Thoughts on my options for a cheap power amp?

chrishill901

I am wanting to get a power amp for home practicing... bear with me!

Basically no matter how hard I try I can't get away with the feel of studio monitors, I want to play through a guitar speaker. I was thinking of building a small rig with a couple of Mooer or AMT preamps (I was thinking the Two Rock clone to cover my clean and blues, and the 5150 to cover my hard rock and metal, wired in such a way so I can switch between them but still access the clean and drive channel of each pedal) but I am curious as to the best way to amplify it. I don't need volume and I ideally want consistency between bedroom levels and jamming round a mates levels (within reason) but I don't have many mates so lets just focus on bedroom volumes. My options are:

EHX 44 Magnum - This is the most expensive option and I am worried about reliability, although it does sound good.

Mooer Baby Bomb 30 - Sounds good on the Music Radar demo however I have heard it gets loud quick and isn't widely available yet and the power supply is noisy

AMT Tubecake TC-3 - I am leaning towards this as the presence and resonance control can help compensate for tone change at different volumes but there are few demos out there and I'm gutted I missed out on one for £50 on here in May! the EU AMT shop have them in stock though.

Orange Micro Dark Terror - Using the FX return on this with those pedals should in theory sound good, the Chappers video when he did that sounded okay. The downside of this is that the preamp pedal would control the overall volume and as I'd be switching between 2 that would be a pain. I do have a passive volume attenuator (basically just a volume pot in a pedal - a Vein Tap Leech) - would this between the preamp and the power amp act as a master volume control?

The micro dark is probably the cheapest option - about £60 used. The Magnum 44 is the most expensive at £144 new and not many on the used market (probably because they break) The Mooer and the Tubecake are about the same price at about £100. My concern with a pedal power amp is that every time i power the pedal board on I'll get a very loud pop through the speaker? (Apparently the Mooer does) This is not ideal for late night practice. The micro dark wouldn't do this.

Are there any options I'm missing? Which option do people think is the best? I want to keep it cheap and cheerful.

ICBM

Get an old Japanese-made hi-fi amp, you can pick up ones in the 25-50w/channel range for peanuts. Don't worry about it being 'hi-fi' - it won't be through a guitar speaker, it's just an amp. They have EQ controls, very 'progressive' volume controls (ie will play nicely at whisper volume), often a 'loudness' switch which makes everything sound better at very low volume, and you could even run the two preamps in stereo if you get a two-speaker cabinet - or just one channel in mono, which is fine. Bombproof reliability usually, and run silently.

Jalapeno

Tried one of the Yamaha THR amps ?

ecc83

ICBM said:

Get an old Japanese-made hi-fi amp, you can pick up ones in the 25-50w/channel range for peanuts. Don't worry about it being 'hi-fi' - it won't be through a guitar speaker, it's just an amp. They have EQ controls, very 'progressive' volume controls (ie will play nicely at whisper volume), often a 'loudness' switch which makes everything sound better at very low volume, and you could even run the two preamps in stereo if you get a two-speaker cabinet - or just one channel in mono, which is fine. Bombproof reliability usually, and run silently.

+1 Or look at CPC/Farnell. They do some pretty cheap mono PA amps. Not 'hi-fi' but you don't want that anyway.

I have a 150W (sort of) Maplin MOSFET amp that kicked some A into a 6cu ft 200W bass cab some years ago but you can't get them any more so I am holding on to mine!  If I COULD find another I would use it to make a pair of supreme hi fi mono-blocks.

Dave.

chrishill901

Jalapeno said:

Tried one of the Yamaha THR amps ?

No but I was under the impression that these were more of an 'amp in another room mic'd up' sort of sound?

What sort of hifi amps should I be looking at? I don't really know what im searching for, when I google it it just comes up with 'modules' to build your own... Would that really be a better option than something designed specifically for guitar like the tube cake?

Jalapeno

chrishill901 said:

Jalapeno said:

Tried one of the Yamaha THR amps ?

No but I was under the impression that these were more of an 'amp in another room mic'd up' sort of sound?

Try one at a shop, you might be impressed

MartinB

A small bass head like my Gallien Krueger MB200 could be handy for this type of job.  They go for no more than £150 used, they have a mid-scooped voicing with everything at noon but can easily be dialled close to flat, and while the only post-preamp line input is on a mini-jack, the main input with the pad switch engaged should work OK with pedal preamps. 

ICBM

chrishill901 said:

What sort of hifi amps should I be looking at? I don't really know what im searching for, when I google it it just comes up with 'modules' to build your own...

Something like this - 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AKAI-AM-U110-STEREO-INTEGRATED-AMPLIFIER-MANUAL-1980s-HI-FI-AMP-MADE-IN-JAPAN-/152672658725?epid=653613104&hash=item238bffe525:g:JEkAAOSwn-tZMC-b

I just did an Ebay search on 'hifi stereo amplifier', this is just the first I saw that looked promising.

Try Cash Generator type shows as well, they usually have stuff like this.

chrishill901 said:

Would that really be a better option than something designed specifically for guitar like the tube cake?

For what you want, to amplify an external preamp, I think so. You don't want anything which is going to impose its own tone on the source.

chrishill901

ICBM said:

chrishill901 said:

What sort of hifi amps should I be looking at? I don't really know what im searching for, when I google it it just comes up with 'modules' to build your own...

Something like this - 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AKAI-AM-U110-STEREO-INTEGRATED-AMPLIFIER-MANUAL-1980s-HI-FI-AMP-MADE-IN-JAPAN-/152672658725?epid=653613104&hash=item238bffe525:g:JEkAAOSwn-tZMC-b

I just did an Ebay search on 'hifi stereo amplifier', this is just the first I saw that looked promising.

Try Cash Generator type shows as well, they usually have stuff like this.

chrishill901 said:

Would that really be a better option than something designed specifically for guitar like the tube cake?

For what you want, to amplify an external preamp, I think so. You don't want anything which is going to impose its own tone on the source.

Ah right, I see what you mean now, for some reason I thought you meant those smaller Raspberry Pi sized amps that seemed to be trendy for a short while... unfortunately aesthetics is of value to me and the form factor of the pedal power amps appeal to me more - its going in my bedroom and I don't really have space for a full sized HiFi amplifier, I want to keep it all on my pedalboard if I can. It already feels teenagery to have my guitars in my room, I don't want to push it too far and end up with a Guns N Roses poster and a dart board!

Also, as those pedals are designed purely as preamps without power amp modelling wouldn't I want something designed to impart a guitar power amp flavour to complete the tonal package?

I'll definitely check the THR out if I can. I have never really heard one nor have they been on my radar. I tend to stay away from hype... the one time i buckled was the Boss Katana 50 and it did nothing at all for me.

ICBM

chrishill901 said:
It already feels teenagery to have my guitars in my room, I don't want to push it too far and end up with a Sam Fox poster and a dart board!

Edited for accuracy .

chrishill901 said:

Also, as those pedals are designed purely as preamps without power amp modelling wouldn't I want something designed to impart a guitar power amp flavour to complete the tonal package?

Aren't they more designed to give the flavour of the complete amp, to be run through a clean amp? In which case the cleaner the power amp the better.

The EH Magnum is probably the best option of the ones you listed to be honest. If you're not pushing it hard it's less likely to be a reliability concern.

chrishill901

ICBM said:

chrishill901 said:
It already feels teenagery to have my guitars in my room, I don't want to push it too far and end up with a Sam Fox poster and a dart board!

Edited for accuracy .

Now you're talking. Are you trying to subconsciously warm me to the idea of an 80s looking HiFi amp through the power of Sam Fox?

ICBM said:

The EH Magnum is probably the best option of the ones you listed to be honest. If you're not pushing it hard it's less likely to be a reliability concern.

Is there a particular reason the EHX 44 is a better bet over the tubecake? I thought AMT stuff was particularly good? I do like what i've heard from the 44 Magnum, and I wouldn't be pushing it very hard. Would it pop every time I turned the pedal board on?

ICBM

chrishill901 said:

Are you trying to subconsciously warm me to the idea of an 80s looking HiFi amp through the power of Sam Fox?

Some things just remind you so perfectly of a particular era .

chrishill901 said:

Is there a particular reason the EHX 44 is a better bet over the tubecake? I thought AMT stuff was particularly good? I do like what i've heard from the 44 Magnum, and I wouldn't be pushing it very hard. Would it pop every time I turned the pedal board on?

Not sure. I haven't tried the AMT, but it's only 3W, which might not be enough for jamming with your mates if that does become an option.

chrishill901

ICBM said:

Not sure. I haven't tried the AMT, but it's only 3W, which might not be enough for jamming with your mates if that does become an option.

By Jamming i just mean a couple of guitars in the house. I really don't need loud at all! If I ever jam with a band I could just go through the FX return of whatever is there. I just wondered if the resonance and presence controls would be worth more to me than the extra power of the magnum?

ICBM

chrishill901 said:

By Jamming i just mean a couple of guitars in the house. I really don't need loud at all! If I ever jam with a band I could just go through the FX return of whatever is there. I just wondered if the resonance and presence controls would be worth more to me than the extra power of the magnum?

In that case, probably yes.

I have also never seen a dead AMT anything - which may just mean that they're not common, but it's better than the three dead Magnum 44s (one might have been a 22, I can't remember) I've seen so far. Small sample size problem admittedly...

monquixote

Just buy @digitalscream JC22H they are really cheap and very controllable in terms of volume and they also make great power amps.

ecc83

Also try charity shops. We have a big Heart Foundation store in the town. Does furniture and all sorts of electricals bought some V cheap PC monitors from them. Another charity shop had a stonking JVC 24" FSTV £20 WITH remote! G'son plays his Xbox on it.

Dave.