Has anybody used a car or hifi amp as clean power for a guitar rig?

[Seashore]

This isn't urgent for me, but I'm considering getting a small power amp to replace the 100W power section I'm using in my upstairs practice setup. I don't need much output volume - conversation-level solo practice - but I do need it to be clean for the preamp pedals. I'm not looking for an early breakup kind of thing. I also can't spend Powerstage money on it.

I've seen the cheap EHX options, the Quilters, etc. But it looks like a little hifi amp would give me more power for less money. I can put together cables with the right connectors if I need to. Has anybody else tried this out?

 

[beaubrummels]

I just use personal powered monitors for that task, like the BOSS MA-15A type.

For a clean hi-fi amp that's pretty cheap, I'd look at Parts Express

Car ones require battery type voltage, so not as practical.

 

[RanchManSandy]

EHX 5mm can be had for under $50 for your fyi

 

[Securb]

Just pickup a practice amp on Facebook Marketplace for $30 and be done with it

 

[Seashore]

Just pickup a practice amp on Facebook Marketplace for $30 and be done with it

You'd think, but not around here. For $30 I can get a 40W Lepai power amp, sit it on top of my little 2x10 cab, and theoretically have all the clean power I would ever want for this practice setup. It's the Revv pedal for distortion and the Bogner pedal for cleans, so I need headroom... not sure if the 5mm would be enough in the headroom department. I was curious if anyone had tried this kind of setup with a non-guitar-specific power amp and run into any pitfalls I should look out for.

 

[Securb]

We had a guy here who built a ton of guitar amps with class D amps but sadly he passed away.

 

[Seashore]

Dang. I'm sorry to hear it. Hopefully I can give this a shot sometime soon and post back about success or failure.

 

[ICTGoober]

Car stereo amps? Are you kidding?

I knew a guy back in the late 70's who used a Crown power amp for this bass rig. He knew guys who used Macintosh amps.

 

[Securb]

Car stereo amps? Are you kidding?

I knew a guy back in the late 70's who used a Crown power amp for this bass rig. He knew guys who used Macintosh amps.

I used a JBL power amp to drive my stack

 

[Seashore]

Car stereo amps? Are you kidding?

I knew a guy back in the late 70's who used a Crown power amp for this bass rig. He knew guys who used Macintosh amps.

No, not kidding. There are a lot of cheap, small, and apparently good-sounding class D amps online these days. Some of them are aimed at the auto market, which is why I mentioned them; I've seen a couple things online about people integrating them into lunchbox heads or homebrew powered speaker cabs. I wanted to see if anyone here had any experience with that kind of thing.

In my case, the practice setup is a 2 channel pedalboard with good sounding preamp pedals and a small cabinet, but I only have 100+W heads to power the thing. It's overkill. I'd like to have something physically smaller that comes in its own enclosure, with a power supply I can plug into the wall, so as Beau points out I probably should stick with the hifi stuff.

 

[ICTGoober]

Okay, my bad. I was thinking of the car stereos I installed back in the 80's. These days car audio is a little more refined, shall we say.

 

[Masta' C]

I have a very similar dual-channel pedalboard setup that I run into a Playtech GPA-100 powering a V30-loaded 1x12" cab. It's the same unit as the Harley Benton GPA-100, but set up for U.S. voltage (100-120V). I really like it...reasonable size, great at lower volumes, and no external wall-wart. Picked it up on eBay from a Japanese seller for around $100 USD.

 

[donaldr]

I think you can get a Katana 50w gen1 for less than $150, it should probably be head & shoulder and way more convenient than a car power amp running at 12v.

 

[Seashore]

I have a very similar dual-channel pedalboard setup that I run into a Playtech GPA-100 powering a V30-loaded 1x12" cab. It's the same unit as the Harley Benton GPA-100, but set up for U.S. voltage (100-120V). I really like it...reasonable size, great at lower volumes, and no external wall-wart. Picked it up on eBay from a Japanese seller for around $100 USD.

Cool, thank you. I think something like this or a Quilter Microblock 45 would be the next step, if this cheap power amp idea doesn't work out. More convenient, more portable, more guitar-friendly... I'll keep it in mind.

​

 

[Seashore]

EHX 5mm can be had for under $50 for your fyi

Thanks... I haven't played through one of these, but a few reviews say it starts to break up pretty early. Would probably be perfect if it had more headroom. The more breakup I have happening downstream, the worse this pedalboard setup sounds. A used 15w Howitzer might work out well.

I think you can get a Katana 50w gen1 for less than $150, it should probably be head & shoulder and way more convenient than a car power amp running at 12v.

Katanas are really cool little amps, but it's more than I need and more than I want to spend.​

 

[Artie]

I knew a guy back in the late 70's who used a Crown power amp for this bass rig. He knew guys who used Macintosh amps.

In my earlier guitar days, including my first decade or so in this forum, I did a modeling front end, (Yamaha FX-500 or Johnson J-Station), into a Crown D-150A and Yamaha NS-1000m's. It sounded great. Still have it all, but now I've got a couple nice toob amps. Both Bogner-ish.

 

[80's_Thrash_Metal]

You can get one of those little Joyo Bantamps used for under $100, they rock, and also you can use them as a Bluetooth device.

 

[Seashore]

You can get one of those little Joyo Bantamps used for under $100, they rock, and also you can use them as a Bluetooth device.

That's how I started on this little journey. I was looking at those and the Hotone Nano Legacy amps, which are even cheaper, and then I realized all I wanted out of any of them was the power section, which got me looking for small pedalboard amps, then class D and class AB power amps, and... here I am.

 

[idsnowdog]

I have one of those tiny Fender 9v amps and I added a speaker out. It sounds surprisingly good pushing a 4x12.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

For a while I had my Crown XLS 2500 hooked up to both my hi-fi speakers (binding post's/bare speaker cables) and two 4x12's L-R (using the 1/4" jack out's) using a heavy duty speaker switcher.

I could use my big floor-standing hi-fi speakers with IR's as well. Sounded like any 2500 watt guitar rig :lmao:

OK I know Crown's power figure's are exaggerated but I would guess at least 300 Watts RMS :bigthumb:

Had to discontinue it though. Blew my floor-stander's tweeters and the neighbours kept calling the cops on me...fun times