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Kindof Bored on a Sunday Morning so I though I would start a thread.
I’m curious what rigs y’all tend to use for home practice.As a harmonica player I find it difficult to get pleasing tones from anything other than a tube amp. Luckily I’m finding that’s not the case with guitar. I still prefer tube amp tone, aswell as the feel and response from a tube amp, but I have been getting some fairly decent tones out of modeling and solid state amps.
I have quite a few big amps, but I’m mostly interested in home rigs here.
I just bought a Fender Pro Jr. IV LTD with the Jensen speaker. It sounds GREAT, even at low volume. However (being a 15 watt tube amp) to get any breakup without blowing the windows out, I still need pedals.
I have a Kustom Tube-12A amp that I picked up as a package deal at a flea market years ago. It has a 12ax7 tube preamp with solid state power section. Never liked it for harp, but it sounds phenomenal with guitar for what it is. It has a built in overdrive circuit that you turn on/off with a button which then activates the gain knob…. And because it has the solid state power section, you can get the volume low with the tone still sounding quite good.
My most used home amp however is my little Vox DA5. This little modeler has always sounded so good to me. It even sounds decent for harmonica. It’s a 5 watt modeler with 0.5 and 1.5 Watt modes. The amp models and built in effects on this thing really sound amazing. Atleast for practice. This Amp LIVES by the couch. Lol.
I have a 2 month old daughter and this has been the new challenge. Get an inspirational tone that I can use without waking up the baby.
That’s the perk to modeling and solid state amps obviously… usable low volume tones and breakup. The DA5 I can turn down so quiet that I can play it right next to the baby while she’s sleeping and it’s barely louder than the guitars strings. It also has the option to be battery powered, which is nice for a travel amp. So no pedals needed and no power source either. I love pedals, but it’s super nice to be able to just plug in and play. Especially for practice. I’m looking at wireless systems to possibly make this rig even simpler. No cables at all… just turn the amp on and play.
As of right now I have 3 guitars.
97 Fender Jimmie Vaughan Strat
Schecter Nick Johnston ‘strat
Ibanez ASX 32. (Gibson SG style)I love amps, pedals and tinkering with tone. I’m curious what toys y’all are finding inspiring. And possibly we could share sound clips of tones we are getting from our home rigs?
Well ….. Let’s try this again.
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I think most guitar students go through phases of learning. The first phase is just learning where to put your fingers on the strings. Then there is the G.A.S. phase, the tone-chasing phase, the theory phase, the improv phase, the jamming phase, etc. Somewhere along the line there is the recording phase, unless you go straight in stage performance. Right now you are in the tone-chasing phase, which is a lot of fun. Like you, I’m a Strat lover and a tube amp lover. I have a pretty good collection of pedals, but I’ve played with them for so long that I got bored with them. I have two audiences for my playing: (1) myself, and (2) the online guitar community. What about you – who is your audience?
Sunjamr Steve
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In my experience with other instruments, the tone chasing never ends. Lol. Atleast for me.
I even tinker with tube amp circuits trying to find out what exactly makes the tone. And trying to find that sound that’s in my head.I have quite a few pedals and other gear that I use for harmonica so it’s been alot of fun running through them all with guitar. I know exactly what you mean about getting bored with the gear. For me that’s part of occasionally Gassing for a new piece of kit. It keeps the fire going a bit. All about finding different ways to stay out of ruts, right? Selling off old gear to buy new toys. Lol.
Harmonica players are notorious for being horrible with music theory, mostly because you don’t need much to play well. The possible chords, etc are built in. Guitar it’s nearly impossible to get around without knowing a fair bit. I knew enough to get in trouble before picking up guitar, but I’m learning a fair bit more.
I feel like the theory and gear phase is an ever growing thing, but I know what you meant.
My music has almost solely been for myself. I sit in occasionally with harmonica and used to post clips here and there on forums. But mostly it’s just my outlet and it Keeps my mind occupied. Lol.
I like the idea here to have challenges and lessons in common to work on. So I’m hoping to be able to take full advantage of that.
This current Covid situation is making me regret not starting a band at some point. Maybe when my guitar chops get up to snuff and we go back to something resembling normal… I’ll get a decent blues band together.
Well ….. Let’s try this again.
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My go-to amp is a Fender Super Champ X2. It’s a modeling preamp with a 15-watt, tube power amp. The modeling and onboard effects are really good. I have Boss BD-2 and SD-1 pedals, that I occasionally use into the clean channel. Honestly, I can get better overdrive sounds from the built-in effects.
For a headphone amp, I have a BlackStar Fly 3. Battery powered and a small package.
Three guitars: an Epiphone Dot with Seymour Duncan pickups, an Epiphone Les Paul Special II, and a Seagull acoustic. None of them are very expensive guitars, but I love them.
In my youth, I had a Gibson SG and a silver face Fender ProReverb. The amp was great, wish I still had it. I like my current guitars better than the SG.
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I really almost bought a super champ x2. They do sound fantastic. I love the fact that they have so many amp tones built in. I Love The fender amp sounds. From tweed all the way up.
When learning other instruments I have found that cheap instruments can hinder your learning. So I was trying to find out where that spot was. I actually bought some fairly expensive guitars from guitar center, but just didn’t get along with them so I returned them. Didn’t like the new feel on them. The guitars I ended up with are all used and they have that broke in feeling.
I’ve played a few of those epiphone les pauls that feel great.I also have a Yamaha acoustic that I bought as my first guitar, but it’s like playing a cheese grater. I would play for hours and then not be able to pick it up for days because my fingers were tore up. Lol. Even now that I have my fingers tough, it’s still rough to play. I would like to get one that feels easier on the hands.
Pro reverb is fantastic too. But LOUD.
How do you get along with the Black star? Good Tones?
Well ….. Let’s try this again.
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The Blackstar is a pretty nice little amp. Remember tho, it’s a $60 amp. The tone control takes some getting use to, and the delay effect I have set up to mimic a reverb. Overdrive and crunch sounds good. You have to learn it and tweak it, but once you have it dialed in, it sounds good. And for a small, battery powered headphone amp, it’s perfect.
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I have a 30W Blackstar modeling amp and 15W Blackstar tube amp. Both have their pros and cons. For clean sound, the tube amp rules. The modeling amp has some nice effects, but it’s so complex to set them up that I have to get the user manual out everytime I want to change them. Quite a few AM members – including our guru, Brian – use Kemper Profilers. There is something to be said for just plugging into a handy dial-a-tone box.
Sunjamr Steve
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Totally agree with the joys of going straight in to a tube amp.
I’m not against the modelers and profilers necessarily. However I find that if they are too complicated and/or have too many options, you end up spending more time fiddling with the gear than playing. Which is ok I suppose if you can play already, but when your learning it seems to get in the way.
Also A big obstacle is that I don’t have a computer. Lol. Haven’t had one since I got my smart phone. So that really limits my ability to unlock the potential of alot of this gear. I bought a Katana Mkii and took it back a few days after. Without a computer you can’t do much with it.
Recording my playing for online sharing is compelling me to buy a new laptop and figure out how to work a DAW.
I was a sound and lighting tech for all of my teen years, so I’m sure I can sort out how to set it up.
They have some really elaborate software based rigs now a days as well. I saw one recently where you can set up the cab, mics, Mic placement on the speaker cone, room, your stomp box chain, etc. Etc. Very cool. Yet again.. the danger is playing with the software more than the instrument, right? Lol.
Well ….. Let’s try this again.
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Got the Fender Studio 40 Bass amp for all my needs. Something I noticed about it is that it does not have the country it was made in. Have any of you bought new amps where the country is not stated?
I also have a Boss Katana amp, its pretty cool little amp.
For guitars.
Gibson Les Paul
Donner Thin-line Telecaster
Squier Bronco Bass
The melody of the notes is what expresses the art of music . 🙂 6stringerPete
It really is all about ”melody”. The melody comes from a language from our heart. Our heart is the muscle in music harmony. The melody is the sweetness that it pumps into our musical thoughts on the fretboard. 🙂 6 stringer Pete
Pete
Active Melody
Forum Moderator -
Maybe a little off topic, but when it comes to where gear is made, sometimes there is a choice.
I am in Australia and the last two guitars I have purchased were made in Australia. The Old Suzuki classical was made in Nagoya Japan.The jazz guitar is a handmade guitar from a chap called Roy Black and the Cole Clarke was made in Melbourne from all Australian timbers.
Nice to support your own country, where ever you may come from, if the option is there.
Yes, I do give my guitar’s their own personal name.
Mal
Attached is a song I wrote and played on the Cole Clarke.
Mal
Toowoomba,
Queensland
Australia -
Just saw this thread,
In home and places i cannot play any little louder , i prefer the Blackstar, HT 1 R as a tube amp, but i miss some nice treble with it, so my absolute favorite in that cases is the small Blackstar Fly 3W, like Dave
wrote above once found some nice fine adjustments..it delivers some great sounds.
I would like to add some about these small pocket amp, with 6 good batteries, 1 or 2 hrs/daily – it works fine up to 2 – 3 month ! It has a Drive option, Reverb and a Delay and it is also possible to use it as a Preamp to go into bigger sound systems or for example these Outdoor party soundsystems, so there is no need to carry a big amplifier to some kind of occassions.Surely, this small little thing is able to surprise a lot.
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