Laney CUB-10 - on harmonicas

This is the sound test of 10W tube amplifier "Laney CUB-10" equipped with: 10" Celestion G10E-30 speaker (ribbed cone), tubes: 2x Ruby 6V6GT, 2x Ruby 12AX7 AC5, played on: Hohner Marine Band Deluxe harmonicas in key of: A, D, G, microphone CAD HM-50 VC with Shure 99A86 CM element. Recorded on: Shure SM57 dynamic microphone, Zoom H4n recorder.
Harmonicas:
key of A - 00:20
key of D - 01:31
key of G - 01:57

[@norfolknwhey4787]

Tube and speaker swap will do wonders for that amp. 5751 or 12ay7, and a smooth cone alnico will fatten it up by a lot. It’s a bit shrill as is. Good for cutting thru a mix I suppose.

[@rychubil]

I had this amp very short time. I only swapped for a moment tubes for 2 JJs - 12AY7 and 12AU7, which gave less feedback and bit more crunchy tone. I didn't have time for swaping a speaker but I heard CUB-10 Friend of mine with Jensen Ceramic and was a bit improvement.

[@norfolknwhey4787]

@@rychubil oh gotcha. I spent quite a while working on small wattage amps for harp, and found smooth cones to be ideal for that controllable break-up and thick tone. The ceramic’s definitely improve headroom, but don’t have the same timbre as an alnico/smooth combo. I do really like them for 15W+, especially in a live setting. You sound great already, just thought I’d share my experience with the small wattage amps.

[@rychubil]

@@norfolknwhey4787 that's true, smooth cones sounds the best for harmonica. I had 8" Weber ceramic smooth in Harley Benton Tube5, it was big improvement against ribbed cones of Celestion and Jensen. Now I have 10" Jensen Alnico P10Q in Harp Train 10 but I prefer stock speaker of Lone Wolf (also smooth cone but not Alnico).