Describe your Test Amp - what do you use to listen to new builds?

[traktop]

 I use a 73´hiwatt dr-103. The only reason is that it is the only amp that I own... Anyway, I think that is great for that, (when pairing with the right speakers), since is quite a "reference" amp in the sense that it translates very well what you throw at it. I mean, you can plug a gibson or a strat to a blackface kind of amp and you hear differences, but you always hear a blackface amp.... Do the same with the hiwatt and you will actually hear "your guitar" with all its nuances, (the goods and the bads), with an amazing level of detail.
 Now, I refer to what I said at the beggining of the post: Is the only amp I own and is the only one I play so I´ve got no other choice...

[alex.s]

I bought myself a little Vox AC4 for home use as it share a similar tone and feel as my gigging amp, a Vox AC30/6TB. I've been testing all my builds on the little fella and it's served me very well. I'm considering swapping the speaker for a Greenback as they go for quite ceap and should improve the tone by quite a bit, might pull the trigger at some point...

[Travis]

What size is the speaker in your ac4? I've got one too with the 8" speaker, and it would sound much better with a nicer 12" I think.

I've also got an ac30, which I prefer to test pedals with because the ac4 has really low headroom. I feel like I can hear the full sound with the ac30, where the ac4 tends to cut bass and clip and compress a lot

[alex.s]

Mine has a 10" speaker, which I imagine will already make an improvement over the 8".

It sure has pretty low headroom, but I've never used a "clean" amp sound as a base to build upon, always start with the amp breaking up a little anyway, so that isn't too big an issue for me...! I also have a 12AT7 (or is it an AY7? Need to check), which I bough a while ago as it should help a little in the way of at least apparently increase he headroom but as it were I never ended up trying it out...!

I've found a second hand g10 Greenback and will probably pick it up in the next few days, so might play around a little while the amp is open and try new speaker AND new valve to see what difference it makes...

[Ross]

I test all my pedals through the amp I'm going to use, which is a 1986 Gallien-Krueger 400RB through a Hartke cab of about the same vintage.