Practice Amp purchasing help - who is top dog?

[RR05xx]

For what it is worth, I have been using a Line 6 Flextone (original) front end with a Rane 31 band eq into a Mesa 1x12 (200 ev) for years for home use with no complaints - plenty of versitility etc. at low volumes, so my vote goes Line 6 (I have played the Spiders and if I needed a practice/home amp I would do it, its not like you need all the options that the early flextone provides for 80s/90s metal as the rectifer channel does alot, coupled with a decent clean channel choice etc.).

Line 6 will notcut it live/ with a band, but for home use more than adequate. Buy a used one to save the $$$ as its solid state (I bought mine used for less then $100 and its been going stong for 5 years+).

Now for live/band etc., I use a Mesa rack or splawn into a 4x12, but I digress.

[DonP]

But if I already have a POD (and I use the new practice amp for power), will a Flextone be all that different?

[semagic]

roland cube 30x would be my choice out of the ones mentioned, i've used spider75 1x12 and the cube60 the cube blew it away... and i really liked the spider. but it wasn't even close.

[DonP]

I tried more amps this weekend.

The Cube 30x is a lot better than the smaller Cube's IMO. I tried the 15x and the 4 speaker Cube and didn't like them as much as the 30x.

The Vox VT15 or VT30 still seem to be in first place. Just better tones and more variety. I'm looking for a small amp, and I'm not sure why I'd need the VT30 over the VT15. Is it just louder? The VT15 sounds great, I don't need louder. If the VT30 had better features or a significantly better tone over the VT15, I'd be more interested.

I still need to give the Vyper, Spider and G-Dec more experimentation.

Tech 21 Trademark's aren't even carried at Sam Ash any more. Kinda hard to give those a shot.

[stevoc]

Why the F didn't they have these back in 1985 when I was stuck with a Gorilla TC-25?

after reading this, I need to go to my pop's house and get my gorilla what ever it is. All I recall is that it had a tube stack switch and that thing rocked! Hope it still works!

[stevoc]

I stopped by the music store today and tried out a cube 60....man can that thing rock! The different models ound great. Considering one for myself.

[DonP]

I'd get the newer x version, like the 60x (if they have one). They added a few more bells and whistles, like a built in tuner, a low power button, and another "Dynamic" model.

I'd also suggest trying the Vox offerings as well. I've never been into Vox - always thought "Vox=Beatles" - don't want to sound like that

But the Vox offerings seems to have more / better features and a wider array of tones. The Cube does have a great clean, a great blues (blackface model) and a great metal tone. But the Vox seems to have more warmer tones, no doubt from the 12AX7 tube. I orginally thought the tube was a gimmic, but now I'm not so sure after hearing it. It does seem more dynamic, more responsive to playing dynamics.

[surfreak]

I take a different slant on practice amps: in the past 2 years, my guitar playing time has been 90% practice/home recording and 10% gigging, so it makes sense for me to get the best possible low watt rig I can get, or at least the amp that sounds most similar to my live gig.

I found out that all the digital modeling boxes and amps I've tried sound ok, but they don't respond like a real amp, there is absolutely no touch sensitivity, and especially with Line 6 stuff, they just sound the same with every guitar.

At low volume, also tube amps don't "behave" properly unless you crank them, but even a 5W tube amp is way too loud for practice...
My holy grail would have been the Lexicon Signature 284 amp, I tried one of those years ago and it just sounded amazing.

What in the end worked for me is the Tech 21 stuff, I have a Trademark 30 Ltd (the one with the solid oak cabinet) that sounds amazing, and a SansAmp GT2 which basically is the pre section of the Trademark, and it sounds great straight into a pair of decent powered speakers or into my recording rig.

[quiksilver]

I'd get the newer x version, like the 60x (if they have one). They added a few more bells and whistles, like a built in tuner, a low power button, and another "Dynamic" model.

I'd also suggest trying the Vox offerings as well. I've never been into Vox - always thought "Vox=Beatles" - don't want to sound like that

But the Vox offerings seems to have more / better features and a wider array of tones. The Cube does have a great clean, a great blues (blackface model) and a great metal tone. But the Vox seems to have more warmer tones, no doubt from the 12AX7 tube. I orginally thought the tube was a gimmic, but now I'm not so sure after hearing it. It does seem more dynamic, more responsive to playing dynamics.

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I felt the same way. Vox? Who the hell plays Vox? The Beatles, Tom Petty and Lenny Kravitz were all I could come up with.

But the Valvetronix amps and ToneLab processors are really great. I have an AD120VTX 2x12 combo and a ToneLab LE and love them both. I stopped at a Guitar Center last week and tried out the new VT30, and I was amazed. I had to get the hell out of there fast, before I bought it, as I really have no use for it. If I were in the market, I'd get one of the new Vox VT models.

[DonP]

I take a different slant on practice amps: in the past 2 years, my guitar playing time has been 90% practice/home recording and 10% gigging, so it makes sense for me to get the best possible low watt rig I can get, or at least the amp that sounds most similar to my live gig.

I found out that all the digital modeling boxes and amps I've tried sound ok, but they don't respond like a real amp, there is absolutely no touch sensitivity, and especially with Line 6 stuff, they just sound the same with every guitar.

At low volume, also tube amps don't "behave" properly unless you crank them, but even a 5W tube amp is way too loud for practice...
My holy grail would have been the Lexicon Signature 284 amp, I tried one of those years ago and it just sounded amazing.

What in the end worked for me is the Tech 21 stuff, I have a Trademark 30 Ltd (the one with the solid oak cabinet) that sounds amazing, and a SansAmp GT2 which basically is the pre section of the Trademark, and it sounds great straight into a pair of decent powered speakers or into my recording rig.

I completely agree, but it's like what are you going to do? My current practice rig is a POD 2.3 into headphone. No real touch dynamics but decent metal tones, and that's what I'm mostly after.

I have a mess of tube amps at home. A homebuilt 2.5 watt, a 5 watt Kalamazoo Model 1, a 5-10 watt Gibson GA-5T, a Kalamazoo Model 12, Fender Blues Jr, then up from there.

5 tube watts is loud and proud. You can see that first hand with an Epi Jr.

The issue with practice amps that I see is the speaker. You need a certain amount of watts to get the speaker moving good. There's like a certain "cut off" where the tone goes to shit.

I think these new amps must have special speakers that are real loose or something that let you get a big amp sound at low volumes. I notice the Cube 30x has porting / sealed back - features to help the low end that is mostly hurt at low volumes.

I'm going to head to GC tonight and give them all a whirl again.

I'm hoping someone turned in a used Tonelabs. I'd like to try one but they never have one.

[DonP]

---

I felt the same way. Vox? Who the hell plays Vox? The Beatles, Tom Petty and Lenny Kravitz were all I could come up with.

But the Valvetronix amps and ToneLab processors are really great. I have an AD120VTX 2x12 combo and a ToneLab LE and love them both. I stopped at a Guitar Center last week and tried out the new VT30, and I was amazed. I had to get the hell out of there fast, before I bought it, as I really have no use for it. If I were in the market, I'd get one of the new Vox VT models.

Talking about weird Vox stuff, there's a Vox Cambridge amp at the Cinci GC. It's pretty old, probably from the very early 70s.

I plugged in and it was very warm and tube"y" sounding. I turn it around to find out what tubes are in it. To my surprise, it's solid state. I was really impressed. No doubt the Vox Alnico bull dog speaker helped.

These early SS amps were built with the idea of "keep the tube design and just substitute transistors for tubes". I think transistors might have been more popular if they kept to this designing idea, but they found ways to make things cheaper and less toneful. I'm thinking my old Gorilla TC-25, with the "Tube Stack" switch

[Tim_B]

Blackstar are getting good reviews, andhave amps around the rating you're after ...

[DonP]

Blackstar are getting good reviews, andhave amps around the rating you're after ...

For a small practice amp in an apartment, I think we already discussed tube amps just don't work good at low volumes. You can't get a "Full Stack" tone at low volumes with a tube amp, but you sort of can with modellers.

Also, for a practice amp, I don't want to be locked down to a single tone. I'd rather have a variety. For a main gigging amp, you'd want a favorite "signature" tone.

That said, the Fender G-Dec is the first practice amp to come into my arsenal. GC had a used one for $150 + tax, and I took it for $142 out the door.

I've only had one night to mess with it, but it seems pretty cool.

At the same time I bought a Vox VT15 for $200 + TN tax which is over 9%. They wouldn't budge on the price so it will probably go back in 30 days. I can get one for $170 shipped on ebay. I didn't even get it out of the box last night.

[Rich#6]

At the same time I bought a Vox VT15 for $200 + TN tax which is over 9%. They wouldn't budge on the price so it will probably go back in 30 days. I can get one for $170 shipped on ebay. I didn't even get it out of the box last night.

If you do take it out of the box and crank it let me know how heavy the distortion can go. I am selling a few things before I buy the 50watt one. I figure that one I can use the wattage knob for at home levels to push the tube and still have enough to play with a drummer if I wanted too. I did check one out but I didn't turn it up too loud.

[DonP]

A guy (younger I think) on the SD forums said him and his dad went to check out VT's. He said originally he wasn't going to get an amp with a speaker smaller than 12".

He said he tried out all of the different sized VT's and picked out the one that sounded best, and that turned out to be the VT15. He said his dad didn't say anything until he made his decision, but that his dad thought the VT15 sounded best as well. He's using it for church, miked.

My limit was a 10" speaker, but I was really impressed with the "big sound" of the VT15 at low volumes. I know somehow someway even if when I do take back the VT15 I'll find another to replace it.

But so far, messing with the G-DEC has been quite good for the price.