Amps, Effects, Modelling

lucasharrison

Hi all

I'm a bit of an electric guitar newbie (after playing bass for many years) and after some advice

I'm currently playing a Fender Standard Strat through a Line 6 Spider amp for practising, which sounds ok, but thinking about buying something a bit better for rehearsals and playing live.

I have about £500 to spend on an amp/effects, but I am a bit confused by it all. I used to use a Line 6 Pod and that sounded pretty good, do many people use these to play live? If so, with what sort of amp? Venue-wise, really only going to be playing pubs/weddings so a few hundred people tops.  Is the alternative to buy a solid-state/tube amp and build up pedals? 

Thanks for any advice

Cheers

thecolourbox

We're all confused to greater or lesser degrees so don't worry too much about that. I suppose what might be good for you to do is to think what sorts of sounds you want and then pick somethings to try based on that - do you use modelling gear because you like having loads of sounds or do you just find one you like and stick to that? Do you use it for it's portability etc, that kind of thing.

The Pod thing still exists albeit with a million more options these days, the Pod HD series was the last one and now they have Helix as well which from what I can tell is basically a posh improved Pod, but could be massive overkill if all you actually want is a nice crunchy amp and a boost.

For £500 you should be able to find a good set up either as a modeling rig or as a traditional amp with a couple of pedals, so enjoy the ride towards finding what will work for you.

Welcome to the site

thecolourbox

Oh and for what it's worth, I'd suggest a decent start (depending on what styles you play) which would work well with a Strat as well would be a second hand Fender Hot Rod Deluxe for about £350, then use the remaining £150 to get a pedal or two of your choice that suits what you play.

But if they are too big and heavy then apparently the Boss Katana seems to be popular though not tried one myself. That's a modeling amp so is a lot lighter and has a lot more options but could be overwhelming if you're a "set and forget" kind of guy like me

drwiddly

Might not be the most helpful response but in my experience, the earlier Line 6 gear sounds ok in isolation but will not cut through a band mix no matter how you EQ it. I've seen guys using Vetta amps, Spiders, Flextones and I tried a Pod xt with a power amp a couple of times myself, all with the same result.

The newer Line 6 stuff may be much better but I'd steer clear of the older gear if you intend to play with other people.

If you need a modelling rig for different amp sounds and fx then either a Katana or a small rack with a Digitech gsp1101 and a cheapish power amp. The Harley Benton GPA 400 from Thomann is very good for the money. Add a Harley Benton Vintage cab with V30's and you've got a powerful, good sounding rig. Otherwise, a valve combo and a couple of pedals will do the job.

p90fool

Definitely a used Hotrod Deluxe and two or three pedals. 

It just works and sounds great. 

Fuengi

You can pick up a new Yerasov GTA15 for under £400 which is a better spec and build than any Fender amp at that price range. It's based on the Pro Jnr, but it also has a line in which you can run your Line 6 Pod through and it bypasses the tone control. Takes pedals well. 

digitalscream

Personally, I'd say get a 50W or 100W Katana, and use it to work out what effects and amp types you like. Gradually add pedals where you think the Katana's effects are lacking, and by the time you've got four or five pedals on your board you should also have a good idea of the amps you're after.

Cheap, high-quality modellers are excellent as tools for learning about guitar gear; I think a lot of folk miss that.

CarpeDiem

In my experience, multi effects units can sound good if enough time is invested in setting them up correctly. Also what may sound good at home, can sound a lot different at volume and in a band context. Welcome to the forum!

darthed1981

digitalscream said:

Personally, I'd say get a 50W or 100W Katana, and use it to work out what effects and amp types you like. Gradually add pedals where you think the Katana's effects are lacking, and by the time you've got four or five pedals on your board you should also have a good idea of the amps you're after.

Cheap, high-quality modellers are excellent as tools for learning about guitar gear; I think a lot of folk miss that.

There be wisdom here.  I have a K50 and it's great.

In fact, the Katana has pretty much every effect imaginable, modelled after the Boss pedals.  So you look at the panel out of the box and you have delay, reverb, chorus, phaser, flanger, tremelo and a T-wah - sweet.  But then you load up Tone Studio and you can get a compressor, auto wah, even a humanizer, so you can pretend to be Peter Frampton in that Simpsons episode.

I'm going to try and make a Champagne Supernova patch, so I know what pedals I might need for the TFB jam!

HAL9000

I'm a ‘set and forget’ type and find my Orange Crush Pro CR60C and a few pedals (Boss distortion, and MXR phaser) does pretty much what I want at pretty much your budget. However, if you're doing weddings etc you might want something like the Katana which gives you more options.

Plectrum

darthed1981 said:

I'm going to try and make a Champagne Supernova patch, so I know what pedals I might need for the TFB jam!

Just set the amp so it's starting to break up then fine tune it with the guitar's volume control. That's all you need to do. You can then bring in a pedal to push the amp more on songs which require that - simples . I was accompanying a pro performing Champagne Supernova last week and he wasn't in the least bit bothered that I wasn't using the "correct" guitar into the "correct" pedal and the "correct" amp.

darthed1981

Plectrum said:

darthed1981 said:

I'm going to try and make a Champagne Supernova patch, so I know what pedals I might need for the TFB jam!

Just set the amp so it's starting to break up then fine tune it with the guitar's volume control. That's all you need to do. You can then bring in a pedal to push the amp more on songs which require that - simples . I was accompanying a pro performing Champagne Supernova last week and he wasn't in the least bit bothered that I wasn't using the "correct" guitar into the "correct" pedal and the "correct" amp.

TBH - I've got a behringer TS copy for the "boost", I just am going to add a compressor and have two pedals that will give me all I need (I think), will put a new battery in each one and I'm good to go.

stickyfiddle

digitalscream said:

Personally, I'd say get a 50W or 100W Katana, and use it to work out what effects and amp types you like. Gradually add pedals where you think the Katana's effects are lacking, and by the time you've got four or five pedals on your board you should also have a good idea of the amps you're after.

Cheap, high-quality modellers are excellent as tools for learning about guitar gear; I think a lot of folk miss that.

This is great advice.

Unless you can already identify at least what flavour of amp and/or fx you want then something that does a bit of everything is a good call. 

Which begs the question - what kind of sounds do you want? (just bands and/or song references would be a good start )

Beexter

I went down the POD route a few years ago and used to play it through a Roland KC350 keyboard amp as powered Full range PA speakers were in their infancy. The Roland was OK but heavy! As has been said above, I struggled a bit to get the POD to " cut through" at gigs and moved back to a solid state amp and pedals. Stuck with that for a while before replacing the solid state amp with a tube amp.
I got an AX8 a year or so ago which is my main gigging setup through a Yamaha DXR10 but that is likely to be out of budget. I also recently picked up a Katana 100 combo as a quick grab and go for rehearsals and would heartily recommend it- especially for the money.
Aside from the AX8, I've struggled to get multi-fx/ amp modellers to cut through at gigs and also to make quick tweaks on the fly in the heat of a gig - a straightforward amp and a few well chosen pedals are much easier to deal with (AX8 excepted)

lucasharrison

Thanks for the replies everyone, that's really helpful. I hadn't considered the Katana range, seem to get good reviews though. Style wise, we're playing a mix really - Free, Beatles, Oasis, Foo Fighters to name a few. I like the idea of keeping it simple, with options for clean, distortion and delay, but Katana may give a few more options for gigging to cover more tones.

Looking at this bad boy

https://www.gak.co.uk/en/boss-katana-100-212

Cheers

darthed1981

lucasharrison said:

Thanks for the replies everyone, that's really helpful. I hadn't considered the Katana range, seem to get good reviews though. Style wise, we're playing a mix really - Free, Beatles, Oasis, Foo Fighters to name a few. I like the idea of keeping it simple, with options for clean, distortion and delay, but Katana may give a few more options for gigging to cover more tones.

Looking at this bad boy

https://www.gak.co.uk/en/boss-katana-100-212

Cheers

Katanas are great.

If getting the 2x12 you may want to consider the head and a cab.  The head has a little mini speaker so you can use it on its own for practise and plug in a 2x12 cab for gigs.

Plectrum

lucasharrison said:

Thanks for the replies everyone, that's really helpful. I hadn't considered the Katana range, seem to get good reviews though. Style wise, we're playing a mix really - Free, Beatles, Oasis, Foo Fighters to name a few.

I play a huge variety of songs from classic rock through to traditional folk songs using just a couple of JTM45 presets on my Marshall CODE 50.

lucasharrison

darthed1981 said:

lucasharrison said:

Thanks for the replies everyone, that's really helpful. I hadn't considered the Katana range, seem to get good reviews though. Style wise, we're playing a mix really - Free, Beatles, Oasis, Foo Fighters to name a few. I like the idea of keeping it simple, with options for clean, distortion and delay, but Katana may give a few more options for gigging to cover more tones.

Looking at this bad boy

https://www.gak.co.uk/en/boss-katana-100-212

Cheers

Katanas are great.

If getting the 2x12 you may want to consider the head and a cab.  The head has a little mini speaker so you can use it on its own for practise and plug in a 2x12 cab for gigs.

Ah cool, would I be able to plug the head into other cab amps for rehearsals? 

lucasharrison

darthed1981 said:

lucasharrison said:

Thanks for the replies everyone, that's really helpful. I hadn't considered the Katana range, seem to get good reviews though. Style wise, we're playing a mix really - Free, Beatles, Oasis, Foo Fighters to name a few. I like the idea of keeping it simple, with options for clean, distortion and delay, but Katana may give a few more options for gigging to cover more tones.

Looking at this bad boy

https://www.gak.co.uk/en/boss-katana-100-212

Cheers

Katanas are great.

If getting the 2x12 you may want to consider the head and a cab.  The head has a little mini speaker so you can use it on its own for practise and plug in a 2x12 cab for gigs.

Would this mean I could plug the head straight into another cab in rehearsals?

p90fool

Yep. 

lucasharrison

Ah that would be cool - can hone some tones without having to lug cab to rehearsals! Nice.