MIMF

Hi, guys!

I'm getting an electric uke for my birthday... Not an "acoustic" uke with a piezo pickup, but an electric uke like an electric guitar.

So, of course, I want an amp with very good cleans, but I don't really need it to be more than say 5-10-15-20 watts (if it's tube watts if it's a solid state or digital amp it doesn't matter) lol... I know that's a pretty big leap but I don't really need anything big at all if it's a tube, since I've learned the lesson; you need to crank them!

It needs to be reasonably priced too, of course. I don't really care if it's tube, solid state or digital or whatever if it has good cleans. Originally I thought about something like..say Roland Jazz Chorus cleans, maybe you can use that as a guideline.

So, give me your recommendations!

Since both my tube amps don't have clean channels, I don't know much about "tube cleans". Would I need amps bigger than the suggested wattage in order for the cleans not to break up? The lipstick Kent Armstrong pickup on my electric uke is only like 4,9k though, so it's not "hot" by any means.

Well, even a 5W tube amp can be really clean as long as You don't play it really loud. Or as long as You use it with a speaker of great sensitivity, which more or less means a good 12" speaker. Output transformer not too small. Which excludes all those chinese made 5 W tube amps unless they are modded accordingly. Which ist pretty easy.

The two stages of an 12AX7 provide more than enough gain für Your lipstick pickup.

So the setting might be something like an Epiphone Valve Junior modded with a better OT (!!), an AMZ or Fender tone stack between the two preamp stages and two volume pots, one ofter each stage. Sund an amp can do everything from shining clean sound through overdrive within the preamp (with the AMZ tone stack due to its low losses) up to overdrive of the power stage. Such an amp also makes a good practise amp for bass.

Some years ago i stumbled across a small tube combo - made in china - with such a setting (fender tone stack) and a 12" celestion. Beautiful sound... but i am happy with the two Epiphones i have modded.

I'm not much of an electric guy, but I love my little pignose amp.
For practice use, I also like the Blackstar Fly 3....however, you have much better taste than me.
Personally, I like small and cute amps.

I'll be looking on with interest.

My favorite utility clean amps are those solid state Fenders from the late '80s and 90s. I like the Princeton Chorus for its more than adequate clean headroom, wide EQ control, decent reverb, and beautiful stereo chorus. Its super dependable, and not at all finicky. It is however a slightly larger amp with two 10" speakers but you get really great clean output via not needing push the circuits at all. The amps are built with a lot more durability than anything made today and if it ever breaks, the parts are all available. If you go modern, I've been impressed with the sound and performance of the Roland CUBE-01. One of the music stores that I service has one of these in every lesson room and they sound great.

Care to share what you got since it has been a couple weeks since you updated this thread. I hope that you had a good birthday celebration.