Practice Amps

What type of music?

Whoops... Sorry. :oops:

Anything from Blues to Heavy Metal.

I am not to worried about distortion cause I have pedals to cover all that.

You find that many of us professional guitarist use all tube amps. Currently I use five of them. They have their own tone which are combined together for my total sound. I have a Galaxie 10, thing is I did modifications to it so for me to upload Mp3's would not be fair test. Depending on the money you want to send will be a deciding factor on which amp to get.

I could recommend all tube amps all day long. It comes down to what you want. Cornford, Epiphone, Fender, Gibson, Mesa Boogie, Marshall, Peavey to name a few all make small watt tube amps that will work for all venues, also they sound different and are more than capable of playing all styles of music. This is not including going rack mount with a tube pre-amp and tube power amp.

There are many things that make up a signal chain and how they are connected or combined in which to achieve great tone. If you looking to get that sought after cranked guitar tone at any volume you need to think of more than just an amp, you'll need an all tube amp, equalizer, and an attenuator or dummy load.

Joe

Man I havent heard anything good about attenuators'. Yea you can play at low volume levels but dont they kill your sustain and tone? At least from the THD Hot Plates I have heard, they really dont add to anything.

But and EQ pedal does sound pretty badass. I am wondering though what model would be best suited all around.

The MXR M-108, the Kerry King MXR M-108, BOSS GE-7, or the BOSS EQ-20.

The MXR's look a little more versatile IMO.

Sorry for the randomness, I am just pondering a good practice / studio setup.

Although I agree with Joe about tubes etc. If you're working on limited budget take a look at Roland's Micro Cube. about $150ish at the high end. 2 watts, some decent effects, and good enough tone that my jamming buddy offered me his 1980 SG and a brand new 4-track for it. :D

I have Roland 15 watter already wanting something in the tube department.

Everyone will have their own opinion when it comes to equipment. I've been using all tube amps, Equalizers and attenuators for at least 30 years or more. how they are utilized and setup will make a difference on how they sound. I'm currently using five tube amps, one dummy load, 6 attenuators, numerous rack mounted equalizers (both digital and analog). There is not tone lose here, but I do have my equipment connected or set differently than most guitarist would. It's set to give the audience what they came for. Depending on the venue I'll break out one or two of my old Gibson Falcons 12 watts or other choice of tube amp along with a equalizer and attenuator and rock the night away, My playing speaks for its for its self. Unless you saw the equalizers an attenuators hide behind the other equipments, you wouldn;t even know they were there.

This is from a guitar player that has been playing around the world many times and major credit songs and riffs to his credits. I started out just like everyone as a straving musician with no cash flow. My goal was set and mind conditioned to keep a positive mential attitude, which left me with a positive onpn mind. Search around you'll find equipment that just plays an sounds like you.

Joe

I have Roland 15 watter already wanting something in the tube department.

Cool. A 60w 4x10 HRD is my next major purchase :D

Joe may I ask, what type of dummy loads do you use?

My favorite Dummy load was custom built by Rivera Research and Development, Other ones include a Palmer PDI-03 and a Rocktron Juice Extractor. These are the three I use mostly. I have few other ones custom built ones that seem to infringe on the tone and don't see much playing time other than experimenting. Attenuators I have many different one's. The only one I wasn't happy with was the power brake.

Joe

Now by practice amp. do you need for practice by yourself or your band. but if its buy yourself have you looked at old fender amps. i have an old Champ it is like 5 watts. but this amp is bad ass. it has no effects, but thats cool because i have tons of pedals. and its great for recordings.