Back up for your tube amp -

Placidcasual79

I am realising that I need a plan B in case my amp goes during a gig..... pushing my luck for too long now - been having a look at solution and this came up - I am assuming that you go into this then into the desk? Could also use it for home recording into my audio interface? Any advice/thoughts? What do you do? Surely not carry two amps? (please)...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Palmer-PAL-PEPAMP-MKII-Pocket-AMP-MK2/dp/B010AGAHAG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1524609831&sr=8-1&keywords=palmer+pocket+amp+mk2

thecolourbox

I'm not sure a Clash album is really a viable back up should your amp fail.

Unless you are perhaps in a Clash tribute band

Placidcasual79

thecolourbox said:

I'm not sure a Clash album is really a viable back up should your amp fail.

Unless you are perhaps in a Clash tribute band

ha ha - edit!!! Thank you @thecolourbox ;

Though I have to say I think your unwillingness to consider a downloaded and unofficial Clash Dub download album as an amp back up just shows a lack of imagination lol

thecolourbox

Placidcasual79 said:

thecolourbox said:

I'm not sure a Clash album is really a viable back up should your amp fail.

Unless you are perhaps in a Clash tribute band

ha ha - edit!!! Thank you @thecolourbox ;;

Though I have to say I think your unwillingness to consider a downloaded and unofficial Clash Dub download album as an amp back up just shows a lack of imagination lol

I've checked with Shareef, and he don't like it either

pintspiller

While I had a 120w PA, I carried the head of that around as my spare. Since I've sold it I carried a DI pedal for a while. Now I don't have a backup.

ESBlonde

My Blackstar HTdrive has an emulated output, so I would just go to the desk.

EricTheWeary

Oddly enough I have a Palmer Pocket Amp. I've never actually used it into a PA and it makes a so so headphone amp. The main advantage is the XLR out but in an emergency anything with a speaker emulated out into the PA would do. 

Tech 21 Character pedals or the Joyo equivalents get a lot of love. The second generation Character pedals have the speaker emulation switchable so it could live on your pedalboard as overdrive but ready to pounce into action should your valve amp blow up. 

PolarityMan

I have 2 other valve heads should the failure manifest in time to use them, otherwise I use the amp sims on my GT-10 (which arent the ebst sounding but will get me through)

drwiddly

BluGuitar Amp 01 would do a very good job. Bit pricey for a back up though.

LuttiS

thecolourbox said:

I've checked with Shareef, and he don't like it either

Proper in office coffee spit laugh  

thomasw88

quilter pro block.

not cheap, but  is excellent as an amp in its own right, and allows direct out as well as working with a cab.   I use mine for all rehearsals and plug and play gigs, and take it as a backup to all my gigs.  Its small light, sounds great and reliable.

I've had a bunch of pedals etc that do the same.    Taken along combo solid state amps etc as well.  None of them have sounded as good imo.

 In  25 years of gigs I've had amps fail on me 3 times in a gig.   It has never been the speaker part or the cab that goes, always the amp side.     As such having a small head that you can plug in quickly should allow you to carry on with the gig (appreciate some combo's hard to do that as the speaker is connected to the amp internally).   

but if the cab does go then you can use the problock directly into the PA and it still sounds good (tho you'd have to sort out some monitoring).

Keefy

I carry a Palmer 'The Junction' speaker-simulator DI box, mainly for if I want to put my amp through the PA without messing around with setting up a mic. At a pinch I could I could connect it between my pedalboard and the PA.

Placidcasual79

Keefy said:

I carry a Palmer 'The Junction' speaker-simulator DI box, mainly for if I want to put my amp through the PA without messing around with setting up a mic. At a pinch I could I could connect it between my pedalboard and the PA.

Hmmm - thats an interesting suggestion - and I could use it at home as well......

whats it like? how much (and thanks for the suggestion @Keefy ;

Keefy

Placidcasual79 said:

Keefy said:

I carry a Palmer 'The Junction' speaker-simulator DI box, mainly for if I want to put my amp through the PA without messing around with setting up a mic. At a pinch I could I could connect it between my pedalboard and the PA.

Hmmm - thats an interesting suggestion - and I could use it at home as well......

whats it like? how much (and thanks for the suggestion @Keefy ;;

It doesn't compare with an IR-loaded box like the Torpedo C.A.B. but it's fine for sound reinforcement. It must have a pretty low input impedance as some pedals can't 'drive' it properly. I connect it to a spare speaker output on my amp, and the signal to the desk is hot enough that I have to use the attenuator. After that you have to experiment with the Bright/Normal/Mellow switch to get the best match to your cab sound.

I think I paid about £60 for it used. I also own the Behringer GI-100 (about £35 new) and a Whirlwind Mic Eliminator (£20 in a shop clearance!), both of which require power. The Palmer comes to gigs because it is the smallest!

EDIT: Another cheap and portable option is the Digitech Bad Monkey. It has a second output labelled MIXER which incorporates speaker simulation. You can dial in the gain and tone controls to roughly approximate the sound of your amp.

ESBlonde

Of course this doesn't answer the question what do you carry as a backup for your all in one digital unit! Modern electronics are very hardy and reliable compared to valves and manufacturing techniques are tried and tested. But at the same time they are not repairable in the field if at all. So does anyone carry a backup for thier Digital all in one unit? If so what?

slacker

I have a number of valve amps so I just take another one. I have a combo and a head that are similar. I also have a ZVex Nano, if space is tight. I've only had an amp die twice in many years. First time was a backline HRD (venue kindly supplied a Gorrila keyboard amp) and second time I was running two amps and the dirty one died a bar from the end of Tommy. 

There was a guy on the old musictoyz forum that gigged constantly and his entire amp setup consisted of a Dr Z combo and a matching head as a backup. 

Guitar_Slinger

I've got a Marshall JCM combo and used a small 18W head as back-up. The Marshall never failed, but sometimes I'd plug the combo's speaker into the head for second half of gigs or rehearsals to see if it worked (or if my bandmates would notice a sound difference). As @thomasw88 said, it's a bit fiddly and I had to have the head upside down, but it was a good solution.

tekbow

Sansamp Flyrig? Richie Kotzen has a sig version.

http://www.tech21nyc.com/products/sansamp/flyrig.html

vonLayzonfon

ESBlonde said:

Of course this doesn't answer the question what do you carry as a backup for your all in one digital unit! Modern electronics are very hardy and reliable compared to valves and manufacturing techniques are tried and tested. But at the same time they are not repairable in the field if at all. So does anyone carry a backup for thier Digital all in one unit? If so what?

Hoping not to tempt fate...

I have been gigging my Vox ToneLab SE direct into the desk for over a decade, pretty much without a backup.  One of the other members now uses a StompLab for about 3 songs that I could probably swipe in an emergency and I have very recently become the owner of a Behringer XR18 which I believe has a guitar amp FX plug-in that might also work in a pinch.

There are any number of reasonably priced modelling stomp boxes on the market these days that would do as a backup - depending on how drastic your mid-song patch changes are, I suppose.  The Mooer micro preamps are very cute...

ICBM

ESBlonde said:

Of course this doesn't answer the question what do you carry as a backup for your all in one digital unit! Modern electronics are very hardy and reliable compared to valves and manufacturing techniques are tried and tested. But at the same time they are not repairable in the field if at all. So does anyone carry a backup for thier Digital all in one unit? If so what?

If you rely on your own programming of complex sounds, the only really viable solution is another one of them with the patches copied. If not then you could get away with something cheaper and smaller in the same ballpark probably.

I've always carried a simple pedal that can just go through the PA in an emergency - it might not sound good but it would work well enough to get through a gig.

drwiddly

ESBlonde said:

Of course this doesn't answer the question what do you carry as a backup for your all in one digital unit! Modern electronics are very hardy and reliable compared to valves and manufacturing techniques are tried and tested. But at the same time they are not repairable in the field if at all. So does anyone carry a backup for thier Digital all in one unit? If so what?

I mainly use a Kemper or Axe FX for gigs but I have a Digitech GSP1101 that goes in the rack if I'm using my FRFR system. The patches are similar and will get me through any gig. If I'm using guitar cabs, I replace the GSP with a power amp and bring an Amplifire 3 which, again, is programmed with similar patches. Extravagant but I'm covered in an emergency.