Does anyone make a decent low wattage high gain amp?

[Grandturk]

How about the Mesa Transatlantic? I tried one out a few months ago with a strat with single coils and it had plenty of metal gain on tap. Switchable power levels, multiple channels. Do it.

[DonP]

I am in the same situation. I was about to buy the Blackstar HT-5 but started hearing that they have quality issues, at least here in Europe. The shop I buy my gear from told me that they have extinguished their dealership agreement with Blackstar. They had to return a bunch of them and got fed up with dealing with customers' returns.

I hear good things about the Vox VT15/VT30 and the Roland Cube20X/30X. Any specific suggestions on which one to get? Cheers

I went through those two and many before deciding on the VT15. The Cube30x is fine, but you just don't have as many flavors and options as the VT15.

[Chief_CrazyTalk]

I remember the Boogie studio 22 being a hell of a little amp years ago. But probably still too loud, although they didn't have to be turned way up to sound good.

[gtrcollectr]

How about the Mesa Transatlantic?

I played one of these yesterday and that amp is exactly what I am looking for.....killer.

[roodyrocker]

Are you looking for something just to record with? If so, you can't get much smaller than a ZVex Nano. Its a tube head that will literally fit in the palm of your hand. To do metal tones you'll still need a pedal but for recordable rock tones it will work fine. I plug a 1x12 cab into this little thing and can jam away without disturbing anyone
Another choice the Marshall Class 5. Again, good Rock tones but you'll need a pedal for metal. Its also an extremely loud 5w. So low wattage alone doesn't mean quiet.
The Egnater Tweaker is another good option. Sould do clean and heavier sounds.
None sound as heavy as a 100w cranked stack but...
These are lower cost options. If price isn't a factor then yeah, an Axe Fx will do it all

[Axewielder]

I'm glad I found this thread. I went and demo'd one of these Transatlantics today at the GC. I confess I like modelers for low volumes, but I've always got my ear to the tracks for a nice tube amp. This one will scale from what I would call "high bedroom" volumes up to "band practice" volume. The good news is that GC's stock these like crazy. Yup I dropped the cash for it and have been jamming on it all night. I'm stoked so far!

[gtrcollectr]

I played these...

Blackstar HT-5 - Sounded great but have seen some problems with quality mentioned on the web. This is what I would have got if I hadn't found the Mesa.
Vox Nighttrain\Orange Tiny Terror - Sounded great as well but is a little bit of a one trick pony along with the Orange Tiny Terror.
Mesa Transatlantic - Sounded awesome, also had more options for use outside of a studio such as foot-switching and 3 power levels which were all very usable. The swiss army knife of ultra portables.

[Grandturk]

The Mesa Transatlantic is the way to go. I'm definately adding it to my arsenal.

For right now, I've been using the Marshall Class 5 with a slew of pedals in front of it - Whiteface Rat, Plexitube, MXR Distortion +, etc. Its a great sounding amp, and will do AC/DC crunch without anything in front of it - but for anything more, you need a pedal. Which is cool because its a really warm sounding amp to put a pedal through. But - beware, they break up at very low settings on the volume - so you can't do loud-loud with a pedal - i.e. the tube breakup colors your pedals sound.