Bedroom Amps/Set Ups

fretmeister

50W EVH 5150iii is brilliant at low volume.

Ok - the utter filth Red channel is a bit hissy at that volume, but the Blue plexi channel is superb.

Bidley

Zoom G3 and headphones. The looper and drum machine functions make it perfect for home practice.

wordy

kelvinburn said:

Hopefully only slightly off topic but which headphones are best suited to guitar?

I have a pair of Grado's like this which sound pretty good.  Theyre open backed and sound quite 'airy', but tbh its not like I've tested a lot of others.

http://www.whathifi.com/review/grado-sr60i

IIRC s few people on here strongly recommended some inexpensive Superlux headphones, but I cant remember which ones.

Cirrus

Since my band rents a rehearsal room, all my gear lives there so that's where I go to play guitar. At home I've got a Vox Pathfinder 15r which is great for playing at tv volume - which is as loud as I tend to play electric in the house. I'm more likely to pick up my acoustic.

Playing live relatively often has made my at-home guitar playing quite Laissez-fair in that if no one is around to hear me I don't really care what I sound like.

:ar!

Babones

bertie said:

Babones said:

 Much better than the Dr. Z Brake Lite, which is more suited to taking off some dbs in a live situation. I also think it sounds better than the BL.

ought to for nearly twice the price        

I think people may not realise that they serve quite different purposes. You'll be disappointed if you want to use the BL for home attenuation. You're more likely to please a venue sound man with it. That said, the NL can take off only a little too, if you wish. But for home, Swart NL. And it's about the same price, if not cheaper than, a THR 10.

CloudNine

Babones said:

The Swart Night Light works very well on sub 22w tube amps. Also has a cool blue/purple light  You can get it down to TV watching levels, at its most attenuated, if you want. Much better than the Dr. Z Brake Lite, which is more suited to taking off some dbs in a live situation. I also think it sounds better than the BL.

Totally this! I use one with my Victoria 5112, just amazing. Far from sucking any tone as attenuators are regular accused of doing, it makes it significantly better. As whilst knocking off some volume, it seems to kill off any unwanted amp noise. Absolutely love the thing and would instantly replace it if broken. I think the Viccy would be considered a decent home or recording amp, but the Night Light improves it massively. 

noisepolluter

I tend to just use the DRRI most of the time - the clean sound is still fine at very low volumes, the volume pot has a smooth taper, and the Deluxe Memory Man's previously annoying feature of an always-active volume control/preamp is now very useful because it also has a very gradual sweep. 

Pedals for dirt, obviously. 

Otherwise, Microcube. 

bertie

Babones said:

I think people may not realise that they serve quite different purposes. You'll be disappointed if you want to use the BL for home attenuation. You're more likely to please a venue sound man with it. That said, the NL can take off only a little too, if you wish. But for home, Swart NL. And it's about the same price, if not cheaper than, a THR 10.

depends how much attenuation you want/need  -  I use a BL,  which alows me to warm up the power section a tad and does actually make quite a bit of difference, which suits my needs/style -  Ive used others in the past(and low powered amps), but Im not overly keen on uber saturation  so dont need 100% - all too mushy for my tastes - so the BL is just fine      -  and cheap    so I have a THR too      

   

samzadgan

Adamski said:

I honestly don't believe in all this 'bedroom amp' malarkey. Some of the best sounding amps I've had at bedroom levels have been 100w monsters!

+1...even at low volumes i find high powered amps sound much better...add some pedals and you have one rig for multiple purposes.

JookyChap

I've got a Blackheart Killer Ant which is a lovely sound and definitely semi-friendly. However, I tend to use my AC15 which just sounds great even at the lowest setting, so the Blackheart is a bit redundant.

I've also had the THR, Blackstar 1W thing and  a couple of other smaller amps, but none of them sound as good as either the Blackheart or the Vox, master low, everything else up high..

MattG

Peavey nano valve with a decent set of valves and the L-Pad mod is perfect for this, especially when combined with a decent cab or just a speaker upgrade

57Deluxe

I use ALL my amps at home and not one of them is less that 12W 

Cacofonix

The Nomad 45 has a headphone output.

kelvinburn

@wordy cheers matey. Well worth a punt

mike_l

Marshall DSL combo.

I have the master set around 2-2.5.

grungebob

Easily the line 6 DT25, great sounding amp at any volume plus it has the low volume mode for when yoy really really need to be a very quiet high gain monster. That said though ive recently got the PRS SE 20 and that is sounding pretty damn good too at all levels.

guitarfishbay

The thing you need to watch with a big amp/cab is the bass response. Keeping your windows and doors shut will block out a lot of sound but bass frequencies will travel through walls/floors/ceilings more easily than you'd imagine. I play my half stack at home and just watch the levels. If I'm at someone else's house I take a Microcube because it is portable and more than loud enough for home use. Even a Microcube can be set loud enough to annoy people.

dindude

I have a yam THR but agree with those saying a big amp sounds best. I use my Carr with my pedalboard 99% of the time, whilst the yam gathers dust. The yams great for late night headphone duties when the time calls but sound wise there's no competition with a "real" amp, even at low-ish volume.

timmysoft

I use a tiny little Crate gx15r with a Boss DS1 in front. I dont get the need to have "ultimate valve warmth" from a practice amp, it is what it is!

To be honest the little crate sounds good enough for writing and rehearsing at home. You hear things differently at volume anyway so trying to replicate the natural compression ratio of your own hearing by using a small amp just doesnt work for me. 

nickb_boy

I'm now waiting on the arrival of a used Tone King Falcon to hopefully settle my GAS for bedroom level tones with the built in Iron man attenuator. There are some serious options available from this little package, and it will make a decent gigging amp if I mic It up. Thankfully I paid no where near the original sale price!

I'm hoping this won't just add to list of small wattage amps that will gather dust in the corner of my room!