the idea of a very mini head to plug into whatever cab you want.

...still rather have a roland cube though

[Bg]

smooth as a gravy sandwich

[offender]

They come up on ebay every now & then. I was interested, but the reviews are a bit undecided on its overall value for money as a tube amp. Great idea though. The epiphone one gets much better reviews, but seem to be a bit more expensive.