What's good these days for home that isn't a tiny little desktop thing?

StruanRobertson

Strymon Iridium and a little FRFR?

It's a modeller, but only 3 amps, and happens to be all three that you like.

Can go straight to headphones, but also sounds good on a speaker. You can get a decent, loud small FRFR for under £200 (Headrush 108), but you could use the monitors you already have. Pretty much plug and play and a great recording tool if you fancy that one day. 

I had one, thought the sounds were superb. If I had wanted an amp just for home I would have that and nothing else. However, I dream of gigging again, so have a pointlessly loud valve amp on order.... 

Slash'N'burn

digitalscream said:

What you have to remember is that even 1W is way too loud for any reasonable neighbours to put up with, but lower than that and you're really strangling the signal too much for most valve-based power sections to sound decent.

Come on, guitarists have used 30w - 50w valve amps at home for decades without much of a problem, suddenly 1w is too much?
 1 watt amps cranked are really are not that loud.
Amps of all wattages have master volume options , and there’s far  more choice in proper attenuators these days at affordable prices.

Chuffola

Appreciate the other suggestions made but I'm after a combo, not a head (want something that can sit in the sunroom and not look out of place), and although the Iridium looks great having just come from a Stomp, I just want one box that I can plug into and play without fiddling around. 

I'm seriously considering the TM Deluxe Reverb, but gulping a bit a spending that much on an amp for home. But, as I said earlier, it might then be the last amp I buy.

Also considering the Blackstar HT5 Mk2 - very different from the TMDR but from the demos I've heard, sounds pretty good and does seem to have relatively nice cleans with an option to drop down to 0.5w for the gainier stuff. 

I think digi is right re the 1w, certainly when it's cranked - but I won't be cranking anything really - it'll be used a fairly polite volumes and I didn't have any issue years ago when I had a HRD, which has a notoriously twitchy master volume!

So, head/ cab and any sort of pedal solution are out. Has to be a combo and has to sound and look "nice". 

Decisions, decisions...

ICBM

Slash'N'burn said:

digitalscream said:

What you have to remember is that even 1W is way too loud for any reasonable neighbours to put up with, but lower than that and you're really strangling the signal too much for most valve-based power sections to sound decent.

Come on, guitarists have used 30w - 50w valve amps at home for decades without much of a problem, suddenly 1w is too much?
 1 watt amps cranked are really are not that loud.
Amps of all wattages have master volume options , and there’s far  more choice in proper attenuators these days at affordable prices.

It's *always* about how effective the controls are, not the power - and also the speaker sensitivity. A cranked non-MV 1W amp through a 100dB 1x12" cabinet is going to be far too loud in the house, for most people. The same 1W with a master volume and a little 8" cabinet might be fine. Even a 100W amp through a 4x12" can be perfectly usable at whisper volumes if it has a good master volume (or preferably two, in series with each other) - and will usually sound better than a 1-watter as well.

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Chuffola said:

I'm seriously considering the TM Deluxe Reverb, but gulping a bit a spending that much on an amp for home. But, as I said earlier, it might then be the last amp I buy.

If you're wanting something Fender-y that can be played at bedroom volumes and you're not 100% married to the idea of valves then I'd heartily recommend a Roland Blues Cube. They were the absolute best solid state 'tube emulator' amps until the new Fender TM's came along, but they are significantly cheaper and more ubiquitous 2nd hand and so will come well under your £600 budget. The Blues Cube 'Hot' is more than enough for home use. Whisper quiet valve-like crunch tones when power scaling on the lowest setting, but can get pretty darned loud when you want it to. Also looks cool, which helps...

digitalscream

Slash'N'burn said:

digitalscream said:

What you have to remember is that even 1W is way too loud for any reasonable neighbours to put up with, but lower than that and you're really strangling the signal too much for most valve-based power sections to sound decent.

Come on, guitarists have used 30w - 50w valve amps at home for decades without much of a problem, suddenly 1w is too much?
 1 watt amps cranked are really are not that loud.
Amps of all wattages have master volume options , and there’s far  more choice in proper attenuators these days at affordable prices.

I'm talking about output power, not the rated power of the amp.

Even a 100W amp at home volumes will be putting out around 0.3-0.5W. A 1W amp cranked through the average 2x12" (for example) will shake the windows. The question is whether the volume controls are capable of not being a hair trigger at those low volumes.

Winny_Pooh

Many valve amps sound good when turned down and with pedals in front. I'd personally get an AC15. If you want physically smaller, the Fender hybrid jobbies like the superchamp or xt are good, as are the vox range.

Chuffola

I'm supposed to be working...

Yeah, the Blues Cube would be a serious consideration but the second hand market in NI is pretty weak generally so I'm probably going to have to buy new - I could wait for months for something to come up 2nd hand over here. 

andy_k

Katana 100 head, is a combo. Has half watt setting, includes every Boss pedal. Cheap.

dazzajl

Okay.... Captain Enabler back on the thread 

That Blues Cube does sound really good doesn't it. But can you really a trust a review from a man that has binding on his Tele??

If your favourite place to be is that gritty and crunchy place, then that tweed flavour is probably a great place to be. The Marshall Origin 20 is also a really nice little amp. I thought it was like a Marshall version of the Princeton, in that it's got the family sound going on but in a cute little box with a 10" speaker.

I'm still convinced from what you've said that the TM is the one that's the best match for what you're looking for. The blackface one does that Fender clean that fills the room with richness and depth, the reverb and tremolo are stunning at even at whisper volumes the sound from a 12" speaker is just bigger and more satisfying than a 10". I'm confident enough in the recommendation that I'll publicly say here that if you order a TM, don't fall in love with it and send it back, I'll pay half that return postage with you. I appreciate the irony here, considering that mine is in a box by the front door waiting for TNT but it really did take something very very special and unexpected to make me swap.

JezWynd

Chuffola said:

Appreciate the other suggestions made but I'm after a combo, not a head (want something that can sit in the sunroom and not look out of place)

Tone King Falcon, if you can find one.

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

JezWynd said:

Chuffola said:

Appreciate the other suggestions made but I'm after a combo, not a head (want something that can sit in the sunroom and not look out of place)

Tone King Falcon, if you can find one.

If you can find one for under his £600 budget you deserve a medal!

Chuffola

@andy_k Looks awful, too many options, too much fiddling. 

@dazzajl Hahaha - that is now a legal obligation and I have witnesses!  

cbilly22

I own the Laney Super cub 12R which has the low input option for home use, allthough the volume control makes the full 15w option perfectly usable in our small house.
Great sounds , particularly for classic rock. I've done a few YouTube clips and they have all been done at a volume you can natter over without pedals to help out 

Grumpyrocker

Chuffola said:

Interesting @Grumpyrocker - what’s it like on the dirty channel for lower gain tones. All the vids I’ve watched are sort of full on crunchy and higher. Can it do an early ZZ Top / Skynyrd type drive?

It can, but the gain gets hairy quite quickly. 

Grumpyrocker

cbilly22 said:

I own the Laney Super cub 12R which has the low input option for home use, allthough the volume control makes the full 15w option perfectly usable in our small house.
Great sounds , particularly for classic rock. I've done a few YouTube clips and they have all been done at a volume you can natter over without pedals to help out 

Yeah they are fantastic. I've got the original 12R combo version, before the new one with boost was introduced. Great for classic Marshall sounds. 

StefB

@Chuffola - get in here quickly if you want a TMDR, Coda have just listed a used one for £549.

I'm pretty sure they'll ship to NI.

https://www.coda-music.com/secondhand/fender-tonemaster-deluxe-reverb.html

Flanging_Fred

I’ve always thought my Mesa Boogie Studio .22 sounds decent at low volume. Having the graphic eq helps a lot in this respect. I think they can be had for ~£500 S/H. Whether you can find one in NI thoughI don’t know.

Chuffola

@StefB ; Thanks for the head's up - already gone!  What a shame. I knew I shouldn't have done any work today

Chuffola

Right - I'm going to have a think overnight.  Definitely tempted by the TMDR but its more than I was planning on spending and might - *might* - be more amp than I really need. 

Thanks for all the imput chaps - much appreciated and a lot to think about. But that's all part of the fun, isn't it?