What amp would suit me best at my budget?

[OldGtrGuy]

Ok, that makes sense. Either can be good then but some people just have a personal preference.

Oh wow, if you have seen them within my range that is great!

I must ask though, if I was to buy a used tube amp, what are the things I should look for to make sure it isn't broken? Should I for example test it for 10 minutes with a guitar to make sure it doesn't have a similar volume issue to mine, that kicks in only after the amp warms up?

Yes if you have the option to play it absolutely do. Use all channels, switches, knobs, FX loop, etc.

Scratchy pots may score you a deal and an easy self fix. Volume jumping or cutting and/or amp catching fire is usually a hard pass..

Edit: I personally always expect to buy new tubes if buying used. Especially if being shipped, I don't consider tubes part of the amp, just maintenance.

 

[conanthewarrior]

Sounds like the input jack on the cab. Not sure if it's got different jacks or a switch. If there's a switch, spray it with Deoxit and switch it back and forth a few times. Clean the jacks too.

I may have explained wrong, I didn't change the input jack on the cab, I changed it on the amp from the 8 Ohm output to the 16 Ohm output and it now works properly.

On the amp it is different jacks for 8 and 16 Ohms. I will give them a good spray with contact cleaner.

I just don't understand why the problem was happening after the amp had warmed up though, and not straight away if it was the jack?

Am I risking any damage to the amp by running the 8 Ohm cab from the 16 Ohm output? As I think I heard of mismatching before?

Yes if you have the option to play it absolutely do. Use all channels, switches, knobs, FX loop, etc.

Scratchy pots may score you a deal and an easy self fix. Volume jumping or cutting and/or amp catching fire is usually a hard pass..

OK, so fully test it, essentially what I was going to do.

Are scratchy pots easily fixed with contact cleaner or do you replace them?

And lol at catching fire being a hard pass, I thought that was a feature on some amps like Bugera?

 

[OldGtrGuy]

I may have explained wrong, I didn't change the input jack on the cab, I changed it on the amp from the 8 Ohm output to the 16 Ohm output and it now works properly.

On the amp it is different jacks for 8 and 16 Ohms. I will give them a good spray with contact cleaner.

I just don't understand why the problem was happening after the amp had warmed up though, and not straight away if it was the jack?

Am I risking any damage to the amp by running the 8 Ohm cab from the 16 Ohm output? As I think I heard of mismatching before?

OK, so fully test it, essentially what I was going to do.

Are scratchy pots easily fixed with contact cleaner or do you replace them?

And lol at catching fire being a hard pass, I thought that was a feature on some amps like Bugera?

Exactly, early Bugera

And yes just a little deoxit will fix the scratchy pots usually, sometimes similar FX loop issues are more than that but im no tech, I know very basic info.

 

[conanthewarrior]

Purely when playing with a LOUD drummer.
I've rehearsed with the Ironball with a balanced drummer, where I plugged the Ironball into a Marshall 4x12 cab that was in the rehearsal room. Sounded good. But yeah, at that point the Master level sits around 6 ot 7 (out of 10), so your clean sound won't be truly clean anymore...
For home-studio use in 20W mode, I never had the Master over 3.5 (out of 10). Plenty of headroom then.

Yeah, for GBP20 more it's a no-brainer.

KT77's have technically more in common with EL34's, although soundwise, they're really close. HP42 (German Youtuber) did a comparison video of the Fireball 25 regular vs. KT77. Link here. They sound really close, (KT77 sounded louder and fuller clean).

Most likely in one of the 2 parallel 8 Ohm inputs; which most likely internally sits at 4 Ohm. Such a mismatch is usually no issue. The problem comes when you're hooking up a speaker cab that's too low in Ohms for whatever amp's output. Then the Output Transformer has to work too hard basically.
This means that you can't hook up 2 8 Ohm cabs simultaneously to the Fireball, but it still works for the Ironball.
If you want to hook up 2 cabs simultaneously to the Fireball, they have to be 16 Ohm cabs both.

Here's a good comparison video of the Fireball 25 and the MT15:



PRS MT15 has slightly nicer cleans, more jangly, in my opinion. For the high gain sounds, it's probably more a matter of preference and what other features you're looking for. The PRS is cheaper of course, but it has significantly less bells and whistles (no noise gate, no mid-boost, no footswitchable master volume boost (pre-set value), no footswitchable fx-loop).

I see, luckily I have no plans on playing with a drummer, although its nice to know it can keep up with a normal drummer, even if you do run out of headroom for perfect cleans.
I won't really be using the amp for its cleans anyway, so I imagine even with a loud drummer it would keep up on the lead/overdrive channel?

Definitely, for just 20 quid it looks a lot better, and uses the KT77's instead of the E633's. I had never heard of E633's until this amp- I don't know much about amps as I have said though.

OK, I have no plans of running a full stack/two cabs through the amp so thats not a concern for me luckily.

I will check out the video now, thank you.

Yes the fact the PRS is a lot more affordable is swaying me, this is so hard to choose!

Also, I tried changing the speaker cable from the 8 Ohm output which is correct to the 16 Ohm output, and the issue with my amp is gone. I was playing for a good half hour or so and the volume was not fading out.
I don't understand how if the jack has gone bad it would start after a few minutes though.
Is there any problem with me running the 8 Ohm cab from the 16 Ohm output, as I have heard of amp mismatching being OK but I am not sure when it is OK to do.

 

[napalmdeath]

I may have explained wrong, I didn't change the input jack on the cab, I changed it on the amp from the 8 Ohm output to the 16 Ohm output and it now works properly.

On the amp it is different jacks for 8 and 16 Ohms. I will give them a good spray with contact cleaner.

I just don't understand why the problem was happening after the amp had warmed up though, and not straight away if it was the jack?

If the cab is 8 ohms, plugging it into the 16 Ohm jack on the amp is not a good idea. Clean the 8 Ohm jack on the head. Sounds like it might need cleaning, or wiring issue. Doesn't it have 2 x 8 and 1 x 16 jacks on the amp?

 

[conanthewarrior]

If the cab is 8 ohms, plugging it into the 16 Ohm jack on the amp is not a good idea. Clean the 8 Ohm jack on the head. Sounds like it might need cleaning, or wiring issue. Doesn't it have 2 x 8 and 1 x 16 jacks on the amp?

It has 1x8 Ohm and 2x 16 Ohm outputs on the amp.

OK, I will clean the 8 Ohm jack instead and see if that works, thank you.

 

[Erock]

It has 1x8 Ohm and 2x 16 Ohm outputs on the amp.

OK, I will clean the 8 Ohm jack instead and see if that works, thank you.

I think you got that backwards man, the 2x16 ohm cabs means it would be seeing 8ohm at the amp. 2x16ohm in parallel is 8ohm. There is usually only one 16ohm output since no one uses 32ohm cabs.

 

[conanthewarrior]

I think you got that backwards man, the 2x16 ohm cabs means it would be seeing 8ohm at the amp. 2x16ohm in parallel is 8ohm. There is usually only one 16ohm output since no one uses 32ohm cabs.

I just checked the back of the amp and it is definitely 1x8 Ohm and 2x16 Ohm, I can upload a picture if you want?

 

[Erock]

I just checked the back of the amp and it is definitely 1x8 Ohm and 2x16 Ohm, I can upload a picture if you want?

Yeah, that would be great. I could be wrong, but I've never seen 2x16ohm taps, on any amp. That would require 2 x 32ohm cabs in parallel to be of any use.

 

[conanthewarrior]

Yeah, that would be great. I could be wrong, but I've never seen 2x16ohm cab inputs, on any amp.

Ok two seconds, here it is, sorry it is a bit blurry

 

[Erock]

Ok two seconds, here it is, sorry it is a bit blurry

yeah man, that says 2x 16ohm cabs, which would be 8ohms at the head. That is also 1 single 8ohm cab. The 16ohm tap is for one single 16ohm cab.

 

[conanthewarrior]

yeah man, that says 2x 16ohm cabs, which would be 8ohms at the head. That is also 1 single 8ohm cab. The 16ohm tap is for one single 16ohm cab.

Oh I see, where it said 2x16 Ohm I assumed it could run two 16 ohm cabs, or are we both talking about the same thing but I have got confused lol? I realise two 16 ohm cabs would lower the resistance to 8 Ohms.

 

[Erock]

Oh I see, where it said 2x16 Ohm I assumed it could run two 16 ohm cabs, or are we both talking about the same thing but I have got confused lol? I realise two 16 ohm cabs would lower the resistance to 8 Ohms.

yes, you could run two 16ohm cabs, and that would result in 8ohm at the head since those are parallel jacks. You could also plug one 8ohm cab in either socket, and the head would see the same resultant 8ohms. The single jack all the way right labeled 1x16ohm is for a single 16ohm cab.

 

[conanthewarrior]

yes, you could run two 16ohm cabs, and that would result in 8ohm at the head since those are parallel jacks. You could also plug one 8ohm cab in either socket, and the head would see the same resultant 8ohms. The single jack all the way right labeled 1x16ohm is for a single 16ohm cab.

Oh OK that sounds good then, so where one of the 16 Ohm outputs is working fine for me, and the head still sees 8 Ohms, it is safe to keep the speaker cable plugged into the 16 Ohm output jack?

 

[Erock]

Oh OK that sounds good then, so where one of the 16 Ohm outputs is working fine for me, and the head still sees 8 Ohms, it is safe to keep the speaker cable plugged into the 16 Ohm output jack?

if you have an 8ohm cab, you should be plugged into one of the left input jacks, labeled "2x16ohm or 1x8ohm".

If you have a 16ohm cab, you should be plugged into the far right jack labeled "1x16ohm"

 

[conanthewarrior]

if you have an 8ohm cab, you should be plugged into one of the left input jacks, labeled "2x16ohm or 1x8ohm".

If you have a 16ohm cab, you should be plugged into the far right jack labeled "1x16ohm"

I am plugged into the second jack with an 8 Ohm cab, labeled 2x16 Ohms. The 1x8 Ohm output seems to have failed, as using one of the 2x16 Ohm jacks has solved the volume problem

 

[Erock]

yeah, sounds like there is an issue with the first jack. The first 2 jacks on the left are parallel jacks, wired to the 8ohm tap on your output transformer. Your head will be seeing 8ohms using either jack if you are using an 8ohm cab. You aren't running a mismatch that way.

 

[conanthewarrior]

yeah, sounds like there is an issue with the first jack. The first 2 jacks on the left are parallel jacks, wired to the 8ohm tap on your output transformer. Your head will be seeing 8ohms using either jack if you are using an 8ohm cab. You aren't running a mismatch that way.

Thank you for explaining that for me, I feel better knowing I am not running a mismatch and potentially damaging the amp.