TheMaartian
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Home practice amps
I am wondering what you use, and why, for practice amps at home. For bass amps, I have an Ampeg BA-108 and a Blackstar Fly 3 Bass. For guitar amps, I have a Vox AC4TV and a Blackstar Fly 3. The Ampeg is my favorite of the group. First, it's less than $100. Second, it's perfect for practice with its 1/8" or 1/4" auxiliary input and 1/8" headphone output. The aux input is great for playing drum loops or Slacker Radio from one of the apps on my phone. It has a cut-corner back so you can angle it up off the floor, and a -15 dB pad on the input for hot active pickups. Sounds quite good for its small size and solid state amp. I saw the Vox on a Musician's Friend STotD for $205 and? Yup, instant GAS. Really nice tube tone with a decent Celestion speaker. It has 3 power settings: 4 watt, 1 watt, 1/4 watt (for really bi#chy neighbors). I can't recommend the tone at 1/4 watt. Weak and thin. My only real complaint is that I wish it had a little more clean drive before breaking into distortion (starts breaking around 25-30% of input gain). The Blackstar Fly amps are terrific, especially the guitar one (about $60). Both have Blackstar's ISF tone control (from British valve to American clean). The guitar amp has an Overdrive pushbutton and a variable Delay (time and level). The bass amp is similar, but with a compressor instead of a Delay. Both have 1/8" aux in/phone out jacks. And both are, of course, battery powered (an A/C adapter jack is available, as is their PSU-1 power supply). 
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BassDaddy
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Re: Home practice amps
2017/10/23 21:58:12
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Try the Vox with the back panel off. You might like the sound better. I took the speaker out of mine and just use it as a head. I feel like that little enclosed back with all particle board choked the sound. It was kind of dull and boxy sounding too.
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TheMaartian
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Re: Home practice amps
2017/10/23 22:06:26
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BassDaddy
Try the Vox with the back panel off. You might like the sound better. I took the speaker out of mine and just use it as a head. I feel like that little enclosed back with all particle board choked the sound. It was kind of dull and boxy sounding too.
Thanks for the tip. I'll give that a try. One thing I don't want to do is buy an amp for $200 and then replace the tubes and speaker for more than I paid for the amp.
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kennywtelejazz
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Re: Home practice amps
2017/10/24 09:25:57
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For at home practice I spend a good deal of my time playing my guitar out of a Fender Champ 600 ...
I like the way it sounds . At the volumes I practice at which are low this little tube amp has a very nice clean glassy tube sound that is very natural and not hyped in any way ...
Most of the time I'm playing w out effects so I just run a guitar cable into it and use a headstock gtr tuner ...
When I want a processed guitar sound for practice or just busting a nut I will play out of a Yamaha THR5 ...
The Yamaha THR 5 is one of the best little practice amps I have ever bought ...
Not only does it have some very nice effects and sounds built in to it , it also feels like I'm playing out of one of my real tube amps when ever I play out of it ...This little amp is very responsive to fingerboard touch and playing dynamics ....for an amp Modeler it is shocking how responsive the tone and dynamics are ....
When ever I feel like hooking up my pedal board I love playing out of my Marshall Class 5 combo ...
The amp itself sounds fine , the thing is when I hook up my pedal board to that amp and play an SG w P 90s
or my Les Paul ...its like a tone hounds heaven .....
Another honorable mention for home practice is my Vox Pathfinder 15 R ...
The Vox Pathfinder 15 R is a wonderful sounding amp at any volume ....Fender guitars sound great played out of them ...
I have used both the Vox and the Marshall Class 5 for small club gigs when a louder amp / band volume was not welcome ...some of the small rinky dink places I used to play at ....
all the best ,
Kenny
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Slugbaby
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Re: Home practice amps
2017/10/24 12:45:54
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For home practice, I've got:
Vox Pathfinder 15 - not bad sound, not great. Low-cost.
Line6 Spider 2x12 - good sound (considering i can't afford the amp i want), but it's LOUD. On the upside, you can dial in the overdrive to compensate for having the Volume at 1.
Irig UA - this is the most common one. Plugs into my phone, with earbuds. Works with both guitar and bass, so i'm set.
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synkrotron
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Re: Home practice amps
2017/10/24 13:05:15
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Blackstar ID:15TVP
My guitar skills do not warrant anything else...
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BobF
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Re: Home practice amps
2017/10/24 13:09:12
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Mostly I just play thru my DAW with sims. When I want to get back and away with no intention of recording anything, my Yammy THR10 is what I use. Phenomenal little amp, IMO
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chuckebaby
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Re: Home practice amps
2017/10/24 14:14:52
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I have several Vox amps but im mostly a Marshall amp person.
At the present what im using for the bulk of my recording is a Jet City 20 with some mods done to it.
I like it because it is small, breaks up easy, has a Marshall tone to it and handles pedals well.
I also prefer a head right now over a combo because I own a slew of cabs and speakers.
My favorite being the Soldano 2X12 with V30's in it. While it might not seem practical for bedroom recording, if you want something to sound amazing, you need something amazing.
My other amps include:
the Vox amps are Valvetronic series: VT50AD - VT30 and a Cambridge 30R (that is in the repair stage)
the Marshalls amps are: Marshall lead 12 mini stack 1986 - Marshall master lead 30 - Marshall DSL 15H
1959 Silvertone organ tube amp 5 watts. Peavey 6505+ and around 5 other solidstate amps (Fender 15R, BC Rich 15, exc, exc).
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batsbrew
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Re: Home practice amps
2017/10/24 14:16:14
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Cactus Music
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Re: Home practice amps
2017/10/24 16:03:28
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A friend of mine just bought this, I thought it was a bit overpriced and it doesn't have any way to use a foot switch to scroll the pre sets. But it sounded very full for the size and certainly easy to use. It looks cool with the front having an orange glow even though there are no tubes. http://www.musiciansfriend.com/amplifiers-effects/yamaha-thr5a-acoustic-modeling-combo-amp Myself in the studio and on stage I use my 73 Fender Princeton but I think I will retire it from live duty as I think I want to start looking after it. I bought a Blackstar ID 260T and find it's a pretty good replacement for live shows. I don't really use the effects because it's to hard to set compaired to my stomp boxes. I will need to get the footswitch to do that properly. But for the studio I still use the Princeton miked up. I tried the Blackstar via mini jack output :( and it's OK but not my sound. I mike it up for live as the mini jack is noisy. So minus points for not having a proper output.  For Bass I've had a few good very small things like the TCBH 250 http://www.tcelectronic.com/bh250/ But now I use a Fender Rumble 100. It's XLR output is very quiet and I get just the tone I'm after. I like using the amp as a monitor as I play, much better than suffering the output of my NMS 10's.
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pwalpwal
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Re: Home practice amps
2017/10/24 16:16:40
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TheMaartian
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Re: Home practice amps
2017/10/24 16:42:42
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Cactus Music
...
But now I use a Fender Rumble 100. It's XLR output is very quiet and I get just the tone I'm after. I like using the amp as a monitor as I play, much better than suffering the output of my NMS 10's.
I have a v3 200. Nice amp. Too much for home use. I haven't tested the DI out on it. Glad to hear it's a good one!
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rsinger
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Re: Home practice amps
2017/10/24 17:53:49
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I have some nice tube amps that are good for home use, but they don't see much use any more. I have two systems set up in my home studio. I have a VG-99 going into the DAW and use S-Gear and come out thru the PA. If I want some pedals I'll put TH3 or something in front of S-Gear. I also have pedals going into a PRS 20 head and the fx loop goes thru the DAW and I use S-Gear with that as well. I have two cabs that work with the PRS - a 2x12 CB with Weber Vintage Series AlNiCos (early 60's fender tone) or a 1x12 Celestion Greenback OB (early marshall sound).
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Cactus Music
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Re: Home practice amps
2017/10/24 20:10:34
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TheMaartian
Cactus Music
...
But now I use a Fender Rumble 100. It's XLR output is very quiet and I get just the tone I'm after. I like using the amp as a monitor as I play, much better than suffering the output of my NMS 10's.
I have a v3 200. Nice amp. Too much for home use. I haven't tested the DI out on it. Glad to hear it's a good one!
The beauty of my Rumble is it's super light weight and it fits under my desk. The Master level allows me to set the room level without it changing the DI output level. So you can even turn the speaker level off. You can see it behind my Dobro here. I use it for when I play gigs and it works well as an acoustic guitar amp too. 
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Soundwise
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Re: Home practice amps
2017/10/24 22:52:46
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I use Vox MINI 5. It covers all my needs for guitar practice and then some. For recording and headphones practice I most often use tube preamps.
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BassDaddy
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Re: Home practice amps
2017/10/25 00:52:59
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I don't have anything over 15 watts so everything is a practice amp. Kinda of prefer heads now too. Any combo has mods so I can use it as a speaker cab for use with any other head or combo. Fav lately has been an Eminence Cannabis Rex, which is in a Fender Musicmaster Bass amp, powered by a Fender Bassbrraker 15 head. A Bassbreaker 007 7 watt might be a better practice amp but the 15 has reverb and an effects loop.
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fret_man
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Re: Home practice amps
2017/10/25 13:17:01
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I use the AG-15M acoustic amp from Dean Markey. Very clean and reasonably transparent for something this small. I use it with Line6 modelers. 
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TheMaartian
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Re: Home practice amps
2017/10/25 14:35:05
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A Dean Markley Line 6 combo combo. Nice!
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thedukewestern
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Re: Home practice amps
2017/10/25 21:53:44
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I really like my yamaha thx!!
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Cactus Music
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Re: Home practice amps
2017/10/25 21:56:54
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When I had my music store I sold a lot of those Dean Markleys. Mostly a model that was bigger than the one above. One of the best sounding amps on the market at the time, Do they still make them. I regret not keeping one for myself. I never had anyone bring one back.
The worst amps for returns were Marshall Valvstates. All the controls would bonk out after less than a year. There was a little Samick 10 watt practice amp that was a dead ringer for a Marshall tone at 1/2 the price. They also developed scratchy pots. They used the identical parts.
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chuckebaby
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Re: Home practice amps
2017/10/26 22:51:35
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One side of my wall of amps (before I did the remodel)  The side view of my control room 
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michaelhanson
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Re: Home practice amps
2017/10/28 23:35:31
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BassDaddy
I don't have anything over 15 watts so everything is a practice amp. Kinda of prefer heads now too. Any combo has mods so I can use it as a speaker cab for use with any other head or combo. Fav lately has been an Eminence Cannabis Rex, which is in a Fender Musicmaster Bass amp, powered by a Fender Bassbrraker 15 head. A Bassbreaker 007 7 watt might be a better practice amp but the 15 has reverb and an effects loop.
Same here, but I have the combo. It sounds really good at low volumes, so it has become my practice and live amp. I have a Classic 50W that just doesn't get played much any more. 
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mettelus
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Re: Home practice amps
2017/10/28 23:58:10
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I have been fortunate in choosing a Carvin XV-212 (7-tube amp) when I first started out, based solely on a search for "good" and "tube amp" at that time. I leave it jacked to the secondary (-6dB) input with an old pedal board (for digital distortion) and have the power output set to 25% RMS. Even then I practice typically on volume level 2, but after 28 years I still have never gotten another amp.
Wait... I take that back... I actually bought a Marshall MS-2 at one point, but that thing was atrocious IMO. Still sits in a box somewhere.
Amp sims through a PA is also common for me for the past 5 years. It just depends if I am sitting at the computer or not.
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Bflat5
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Re: Home practice amps
2017/10/29 02:39:21
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For silent practice I just use direct outs on my JCM800 and JVM410H heads to my 18i20 and use various cab IR's.
For bass it's basically the same thing, but I use the Ampeg SCR-DI.
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BassDaddy
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Re: Home practice amps
2017/10/29 15:23:34
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michaelhanson
BassDaddy
I don't have anything over 15 watts so everything is a practice amp. Kinda of prefer heads now too. Any combo has mods so I can use it as a speaker cab for use with any other head or combo. Fav lately has been an Eminence Cannabis Rex, which is in a Fender Musicmaster Bass amp, powered by a Fender Bassbrraker 15 head. A Bassbreaker 007 7 watt might be a better practice amp but the 15 has reverb and an effects loop.
Same here, but I have the combo. It sounds really good at low volumes, so it has become my practice and live amp. I have a Classic 50W that just doesn't get played much any more.
Yup they sound good low or high volume. Paired with few really loud, efficient speakers (Eminence Ragin Cajun) it gets up to Deluxe territory.
It's Bass, not Bass. i7 2700K, 16GB DDR3, 2 SSD sample drives and OS drive, HDD SATAIII for projects, 2 24" monitors Focusrite Saffire Pro 24, Focusrite VRM Box, LAVA Lamp, SONAR Platinum 64 bit, Mackie MCU and 1 MCU XT, Akai Advance 49, Windows 10, Komplete 9 Ultimate, Cakewalk, Toontrack, IK, AAS, XLN, UVI, Air Music Tech, Waves Factory, Sample Tek and Sonivox VSTi's. Overloud, T-Racks, Audio Damage, D16, Nomad Factory, Waves Gold FX
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