VHT Special 6 Combo Amplifier, 6 Watts Review
Boutique amplifier players may take a quick liking to the VHT Special 6 Combo Amplifier. It is a handwired tube, with unique features and a great price tag. The Special 6 is mod-friendly and easy to customize, both for tube amp enthusiasts as well as home amp builders. It gets its powerful tube sound from the 12AX7 preamp tube and one 6V6 output tube.
The Special 6 features a footswitchable Gain Boost that will significantly expand its range of tones. By using the Gain Boost, players can quickly change between clean rhythm tones and overdriven leads, basically duplicating the functions of a footswitchable 2-channel amp, in a simple handwired, all-tube, 2-knob package.
To expand its range of tones, the Special 6 also comes with a High/Low power switch to enhance low-volume tones with an extra smoothness (when in half-power mode). It’s a good feature when recording, or if you are simply practicing in your bedroom and need low volume. In high-power mode, it’s one of the few amps in its class that is strong enough and loud enough to compete against a strong drummer. The Special VHT Special 6 Combo Amplifier is also outfitted with a high sensitivity 10″ VHT Special Design speaker.
VHT Special 6 Combo Amplifier, 6 Watts Features:
* Power: 6 watts
* One 12AX7 Preamp Tube
* Footswitchable Boost Mode
* 4, 8, and 16 Ohm speaker jacks
* Mod-friendly eyelet-type board
* Dimensions: 18 x 20 x 12 inches
VHT Special 6 Combo Amplifier, 6 Watts Reviews:
Many of the reviews and comments that I have read indicate a strong favorable opinion of this amplifier from VHT. One reviewer stated that the new VHT company is really delivering some great amps at a great price. The Special 6 Combo Amplifier is good looking and hand wired, making it a great place to start for those who are changing from a solid state to a tube amplifier.
Another consumer who has played for quite awhile and has owned a good amount of high end gear, absolutely dislikes carrying heavy gear, and taking nice amps out. Also, a big concern with tube amps is the amount of abuse they may sustain when driving from gig to gig. The Special 6 is a great amp that fixes this.
It has great tone, and is very well constructed. Due to the price, the reviewer actually purchased two of them and they stated that when run simultaneously, these amps sound huge. There’s enough headroom to run it clean, and get all your gain from your pedals. It seems to be great with pedals, and it was also mentioned that it even sounds very nice with a 10″ speaker.
Their conclusion was to do yourself a favor. Pick up this amp if you have a chance, it will save your back as well as your bank account, because it’s definitely worth the money. Other things said have been that it is an unbelievable value and it really delivers. It has a great overdrive sound, but yet it has a surprisingly sweet clean tone. The simple circuit makes swapping tubes interesting no doubt.
For the worst review of this amplifier, here is what was said. The consumer plugged in and the first thing they got was a shrill, thin sound. They replaced the stock tubes with an old Motorola 6V6 and a Groove Tube 12AX7. After this, the amplifier mellowed out. Unfortunately after about an hour of play it began to short out.
The speaker output jack is made of plastic and it had melted. The reviewer did say that it is better than most amps in the price range, but they wouldn’t buy another one of these amps. The other thing that we found was that a different reviewer stated that the factory installed tubes sound ok, but you won’t regret making the decision to install something better. However, the 10″ speaker from the factory was generally well received.
With the nice amount of headroom this amplifier provides along with very high ratings from nearly every single reviewer, I will go ahead and give it my high recommendations. Plenty of strength and an overall very good buy.
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