Best rig for apartment playing

[midnite_man]

Hey Forum!
I need some ideas to help me cope with my current dilemna. I'm in between selling a house and finding one to buy, and am roughing it in an apartment right now. I have a bunch of stuff stored in this little 1 BR humble abode, but among it all is my Fender DRRI and Marshall JCM2000 DSL50 amps. Not much I can do with those two brutes in this living arrangement. What's the rig of choice for these types of situations where volume is a no-no? Is there a piece of equipment I could run off one of my amp's speaker outputs that I could plug a set of good headphones into and get good results with?
Man, I'm jonesin' pretty bad right now as I haven't played any electric in about 3 weeks....just plunkin' away on my old Epi acoustic for ****s and giggles.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
....Bob

 

[strat_master]

Re: Best rig for apartment playing

how about a can amp? I think fender makes one and im sure it is cheap. Or i think matshall makes those mini amps that you can stick to your belt like the one jack black uses in school of rock. IM sure those can't be that loud and im sure its managable. And i think they run for 50 bucks max.

 

[midnite_man]

Re: Best rig for apartment playing

I'll check some of those out. Thanks!

 

[DeadSkinSlayer3]

Re: Best rig for apartment playing

a good DI box might work well.

for another amp, I'd go for a MicroCube, or one of the Vox Valvetronix 15 watters.

 

[midnite_man]

Re: Best rig for apartment playing

I'd like to be able to plug my pedal-board into whatever I decide to use. Can these little "belt-clip" headphone amps handle that?

 

[54stratlover]

Re: Best rig for apartment playing

line 6 pod. you can the 2.0 version used for pretty cheap. I think the price on the newer XT version came down recently.

 

[Ez74]

Re: Best rig for apartment playing

get a behringer V-amp2 for under $100

 

[MrHeavyMetal]

Re: Best rig for apartment playing

why not just get a power soak from Weber to play your current amps at much lower volumes ?

http://www.webervst.com/mass.html


Of course, a POD Xt or POD Xt Live would be nice with headphones.

 

[Illini1330]

Re: Best rig for apartment playing

pod xt gets my vote. I think they're around $300 now. Great for recording, and the built in effects aren't to shaby.

 

[kmcguitars]

Re: Best rig for apartment playing

The line 6 GuitarPort is the best bang for the buck !! $100 bucks and ya
get a truck load of amps and gear in your PC. Play it right thru your
computer speakers or headphone. Doesn't take up much space. A fraction
of the space a small combo would take. Best thing... It sounds pretty darn
good.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Best rig for apartment playing

Get a Vox Valvetronix amp. I use an AD60 head on the same cabs I run my tube heads through. It has a variable wattage selector, so you can get great tones from clean to liquid sustain at apartment levels. It also has a recording out and headphone out, which mutes the speaker, and they both have a volume control.
It's a great sounding amp, when used with your 4-12. You may actually start to favor it over the DSL, for sheer versatility, onboard tuner, and FX laid out analog style.
You can get the heads from $300-$400

'Wattage' just bought the new little 15W Valvetronix combo w/8" speaker.
He loves the amp, and those only cost about $180.

 

[Mike M.]

Re: Best rig for apartment playing

I second a Vox modeling amp. I tried the new 50 watt combo and I really would'nt mind having one myself. Seems an amp like that would be perfect for late night (or apartment) playing. They cost about $350.00 but if that's too much the 15 watter as Gearjonser said costs around $180.00.

 

[midnite_man]

Re: Best rig for apartment playing

Thanks guys!
It's looking like maybe a POD 2.0 or a small amp might be in order. That Roland MicroCube looks kinda cool. There's a cheap little Marshall MG15CD 15 Watt Combo
for $99 I saw at M-F.
I thought about a power-brake or attenuator to keep the volume down with one of my smaller tube amps, but I'm not sure if that would still fly with my neighbors in such close proximity.
Good info!!

 

[B2D]

Re: Best rig for apartment playing

A POD 2.0 and a good pair of headphones.

 

[strat_master]

Re: Best rig for apartment playing

hmmm pod does sound like a good option come to think of it. But dont they cost a fair bit?

 

[rocksoldier]

Re: Best rig for apartment playing

No they are pretty cheap, under 200 bucks....
Otherwise, just get the v-amp2.
Sounds very decent and costs less than 100 bucks.

 

[Stratcat]

Re: Best rig for apartment playing

A Fender 6 watt all tube amp will do the job.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=38074&item=3762614156&rd=1

 

[Hellion]

Re: Best rig for apartment playing

How 'bout a Spider 50 watt with 2 10 inch speakers? Great sounding amp!

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: Best rig for apartment playing

I played the stripped down Valvetronix (the one with black tolex and silver grill) and thought it was an actually decent amp. The "boutique clean" setting was really really outstanding, and I'm usually very critical of those things. 15w would be perfect for the apartment and at Guitar Center where I tried it out, they were letting them go for $150 brand new.

 

[tenniso]

Re: Best rig for apartment playing

My Vox Pathfinder 15R sounds surprisingly good and it's only $120