Special 6 Combo Ultra : Home Player Heaven

As the title suggests, I play mainly at home, using a Telecaster, clean or with a bit of grit usually with compressor, delay and a touch of chorus or phase and the Special 6 Ultra is ideal for this purpose. Often I've found that a valve amp needs cranking before delivering the goods but this combo shines at any volume thanks to the Watts control. It's not perfect, you need to keep the Watts above 12 o clock get a full tonal palette but it works fine for the intended purpose. Having an effects loop is really nice on an amp at this price, delays and modulation seem to sound richer in the loop. I find all the sounds I need are available via the Clean input, esp if the pull Bright is engaged but the Ultra channel is nice to have and can really make the amp sing. It's a shame they're not switchable via a single input but for the intended purpose - home play and practise it's not a big deal. Last but not least, a 12" speaker which sounds big and fills the room, although it's principally a practise amp I think it could easily handle a small gig, esp as there's a speaker out option. I think the ply cabinet helps in this regard, it certainly makes it lot easier to move around compared to an mdf box. My previous combo was a Vox Pathfinder 15R and the step up to a valve amp is really noticeable; esp in responsivity of the guitar, it feels more alive. This is a great combo at any price.