Combo Amp Suggestions Please ??

Raven_k42

My 17yo son had ordered his electric guitar for Christmas. He can play acoustic...and practices with 4/5 of his friends in their new band !. Anyway, he needs a combo amp. Something better than a small practice amp...but no immediate plans of playing Vicar Street. Can someone advise on ohm/wattage...and maybe offer some suggestions please ?. He's getting a Squire Strat...so it's rock-type mucic they'll be practicising...and maybe one day playing !. I've been checking the Thomann site...and there's loads in there. I'd be grateful for any steer.

Many thanks,
K.

Fingers Mcginty

what's your budget?

Raven_k42

Hi Fingers

I was hoping around the 200-300 Euro mark. I'm not sure what kind of power would be reasonable for rehearsing...and maybe good enough for use if the decided to play for their friends. I also don't know if 1 or 2 speakers would make any kind of significant difference. This is the usual dilemma...not wanting to spend silly money...but not wanting a throw-away solution if he ventures out of the bedroom !. We have a shed they can practice in...so not constrained by indoor use only.

Thanks,
Kevin

Rustar

After poking around a bit on Thomann, my choice in that price range would be the Line6 SpiderIII 75 112.

75 watts is about the biggest you're going to get in that price range, but you wouldn't need an upgrade until he started playing large clubs (or arenas!).

It's solid state, so he wouldn't need to worry about tubes, and has built-in effects, so he wouldn't need to buy extras like stomp boxes or a multi-effects unit. He'll be able to go from a clean sound to a heavy distortion just by flipping a knob.

Kenny_D

http://www.thomann.de/gb/roland_cube_60_modelling_gitarrencombo.htm

The bigger brother of the excellent micro cube. Can't go wrong with a cube especially in that budget

Stompbox

Anyone know if the 60 watt cube sounds anything like the Micro?! Absolutley love the microcube but need it more powerful!

Fingers Mcginty

mmm Rustar sorry mate but i'm not with you on the line 6 stuff....was in a band a few years ago and the rhy guitarist had a spider and the sound from that amp was ****e compared to my hot rod deluxe. Couldn't compete sonically and then he switched to a valvestate stack...and still had issues. A small 30watt tube combo should fit the bill ...on that budget maybe a peavey classic 30 if you're lucky

Karl Hungus

Raven_k42 wrote: »

but not wanting a throw-away solution if he ventures out of the bedroom !

Honestly man, if you get an amp for bedroom practice, it won't be a throwaway solution. I think that for most guitarists, a small practice amp is essential gear. Believe me, I'm running a large half stack that blows bandmates away, but I also use a small Roland Microcube for general practicing and that gets used daily.

My best advice is that if he ventures out of the bedroom, cross that road when you get there. For now, get a small practice amp like a Roland Microcube or a Vox DA5, they are excellent investments, and put that extra €200 into savings for when a new amp is actually needed.

Because I'll be honest with you, there really isn't much going in the €200-300 budget that I'd recommend. The Line6 Spider isn't much more than a glorified bedroom amp, and you're paying more for it.

Rustar

Huh??? Let us be glad you are not a politician, KH, as you are definitely not listening to your constituency.

Karl Hungus wrote:

...if he ventures out of the bedroom, cross that road when you get there.

Raven_k42 wrote:

and practices with 4/5 of his friends in their new band !. Anyway, he needs a combo amp. Something better than a small practice amp...

We are given a price range (200-300), a situation (4-5 bandmembers, possibly with a drummer), and a style (rock-type music).
Both the Roland Cube 60 and the Spider III 75 are fine choices for those criteria.

I can't see recommending a 30-watt amp for that situation, much less a Microcube.

I understand that you're a busy man, moderator of many boards and all, but sometimes it helps to read the first post.

Johnny Storm

For €99 +p&p you could get this:-
http://www.thomann.de/ie/harley_benton_ga5.htm
I have the Epiphone version of this and its pretty loud. Might be a good simple and inexpensive solution until your sons preferences and requirements become more developed.

EDIT only 5 valve-style watts though

deaddonkey

5 watts valve will be far, far too loud for bedroom play. 5 watts of cranked valve will pretty much keep up with a drummer.

Karl Hungus

Rustar wrote: »

Huh??? Let us be glad you are not a politician, KH, as you are definitely not listening to your constituency.

I understand that you're a busy man, moderator of many boards and all, but sometimes it helps to read the first post.

Hmm, to be entirely fair there Rustar, in the second post he did say:

This is the usual dilemma...not wanting to spend silly money...but not wanting a throw-away solution if he ventures out of the bedroom !.

But lets go back to the original post, and he says:

My 17yo son had ordered his electric guitar for Christmas. He can play acoustic...and practices with 4/5 of his friends in their new band !.

Now, the way I read that, is that he's been playing the acoustic with his friends. But, it does seem that he doesn't even have an electric guitar yet, he's getting it for Christmas.

So, I am listening, maybe even more than you.

Fair enough though, a Cube 60 or Spider III aren't bad amps, and they'll get you by in a band situation.

Rustar

I think that "if" was actually a rhetorical figure of speech, actually meaning "whenever", lol

Remind me never to post at 4am after smashing many scotch atoms in my supercollider with friends. I tend to implode into a black hole and start eating up galaxies and such.

I am interested in the Spider, however....it would fill a need I have, namely I have no real guitar amp to carry around to jams. I have bass amps of varying wattage, and multi-effects (all of which works beautifully for guitar), but I'd like to have something dedicated to guitar.

Maybe I'll head down Monday and try one out and see if it's "all that".

Yakult

Spiders tone is too too too digital.

Roland cube 60 or Vox Ad50 are miles better.

They both sound good at practise levels too, so when/if he does venture out of the bedroom he wont need to spend more money buying an amp he could of got yonks ago.

Raven_k42

...for all the info guys. Plenty for me to work on...and all relevant.

Thanks again,
Kevin.

Rustar

R_H_C_P wrote:

Spiders tone is too too too digital.

The Spider's tone has to be analogous to that of the Line 6 POD, which is probably one of the most popular pieces of equipment ever.
All the Spider is, is an amp with an internal POD, really.

I think a common mistake for many modeling amp owners is to slam all the dials to the right. I know from personal experience on my Boss ME-50 (which has Roland COSM modeling) that overdone effects sound weird, digital, and create sound artifacts.

Here's some sound samples and a movie -
Spider III

and a full list of sound samples at the Line 6 site.
http://line6.com/spideriii/sounds01.html

You may not like the Meshuggah, Opeth, or Metallica sounds, but it recreates them fairly faithfully, to my ear.

Edit: Oh, did you say something, Kevin? Let us know what you end up with, and we'll rip that to shreds, too!! LOL

Karl Hungus

Rustar wrote: »

The Spider's tone has to be analogous to that of the Line 6 POD, which is probably one of the most popular pieces of equipment ever.
All the Spider is, is an amp with an internal POD, really.

Dude, it seriously isn't.

I own a Pod XT Live, which I love, but I absolutely hated the Spider II when I played it. They really are nothing alike, honestly. You are not getting an amp with an internal Pod, you're getting a cheap amp that has some of the same amp models, but that's about it.

As far as I know, the technology that the Spider Amps were based on is the older Pod 2.0 stuff, and it's seriously out-dated compared to current Pods like the XT and X3. The Spider is cheap, plastic sounding and absolutely sucks compared to a proper Pod.