favorite/best practice amp?

[shred1980now]

i'm looking for something i can haul around on road trips, motel to motel. something i can carry in one hand while i carry my guitar in the other. preferably something with a good classic metal tone. i tried searching and couldnt find anything. seems like nobody ever talks about practice amps. so whats your favorite little amp?

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: favorite/best practice amp?

I don't know if it's officially a "practice amp" but I'm gonna keep praising the Fender Mustang I until someone makes me stop.

It has a couple of models that do a very good metal tone.

For small amps under $200 it can't be beat IMO.

 

[guitarkid]

Re: favorite/best practice amp?

Blackstar HT-1, HT-5, or HT-5R, if you want something tube. A Fender Mustang is great if you want digital.

 

[innerdreamrecords.co]

Re: favorite/best practice amp?

Vox Mini 3



$100.00.

 

[JOLLY]

Re: favorite/best practice amp?

I bet those little Vox amplugs would do the trick for you.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/search/search.jsp?sB=r&question=vox+amplug

 

[guitfiddle]

Re: favorite/best practice amp?

Fender Vibro Champ XD

All the FUSE USB tweakability of the Mustang series, attached to a 5 watt, class A tube amp. Get the volume over 7 on most modelers, and you get exactly the same tone, louder. Crank the VCXD over 7, and you start to get real power tube overdrive added to the models. Loud enough to gig little rooms with, yet can do metal tones at a whisper.

$150 new.

Best deal in tube amps around today.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: favorite/best practice amp?

roland micro cube. runs on aa batteries. lots of amp models and effects. does the job. Headphone out too.

 

[Christopher Caruana]

Re: favorite/best practice amp?

Love my little Marshall MG15 for bedroom stuff

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: favorite/best practice amp?

I am puzzled as to the tube amp recommendations.

Even a 5 watt tube amp will get you kicked out of all but the crappiest motels.

 

[USAPatriot]

Re: favorite/best practice amp?

For 10 years or so...Fender Pro Jr!

I just sold it 2 weeks ago

 

[guitfiddle]

Re: favorite/best practice amp?

I am puzzled as to the tube amp recommendations.

Even a 5 watt tube amp will get you kicked out of all but the crappiest motels.

It's cause the volumeses, they go down, too.

Seriously, for most 5 watt tube amps, you're right on. They're too loud as soon as they start to open up, much less have a decent tone, but there are enough voices on the VCXD to get a good low volume tone at whisper levels, so you don't have to crank it up loud enough for anyone else but the player to hear. At those low volumes, tubes don't make any difference, really. It's only when you crank them up that they really start to go off and be too loud for apartment or motel playing.

 

[USAPatriot]

Re: favorite/best practice amp?

I am puzzled as to the tube amp recommendations.

Even a 5 watt tube amp will get you kicked out of all but the crappiest motels.

It's been about 35 years, but back in the day, weekends in those crappy motels rocked. And I'm pretty sure they still do in a lot of downtown areas...not the place you want to take your best girl or best guitar and amp. Times have changed I think but my old apart complex in the mid/late70's was a rockin house on weekends too. One night KILO 94 in Los Angeles along with one of the networks ran a simulcast of Alice Cooper's "Welcome to my Nightmare"...it was on radio and TV both. The entire building was shaking and I'm sure some of the BHOL's left for the night. A lot of Friday nights were that way. And yeah, I had my Fender hollowbody and Fender amp there too. -Rod-

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: favorite/best practice amp?

I still love my little Roland Cube 20X...

 

[guitarkid]

Re: favorite/best practice amp?

I am puzzled as to the tube amp recommendations.

Even a 5 watt tube amp will get you kicked out of all but the crappiest motels.

The HTs have headphone jacks and can still get VERY quiet without headphones. I just recommend those IF he wanted tubes.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: favorite/best practice amp?

It's a good question. I have never met a practice amp that I have truly bonded with – one with with I truly love the tone, instead of it just "doing the job OK." Small amps, sure. I am liking my newly fixed Gibson Skylark, which is basically like a Champ. And I love BF Vibro Champs. But when I think about what I want in a portable practice amp, I think multi channel and a headphone jack. That's what I'd want if I was traveling and wanted a "hotel room amp." In that role, my Bullet Reverb does the job, and has done it since I bought in in 2001. However, it really doesn't sound very good. I'd like to get a more "tubey" and "professional" sounding version of an amp with the same basic features.

Do small preamps like the SD ones work as headphone amps?

 

[CTN]

Re: favorite/best practice amp?

I don't own one, but every time I'm in a music store and I plug into a Roland Cube (any model), I am really impressed with the tightness and punchiness of those things.

I definitely want to get one.

 

[innerdreamrecords.co]

Re: favorite/best practice amp?

I don't own one, but every time I'm in a music store and I plug into a Roland Cube (any model), I am really impressed with the tightness and punchiness of those things.

I definitely want to get one.

I just had a Cube 15XL for a month I used it with Amplitubes cabinets and effects for recording, it did a good job. They're nice little amps, the 20XL has more features as does the 40XL but for $100.00 the 15XL is a cool little amp.

 

[Quencho092]

Re: favorite/best practice amp?

I like the roland cube bass that is a 4x3.5 I think, with the 4 white mini speakers. It has great efx, and fantastic apartment/room filling tone. so tiny you can throw it somewhere elevated and it will be audible in a loud jam.

for guitar of course.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: favorite/best practice amp?

For classic rock/metal tones, the Vox Valvetronix 20 and 30 watt combos sound the most authentic to me. There's always Valvetronix combos on Craigslist for low dollars. They do Marshall, Mesa, and Soldano. Plus, the Fender and Vox clean models.

 

[super rad stuff]

Re: favorite/best practice amp?

if you are bringing a capable laptop with you on business trips, i'd say the best solution is to get a line 6 toneport interface and grab a cheap set of portable computer speakers. you won't exactly be treated with the best tones in the world, but the cool thing is that just about every interface these days comes with light recording software and a myriad of guitar sounds built in, especially the line 6 stuff.

my laptop, portable speakers, and interface are all i pack if i want to practice on the road. overall, you'd be looking to spend around $170 for a setup like this; $130 for the interface and either a set of over-ear headphones or speakers depending on which audio situation you'd rather have.

edit:

btw, as far as a good classic metal tone goes, the line 6 gearbox has a bunch of '80s metal' and other heavy presets built in, along with a bunch of classic high gain amp head, cabinet, and pedal models. personally, all i ever end up dicking around with these days in my gearbox is the jcm800 setting with the 'green screamer' pedal along with some reverb/delay on to get the classic 80s metal thing happening.