Can I have a 'proper' amp at home, please?

z4driver · February 2021

Hi all,

I am just about to retire which means that I am going to have more time to play and also some spare cash. I've played on and off over the years but never really beyond the strum a few chords and play a few riffs stage. Now I want to change that. I'm mainly interested in playing blues and some classic rock. Over the years I've accumulated several guitars (US Strat, Squire Tele, Epi LP etc) all of which I'm pretty happy with. What I've never had is a decent amp, they've always been relatively cheap practice ones, nothing above £150. So I've decided that as a retirement present to myself I'm going to lash out on an amp, up to about £750. It will be used mostly at home but I would like, once I get a bit of confidence/skill, to be able to go to open mike/jam sessions.

So I started looking......and went down the rabbit hole of looking at amps on the web.

I sort of started off by thinking about a Blues Junior, then found out about modded BJs and then found the whole amp kit world (I was an electronics engineer in a previous life, so building my own does appeal). Then I read that valve amps are a no-no at home volumes and what I should be looking at is something like the Yamaha THR.

So advice, please. Can I have a 'proper' amp at home? Can I kit build one? Do I have to have something that looks like a sound bar for a tv?

Totally dazed & confused

Lee

LastMantra · February 2021

You certainly can use valve amps at home, I use two small (ish) vintage valve amps in my living room.
If you're going to have to have the volume right down all the time though it's maybe not worth it. Some valve amps need to be pretty loud to get any kind of distortion. I use pedals with mine.
Plus modern ss practice amps can have all sorts of voices and features that most small valve amps won't have.

ICBM · February 2021

You can certainly have a proper amp at home, including a valve amp, and even at very low volume.

Contrary to "popular wisdom" the power of the amp doesn't matter - only how effectively you can control it. You can easily have a 100W amp which sounds fine at whisper volume if it has a master volume control that works well. (Or conversely, a 5W amp that's too loud because it doesn't.) Multiple volume controls in series helps - ie a channel volume *and* an overall master volume or 'output level' control, since you can turn both down.

If that doesn't give you the type of sound and control you want, any amp that has a detachable speaker connection can be attenuated.

Speaker sensitivity also matters, and a low-sensitivity 10" speaker will give a much lower volume than a high-sensitivity 12", even with the same amp power - and may well have less of the bottom-end which can cause volume problems at home. I wouldn't go smaller than 10", most 8"s don't sound great unless you want a specific 'vintage small blues amp' type sound, and there aren't as many good choices either.

All that said, I would probably stick to the 5W-15W range for a valve amp as that will give you enough power to be heard in public if that time comes, but is still going to be small and light enough not to take up too much room at home and carry around easily - or maybe 30-75W for solid-state, they don't sound as loud as valve amps for the same rated power (for several genuine reasons, not because they're no good).

Hope that helps, and welcome to the rabbit hole

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fretmeister · February 2021

The Blues Junior is a boxy sounding pile of arse.

The Hot Rod Deluxe and the Blues Deluxe Reissue are far better but for reasons explained above is difficult to control at home volumes. But they can have a vol pot modification or use an attenuator.

ICBM · February 2021

fretmeister said:

The Blues Junior is a boxy sounding pile of arse.

I'm not sure I should really say this given my well-known dislike of them

, but actually the MkIV version isn't anywhere near as bad - I was quite surprised when I tried one recently. And if anything home volume is the best use for them, they sound much less middy and congested when they're turned down. I still think they're overpriced for what they are though.

fretmeister said:

The Hot Rod Deluxe and the Blues Deluxe Reissue are far better but for reasons explained above is difficult to control at home volumes. But they can have a vol pot modification or use an attenuator.

They are a genuinely much better amp - although substantially bigger and heavier. You can use the 'other kind of attenuator' with them too - a signal-level one that goes in the FX loop, like the much-loved Dr. Watson Lion Tamer

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dazzajl · February 2021

I think a lot of the biiiiiiiig valve amps are great for home use and low volume playing. I have an AC30 with no master volume that’s the loudest thing I’ve ever heard. It’s also glorious at whisper volumes too. If I’m playing that quietly I’m usually happy with a clean sound but a drive pedal would add some dirt if I wanted to.

Of course you don’t have to be insane enough to buy a 2x12 combo that creates its own gravity well, there are many great options

fretmeister · February 2021

ICBM said:

fretmeister said:

The Blues Junior is a boxy sounding pile of arse.

I'm not sure I should really say this given my well-known dislike of them , but actually the MkIV version isn't anywhere near as bad - I was quite surprised when I tried one recently. And if anything home volume is the best use for them, they sound much less middy and congested when they're turned down. I still think they're overpriced for what they are though.

fretmeister said:

The Hot Rod Deluxe and the Blues Deluxe Reissue are far better but for reasons explained above is difficult to control at home volumes. But they can have a vol pot modification or use an attenuator.

They are a genuinely much better amp - although substantially bigger and heavier. You can use the 'other kind of attenuator' with them too - a signal-level one that goes in the FX loop, like the much-loved Dr. Watson Lion Tamer .

I had a Blues Deluxe many years ago. It was ace. Lovely sound and took pedals very well.

But these days my silly loud bass rig weighs less!

Mind you, if it could go in a room and never move then I'd have another one.

BahHumbug · February 2021

My recommendation for the OP, with your budget, is to keep an eye out for a 2nd hand Cornell Romany. They come up on here quite regularly, and they are luvverly.

RickLucas · February 2021

Princeton.

Grumpyrocker · February 2021

I used to use a 60W Laney Ironheart head at home. Had a lovely master volume control that was easier to tame than many lower wattage amps I've owned.

russpm · February 2021

A Blackstar HT 20R MKII would do the business and well within budget. It has a 2 watt mode and a master volume. Totally fine for home use.

lovestrat74 · February 2021

This thread has the Tonemaster written all over it doesn't it?

dazzajl · February 2021

lovestrat74 said:

This thread has the Tonemaster written all over it doesn't it?

Apart from not being a great self build option, it does.

I was taking a breaking from my broken record recommendation though.

Philtre · February 2021

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noisepolluter · February 2021

z4driver said:

[...]
I'm going to lash out on an amp, up to about £750. It will be used mostly at home but I would like, once I get a bit of confidence/skill, to be able to go to open mike/jam sessions.

So I started looking......and went down the rabbit hole of looking at amps on the web.

I sort of started off by thinking about a Blues Junior, then found out about modded BJs and then found the whole amp kit world (I was an electronics engineer in a previous life, so building my own does appeal). Then I read that valve amps are a no-no at home volumes and what I should be looking at is something like the Yamaha THR.

Do you need to be able to drive the amp at home, or would you be happy to use a clean sound with drive pedals?

Some valve amps have absolutely glorious clean sounds and make for excellent pedal platforms.

I’ve owned two previous versions of the blues junior - while there were good sounds to be had, I always felt like I had to wrangle them a bit to get the best sounds, and there were frequent issues with circuit noise. They may well have fixed all that with the mk4, though I’ve not tried one.

What I do use at home now, and for jamming when/if it’s possible again - is a Princeton 65 reissue. Absolutely sublime clean sounds, tremolo and reverb. Sounds great with pedals and awesome when you can turn it up to growl (which is way too loud for home at that point - don’t let the 10 inch speaker fool you. I saw a small pub blues gig back in 2019 with two guitarists playing, one of whom had a Princeton and it was keeping up easily - he was having to use a pedal to get enough crunch for lead with a strat).

They do come up second hand just about within your budget, and the 68 custom version can be found for about £100 less - there are plenty of reviews and clips comparing the difference.

Edit: how about building your own drive pedals? Must be tons of Tubescreamer and Rat kits out there for instance.

slacker · February 2021

Make sure you try the amps before you buy. Some of the amp choices are subjective. I wouldn't use a fender hrd if I was paid to do so.

dazzajl · February 2021

slacker said:

Make sure you try the amps before you buy. Some of the amp choices are subjective. I wouldn't use a fender hrd if I was paid to do so.

The HRD doesn’t work for me either but you can’t just dismiss the worlds most popular live playing amp and leave it like that. We need to know what it’s dine to offend you so much?

slacker · February 2021

dazzajl said:

slacker said:

Make sure you try the amps before you buy. Some of the amp choices are subjective. I wouldn't use a fender hrd if I was paid to do so.

The HRD doesn’t work for me either but you can’t just dismiss the worlds most popular live playing amp and leave it like that. We need to know what it’s dine to offend you so much?

1 it sounds horrible 2 it breaks down 3 when broken during a gig the sound man gave me a gorrila keyboard amp 4 and it sounded better.

My experience is probably unique which is why i suggested that the op try some amps. Just because people here like said amps it doesn't follow that the op will

Winny_Pooh · February 2021

With an attenuator and pedals low volume is no issue, this even has an attenuator built in:

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/201608/tone-king-falcon-grande-turquoise#latest

dazzajl · February 2021

slacker said:

dazzajl said:

slacker said:

Make sure you try the amps before you buy. Some of the amp choices are subjective. I wouldn't use a fender hrd if I was paid to do so.

The HRD doesn’t work for me either but you can’t just dismiss the worlds most popular live playing amp and leave it like that. We need to know what it’s dine to offend you so much?

1 it sounds horrible 2 it breaks down 3 when broken during a gig the sound man gave me a gorrila keyboard amp 4 and it sounded better.

My experience is probably unique which is why i suggested that the op try some amps. Just because people here like said amps it doesn't follow that the op will

4 really is the killer there huh.

randerson · February 2021

I've found the suhr corso to be perfect for this application

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