Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: mikey5 on December 24, 2009, 06:00:02 AM
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Today I played my orange TT and though i thought I had the volume low my neighbors were banging in the wall. So It looks like this current setup might get sold or collect some dust for the time being. I need to play guitar and today I went into the music store and started playing a spider valve 15 watts. I thougt it sounded decent for a little piece of $99 garbage. i was going to trade in a pedal for it. But knowing you guys and your vast knowledge in amps I want your opinion first. What is the best minature practice amp I can get that has a headphone option?? I dont care if it costs alot. Heres the piece of dung amp.
http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Line-6-Spider-IV-15-15W-1x8-Guitar-Combo-Amp?sku=620208
Something tube would be even better, but I may have to suffer for a time. Hopefully there are more inspiring options out there
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How many watts is the TT? I thought about it, but I'm not completely sold on the Orange sound.
I got me one of the Vox AC4TV valve combos. It has 4, 1, and 1/4 watt. It sounds absolutely divine once it's over half-way on the volume at any of the settings (actually, the cleans below that are divine as well). In the shop, the 1 watt setting sounded best to me, and perfectly managable, I thought I was going to be in tonal heaven... (No headphone options on this one though).
But now it's home, even halfway on 1/4 watt is a bit loud!!
I took a lot of convincing (I really wanted the sound of a cranked valve amp, nothing else), but I gave in and got me a cheap overdrive pedal.
I've only had the overdrive a day, but I'm so glad I gave in - I have to admit it works for me. I can get the AC4TV down to almost whispering and I'm getting a decent tone. Unless everyone's out, I'm using the amp "clean" and letting the pedal get me the tone - this seemed absolute anathema to me, but I have to say it works. I can even use the 1 and 4 watt settings now - which give me a slightly better tone.
When it seems reasonable to me, and I crank the amp, the overdrive pedal turns into a tasty little boost.
What I'm saying is, if you're thinking like I was, then mebbe for practicing, you need to go this route? (And you do need to turn it down :lol: our idea of "but I can only just hear it" is usually somewhat more intrusive to everyone else!!)
I believe you have other options that might suit better than the Spider - the Vox valvetronix amps, the Cubes, etc - but I've not really investigated any of those (I am using the valvetronix modelling in a Vox Tonelab LE for recording - and it's excellent, better than Line 6's modelling for my money).
Good luck! :D
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Most of these guys will know alot more options than me but i thought I'd just say that for practise in the house my Cube 60 does great, i love the Dual Rect model for most of my metal playing and i use a few other models of course for other styles. I find that no matter what i wanna play i can get a model/setting for everything. The only thing i dont like is that i cant use the Reverb and Delay at the same time as they're both on the same Knob.
Its a very solid design, could through it out my bedroom window and i recond it'll still hold up. And if you were worried about it not being loud enough then i can assure you it is pretty damn loud. I took it to my work tonight ( i work in a karting circuit and its an old warehouse so pretty spacious) and i cranked it to full on both channels, other than the feedback i loved it.
So yeah my recommendation, having played the Spiders and Vox VTs is to get a Cube 60 or the Cube 80.
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Further to what Craig mentioned above, the 'Micro Cube' seems to be popular on other forums I have read. People that like the Cube 60 , seem to like the Micro. If I did not already have a compact Jazz amp ( Phil Jones Cub 100 - NOT for metal :twisted:! ) and Guitar Rig Mobile , I would like to have bought a Micro-Cube for round the house.
Perhaps the affordable 'Guitar Rig Mobile' with it's neat interface & your laptop might be an option ?
The only (alleged) issue to be aware of with the Micro-Cube , is that a few users claimed that the ( 5") speaker f**rted out a bit at higher volumes with heavy bass signals. The findings were not conclusive, and I grew to suspect that perhaps the speaker issue was encountered mostly by people buying a small amp with built in simulation, then playing it like a big amp , without .
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People are SO intolerant of guitar playing, but think nothing of cranking up their hi-fi with some modern R&B garbage blasting out. I take no notice of my neighbours, never have for many years now. I don't take the piss with volume and also don't play early in the morning or late at night. Any time between 12pm (noon) and 8pm is fair game to my mind. Tell them to f*uck off, then at least everyone knows where they stand.
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Further to what Craig mentioned above, the 'Micro Cube' seems to be popular on other forums I have read. People that like the Cube 60 , seem to like the Micro. If I did not already have a compact Jazz amp ( Phil Jones Cub 100 - NOT for metal :twisted:! ) and Guitar Rig Mobile , I would like to have bought a Micro-Cube for round the house.
Perhaps the affordable 'Guitar Rig Mobile' with it's neat interface & your laptop might be an option ?
The only (alleged) issue to be aware of with the Micro-Cube , is that a few users claimed that the ( 5") speaker f**rted out a bit at higher volumes with heavy bass signals. The findings were not conclusive, and I grew to suspect that perhaps the speaker issue was encountered mostly by people buying a small amp with built in simulation, then playing it like a big amp , without .
I found that the Micro cube was just too weak, i dunno what style the TS mainly plays but for metal or anythin high gain it just doesnt cut it, the little 5" speaker has nowhere near the bass response i like, i personnally think anything smaller than a 10" speaker just doesnt cut it for me. But for what it is i guess it sounds ok. For playing in the house or larger rooms i'd think the bigger Cubes are great. If i was to recommend anything else then possibly the Blackstar HT5, but for higher gain you'd need a pedal to help out a little.
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People are SO intolerant of guitar playing, but think nothing of cranking up their hi-fi with some modern R&B garbage blasting out. I take no notice of my neighbours, never have for many years now. I don't take the piss with volume and also don't play early in the morning or late at night. Any time between 12pm (noon) and 8pm is fair game to my mind. Tell them to f*uck off, then at least everyone knows where they stand.
I totally agree but in this apartment complex you get evicted if you have lots of complaints.
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What about the marshall classic 5?? I think we saw bonnamassa demoing some earlier on the forum
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Today I played my orange TT and though i thought I had the volume low my neighbors were banging in the wall. So It
your last day their you should play the most obnoxious putrid riffs as loud as possible and when they stat complainin bust out the RATM "$%&# you I won't do what you tell me!" bit!
I swear there is nothing more insulting to a musician than being told to turn it down :shock:
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People are SO intolerant of guitar playing, but think nothing of cranking up their hi-fi with some modern R&B garbage blasting out. I take no notice of my neighbours, never have for many years now. I don't take the piss with volume and also don't play early in the morning or late at night. Any time between 12pm (noon) and 8pm is fair game to my mind. Tell them to f*uck off, then at least everyone knows where they stand.
Absolutely. Kill your neighbours. It's the only option.
Merry Christmas!!!
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my golden rule is that I ignore bangs on the wall, I play at a reasonable volume at a reasonable time of day and that's not breaking any laws
if people have something to say to me then they can ring my door bell and say it to my face
and if they want to play the noisy hifi game I have a total of 500 watts of Marshall goodness at my disposal
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I love mt TT, JTM45 and Cornford but none are house practice amps. So my better half bought me a Pandora PX5 for christmas and I love it. She knew I missed the PX4 I sold last year so I was very surprised and happy to receive the new one.
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Maybe an amp with power scaling could be the way to go? Or maybe the TT could be fitted with power scaling???
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my golden rule is that I ignore bangs on the wall, I play at a reasonable volume at a reasonable time of day and that's not breaking any laws
if people have something to say to me then they can ring my door bell and say it to my face
and if they want to play the noisy hifi game I have a total of 500 watts of Marshall goodness at my disposal
^ +10000000000000
But nobody EVER knocks on your door. Only one single time has this happened - my old neighbours in my present home knocked at the door. They were told that it was the middle of the afternoon and that some give and take was needed; reminding them that I tolerated their modern R&B played WAY too loud every morning while getting ready for work at 7am (I don't get up till around 8:30am).
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What about the marshall classic 5?? I think we saw bonnamassa demoing some earlier on the forum
i can't imagine that'd be quiet enough. i haven't tried it, but i've tried plenty of 5 watters, and own one, and while they're not "100 watt stack loud", they're still really loud in a home environment.
microcube is nice, but it's about the only one of the small modellers i've tried, so that's hardly a recommendation.
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I messed with Amp Rig 4 a little bit and was very impressed - I think this is the absolute best way to go for home practice if you have a problem with being able to play out loud.
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People are SO intolerant of guitar playing, but think nothing of cranking up their hi-fi with some modern R&B garbage blasting out. I take no notice of my neighbours, never have for many years now. I don't take the piss with volume and also don't play early in the morning or late at night. Any time between 12pm (noon) and 8pm is fair game to my mind. Tell them to f*uck off, then at least everyone knows where they stand.
If you keep a drum looper running through your amp I have found - though my "research" in this is extremely limited - that people will think it is a stereo if they hear it from a different room. In fact the drums through walls should drown out the guitar. And yes, strangely people don't seem to complain about that.
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if an amp (even if played at painfully low volume - and we all know that every amp sucks with master at 0.1) annoys the neighbourhood, why should you but a smaller amp? of course a marshall mode four and a microcube operate at very different sound levels, but in a flat a modeler (hardware or software) seems the only logical choice to me... a POD or similar should let you practice and have fun at any hour and your neighbors would never even know that you exist!
no amp sounds even decent through headphones... go digital for home practicing and you'll never regret.
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I'd agree that modellers or headphone amps are sometimes essential - but I'd hate to learn guitar using one. Part of the skill of playing electric guitar is learning to control the equipment at high volume, you just can't learn that on headphones.
I'd move house. Problem solved.
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I'd agree that modellers or headphone amps are sometimes essential - but I'd hate to learn guitar using one. Part of the skill of playing electric guitar is learning to control the equipment at high volume, you just can't learn that on headphones.
I'd move house. Problem solved.
you're right, but there are rehearsal rooms for that! :) just make sure to find a band that's not too sensitive to volume...
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Thanks everyone I got myself a line 6 spider It did not cost me a cent. I went and traded a pedal Im not using anymore for it. BTW has everyone heard the news the Lovepedal provalve 2 is out. My neighbors can suck on that.
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Nice score Mickey : enjoy ! :)