Practice amp

Ralph

Ralph

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I play metal, but I would like a great clean also. What do you recommend I buy? I want something small I can noodle around on in the living room.

 
Exactly.

6 AA batteries and you can play for hours, anywhere. I e never gotten less than 60 hours out of a set. I'm on my 3rd set in the 12 years since I bought mine.

One of the best purchases I've ever made.

 
Any of the old 212 Peavey Combo's! I have a 1989 US Classic Stereo Chorus model & it's the bees knees! I play both electro-acoustic clean and out + out metal rawkness (with a pedal). One of the best amps I've had in over 30 years as a metal player. I paid under $100 US for mine on eBay UK...

[Edit to add] mine's the 2x75w one [150W]. Just needed to add this as I have 'bragging rights' being as it's the best 2x12 combo out there IMO...

 
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I'll third the MicroCube. If you can find a (discontinued) Vox Pathfinder 15R you should try one out as well, at least for clean to slight breakup sounds. Another amp to watch out for is a Tech 21 Trademark 30 or older 10.

 
Nathan of Brainfertilizer Fame said:
Exactly.

6 AA batteries and you can play for hours, anywhere. I e never gotten less than 60 hours out of a set. I'm on my 3rd set in the 12 years since I bought mine.

One of the best purchases I've ever made.
Click to expand...
+1 As much fun as can be crammed into a little box. And they are fairly rugged so I have brought mine camping and whatnot. About the only thing I wish it had is a full fledged tuner as opposed to the E reference tone which isn't much help for these tin ears. Still, hard to go wrong as long as you don't need a lot of volume.

 
As an alternative (and also with battery-powered functionality) the Yamaha THR10 (and variants) offer a whole lot of functionality in a lightweight box. Also serves as a recording interface and has tons of programmability using its USB connection.

yamaha-thr10.jpg


The THR10X is the higher gain variant.

 
I love my Chinese made Kustom HV/30 I bought from El Duave. With it's tube pre amp and solid state 2nd stage, plus a dozen built-in FX and a 1/4" jack to plug a drum machine or a iPod (w/ adapter) into, this baby rocks. Bar none, some of the best distortion tones I've heard. Clean sounds good, too. Perfect for jamming along to music or impromptu jams with other musicians.

It's got a little heft to it weight-wise but can easily be carried in one hand and your ax in the other.

 
+1 for the Micro Cube and the Super Champ XD Either one will get you into teh brootalz territory, the Super Champ will do it with more low end and volume. Even more if you slap a Ragin Cajun into it.

 
I have had a Roland "MICROCUBE" since they came out its alot of bang for the buck, I also use a ALESIS "SPITFIRE" 60 which has a ton of great effects you can mess with. /emoticons/default_smile.png

 
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I don't tend to play rock/blues//metal/anythingwithdistortion, but I have never been able to find any love for the MicroCube. The JC-120 setting (or whatever it's called) sounds decent enough to me, but even that is kind of average to my ears. Naturally this is all just a bunch of my mostly uninformed opinions.

I've had good Vox valvetronix amps, and I have a well-known love for Super Champ XD/2s. The new Yamahas seem to have some love, but I have no experience with them. For a portable headphone rig, I am using Jamup on the iPad and am impressed.

So, Super Champ Xx.

 
I sometimes use a Sansamp and pedals into a silly cheap iPod Dock... Works fine for me, and still annoying volume for the missus in the sitting room!



 
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