What amp for an appartment

[Jockai]

well i honestly think it depends what mood your in ....

"sound" is very subjective ....listen to AC/DC ....and play along with your strat in pickup position 2 ie slightly out of phase and it sounds rubbish ...but play the same guitar tone to "lay down Sally" by Clapton and it sounds good...

you'll be amazed by how much your ears can "lie" to you... a bit like looking at the sun .....with your eyes .....the range is immense

a lot of heavy rock tones use very liitle distortion but a lot of dynamics.....

does that make sense?

 

[Jockai]

...we're also talking about different amps!......although the blackheart is excellent ....i think the Blackstar is better .......

 

[Griff]

Well I'm not going to fight you over that, after all I did buy the Blackheart.

:lol:

 

[AlanN]

...we're also talking about different amps!......although the blackheart is excellent ....i think the Blackstar is better .......

The RAT modified Blackhearts aren't the same amp any more, so if you've not heard one directly it's not a fair comparison. Excellent stuff.

Now then, if I was buying a bedroom amp again? I'd be looking hard at the new Vox Night Train...

 

[Jockai]

no worries bud.... i think we got our wires crossed!!! ....nevermind they're both good.... and so are we!! ...tell me about you're guitar!

 

[Jockai]

no worries bud.... i think we got our wires crossed!!! ....nevermind they're both good.... and so are we!! ...tell me about you're guitar!

 

[AlanN]

No problem! I love the Blackstars too. Let's face it, we're spoilt for choice these days for high quality low-power valve amps! It's making practice bloody brilliant

Now, as for the guitar... which one?

 

[Jockai]

the one i like is the BLACKSTAR....

you should try it .......

 

[AlanN]

Yep, I tried a HT-5 after Griff mentioned them. Excellent stuff, but not a fair test from my side as it was in a noisy guitar shop. I did try to be noisier than everyone else though

 

[Jockai]

....those wonderful Tokai ones !!

 

[Alpedra]

My brother has a Blackstar.. it?s a very cool little amp.

 

[AlanN]

Here you go, one of each...

 

[leadguitar_323]

For christs sake Alan, now i need a 335... 8)

Mick

 

[AlanN]

Everybody needs a 335, Mick!

However, from experience I can tell you that having seven of them is too many.

 

[leadguitar_323]

However, from experience I can tell you that having seven of them is too many.

Are you trying to tell me i have too many LP's, i thought 7 was a great number....just got to convince the misses.....

Mick

 

[marcusnieman]

To that most perfect trifecta of must have guitars, personally I would add one of each:

Tele
SG
ES175
LP Junior
V

 

[AlanN]

Nonono, 7 LPs is fine. They're easier to hide...

 

[japanstrat]

I think the best sounding solution for apartments or bedrooms is a master/slave or slaving amp setup where the main amp can have it's volume maxed out and the second amp controls the volume level.

Basically for anyone who doesn't know, it's a 2 amp setup in series. The first amp is a tube/valve amp that has a line out load box attached to it's output (like a hotplate set to load) instead of the speaker and then the output of the line out load box (or hotplate set to load) is taken to the input of a second amp (which is usually a solid state wide range or wide frequency power amp like a PA or keyboard amp but with guitar speakers attached) and the guitar speakers are attached to the output of the second amp.

The Volume of the first tube amp can be anything from 0 to 10 and the overall volume is contolled by the second amp.
This means that the first tube amp can be set for distortion at a high volume level but the volume level is controlled by the second amp and the resulting tone is basically the first tube amps tone without much interference, at any volume level.

The trouble with using one amp and a hotplate as an attenuator between the amp and the speaker is that a lot of attenuation can degrade the tone but this 2 amp setup gets around that problem.

If you want the resulting tone to be mostly from the first tube amp, then the second amp should not alter the tone much and a solid state or a tube power amp (with no preamp) is the best choice.

A tube amps effects loop return input can be used as a power amp as the effects loop return input bypasses the amps preamp.
A tube amps preamp usually alters the tone too much but bypassing the preamp doesn't alter the tone much.

Effects can be run in front of the first amp or between the first amp and second amp.

Building a line out load box is not that hard but for novices, just use a hotplate or whatever, set to load and take the hotplates line level output signal to the second power amp.


Guitar->optional effects->first Tube/Valve Amp->line out load box or hotplate set to load->optional effects->second power amp solid state or tube amp effects loop return input->guitar speakers.

The old/still club playing way was to mike a smaller cranked tube amp and control it's volume with the PA's amp.

The master/slave (slaving) 2 amp setup is similar in principle with the first amp being a cranked tube amp and the second volume controlling power amp being similar to the PA controlling the volume in the miked amp PA club setup.

guitar->miked cranked tube amp->volume controlling PA power amp

guitar->cranked tube amp->line out load box->volume controlling power amp

 

[Ozeshin]

Well...I'm about to pick up a Peavey Vyper 30 watt.
For an overdriven tone you can't go past them...it's a modelling amp...5150/JSX/XXX all THE go to overdrive amps of the past decade.
It also has USB out so if you have recording software you record direct from the amp.

With double the processing power, models and effects of competitive modeling amplifiers, the VYPYR dramatically redefines the power and scope of modern guitar amplification. VYPYR amplifiers are based on powerful 32-bit, floating-point SHARC processors that enable highly detailed, accurate modeling as well as vastly enhanced flexibility and features than ever before available in guitar amplification.

Featuring 24 amp channel models-both the clean and distorted channels of 12 popular amps for the first time anywhere-plus 11 editable preamp "stomp box" effects and 11 editable post-amp "rack" effects with dual-parameter control. Players can use up to five effects simultaneously. When used with the optional Peavey Sanpera foot controller, the possibilities further expand from 12 in-amp presets to 400 programmable presets, with an on-board looper and more. The entire six-model VYPYR Series features the easy-to-use Peavey WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) interface.

Features:

* 30 watts
* 4 channels with 3-band EQ, master volume and pre- and post-gain controls
* 12" custom-voiced loudspeaker
* 11 editable rack effects
* 11 editable stompbox effects
* Up to 5 effects SIMULTANEOUSLY
* Onboard looper
* On-board chromatic tuner
* Up to 400 presets with optional Sanpera II footswitch
* MIDI In/Out
* Tap tempo switch
* Studio-quality headphone output
* Patented TransTube technology in preamp and power amp

 

[AlanN]

It also has USB out

Ooh, never knew that. Does the head version have it too? Does it do speaker emulation over that?