Practice amps

[richard]

I'm looking for a new practice amp. I haven't tried anything out yet so I'm just going by Youtube but I've almost narrowed it down to either the Yamaha THR10 or the Blackstar ID15 TVP.

Anyone used either or both of these amps ?

Any other suggestions ?

[Brow]

I've used a lot of the Blackstar ID range and am really rather impressed with them to be honest.

A different local shop has the THR10 in but at nearly 300quid it was out of my price range when I was getting a new practice amp myself, so I never tried them.

I ended up with a Vox Valvetronix VT20+ myself. Sounded almost as good as the ID amps but not as expensive.

[richard]

Thanks Craig. I'd forgotten about the Valvetronix amps. Just listened to a couple of demos. Very good but maybe not quite as convincing as the Yamaha and the Blackstar. Great for the price though.

[AndyR]

I have a THR10C, had it for about 4-5 months. I absolutely adore it.

Mine was only £215? I might have thought twice at near £300, enough to have not gone for it... but it would have been worth it to me even at that price. Best piece of kit I've bought in ages... and it got me playing guitar again.

[seancorker]

I have a THR10C, had it for about 4-5 months. I absolutely adore it.

Mine was only £215? I might have thought twice at near £300, enough to have not gone for it... but it would have been worth it to me even at that price. Best piece of kit I've bought in ages... and it got me playing guitar again.

+ 1 the Thr10 - it's unbelievably good. Its a game changer in terms of what can be achieved with modelling. the 'Brit Hi' is the best modded Marshall tone I've ever played. The FX are stunningly good too.

[Dave Sloven]

If you have a big amp that you use for shows and this is not your only amp I'd say you just need something that sounds decent a low volumes so you can get your home practicing done without getting on everyone's wick. For that something like an old Peavey Rage would even be adequate

If you want something for practicing with a drummer that is more complex. Have you looked at the Laney Iommi 15W valve amp?

I use a Classic 30 in such situations if I need something portable but that said it's still a heavy amp and like most tube amps it doesn't sound very good until you get nearly to 3 on the post gain

[keith]

Got a Blackstar ID Core 10 which is quite good actually. Couple of clean channels and various drive channels from classic through to metal and effects  channels too,Delay, Flange ,Reverb etc. Connect online to Blackstar site with usb,headphone socket(bit fizzy for me) and socket to put your mp3 player through also. So all in all good for around £89 I think I paid for it.

[richard]

After a lot of listening I think I'm going to go for the Blackstar. At gigs I use a Cornford Roadhouse straight to the amp with no effects. The Blackstar seems to produce the closest to my gig sound. I've had a Microcube for years and it's getting a bit tired and I only like one of it's amp sims - the Marshall Plexi.

As I say I don't use effects at gigs but I've had a lot of fun with the Microcube effects in my kitchen. The effects sections of the Yamaha and the Blackstar both sound good. I like that there's a lot to play with on the Blackstar - the different valve emulations as well as the various basic voices. Also I think I could drag the Blackstar down to my local for the quiet-ish jams - I think the single 10 inch speaker will be fine whereas I think the tiny speakers in the Yamaha might not cut the mustard.

[MDV]

I've long since abandoned practice amps, because I find my actual amps better at any volume (100, 100, 120 and 150W of valves). We live in the age of the master volume amp.

But, rather than a practice amp, since practice amps suck, for best tones at low volumes I'd recommend getting an interface with a hi-Z input and using any one of the many decent to excellent free VSTs out there through headphones or some basic monitors.

Lower end interfaces are broadly similar in cost to practice amps, monitors are a bit more, but you probably already have headphones.

Edit: if you're looking at ~£200 practice amps, this is cheaper and does way more. http://www.thomann.de/gb/focusrite_saffire_pro_14.htm

[Telerocker]

I have a THR10C, had it for about 4-5 months. I absolutely adore it.

Mine was only £215? I might have thought twice at near £300, enough to have not gone for it... but it would have been worth it to me even at that price. Best piece of kit I've bought in ages... and it got me playing guitar again.

+ 1 the Thr10 - it's unbelievably good. Its a game changer in terms of what can be achieved with modelling. the 'Brit Hi' is the best modded Marshall tone I've ever played. The FX are stunningly good too.

I'm also on a Dutch forum where a lot of players rave about the Thr10.

[AndyR]

Aah... yes, I'm certain the THR10 won't really cope, on its own, with anything jam-wise other than a quiet "living-room" session. You could drown-out/p1ss-off the acoustic guitar player, but you couldn't do a lot more damage than that (it is loud enough to annoy sensitive neighbours if you go for it, though).

Having said that - it has replaced (for the moment) all my other kit as my go-to recording amp. I was stunned...

I use the headphone out, straight into the line-in on the mixing desk. At first it was a bit fizzy for my liking, if you have the volume at head-phone levels, that is... (I wouldn't recommend it as a headphone practice amp on its own, but in most situations I can get the speakers quiet enough to not need headphones when practicing - it passes the "wife is on the other sofa watching the TV" test, I'm playing through the THR speakers, getting a tone I can relate to, and she doesn't turn up the TV or complain...).

But anyway, using the headphone out as "line out", if you crank the THR10 volume up to full, then things get pretty darn gorgeous... Obviously, I'm listening to this through the same headphones and monitors that I used to listen to my Vox Tonelab, POD XT, and plug-in stuff (back when I had a computer anywhere near my recording kit!). For me, it knocks everything else out of the park - and, of course, re-inforced like this, it could gig just as easily as any POD/wotever solution.

It has actually stopped me using my little Laney CUB12 that I loved so much. To get the same "valve-amp" kick as I do out of the THR10 (at watching TV levels), I have to crank the CUB12 to "Andrew is uncomfortable" levels (regardless of what the missus or the neighbours might be thinking!!). And cranking the headphone out signal, you can get that same sound out to another device to do what you will with it.

btw - for anyone wondering, the THR does have USB, I use it as laptop speakers. I have tried using it as a recording interface once - and it does the job... but I don't do my recording on a PC/DAW, so I don't have much use for that side of things. If I did, I'd never have thought to try the headphone out route!...

[seancorker]

Aah... yes, I'm certain the THR10 won't really cope, on its own, with anything jam-wise other than a quiet "living-room" session. You could drown-out/p1ss-off the acoustic guitar player, but you couldn't do a lot more damage than that (it is loud enough to annoy sensitive neighbours if you go for it, though).

Having said that - it has replaced (for the moment) all my other kit as my go-to recording amp. I was stunned...

I use the headphone out, straight into the line-in on the mixing desk. At first it was a bit fizzy for my liking, if you have the volume at head-phone levels, that is... (I wouldn't recommend it as a headphone practice amp on its own, but in most situations I can get the speakers quiet enough to not need headphones when practicing - it passes the "wife is on the other sofa watching the TV" test, I'm playing through the THR speakers, getting a tone I can relate to, and she doesn't turn up the TV or complain...).

But anyway, using the headphone out as "line out", if you crank the THR10 volume up to full, then things get pretty darn gorgeous... Obviously, I'm listening to this through the same headphones and monitors that I used to listen to my Vox Tonelab, POD XT, and plug-in stuff (back when I had a computer anywhere near my recording kit!). For me, it knocks everything else out of the park - and, of course, re-inforced like this, it could gig just as easily as any POD/wotever solution.

It has actually stopped me using my little Laney CUB12 that I loved so much. To get the same "valve-amp" kick as I do out of the THR10 (at watching TV levels), I have to crank the CUB12 to "Andrew is uncomfortable" levels (regardless of what the missus or the neighbours might be thinking!!). And cranking the headphone out signal, you can get that same sound out to another device to do what you will with it.

btw - for anyone wondering, the THR does have USB, I use it as laptop speakers. I have tried using it as a recording interface once - and it does the job... but I don't do my recording on a PC/DAW, so I don't have much use for that side of things. If I did, I'd never have thought to try the headphone out route!...

Cheers - never tried that way of working it. I use mine a lot with my iPad. It records really well using the iPad mike and TH speakers for throwing song ideas down.
 If they ever do a 20w version with a couple of footswitchsable presets I'd bag one like a shot.

[gordiji]

Roland cube 40 well worth 200 quid. Great at low vol and the marshall & mesa models very good at low vol. Looper & effects great too. Absurdly good value.