Need suggestions for a new Bedroom Amp

jtougas

jtougas

New member
My beloved l'il Tech21 TradeMark 10 bit the dust over the weekend - in the middle of playing, there was a slight building fuzz, then sound dropped out entirely. Now, none of the low gain settings work properly - if I want to hear anything out of them, I have to crank the Master *waaaaaay* up.

Sooo... bedroom amps. Suggestions?

Qualifications :

Solid state 10w or so, tube 5w or so
Headphones a must
Built in reverb preferred, but I have a Holy Grail (I'd just rather not keep pulling it in and out of the recording rig fx loop)
Would prefer a full tone stack

I'm swinging by Guitar Center after work today, to try a few - Fender Mustang I & II, Line 6, Orange Micro Terror, ZT Lunchbox, Roland Cubes... Brugera makes a 5w tube jobbie... anything else?

I dig the idea of the Hayden L'il Mofo, but the sound quality would have to be worlds above everything else for me to live through bringing that home.
 
Re: Need suggestions for a new Bedroom Amp

Orange dark terror kicks ass, but it's 7/15 watts. Not terribly loud, I think it would work for home. No full tone stack.

Also the marshal DSL 5 kicks serious ass. FX loop, more than enough gain. Only drawback is the 10'' speaker and it sounds a bit fizzy but all in all I liked it.

I just got a marshall Sl5. Love it, man. Celestion V30 in it, and built in reverb (digital). Kicks ass. No fx loop though.
 
Re: Need suggestions for a new Bedroom Amp

If you don't mind digital and don't plan on gigging it, then the Roland Cube Lite is great for home use. I use my Avatar 45 and Lonestar amps with the band, a fender pro junior for small garage jams and the cube lite for home use. Here are it's benefits:

- very very lightweight
- has a good clean, overdrive and heavy tone
- doesn't look like a guitar amp. Looks like a Bose or Sonos speaker so you can put it on a shelf in the living room in plain sight without upsetting the wife. She can even plug her iphone in to play her music.
- it has a headphone jack and an input for your iphone or iPad. You can use this for jamming along to music or for recording to iphone garageband.
- has a built in chorus and reverb
- sounds great in the room but does not carry through the whole house

No the overdrive does not sound as good as a real tube amp, but I can't even get my pro junior past 2 without it being way loud in the house so have to use a pedal. The tones on the cube lite are perfectly adequate for practicing and the clean tone is actually quite good. The biggest factor for me is playing along with songs and creating quick backing tracks to help my guitar practice.

Hope this helps.
 
Re: Need suggestions for a new Bedroom Amp

jclogston said:
get an engl ironball! Just got one and it is awesome!
Click to expand...

Okay... the Hayden is going for $400 ($300 in the right places), and that was mentioned as my highwater mark for price.

What are you smoking, and can I have some? ;)
 
Re: Need suggestions for a new Bedroom Amp

If headphones are a must, any tube amp is out, unless it has a load built in.

Peavey's VIP Vypyr is pretty nice, no FX Loop but there's a guy on the Peavey Forum that can install one if you need it.
 
Re: Need suggestions for a new Bedroom Amp

Bugera V5. Dark amp. Quiet or loud. Works well with pedals. Attenuator. Headphone out. extension cab out. Only one tone knob though. Can play clean blues, and gnarly. With pedal it can do heavier. The combo does rattle so an extension cab helps.
 
Re: Need suggestions for a new Bedroom Amp

Dominus - there are a few that do (not many though) - the aforementioned Hayden, the Bugera v5, some of the Oranges...

After being threatened with dismemberment of a particularly exact nature by the wife, I went with one of these:


For $90, we'll see how long it lasts. I've got a few practice amps I can turn into a cab for it.
 
Re: Need suggestions for a new Bedroom Amp

What the heck is that? Was that at GC? Never heard of it or the company.
 
Re: Need suggestions for a new Bedroom Amp

Found it scouring ebay. Made in China, I think, and imported through a few different places. Video didn't sound horrible, so...

It's basically a "F#$% it, let's give it a shot" purchase.

I'll start a pool on how long it lasts before fusing itself together, $5 an entry... ;)

They also make a "British Invasion" model that is supposed to mimic a Vox...
 
Re: Need suggestions for a new Bedroom Amp

or you can check out my post here on the Randall RVC5. No headphones but it does distortion at bedroom volumes.
 
Re: Need suggestions for a new Bedroom Amp

I played one of those at the GC. Sounded decent, but too much treble for my tastes - going from 0 (7 o'clock) to 5ish (12 o'clock) were all usable, but past that it just sounded brittle to me.
 
Re: Need suggestions for a new Bedroom Amp

You already suggested everything that'll do it.

I'm a Roland cube fan, obviously...
 
Re: Need suggestions for a new Bedroom Amp

jtougas said:
Found it scouring ebay. Made in China, I think, and imported through a few different places. Video didn't sound horrible, so...

It's basically a "F#$% it, let's give it a shot" purchase.

I'll start a pool on how long it lasts before fusing itself together, $5 an entry... ;)

They also make a "British Invasion" model that is supposed to mimic a Vox...
Click to expand...

Interesting. Hope it works out! I usually find that the determining factor in something like this is how it responds in person to palm mutes on the lower strings. Report back please.

The demo isn't bad - sounds like it's being pushed to its limits which is pretty cool for a bedroom dealio.
 
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