Ball&Chain
Active member
I was out of town yesterday and had a moment to drop by a mom and pop music store to hopefully buy me some elixir or D’Addario EXP 10-52 strings. Seems nobody carries The D’Addarios for electrics and I rarely see Elixir’s in any guage above 10-46. Short story short, while I was perusing the usuall string inventory (i.e. no strings for me) I saw this guy trying out an LTD guitar. His playing needed a lot of work as do most peoples, myself included, but he was doing well enough to get a sample of the tone coming from the amp which I couldn’t see. I was really digging the tone, so I ventured over to see what the amp was. On initial inspection, it appreared he was playing through a Kustom combo in 212 format, which I at least thought would account for the nice full sound. I still coulnd see the front of the amps and almost left it at that, but decided to disturb the guy and poked my head around and followed the cord to the actual amp.
To my surprise, the amp was a 15 watt version of the Peavey Vypyr. It had a nice saturated high gain tone going with some nice mid-range grind. Im really wanting to get myself a good practice amp in the somewhat near future as the only actual amp I have is a Kustom solid state that really sounds crappy. Unfortunately, im the kinda player that has to dig what im hearing or im just not into it as much and effectively play like ****.
Right now, my amp rig consists of a Line6 Guitar Port, a laptop and a set of headphones. A friend and I have some plans to hit the C-Bus GC and Sam Ash in the next couple weeks and make a day of it. My plan is to demo everything I can ranging from the $150 practice jobs to the higher end tube amps, just to get a feel what my money gets me at various price points and then decide what sacrifices I need to make if any to get what I need. My early initial thoughts are A Peavey 6505(+) or Blackstar HT-5 – HT-20, but my first experience hearing the Vypyr in live action has me intrigued, so I’ll also look at the usual Peavey Vypyr, Vox Valvtronics, Line 6 Spider and Roland cube options.
I guess my main question revolves around the Peavey Vypyr and the USB equipped options. How good is recording using the USB and can you go bare bones just using the amp and a DAW, or is it best with cab simms etc.?
The Blackstar’s have a cab simulated out. How do those sound? What more would you need besides the amp and a USB interface not counting any effects?
Anyway, sigh, I had to order me a set of the D’Addario EXP strings from MF. Free shipping though. I’ll now find out how they compare to Elixir’s which im pretty impressed with.
To my surprise, the amp was a 15 watt version of the Peavey Vypyr. It had a nice saturated high gain tone going with some nice mid-range grind. Im really wanting to get myself a good practice amp in the somewhat near future as the only actual amp I have is a Kustom solid state that really sounds crappy. Unfortunately, im the kinda player that has to dig what im hearing or im just not into it as much and effectively play like ****.
Right now, my amp rig consists of a Line6 Guitar Port, a laptop and a set of headphones. A friend and I have some plans to hit the C-Bus GC and Sam Ash in the next couple weeks and make a day of it. My plan is to demo everything I can ranging from the $150 practice jobs to the higher end tube amps, just to get a feel what my money gets me at various price points and then decide what sacrifices I need to make if any to get what I need. My early initial thoughts are A Peavey 6505(+) or Blackstar HT-5 – HT-20, but my first experience hearing the Vypyr in live action has me intrigued, so I’ll also look at the usual Peavey Vypyr, Vox Valvtronics, Line 6 Spider and Roland cube options.
I guess my main question revolves around the Peavey Vypyr and the USB equipped options. How good is recording using the USB and can you go bare bones just using the amp and a DAW, or is it best with cab simms etc.?
The Blackstar’s have a cab simulated out. How do those sound? What more would you need besides the amp and a USB interface not counting any effects?
Anyway, sigh, I had to order me a set of the D’Addario EXP strings from MF. Free shipping though. I’ll now find out how they compare to Elixir’s which im pretty impressed with.
