As home practice amps evolve.....

strumjoughlamps

....have you or have considered switching?

since having a Blackstar BEAM myself and getting my Son a Blackstar FLY 3 twin pack, both which are brilliant for stereo music as well as being practice amps I have realised I will now only look at full range stereo practice amps now.. they are just so versatile.

what say you?

ecc83

Oooo! NOW you've done it!

Dave.

digitalscream

Nope. I find playing through my DAW much more useful, especially now that I have Helix Native. Never even occurred to me to get a practice amp, and now that it has (thanks to this thread)...I still don't want one.

guitarfishbay

I just use my computer at home these days.

For mobile stuff I’m still on team MicroCube. They’re pretty rugged and last ages on batteries if necessary, bit chunkier than some newer stuff but that’s never been an issue for me. 

guitargeek62

Well i’ve just sold my Cornell Romany (again) as part of my downsizing. I don’t play enough to warrant keeping it, and wanted the cash difference to spend on motorbike parts instead, so I’m moving to one of these bedroom practice only amps now as they seem to tick all of my (realistic) wishlist boxes. The Vox Adio in particular seems to show promise, then the THR’s etc.

That said, the Katana 50 still looks damn good on paper and in videos - I’m not sure why they lost flavour of the week status?

TTBZ

I had a Fly 3 and it was good for what it was but I'm back to using Amplitube for now. 

p90fool

I've gone the other way and just use a Pignose at home. I now just think in terms of music instead of equipment when I'm working on stuff.

MentalSharps

Interesting, what benefits does "full range" and stereo entail? At the moment I've got a reactive loadbox for £200 which lets me crank the master on my 100w head and play silently into headphones (through my computer). The IR's really do sound great I was surprised. 

mistercharlie

Stereo amps sound way bigger than mono, so you can get room-filling sound with smaller speakers and lower volume. And “full range” lets you use it to play music from a computer or phone, either backing tracks or just for listening. 

They’ll also use a lot less juice than a 100w head into a load box. 

ICBM

I much prefer a proper small guitar amp with a standard speaker - far more natural-sounding.

The Blackstars sound awful to me - horrible weird harsh and muddy guitar sound, and dreadful overdone ‘wide’ stereo effects that sound like you’re inside a giant pair of headphones wired out of phase. I haven’t tried putting music through one, but I’d be surprised if they sound good...

I quite like the Yamaha THR10, but only for clean sounds - anything beyond very light crunch sounded bad.

I like *proper* full-range sounds - through a decent PA or studio monitors. But I don’t think this sort of small amp is even close.

munckee

I have a thr 5 which is great for low volume playing and as an iPod player and computer speakers. 

TheBigDipper

I've tried everything for electric guitar and  'at home' use. I've ended up using a 1W Sheldon TT3 as my home amp - that's a standard size combo with a 12in speaker. Plug myself in and turn it on - get the tones I like to hear in my playing. Sorted. I've also got a Cornford Harlequin, but I prefer the Sheldon. I like 'breakup' sounds with my cleans but not totally dirty. The Harequin does great dirt but the clean isn't quite as 3D as the Sheldon. 

Computers, modellers and the like don't do it for me. They sound too processed and nothing like a guitar through an amp in the room. I've realised that this is the sound I want to hear.  I don't need to play through headphones at home, which isn't everyones situation, so the Sheldon is it. 

meltedbuzzbox

I use a 50w

zepp76

I used to use a Blackstar HT1R as my quiet practice amp but it went tits up so I made the switch to SS amps and bought a Katana 50. What a great piece of kit! It's so easy to dial in a useable sound without hassle, I've just been using it without the need to go into the software side of things, it's just good straight out of the box.

impmann

TBH, all of these practice amps have a touch of the emperors new clothes about them. Do they really sound 'better' or do they flatter your playing - there's a difference.

Most are designed to sound very impressive in isolation - for example the hidden compressor on the clean sounds on the Spider range. Its still denied but if you listen its there, its modelled - play with big open sounds, like a p90 and listen to the attack envelope. As a result, I detest that sound - but it flatters your playing/guitar.

Likewise, the drive sounds on most of these amps have way too much gain, meaning that at low volumes it sounds massive but it luls you into a false sense of security... as if you use similar gain levels playing with others, your sound disappears into a void and/or you have feedback issues. How many young players have you witnessed this with? Then they get a lightbulb moment and turn the gain down, and instantly sound bigger, louder and 'better'. Plus, very few of them work the same as a loud valve amp when you turn the volume down on the guitar... dynamics... heard of them.

I've played through most of these new 'wonder amps' (Katanta, Blackstars, Yamaha etc) and they all sound the same ... and I don't like them (vile clean sounds and drive sounds that sound like a beer commercial). I prefer to find a nice sounding basic amp, and then use effects to give me the sounds I want. I find this to be a much more 'scaleable' set up and is closer to the sound I use playing live.

To that end, I've been using an old 1970s Vampower Power Baby valve practice amp for the past 10 years or so, and no matter what the latest 'shiny' new offering from whichever company is trying to peddle their wares... I think it will stay.

olafgarten

I think it's important to consider the use case.

For people who play Valve amps live, they will probably want their practice amp to sound more like whatever they use live and so will be dissapointed with most practice amps.

For other people (including me) who most likely won't play live, and just wants a good tone at an acceptable volume, these practice amps sound great, because they work well in isolation and also work well enough in small groups for a casual jam.

ICBM

olafgarten said:

I think it's important to consider the use case.

For people who play Valve amps live, they will probably want their practice amp to sound more like whatever they use live and so will be dissapointed with most practice amps.

For other people (including me) who most likely won't play live, and just wants a good tone at an acceptable volume, these practice amps sound great, because they work well in isolation and also work well enough in small groups for a casual jam.

I’ve never been able to get an acceptable sound out any of the Blackstar Fly or Core amps, regardless of context. It’s not about not liking practice amps - for example the little Vox Mini5 actually sounds like a guitar amp, instead of like a broken radio.

The only reason I don’t think the Blackstars are the worst-sounding amps I’ve ever heard is because I’ve been unfortunate enough to play the Orange Micro Terror... the Blackstars at least don’t have the hideous grating overtone it has.

I’m actually holding back quite a lot from expressing just how much I hate these amps .

strumjoughlamps

Whereas I would say the Blackstar BEAM is probably the perfect small amp 1 box solution..

I thought the Yammy 10 was okay for guitar but horrible for music.

just shows we all have our tastes and tweaks we prefer. Choice is good

noisepolluter

I just use the same 1x12 valve amp I use for playing out, but with the volume much lower (obviously) and the treble a bit higher. I do get all the drive and effects off a mini pedalboard in both situations though, so it’s only a question of my ears adjusting to the EQ balance at different volumes and tweaking if necessary.

flying_pie

@ICBM have you every played the Orange Micro Crush? It's in a league of its own for atrocious sound, even amongst the cheap tiny speaker practice amps 

ICBM

flying_pie said:

@ICBM have you every played the Orange Micro Crush? It's in a league of its own for atrocious sound, even amongst the cheap tiny speaker practice amps 

Played? I own one .

Actually I gave it to my singer... I sometimes play through it at her flat.

It's not great, although it sounds not too bad clean and it does have a built-in tuner. Or is it really a tuner with a speaker? I can never decide .

It's difficult to say if it actually sounds worse than a Blackstar Fly/Core or not - in some ways it does, but I'd still rather use it since in other ways it doesn't - it has nothing of that awful muddy, weirdly artificial sound even though it does sound like a wasp in a tobacco tin. I think it sounds better than the Marshall plastic micro-amp too.