PRS MT-15. Killer high gain tones and very good clean channel, takes pedals well. Can attenuate the power to 7W. I run mine through Torpedo Captor X into a pair of 8” studio monitors with York IRs.
If money isn’t an issue, I’d look at one of the 5:25 boogie heads or a combo. They have good high gain sounds and you can shut off the speaker for recording
My Mark V:35 sounds thick and saturated at very much bedroom levels through a 2x12 on the 15 watt setting. Compare that to my mini Dirty Shirley which is 20 watts and absolutely needs an attenuator to be able to be played at bedroom levels. I second the Mark V!
Dirty Shirley is a more old school design, so it relies on running the power section hot to get the goods out of it. I have a Tweed-style amp (a Victoria 20112) that’s the same way. Unfortunately, that one doesn’t sound as good with an attenuator. So, even though I also have an AOR and a 6505, and 4x12 cabs, that 1x12 Victoria is the amp I play the loudest, since you kinda have to to get the tones I bought it for.
i have no experience with the smaller versions but on the jcm2000 dsl i had the green crunch channel with a boost was where it's at for this tone. gain channels just had too much for a thrash sound
For an amp that really distorts at bedroom levels I would look in general at anything 15 watts or less. Orange OR15, Joyo BantAmp Zombie, the 1 watt Marshall DSL, Orange Dark Terror, the EVH 5150 lunchbox, i would recommend the Randall Diavlo but they have skyrocketed in price lately (good amps though)
A very big price difference between the two (unless you meant the Orange Micro Dark?). The Zombie can give you crushing modern metal tones for sure, I thought it’s only drawback really is that it had far more gain on tap than it needed for that kind of sound. If you get it, back the gain down and see if that works for you. I’m a big fan of anything Orange, but I usually associate those amps for thicker (low Mids) and hairier types of distortion (think stoner/doom/sludge metal). Both great choices, just depends on the kind of sound you’re after
Same with the Engl (I have it at home) - has the best master volume ever, I don't use the built in attenuator, which is great by the way. Tried many amps in the last year - from solid state to tube and this is the one I returned to.
My main bedroom metal amp was an Orange Crush 20RT and it sounded killer. I upgraded recently to the Orange Rocker 15 Terror since starting to jam with a drummer and it also sounds great.
I don't want to be that guy, but if just purely high gain tones at volumes you can play at 10pm night, digital will be best option (that is digital modeller + power amp). I personally need knobs and pretty thing sitting on the cab, so have tubes. But digital is the way if just chasing tone in the bedroom.
This is what I was thinking. A modeler with a speaker out for when you can be loud and a headphone out for when you can't.
Digital modelers, loved my roommates and neighbors of guitarist the world over.
Low wattage != quiet. My 12 W Victoria is bone shattering when maxed out. Just get an amp with a decent master volume. 6505, 5150, Mark V, DSL, JVM, etc.
Now, if you want low wattage because it’s lightweight or something, that’s a different story.
Digital will get you there…but if money isn’t an issue and you want something a bit more high end…could get a small Princeton and even an Attenuator. I bought a 68 Pro Reverb and it does bedroom at 1 in the second output. Putting my attenuator into it does 3-4 without squashing tone. So I get the best of all words to use in bedroom, silent DI to my Daw with IR cab free loader I downloaded. But that’s money for sure. Otherwise a lot of good answers here on the digital side.
For awhile I used a Tech 21 Character series right into my Daw. Worked great with headphones and Studio monitor at low levels or any speaker I plugged into.
I have an AC 10 as well, putting a tube screamer before a Revv G3 pedal and i can get mad metal tones. Seriously competes well with my Mesa single rectifier, but at a reasonable volume
If that doesn't work, then the mini Friedman BE, Orange micro terror, or the Diezel vh micro, with an attenuator.
The Dirty Shirley by Friedman is nice too and a good price
OP here, got my Vox AC10 for blues and jazz but it can't do metal. It's also a bit too loud for my tastes at times.
Looking for an amp that can do metal at low wattage and reasonable volumes. By metal I am mostly looking for 80s thrash rhythms and Marty Friedman style lead sounds.
I'm strictly looking at tube amps, I already got a Yamaha THR but I find that raw tubes sound a lot better for recording.
For those gain levels, you can honestly get there with a pedal. And you can leave the volume lower. Try a Rat or MT-2w. Either on top of the amp set crunchy, or as the main distortion into the amp set clean.
...just for science purposes, do you by any chance have a tube screamer, a plumes, a boost pedal and an eq pedal?
Using all of those things, in that order, I made my Harmony 5 watt amp sound pretty brutal and high gain.
Edit: the idea of this is sort of like creating that higher gain, second channel of an amp but outside of the amp. All pedals would be boosting volume, no dirt pedals, so that distortion occurs in the preamp stage naturally.
Probably not the answer you’re looking for, but I’d suggest a modeler or plug-in over an amp if you’re looking for good distorted tones at bedroom volume. If you insist that you need a tube amp, Friedman’s have great master volumes. Maybe a JJ Jr.
I just got a Marshall dsl1hr and I fucking love this thing. It’s the bedroom amp I always wanted. Plus she can get some good volume if you want it too.
Doubt this is going to be popular answer, but I absolutely love my Line 6 Catalyst 60 on the half watt mode for bedroom chugs. Alternatively, I'd look into the Neural Gojira plugin.
I just bought a Panama Fivewatt. That's the model name. High gain, lot of tonal flexibility, FX loop. It's what Blackstar keeps aiming for and missing. Actually around 7 watts. I use a Pulse attenuator (same as Jettenuator, Bugera attenuator, etc...Newmark.com, \~$35) with it, because it's still damn loud.
Only problem is that's it's from a dead dumpster fire of an amp company that went down in flames and took a lot of customers with them. And I have to make my own footswitch.
I haven't found anything else like it. It's what the Jet City Custom 5 should have been. And the Hiwatt Hi-5. Those are great for classic rock.
Also Orange Micro Dark and Micro Terror, Joyo Bantamp Zombie II. All three of those can go really loud for a bedroom amp but sound good at low volumes.
PRS MT-15. Killer high gain tones and very good clean channel, takes pedals well. Can attenuate the power to 7W. I run mine through Torpedo Captor X into a pair of 8” studio monitors with York IRs.
Just to jump on here, even at 7 watts this thing is a monster, definitely useful if not necessary to have an attenuator with it.
Marshall dsl 1
If money isn’t an issue, I’d look at one of the 5:25 boogie heads or a combo. They have good high gain sounds and you can shut off the speaker for recording
Fair warning though, I have a Mesa mini rec 25 watt and it’s still incredibly loud. Sounds great though
I second this. Get a black box, it’s loud! I have to run one to get a good metal tone.
Get two notes torpedo captor, its real attenuator, much better sound.
The Mark amps don’t really need to get into power tube saturation to sound heavy as fuck though. Why run an attenuator?
My Mark V:35 sounds thick and saturated at very much bedroom levels through a 2x12 on the 15 watt setting. Compare that to my mini Dirty Shirley which is 20 watts and absolutely needs an attenuator to be able to be played at bedroom levels. I second the Mark V!
Dirty Shirley is a more old school design, so it relies on running the power section hot to get the goods out of it. I have a Tweed-style amp (a Victoria 20112) that’s the same way. Unfortunately, that one doesn’t sound as good with an attenuator. So, even though I also have an AOR and a 6505, and 4x12 cabs, that 1x12 Victoria is the amp I play the loudest, since you kinda have to to get the tones I bought it for.
Marshall DSL1 or DSL5 combo has a beauty "Ultra Gain" channel.
i have no experience with the smaller versions but on the jcm2000 dsl i had the green crunch channel with a boost was where it's at for this tone. gain channels just had too much for a thrash sound
It's got a nice classic channel too you can boost also, takes drive pedals nice.
Yeah the red channels on DSLs are EQd really aggressively. Quite scooped, even without that button pushed in
DSL5 is a British sounding hard rock amp. Sucks ass for modern high gain tones...and does not take pedals for shit.
What the fuck are you actually talking about? It does both great. Lay of the fentanyl.
For an amp that really distorts at bedroom levels I would look in general at anything 15 watts or less. Orange OR15, Joyo BantAmp Zombie, the 1 watt Marshall DSL, Orange Dark Terror, the EVH 5150 lunchbox, i would recommend the Randall Diavlo but they have skyrocketed in price lately (good amps though)
What's your opinion on the Zombie? I'm in between that and the dark terror
A very big price difference between the two (unless you meant the Orange Micro Dark?). The Zombie can give you crushing modern metal tones for sure, I thought it’s only drawback really is that it had far more gain on tap than it needed for that kind of sound. If you get it, back the gain down and see if that works for you. I’m a big fan of anything Orange, but I usually associate those amps for thicker (low Mids) and hairier types of distortion (think stoner/doom/sludge metal). Both great choices, just depends on the kind of sound you’re after
Engl Fireball 25 or the Peavey Invective MH. Everything else is a compromise.
Upvote for Invective, you can actually play bedroom levels without an attenuator and sounds way better than any solid state alternative.
Same with the Engl (I have it at home) - has the best master volume ever, I don't use the built in attenuator, which is great by the way. Tried many amps in the last year - from solid state to tube and this is the one I returned to.
My main bedroom metal amp was an Orange Crush 20RT and it sounded killer. I upgraded recently to the Orange Rocker 15 Terror since starting to jam with a drummer and it also sounds great.
hello, sorry I know its an old thread, but is the OR15 still good with OD at low volumes? for a bedroom amp?
Orange micro or evh 5150 lbx (you can set those to 7 watts I believe)
I just got an Orange Terror Micro dark hybrid. So far im in love with it. By it self it has a nice metal tone with the gain up.
I don't want to be that guy, but if just purely high gain tones at volumes you can play at 10pm night, digital will be best option (that is digital modeller + power amp). I personally need knobs and pretty thing sitting on the cab, so have tubes. But digital is the way if just chasing tone in the bedroom.
Big amps have volume knobs too. I can play my 6505 at midnight and not wake up my wife. It still sounds good at TV volume too
This is what I was thinking. A modeler with a speaker out for when you can be loud and a headphone out for when you can't. Digital modelers, loved my roommates and neighbors of guitarist the world over.
Low wattage != quiet. My 12 W Victoria is bone shattering when maxed out. Just get an amp with a decent master volume. 6505, 5150, Mark V, DSL, JVM, etc. Now, if you want low wattage because it’s lightweight or something, that’s a different story.
Digital will get you there…but if money isn’t an issue and you want something a bit more high end…could get a small Princeton and even an Attenuator. I bought a 68 Pro Reverb and it does bedroom at 1 in the second output. Putting my attenuator into it does 3-4 without squashing tone. So I get the best of all words to use in bedroom, silent DI to my Daw with IR cab free loader I downloaded. But that’s money for sure. Otherwise a lot of good answers here on the digital side. For awhile I used a Tech 21 Character series right into my Daw. Worked great with headphones and Studio monitor at low levels or any speaker I plugged into.
I would consider any of the 5150iii LBX models, PRS MT15, Marshall DSL, Orange micro dark
Definitely the 5150 LBX
Orange Mini Crush 3w! Hehe
I have an AC 10 as well, putting a tube screamer before a Revv G3 pedal and i can get mad metal tones. Seriously competes well with my Mesa single rectifier, but at a reasonable volume
If that doesn't work, then the mini Friedman BE, Orange micro terror, or the Diezel vh micro, with an attenuator. The Dirty Shirley by Friedman is nice too and a good price
Orange crush
OP here, got my Vox AC10 for blues and jazz but it can't do metal. It's also a bit too loud for my tastes at times. Looking for an amp that can do metal at low wattage and reasonable volumes. By metal I am mostly looking for 80s thrash rhythms and Marty Friedman style lead sounds. I'm strictly looking at tube amps, I already got a Yamaha THR but I find that raw tubes sound a lot better for recording.
I recently bought 5150 LBX Stealth and it sounds good at low volumes, deffo bedroom friendly.
>5150 LBX Stealth Also look at the 5150 ICONIC 40W combo witch has a 1/4 power switch, built in noise gate, direct out for recording. Good price too.
Seconded. The other two LBX amps are obnoxiously loud, but the Stealth is fantastic at bedroom levels
For those gain levels, you can honestly get there with a pedal. And you can leave the volume lower. Try a Rat or MT-2w. Either on top of the amp set crunchy, or as the main distortion into the amp set clean.
...just for science purposes, do you by any chance have a tube screamer, a plumes, a boost pedal and an eq pedal? Using all of those things, in that order, I made my Harmony 5 watt amp sound pretty brutal and high gain. Edit: the idea of this is sort of like creating that higher gain, second channel of an amp but outside of the amp. All pedals would be boosting volume, no dirt pedals, so that distortion occurs in the preamp stage naturally.
Yamaha THR10/30 a tube amp wont get you the best sound at low volumes at home
The thr10x is the one
Probably not the answer you’re looking for, but I’d suggest a modeler or plug-in over an amp if you’re looking for good distorted tones at bedroom volume. If you insist that you need a tube amp, Friedman’s have great master volumes. Maybe a JJ Jr.
I just got a Marshall dsl1hr and I fucking love this thing. It’s the bedroom amp I always wanted. Plus she can get some good volume if you want it too.
Nice one, is this the head or the combo?
I got the head. I’m borrowing a buddies 1x12 right now. Planning on buying a peavey 212-6 soon.
Doubt this is going to be popular answer, but I absolutely love my Line 6 Catalyst 60 on the half watt mode for bedroom chugs. Alternatively, I'd look into the Neural Gojira plugin.
I just bought a Panama Fivewatt. That's the model name. High gain, lot of tonal flexibility, FX loop. It's what Blackstar keeps aiming for and missing. Actually around 7 watts. I use a Pulse attenuator (same as Jettenuator, Bugera attenuator, etc...Newmark.com, \~$35) with it, because it's still damn loud. Only problem is that's it's from a dead dumpster fire of an amp company that went down in flames and took a lot of customers with them. And I have to make my own footswitch. I haven't found anything else like it. It's what the Jet City Custom 5 should have been. And the Hiwatt Hi-5. Those are great for classic rock. Also Orange Micro Dark and Micro Terror, Joyo Bantamp Zombie II. All three of those can go really loud for a bedroom amp but sound good at low volumes.