VHT Special 6 Ultra 6W 1x12 Hand-Wired Tube Guitar Combo Amp  

For the price, VHT focused its features selection for this Special 6 Ultra on tone, not on effects. So, you get no reverb or tremolo. Not surprising. Instead, what VHT does give you is an incredible amount of adjustment in tone via the combinations of wattage output, tone, depth, volume, volume boost, and ultra selector settings, as well as this quirky 'texture' switch. This texture switch doesn't appear to do much when you first plug in the amp, but after a week or two of using this amp, I've come to appreciate the subtle changes in tone it does make. With all of these options in tone adjusted in different combinations, you can, in fact, begin to create your own reverb. I'm still trying to dial in the settings that appeal to me the most for my Strat vs. my Flying V, but the efforts in doing so have been immensely pleasing.

Absolutely no complaints. Built with tremendous quality. I took it on the road this Christmas weekend and loading it into the car this morning, my son said, "Dad, is that thing heavy?" He could see how I was struggling a bit with it. That's not to say it weighs too much. It's just to say that it weighs a lot more than you would expect for a 6-watt tube amp. Of course, weight is down to size of speaker, real wood cabinet, etc. , which this amp has got. Which also gives contributes to its great tone. The quality is in this amp is tip-top.

Without a doubt, this amp is one of the best pieces of musical equipment I have ever purchased for the price. It's taken me a lot of trial and error with equipment purchases to discover what's really great for the given price. I'm not a pro player, but I do spend a fair amount of money on equipment for my playing hobby. And because I'm not out playing halls and clubs, I don't need a lot of wattage. So, I've purchased and returned a number of tube amps in the 4- to 30-watt range. This VHT Special 6 Ultra punches far above its weight. It's an absolute keeper.

If you read my comments above, you'll know very clearly how I feel about this amp. Yes, it's built in China and no, I don't favor anything Chinese, but this amp is superb and I have no qualms about rating it unequivocally as a '10.'

I'm giving an 8 here because I've not yet had the chance to put this amp through all of its paces as live gig gear.  But so far, I'm really excited about the versatility this amp offers me for rehearsing at home & playing with quiter combo/singer song writer side-guy set ups.  I already own a ground-up built 4x10 Clark Congaree tweed bassman dialed harp amp with a built in attenuator and that's my rolling stock for a full-fledged ensemble gig in clubs or on festival stages. Too bad Clark no longer makes them because they are a killer boutique American made harmonica amp...

I got the VHT because it's been generating a lot of great buzz on the harp internet channels and one reason is that players who also want to mod their amps have found this to be a great amp on a wide array of fronts.  

The amp appears well-built and everything is accessible for those who are inclined to tweak or mod their board or tubes.  I've replaced the tubes it shipped with by using new-old or deadstock tubes of higher quality (to my liking and ear) and always carry spares to gigs.  The tolex is tight and the amp is well put together for this price range.  Not a fan of the logo styling, but then again I don't want to pay another 500 bucks to dime out the facade. My 4x10 looks killer, but is so heavy, ain't nobody gonna wander off with it when my back is turned. So the fact that this doesn't look like a more expensive amp is fine with me. It looks like a solid state cheapy in some ways, but sounds like an amp that'd be worth half again as much in cost. 

The array of controls for tone, texture, volume, grit, grind, punch, roll-off, shimmer, bottom...all been discussed well enough in other reviews here.  I'll just add that as a harp player, I use a quiver of mics and each of these has it's own voice that will sometimes play very nice with one amp, but not with another.  I've used vintage and new built crystal, em cartridge bullet mics, an Audix Fireball, a tiny condenser button mic, and sure 545 and even a 58 via xlr-to-1/4" plug adapter.  And every one of them plays nice with this amp and can be dialed in so many different ways it just keeps me playing around with settings for hours just to see what flies...and ain't nothing crashed yet.

For non-harp players, you need to understand that the signal from a hand held mic is way hotter than your guitar pick up that feed back is usually a problem long before you get decent tone...so generally you have to swap out the pre-amp tubes to 12ay or 12au etc. and even mod the board to rolloff and get punch. And you need to be able to go from apartment rehearsal volume to competing with drums and multiple guitar players who all think they are SRV or Jimmy Page. This amp lets me do all of this, especially with the line out and an FX loop so that the verb, delay, and chorus pedals I might use don't get muddied in the overdrive of the preamp.  Dig it, this amp does it.

Again, I'm only at an 8 here because time will tell. As a stay at home rehearsal amp, I don't see much of a rigors issue.  And, again, a board that is easy to mod is also easy to fix...so that seems a plus to me simply as a matter of access and design.  I keep spare tubes on hand all the time just because I'm inclined to be prepared.  But if you treat your gear hard and are playing a hundred plus shows a year, then, well, who knows. Get an Anvil case for it.

I'm undecided about the speaker. That's a personal ear thing. So far, the shipped-with is doing just fine and I expect more break-in will improve it further. That said, at this price point, swapping out for a fave that fits this board or your mods to the board would be your choice and it's done easily enough.

Look, I'd rather buy American. And I own vintage American build Gibson, Fender, and new-build Clark amps. That said, are you freakin' kidding me? This tone and versatility at this price point speaks for itself.  The line out is wonderful, too. And and FX loop is such a plus.  This amp just does what harp players need done at a very, very, very reasonable price.  And plays nice right out of the box.  Another local harp player (who is a monster player) and someone who builds and mods his own amps with remarkable skill, really loves the less expensive VHT Special 6 for his quieter harp combo gigs.  I admire this guy's playing, no question---killer tone and chops. But he knows the insides and outsides of amp builds. If he gives the VHT the thumbs up, all I can tell you is that was enough for me to go all in.

I won't ever give up my 4x10 Clark Congaree. Ever. And I love my vintage Les Paul Gibson champ clone. I even found a way to love my Fender Pro Jr. as a harp amp.  But, really, the VHT is a real love-at-first bite steal for this price. You save enough to buy a good quality verb/delay pedal and have enough options to experiment even before you start looking to dig deeper into board mods.
Out of the box great amp for harp players who want nice tube tone w/o feedback problems. And your neighbors won't tell you that you're still not nailing the phrasing to LW's Juke....

Wonderfully flexible, with a lot of tonal possibilities strewn over a wide range of genres.

Very good quality - no particle board.  Its not a boutique amp, but i have returned many other amps due to shoddy or cheap construction.  No complaints here.

Cant say enough about the value. Ive wasted far more money to get something i regretted buying. Not so here.

OK - If you want to play a tube amp at home you will quickly find that 1W can make quite a lot of sound - I have a 1.5w head that when going through a 12" still cant be turned up halfway without being painfully loud.  If you want a low wattage amp, you usually have a lot of trouble finding one with a decent preamp section.  Here you have a ton of flexibilty - Normal channel, Ultra channel, Boost, Tone, 3-way character switch, and of course variable watts. 

It has an effects loop to add the missing reverb, so that isnt a negative. And the speaker isnt great - but its not bad either (still a little early to tell as it needs to be broken in a little more). 

Bottom line - a great amp that I can live with in the house - and dont be fooled into thinking you can never play live with it. If you need to - just plug in more efficient speakers. Oh, and its got a line out so you can also p.a. it.

Extremely wide range of tones and works with single coils to hot humbuckers.  Very usable without any mods.  I have owned many of the 5 watt modern production amps/combos, most need modded to sound decent, or offer much versatility.  With factory VVR, it goes from bedroom to practice, to stage.

Layout is great, full size pots, sockets, and jacks are all mounted off the "turret" board.  Excellent design!

Great value with solid construction.  My only comment would be that when you plug in speakers cabs to the external speaker outputs it does not kill the internal speaker.  And to unplug the internal speaker you have to unscrew and pull the back off.  It has 2 external speaker jacks and one internal.  I may set it up with the external jacks switching off the internal speaker, or better yet, route the internal speaker wire/plug out of the cab to the external jacks, for easy use of internal 16 ohm speaker with external 16 ohm cab, or hook up to two external cabs.  I don't see why you would ever have 3 speaker jacks all connected at once (only 4, 8, and 16 ohm secondary impedance selections).

Solid construction that I expect to last, no pcb or pcb mounted jacks/pots to fail.   If ever needed, repair made easy by the layout and use of individual components and turret board.  Mods easy if you so desire, but really not needed with this little Single Ended amp.  This amp is a keeper.

Dual input, ultra and clean provide a very wide range of character. Depth, texture, triode/pentode, footswitchable boost, allow fine tuning for use with single coils to hot HBs.  Built in VariableVoltage Regulator for bedroom to practice/stage use (mic'd).  Solid constructed cab, good size, nice weight, easy to transport.

The features have been shown in lots of other places. Tons of value here. Nice to have a  speaker out that will plug into anything. All combos should have this. I choose this amp over the Marshall Class 5  because I didn't need a pedal with this to get the hard rock sounds I like, nor did I need to crank it to non house friendly volumes. I wish it had reverb, but you can't have everything.

So far so good. Well put together .

Add up the features and you can't beat it.  Now look for that coupon...

The toughest thing about this amp will be finding one in a store to play. As stated , I chose this over the class 5 , but it would be fun to have them side by side for a test.  The VHT is way more versatile . If you like hard rock tones without having to use a pedal, this is the amp. It can be brittle at high gain so at some point I will do a tube swap.