I want to know if you guys know of a good low wattage EL34 amp... or poweramp?
I like the tone of the EL34 tubes (specially when I played my MP-1 thru the loop of a Marshall 2550) but for the setup that I want to have a normal 50w-100w power section because it will be just over doing it since I'll be using it just to get the dry tone + tube poweramp tone in a line signal to a mixer.
Low wattage and EL34 (or 6L6)....that´s the catch.
"The" EL34 tone you refer to comes from a pair of EL34s in a Push/Pull configuration. With a plate voltage of commonly around 375-450V, this would result in 50W (under perfect conditions). Given the fact that you would have to run the tubes pretty hot to achieve these perfect conditions, it´s even more common that a pair of EL34 in any common guitar amp would run around 60-80% of its max plate dissipation (>>Bias adjust).
So we´re talking about roughly 40W.
To get this distinctive EL34 sound you have to push the tubes to make them work and shine. A 50W Marshall head with this config can already be damn loud.
Bottom line: EL34 tube power amp tone vs low wattage : ZIP.
Most lower wattage (but still, 20w tube power is loud) tube poweramp designs utilize EL84 tubes (Mesa 20/20 Dynawatt, Marshall 20/20, "old" Engl 2x20 or 2x35) or 6V6 (lower wattage Fender Amps). But these sound different than EL34.
Recently, low wattage amps using "power scaling" have become very popular (Suhr Badger, Engl Gigmaster, Hughes & Kettner Tonemeister, various Boogies,....).
The Suhr Badger 30 e.g. uses an EL34 based power amp design than can be "scaled down" to "low wattage"....but seriously, that lil amp goes for 2000€ over here
I don´t know of any rack poweramp with power scaling.
There´s a couple though with a "Half-Power" (Mesa Fifty/Fifty, Engl) feature.
But even the "Half-Pwr" on the Fifty/Fifty (15W per channel) is loud.
YMMV....