Practice amp

[Mr. Air]

I've read through the other newly "what amp should I get" posts, but thought that one couldn't hurt.

I'm thinking about getting a small/smaller amp for home practice and I'm interested in all the advice and recommandations I can get.

I haven't really got any money to throw around so I'm interested in keeping the price as low as possible. I'm also interested in an amp that delivers good cleans, takes pedals quite well and sounds good at lower volumes.

Any good suggestions?

[TheIronBeast]

I have a Fender Champion 600 which is an excellent practice amp, I love it. I find that when I'm at home I mainly play through the Fender Champ and use my bigger amps when rehearsing/gigging. You can pick up the Champ for about £130 I think, you might find one cheaper on eBay though.

I also hear that the Vox AC4TV is a very good practice amp too, but I think they are slightly more expensive than the fender amp.

[Stevepage]

Blackstar HT? Orange TT?

looked used too.

Failing that, just something like a Line 6 spider would do for practice.

[tomjackson]

Vibro Champ XD is a good practise amp, really nice cleans and some decent cranked tweed / blackface tones.

No headphone socket though!

The New Fender G-Dec has some interesting practise features but might be getting a bit too expensive.

The Vox DA5 is great for the money.

[AndyR]

I have a Vox AC4TV. I absolutely adore it, but it is a bit loud for what I need - it's a "weekend only" amp in our place.

Not too sure how it takes pedals, I prefer it without anyway. I have used a Line6 POD XTLive as "pedals only" and that was quite yummy. I also got me a Danelectro cool overdrive or whatever it's called - seemed ok, but it was still "just a pedal". I like running the volume on about 2/3 or 3/4 for single coils and then controlling it via the guitar - it rocks on all three attenuator settings. I can tell that it's a completely different beast when you run it as 4W, but I just can't use it at that volume.

The cleans are very nice, in my opinion obviously, but I have heard people complaining about "it dirties up too soon"... not sure how they're using it though, in my experience it could dirty up a tad sooner! :lol:

[dave_mc]

do you want tube or solid state? what do you mean by "as cheap as possible"? what gear do you already have?

[Elliot]

I just got a Fender G DEC 3 Fifteen - I am really happy with it - its a modelling amp but it has nice cleans, good distortion - the looper lets you lay down some grooves and the installed tuner and backing tracks are also top notch.  The fact you can plug an SD card with .wav, .mp3 or midi backing tracks means it is really versatile.

[ToneMonkey]

I've got a Vox AD30VT which does me fine (but I am appaling on the axe).  Can turn it down with an attenuator on the back down to 0.5 Watt.  Depends if you're after a solid state/valve/moddling etc.

[Mr. Air]

do you want tube or solid state? what do you mean by "as cheap as possible"? what gear do you already have?

I'm mostly looking for a tube amp. Not interested in a solid state and I don't really know about the whole modeling thing. Haven't really got any experience with the latter.

As cheap as possible doesn't mean that quality isn't a part of the equation. It just means that I can't afford some of the more expensive amps.

The only amp I own now is a Music Man HD-130 Reverb which might not be the best choice for some quite appartment practice.

[tomjackson]

Laney VC15's are nice and sound good at lower Volumes, might still be a bit loud for cranking though.

The MJW Cub could be an option, great valve crunch at very reasonable volumes.

[roland_rat]

For a non valve amp. I have always thought the roland cubes were good value.  That said im not sure if you want a solid state amp? 

There a lot of amps out there that may fit the bill I guess. I think you should be cheeky and try as many diferent practice amps that you can.

[Philly Q]

If you're looking for a cheap valve amp, has anyone mentioned the Epiphone Valve Jr or Harley Benton GA5?

They don't sound great, but they're easily modded (apparently) and you can get pre-modded versions on eBay.

[froglord]

Fender Super Champ XD. The basic clean sound is insanely good for the money, plus you get 15 other models of varying quality/usefulness and a bunch of effects.

[dave_mc]

I'm mostly looking for a tube amp. Not interested in a solid state and I don't really know about the whole modeling thing. Haven't really got any experience with the latter.

As cheap as possible doesn't mean that quality isn't a part of the equation. It just means that I can't afford some of the more expensive amps.

The only amp I own now is a Music Man HD-130 Reverb which might not be the best choice for some quite appartment practice.

cool, thanks. bear in mind that even the "low" wattage tube amps are very loud, especially if you want to crank them (and even if you don't, they can sometimes sound a bit "muffled" at really low volumes). power scaling or vvr would be worth considering if you can find an amp with it fitted (vox ac4 or bugera v5 are probably the cheapest with that fitted, i haven't tried either, though :lol: ).

What kind of budget are you talking? even the cheaper 5 watt tube amps sound fairly decent with some good pedals, but as i already said, they can get loud. because they're pretty cheap (i assume that's why, anyway), the volume tapers etc. often aren't as good as on more expensive amps, you can often find that it's easier to dial down a higher-wattage amp to an acceptable volume!

[Mr. Air]

Not really sure about the budget yet. Maybe I can't afford something right now and need to get some savings going. I got the day off tomorrow and think all head around the corner to my local guitar shop and try out some amps. Not quite sure what they got, but I'm sure there'll be something of interest. At least something of interst that I surely can't afford  :?