'Practice' Amps

R

Robbiedbee

New member
Hey all.

I have a few musical projects on the go at the moment. I have my gigging amp sorted (cheers Kyuss Rock) but for practices, there is no way I will be able to cart a big amp around.

I have been looking at some smaller alternatives. The two that stand out are the Vox Valvetronix AD15VT 15W and a Roland Cube. Mayve the 15 or the 20 watt version. They look good to me. What do you guys think?

I am not looking for anything specifically solid state, valve, modelling or whatever. Just something that's nice and loud, reliable, has 2 channels, isn't too pricey and is around £100. My limit is probably around £150.

Thanks in advance!

Robbie
 
Re: 'Practice' Amps

i have never played a valvetronix but if you want it cheap probably a marshall mg (hate it, my friend has one and it looks like its made out of cardboard), peavey transtube (pretty ok for the price), or a cheap epiphone valve amp (never tried it). ive never really been a fan of most solid state stuff out there but if its for practice its all good, just dont get a line 6 spider. BTW sorry if i got the wrong price range, just dunno the currency change from quid to buck
 
Re: 'Practice' Amps

I refuse to get an MG. I am buying a Marshall tube amp from the aforementioned Kyuss Rock, and that is replacing my MG50. They 50 watt MG is too big and heavy to hunk around. I dread to think how bad anything smaller than that sounds.

Other suggestions were duly noted though, thanks!
 
Re: 'Practice' Amps

Epi Valve is in your price range, not a bad little amp and cheap enough to mod if your into that stuff.

Not two chanels though
 
Re: 'Practice' Amps

The issue is of you need a multi-channel or single channel set-up. Type of tone yoiu need as well. For me going from clean to 80's gain is a pedalboard and small single channel amp has worked the best. Blues Jr., Tweed Deluxe, 1x12 Supro based, or a Blackface of some type.
 
Re: 'Practice' Amps

I'm also on the hunt for a combo. My search has been narrowed down to these (mainly) solid state amps, for reasons of price, a cheap and available footswitch, ability to drive a second cab, portability (1-12"s only), and volume. I should note that I'm pretty open in terms of tone because I can always fall back on a slightly dirty setting with a tube OD pedal and be happy if worse comes to worse.

carvin sx100 (1-12")
randall rg75
peavey bandit
peavy valve king (1-12"); the only tube como I'd get right now (sounds great to me for the price)

Note: I haven't been able to play the carvin or randall. But given reviews and specs, I think they'll do just fine.

if you don't care about ability to drive a second cab or a cheap footswitch, I'd consider the VOX valvetronix line.

when you say loud is a requirement...that might bump up your wattage a bit from your initial post. I use minimum of like 75w ss or 50w tube. anything over that is just icing on the cake.
 
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Re: 'Practice' Amps

The Roland Cube 30 is good and I think it's within your budget - check Strings Direct and GAK. It has two channels, but the clean channel is pure clean, i.e. no gain control. (There are models of Fender cleans with gain control on the 'Lead' channel though). If you want to change channel with a footswitch you have to buy the Roland footswitch. I tried using a regular footswitch but you have to click it twice to get it to change.

I have seen used Tech 21 Trademark 60s go for less than £200 on ebay - they are GREAT small amps, if you can afford to wait and watch for one.
 
Re: 'Practice' Amps

Simon_F said:
I have seen used Tech 21 Trademark 60s go for less than £200 on ebay - they are GREAT small amps, if you can afford to wait and watch for one.
Click to expand...

I tried one today thinking I'd dig it. It acted funny at high gain. The one I played was $300 at GC. At high gain, it had a weird compression thing going on, where when I hit a chord it would compress/go down in volume slightly then a few milliseconds later it would rise up to a normal level. I definitely wasn't imagining it. At mid/low gain it did sound very killer, but it seemed to get too hot for its britches at higher OD levels. I had a similar thing happen to me when I was building some OD foot pedals using JFETs.
 
Re: 'Practice' Amps

I saw that you said you might get a valveking. I own one and it pretty much beats the randall and the bandit (although the bandit is alright) the carv' and the others no idea...The VKing is alright because for the price IT KILLS THE COMPETITION, but I think that if you want it to compete with something higher end (such as something waaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy more expensive) it definitely needs a speaker change (If you got ideas for mine, much appreciated!!) and some new tubes might help too (again, ideas are appreciated!!) i dunno about others but my tubes came with really small air leaking (little but almost no blue glow, but still just the fact that it has some is terrible...) So what i'm saying is GO FOR THE VKING AND WATCH OUT BECAUSE WHEN I GOT IT IT COST LIKE 350$ AND NOW THOSE SONSOF*** RAISED IT TO LIKE 450$
 
Re: 'Practice' Amps

Rolands are typically the best production solid-state amps there are...but they never seem to be cheap.

I have a houseful of amps, it seems, but the one that gets the second-most use is an original "Cube 20" from the early '80s, one of the ones with the ugly rotting-orange colored vinyl. It's my bench amp in the studio and a remarkably fine little amp. They were extremely expensive when introduced (Guitar Center claimed a $299.99 MSRP in 1983!), but I got mine on long sale for a hundred bucks when the San Francisco store had a big pyramid of them on closeout. If the current Cube series lives up to that, they're great.

The amp I currently love is the most recent version of the Epiphone "Valve Junior." I flat adore that amp! I have it stuck into the recess of the nightstand by my bed. Pure tube sound -- no tone stack, no effects, no baloney.

$107 new, shipped. Be sure to get the latest version with DC filaments, though!

As much as I want to like the cheap Vox amps, they have consistently disappointed me with their inconsistent sound and poor quality control.
 
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Re: 'Practice' Amps

I can send ya up a skateboard to push the DSL around on.

But those Vox valvetronix things are pretty nice, i was using the 15 watt one the other day in a store. Pretty impressive for the £.
 
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