Decent amp for home use

GrayFox208

Don't need a massively powerful one, but I do want it to have a clean sound with little distortion. It's only being used with a Gibson Les Paul Studio if that makes a difference! There's a range of them and can't really pick one without hearing what it sounds like.

Ravelleman

Price range etc?

GrayFox208

Ravelleman wrote: »

Price range etc?

Anything under 100 preferred but can be flexible enough.

endacl

Ballpark sounds you like etc?

Ravelleman

My advice is to save more and buy something better. There are lots of excellent options for around €300-400. It would be a shame to spend so much on a nice new guitar and then skimp on the amp.

endacl

GrayFox208 wrote: »

Anything under 100 preferred but can be flexible enough.

Under €100? Lean it up against a wardrobe for free.

GrayFox208

endacl wrote: »

Under €100? Lean it up against a wardrobe for free.

What? Not really interested in smart responded mate here for some actual advice.

endacl

GrayFox208 wrote: »

What? Not really interested in smart responded mate here for some actual advice.

It was actual advice. Don't waste your cash.

dingdong1234567

Blackstar Fly 3?

GrayFox208

endacl wrote: »

It was actual advice. Don't waste your cash.

An electric guitar with no amp... I think not buying one would be wasting my cash.

Ravelleman

You've already been given good advice by endacl and me: save more money and buy an amp for more than €100. It is really going to be worth it. I would go so far as to say that spending on €100 would be wasting it.

GrayFox208

Ravelleman wrote: »

You've already been given good advice by endacl and me: save more money and buy an amp for more than €100. It is really going to be worth it. I would go so far as to say that spending on €100 would be wasting it.

I didn't say otherwise. I agree with you. But I saw that post and was quite confused. Do you have any suggestions then?

Mad_Dave

I'm looking for something similar myself, don't know a lot about amps but the two I'm currently considering are the Blackstar ID Core 10 and Fender Mustang I V2. Both are well reviewed and relatively cheap.

Alternatively have you considered something like a Line 6 POD and headphones ?

Alanstrainor

I have one of these:

Roland Cube Lite

I bought it after moving into an apartment, where my Blues Deluxe, and Champion 600 were no longer feasible. And I have to say I'm still blown away by it. Lovely cleans, the overdrive tone is great for my blues/rock needs and coupled with chorus and nice reverb it has everything you could want out of a relatively quiet home amp.

GrayFox208

Alanstrainor wrote: »

I have one of these:

I bought it after moving into an apartment, where my Blues Deluxe, and Champion 600 were no longer feasible. And I have to say I'm still blown away by it. Lovely cleans, the overdrive tone is great for my blues/rock needs and coupled with chorus and nice reverb it has everything you could want out of a relatively quiet home amp.

Where did you buy it?

Ravelleman

GrayFox208 wrote: »

I didn't say otherwise. I agree with you. But I saw that post and was quite confused. Do you have any suggestions then?

Ah, ok. I misunderstood you then.

Historically on this board the Roland Micro Cube (€129 on Thomann) was the go-to recommendation for small, inexpensive guitar amps. That came before the revolution in low-cost tube amps though. We are in a golden age of tube amplification, at least in terms of options.

You could do a lot worse than checking out the Laney Cub 10 for €239 (Thomann). It has simple controls, decent wattage and speaker and is small enough for home use, especially if you want to play clean. I believe Cubs have an online following.

GrayFox208

Ravelleman wrote: »

Ah, ok. I misunderstood you then.

Historically on this board the Roland Micro Cube (€129 on Thomann) was the go-to recommendation for small, inexpensive guitar amps. That came before the revolution in low-cost tube amps though. We are in a golden age of tube amplification, at least in terms of options.

You could do a lot worse than checking out the Laney Cub 10 for €239 (Thomann). It has simple controls, decent wattage and speaker and is small enough for home use, especially if you want to play clean. I believe Cubs have an online following.

I do want to play rock and metal sounds also but sometimes the settings on amps make it sound like radio static or like the sound is breaking.. I suppose if I can pick up some foot pedals id be better off.

IamtheWalrus

I have an amp that I got as part of my Fender Esquire guitar and amp beginner pack. Would upgrading to a higher quality amp be worth the money? Would I really notice the difference?

I'm told this is a great amp:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Roland-Cube-40GX-Guitar-Amp/dp/B00DIYBVDU/ref=sr_1_1?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1445815732&sr=1-1&keywords=roland+cube+40gx

Is it?

Schwiiing

Randall RD1 or Blackstar HT1 Metal for 299 on Thomann. Decent value small tube amps for Rock/Metal.

Alanstrainor

GrayFox208 wrote: »

Where did you buy it?

I got mine in xmusic, and they knocked some money off too.

There are lots of great small tube combos out there, but you'll need to decide how loud is too loud. As I found even my 5w Champion 600 is very loud with the volume at the mid point, which is where you want it to be to sound sweet.

IamtheWalrus

I went for this. £115. The Beatles one.

http://www.voxamps.com/mini5

roibas

I would go (i have one myself for home practice) with the fender mustang. Highly configurable, beautiful cleans and crunch tones. If you're interested in the heaviest distortions i would take the backstar way, but for clean and bluesy sounds the mustang is just perfect and inexpensive.
The roland cubes sound fantastic as well, but they have perhaps less possibilities.

If you want to hear them all in a video, the guys from Andertons made a video last year about practice amps where they review all the mentioned above, so you can have a better idea of what to expect of each one. In their youtube channel you'll find the video. I hope it helps.

IamtheWalrus

I would like to do some vocal/guitar looping and maybe add some drum beats to a solo performance. Would one device do all this?

roibas

I guess it depends on your looping pedal and the drum machine, but ideally you would be looking for a small mixer in addition to the amp.
There are quite a few really small and cheap mixers for solo performances, take a look to the offerings from behringer, yamaha or alto. All of them have small mixers with acceptable quality.

IamtheWalrus

roibas wrote: »

I guess it depends on your looping pedal and the drum machine, but ideally you would be looking for a small mixer in addition to the amp.
There are quite a few really small and cheap mixers for solo performances, take a look to the offerings from behringer, yamaha or alto. All of them have small mixers with acceptable quality.

And the mixer does looping and drum beats, bass?

I'd like to be able to do this, and maybe add some glitchy beats, maybe some funky sounds, mix things up etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnsRW7yomw8

roibas

Well, to do this you will need some more gear i'm afraid. Besides the looper, the microphone(s), the mixer and the amp. Moreover, If this is what you are planning to do, I would recommend to get a computer and some solid monitors or even PA instead of an amp. The software nowadays sounds very good simulating diverse amps and effects and you will need some other features from the computer that you cannot find on a guitar amp. The guitar part is the smaller part of the setup shown in the video, you can cover that with any pedalboard or even plugging the guitar straight to the mixer.

This is a bit out of bounds of my expertise though, perhaps someone else can guide you better on this. I am mostly a guitar player and I record everything on my computer, the amps I have are only for practicing or gigging, but as a guitarist, not as a one man band

4068ac1elhodqr

A fairly decent sub 100 amp (2nd hand market) is very achievable and would 2nd the fender mustang as the best low cost solution. With a good range of effects, decent tube modeling and the smallest one (at 20w) is loud enough for domestic use. Light as a feather too! The default speaker lacks little 40-70Mhz bass, but easy to upgrade to a full-range Celestion later on all the same. Line in and headphones etc.

For just reverb & distortion the 80's Marshall Valvestate (30w) has a 12ax7 tube as the preamp, as does some of the smaller peavy rage, vox avt and laney models.

Your Les Paul 'Studio' isn't 'le creme de la creme' of the guitar world but certainly good bit past the mid-way mark, so until you get a custom shop or upgraded swamp ash yoke no real need to spend loads on all-tube amps.

slavetothegrind

lads Native instruments have a sale on now and you can get Guitar rig 5 for 99 dollars

personally i think it is a much better alternative to an amp at that budget