Amplification advice

carlos

Hello fretters,

I'm pretty knowledgeable about guitars and effects, but know very little about guitar amps and amplification in general.

I gig regularly around London but I also have a day job. This means I often have to bring my gear to work on a packed tube train and then carry it to the venue later on. If there's one, I will use the house guitar amp. This means my tone for each gig is always a bit random as I don't have time to tweak it. If there isn't a house amp it's a bit of a sticky situation. I have a VOX VT40+ which is fairly compact but still a nightmare to carry on a crowded train. It's not so much the weight, but the bulk of the thing. I often put in a suitcase and lug it around, but that plus the guitar case is more than a handful. These are some options I've thought about:

1. Get one of the small but powerful combos that can be carried in a backpack. I could use these mic'ed on stage and have it close to me for monitoring. The ZT Lunchbox seems a decent option, but the only one I've heard live had a lot of fizz when cranked up. A popular option among jazzers seems to be the Mambo 10 which can fit in a DJ bag (and the Mambo 8 is even more portable). Not sure the Mambo is too jazzy for my needs, but I can always run pedals into it to give it some dirt. Any others I'm missing?

2. Get a self-powered speaker/wedge and run my favourite Harley Benton TrueTone pedals into it. I absolutely love the TrueTone pedals. I'm building quite a collection as they're so cheap and versatile. Not as good as AxeFx or Kemper of course, but very reasonable and of course portable. I can take them to a venue and run them into a DI box but on stage monitoring is unreliable, so I'd rather take my own monitoring. I've looked at the Yamaha DXR8 but that's just too big to cart around in my circumstances. If it was slightly smaller it'd work, and then I could take the TrueTone I wanted for a specific gig. Is there a smaller active speaker that would be suitable?

3. Get an amp head and rely on the venue having a cab or speakers I can plug into? Not sure this will work! I'd probably go for a Mesa TA-15 then.

As far as tones go, late 80s early 90s Frisell is what I'm aiming for. My gigs are a mix of clean jazzy tones (bright not muffled, lots of 'verb) and sort of fuzzy soloing, a bit like Nels Cline in his solo work.

Your help very much appreciated and all suggestions welcome even if not one of the 3 above.

Phil_aka_Pip

Isn't it possible to get a Class D or Class T amplifier in a fag packet size box that'll deliver 50W? Then you could concentrate on a carry-able 1x12.

steamabacus

Have you considered some decent in-ear monitors?

carlos

Phil_aka_Pip said:

Isn't it possible to get a Class D or Class T amplifier in a fag packet size box that'll deliver 50W? Then you could concentrate on a carry-able 1x12.

Can you recommend a carry-able 1x12? All I seem to find are as big and heavy as a combo amp.

carlos

steamabacus said:

Have you considered some decent in-ear monitors?

No, I haven't. I'd need to get the soundguy to route the mix back into the transmitter, right?

steamabacus

You would need to be able to trust the sound guy to do his job - either that, or have your own personal monitoring system with a feed from the sound guy for the rest of the band.

I don't personally have much experience of in-ear monitors and, speaking for myself, I'm loath to trust my monitoring to some random sound guy (and, I admit, they're not ALL useless. Still, bitter experience and all that....) but there are quite a few on the forum who use in-ears successfully. They do seem the obvious choice if the size and weight of a speaker/amp is a problem, though.

Another thing which comes to mind (and, again, I've not used these with guitar) would be one of the small mic stand mounted 'personal monitors' that are available these days. Something along these lines?

carlos

@steamabacus

I'm thinking of the slightly bigger one w/ the 8" speaker too, but the B205D sounds just about right. Shame the 8" speaker one doesn't have as many dials in the front like the B205D.

steamabacus

It's the usual payoff between size and bass response or 'fullness'. I would suspect the smaller one might sound a little thin in a live stage situation - although a lot will depend on your particular guitar sounds and how full or bassy you will need. But, at the same time, I wouldn't want to be carrying anything too large on the crowded London tube system. It's a decision only you can make really.

That was why I thought in-ears might be a solution - small and light but (I assume) a fuller sound.

I know @monquixote was experimenting with an 'ampless' setup with his new band. He may be able to give you some pointers.

ecc83

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep14/articles/tc-fx150.htm

Dave.

monquixote

steamabacus said:

It's the usual payoff between size and bass response or 'fullness'. I would suspect the smaller one might sound a little thin in a live stage situation - although a lot will depend on your particular guitar sounds and how full or bassy you will need. But, at the same time, I wouldn't want to be carrying anything too large on the crowded London tube system. It's a decision only you can make really.

That was why I thought in-ears might be a solution - small and light but (I assume) a fuller sound.

I know @monquixote was experimenting with an 'ampless' setup with his new band. He may be able to give you some pointers.

I sort of am. 

For my new band I'm doing ampless practices using a Harley Benton pedal. 

Live I'll still have amp for sound reinforcement, but use the Harley Benton for monitoring. 

The ZT is probably the lightest loud amp as you've already identified and can be used as a head if you have a cab available. I imagine they will take a Harley Benton into the front end quite well. 

One interesting thing to look into are the AMT Legend 2 pedals as they have a nice Fender sound and a good drive sound. They are also the only compact pedal which can do drive out, preamp out and cam sim out all at the same time.

carlos

Thanks @monquixote

I think I'll go with the Behringer. 150 watts are nothing to be scoffed at. The lunchbox is 200 but they have same size speaker so I'm hoping they are comparable. What do you think? The 8" Behringer is 200 watts but bigger although will still fit my backpack which I don't mind taking with me.

carlos

Ordered the 200watt 8" self-powered speaker. Will let you know how it goes w/ the amp sim pedals. Fingers crossed.

steamabacus

Hope it works for you. Personally, I'd always feel a bit more comfortable with the bigger speaker in a gig situation.