Quiet Home Playing

JerkMoans

Hick81 said:

JerkMoans said:

Hick81 said:

I bought a Smokey cig amp from @JerkMoans  for this very reason (2 small kids in bed by 8). I love it, really great garage rock sound. 

Well, I did love it until my 2 year old ripped it apart with his bare hands. So not the most durable but whilst it was alive I never got any noise complaints from the wife or kids 

OMG!

Are the guts of the thing salvageable? You could retrofit into a chic Silk Cut pack, or similar?

That’s not a bad idea, although all the wires have been ragged out as well.

I’ll just buy a new one with the birthday money his Grandparents gave him...that’ll teach him! 

I coated my own one with sticky back plastic to reinforce it, many years ago.

mudslide73

Amplitube and Reaper for me. I've got an Orange Micro Terror also which works well when I'm sorting pedal settings out for gigs. 

TTBZ

I'm just using Amplitube as well. The Marshall AFD model can actually sound pretty decent with some tweaking. I've never got low volume tones I'm happy with using a valve amp. The Marshall Code 25 might be worth a shot if you like Marshall tones. Sounds good with headphones and the USB recording isn't actually too bad - still thinking of getting one myself for a home amp.

Fuengi

munckee said:

I have a THR5 which I play at night when everyone is in bed or if I only have 10 minutes, sounds great at any volume.  I have a 5 watt champ which has a master volume and sounds great at home I can play this during the day in a room on my own no bother, it has a 5F1 switch, if I crank the gain then the master is at roughly 9 o clock.

Debating a bigger amp as a lot suggest they play all sorts of valve amps at home with pedals but need to try some.

Edit - I would add the THR sounds great and has reverb/tremolo etc but not a patch on the champ at daytime volumes in terms of warmth, champ with tubescreamer = loveliness.

Need to come try my Yerasov GTA15.

I'm thinking about getting a decent 5w amp or upgrading my office acoustic insulation (or both). 

Doug

Yamaha Thr 10 original/cream one. It does everything I need for quiet home practice and more, love it.

noisepolluter

I use a Fender non-master volume valve amp with an OD pedal - same as playing out. Only difference is I have the amp treble and bass set higher for home volume to compensate for the amp running at tick-over. When playing louder the amp also adds a bit of compression from the rectifier, output valves and whatnot but a bit of extra drive on the OD pedal at low volume makes up for it. 

Adam_MD

I’ve been quite spoiled and have been able to play as loud as I want at home.  Mrs_MD likes having music playing in the house but as we have our first kid due in 4 weeks I’ve bought a katana 50 to see if it will help with some quiet practice while the babies sleeping.  So far the 0.5 watt mode isn’t too bad.  

TTBZ

I still reckon headphones is better than an amp for low volumes, I hate being able to hear the strings over the top of a quiet amp, totally kills it for me! And I've also managed to wake my son up playing through monitors at "loud TV volumes" and he's a nightmare when he doesn't nap so I've learned to adjust to headphones  

munckee

Fuengi said:

munckee said:

I have a THR5 which I play at night when everyone is in bed or if I only have 10 minutes, sounds great at any volume.  I have a 5 watt champ which has a master volume and sounds great at home I can play this during the day in a room on my own no bother, it has a 5F1 switch, if I crank the gain then the master is at roughly 9 o clock.

Debating a bigger amp as a lot suggest they play all sorts of valve amps at home with pedals but need to try some.

Edit - I would add the THR sounds great and has reverb/tremolo etc but not a patch on the champ at daytime volumes in terms of warmth, champ with tubescreamer = loveliness.

Need to come try my Yerasov GTA15.

I'm thinking about getting a decent 5w amp or upgrading my office acoustic insulation (or both). 

Sounds good, I'll bring the 5 watt champ and you can test the volume in your man cave

https://i.imgur.com/2rpduJF.jpg?1

Moe_Zambeek

I use an AudioKitchen The Big Trees into a celestion blue for quiet home practice with pedals - it sounds amazing and can be quiet enough that my sleeping son next door isn’t disturbed. Just one of the many uses for the TBT, it’s like a Swiss Army knife. 

darthed1981

So do people really find 1w and 5w valve amps quiet enough for legitimately quiet (i.e. TV volume in a terraced house, for example) home playing?

Fez

Kids will sleep with the hoover and the washing machine on don't pussyfoot around. Just don't play at damaging volume, better if in a different room.

BluesLover

As a learner I'm very conscious that doing scales and chord changes is repetitive stuff and will tax the patience of anyone else in the house. So I need to keep the volume low, like a transistor radio or tv on quiet, just a few milliwatts really. The best amp ive found for that is a Boss Katana mini.

slacker

darthed1981 said:

So do people really find 1w and 5w valve amps quiet enough for legitimately quiet (i.e. TV volume in a terraced house, for example) home playing?

Yes and no I often use a Matchless or bad cat at home but it's barely on. I use pedals for gain. However if you want driven valve amp overdrive it isn't going to happen my zvex nano is too loud with the volume over ten o clock

dindude

I have full on valve amp, cab, pedals for home use, nothing else has come close. I also have a 2-year old so practice time at volume is very limited and thus I’ve tried seemingly everything for headphone practice option out there:
Zoom / Boss Level multi fx - impressive for about 5 mins and then pretty average and uninspiring thereafter.
iPad apps - Tonestack is the best and fairly usable at a push. The rest are unusable.
Better quality plug ins on the Mac such as S-Gear (Also took the trial on Helix Native) - underwhelming and there’s something about pulling up a chair to a mouse and keyboard and being faced with one-billion options that kills the mood instantly for me.
Vox amp-phones - so so convinient and pretty good but still very limiting in feel and tone.
Recently bought a Two Notes Captor and I use the built in cab sim with my amp and pedals to my mixer and then headphones out. The cab sim isn’t the last word but it’s such a revelation using the amp and pedals that I’ve spent years getting to the right place.
I think I’m going to go full on Universal Audio OX - an expensive headphone solution for sure, but if it gets me playing more then it’s better value than buying an average guitar for the same price.

viz

I use a 100w valve amp through a 4x12 V30 cab but I have a clean boost in the loop that I turn down to 1mm above 0 and it’s fine. 

Sesh

My daughter has a katana mini. That's pretty impressive at low volumes. I have a vox vt20 modelling amp that can be set very quiet and still sound good. Not that I have a valve amp to compare it to. 

I'm keen on trying the new Laney mini amps. If they can do quiet well then I think I'll get one. I'm just waiting for a local shop to stock them.

munckee

darthed1981 said:

So do people really find 1w and 5w valve amps quiet enough for legitimately quiet (i.e. TV volume in a terraced house, for example) home playing?

Ed as I mentioned I use the THR at night to not wake the kids.  My 5 watt is fine to play in the house usually in a different room (their choice for some reason!) I have a master volume on it which means I can get drive with no pedals, otherwise I would have to use a drive pedal to play anything other than clean.  With pedals it would be perfectly useable in a terraced house pre 9pm!

LordOxygen

I have a THR10C which lives under the coffee table along with 1 meter guitar lead which is perfect for playing when the mood takes me. With the 10c on the table pointing at me it sounds great (and is still too load when turned up). But is does sound very good at low volumes for people sleeping upstairs.

I also have a Marshall DSL5 (5/1watt) in 1 watt mode its ok to about 2 or 3 on the volume control. For late night its still too load in my view. 

If I wad being honest with myself for home use the 10c is all I need. The Marshall arrived first and Im glad as it's a lovely amp and sound great with a few pedals.

munckee

LordOxygen said:

I have a THR10C which lives under the coffee table along with 1 meter guitar lead which is perfect for playing when the mood takes me. With the 10c on the table pointing at me it sounds great (and is still too load when turned up). But is does sound very good at low volumes for people sleeping upstairs.

I also have a Marshall DSL5 (5/1watt) in 1 watt mode its ok to about 2 or 3 on the volume control. For late night its still too load in my view. 

If I wad being honest with myself for home use the 10c is all I need. The Marshall arrived first and Im glad as it's a lovely amp and sound great with a few pedals.

need being the word.  You only need a 1995 nissan micra to get you to work, bet you don't drive one : )

Have played DSL5, really nice.  Just seen the DSL1R they look cool for home.