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Top Ten List: Best Bedroom/Home Studio Amps


tsp17

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Axe-Fx Standard...period.

 

Every amp you could possibly want from clean jazz to clean country to tweed blues to marshall rock & roll to heavy metal Urbers, Soldanos, 5150s, Diesels.

 

Not just a practice tool that sounds INCREDIBLE, but the best recording tool you will ever need. These have really come down in price and why buy an amp you can only use in your bedroom?

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Guest HRB853370

I have a bugera v5 too and while I really like it, sometimes I find it a little dark. I think it works better with single coils rather than HB

Would it help if you turned on a light when you play through it Gio?? Yuck yuck! :laughing4:

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Guest HRB853370

Axe-Fx Standard...period.

 

Every amp you could possibly want from clean jazz to clean country to tweed blues to marshall rock & roll to heavy metal Urbers, Soldanos, 5150s, Diesels.

 

Not just a practice tool that sounds INCREDIBLE, but the best recording tool you will ever need. These have really come down in price and why buy an amp you can only use in your bedroom?

That's not an amp. Its a dang computer software program.

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That's not an amp. Its a dang computer software program.

 

Your level of inaccuracy astounds me. Will, you really should not comment about things you don't know about. It is not a computer software program. It is a stand alone solid state preamp with modeling and effects.

 

Will, I assume you have played through and heard one live since you know so much about them, right???!!!!!

 

Is the Roland Cube a solid state amp? Yes. The Axe-Fx is essentially the same idea and layout except it is a combo not just the preamp head like the Axe-Fx.

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For a bedroom amp, I'd nominate the Little Lanilei. It's a little tube-driven amp with output ranging from1/4 to 33 watts through a pretty cool custom built 6 1/2" speaker or through output jacks that can run up two 4X12 if need be at stage volumes.

little-lanilei-3350lt-250.jpg

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I have one of these on pre-order:

 

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=1328063

 

I had a chance the hear the prototype at the LA Amp show back in October and it freaking' sounded killer. The price of admission was right as well.

 

John may be right about the Axe-Fx. I haven't priced the Standard or Ultra recently now that the Axe-Fx II has been out for several years. They are a killer unit. My problem with them is the damn digital interface. I just can stand them. Also the amount of time tweaking. You can get lost for hours just tweaking those darned things. I wan to plug in, dial up a killer tone quickly and get going.

 

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I have one of these on pre-order:

 

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=1328063

 

I had a chance the hear the prototype at the LA Amp show back in October and it freaking' sounded killer. The price of admission was right as well.

 

John may be right about the Axe-Fx. I haven't priced the Standard or Ultra recently now that the Axe-Fx II has been out for several years. They are a killer unit. My problem with them is the damn digital interface. I just can stand them. Also the amount of time tweaking. You can get lost for hours just tweaking those darned things. I wan to plug in, dial up a killer tone quickly and get going.

 

I guess this can be based on how much tweaking you want to do. I find the tweaking to be very similar to the "tweaking" I do with my pedal board based on different guitars, different effects, different volumes, on the real pedal and amps. The beauty of the tweaking of the axe-fx is once you changed the tone controls, volume, & gain on the pedals and amps within the AF, you hit save and they are always there. So if you want your Deluxe Rev for your 150 on the AF, just hit that preset and it is there.... Zero tweaking because it is there. Want to quickly move to your Dumble 535 setting on the AF, hit one button and you are there, zero tweaking.

 

I honestly have to tweak a lot more with my pedals & amps in the real world based on different guitars with different pedal & amp values than I have to do with my AF. I wish I could just hit a "patch" and my pedals & amp values would change from guitar to guitar.

 

So the initial investment in time making patches with the AF is definitely worth the value in saving time.

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My basic criteria would be: Small footprint, low weight, sounds great at low to low-moderate volume. Can be fully enjoyed while the family is sleeping, i.e, doesn't necessarily leave you wishing you could be playing louder.

 

I start the nominations with:

 

Blackface Princeton Reverb or PRRI (preferably with a 12 inch speaker - mine has a Cannabis Rex)

 

 

X3 mines a 68 Silverface custom though.. 10 inch Celestion.. Sounds Great with an overdrive pedal and my H-140!!

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I guess this can be based on how much tweaking you want to do. I find the tweaking to be very similar to the "tweaking" I do with my pedal board based on different guitars, different effects, different volumes, on the real pedal and amps. The beauty of the tweaking of the axe-fx is once you changed the tone controls, volume, & gain on the pedals and amps within the AF, you hit save and they are always there. So if you want your Deluxe Rev for your 150 on the AF, just hit that preset and it is there.... Zero tweaking because it is there. Want to quickly move to your Dumble 535 setting on the AF, hit one button and you are there, zero tweaking.

 

I honestly have to tweak a lot more with my pedals & amps in the real world based on different guitars with different pedal & amp values than I have to do with my AF. I wish I could just hit a "patch" and my pedals & amp values would change from guitar to guitar.

 

So the initial investment in time making patches with the AF is definitely worth the value in saving time.

The idea of the pre-sets and being able to recal them is one thing that keeps drawing me back to the Axe-Fx, butnot just yet. I just want to be able to access all of my controls without having to scroll through a list. I'm the same way with pedals - I don't like hidden controls. I have a Strymon Mobious I bought a couple of months back but I've yet to swap it into my pedalboard. I'm sure it could handle all of my modulation needs, but I just dont want to spend the time tweaking it! I've got a few dedicated modulation pedals I can dial in quickly and I'm done, good to go. I kind of wish they'd do an Axe-Fx with a more amp-like interface. Kind of like what they did with the Kemper where you have analog style knobs to tweak the paramaters and several paramaters are available at one time.

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Kuz, if the Axe-Fx is that good, that versatile...then why do you keep buying amps?

 

There must be something about the live one that you can't dial in on the modeler.

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Some of you guys using tube amps as "bedroom" amps must have a more understanding spouse than I have, or more self discipline on the volume knob. I have small tube amps, but, to me, they are all pretty loud, or need to be, to sound as good as they can. When I want to play without waking the family, I turn to any of these, all with headphone outs. The Fender Mustangs and the Yamaha THR5 also have external speakers, and can get much louder than you may think. In fact, as some of us were jamming on the Mustang I out in the Country Inn parking lot 2 PSPs ago, Big Bob kept coming over to turn it down so we didn't get into trouble!

 

Mustang I

100_0979_zps13310e06.jpg

 

Line 6 POD HD300; I had the 500. Too much of a learning curve to my limited attention span. Sold it, bought this some time later. Works for me, fantastic sounds on the cheap.

 

100_0980_zpsbca779fc.jpg

 

 

Mustang III. 12 inch speaker, 100 watts. Sounds great loud or quiet. Can be had used for $200 or less.

 

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Line 6 Floor Pod. $49 or so at GC before I decided to get back into the HD series. The good news/bad news on these earlier generation units, like this and the Digitechs posted next, is they are a great deal used, but as time goes by, they become more and more outdated/obsolete, and worth next to nothing, Therefore, I'm developing quite a collection, haha.

 

100_0985_zps804b31a1.jpg

 

Digitech GNX1 and RP250. MartyGrass sold me BOTH of these for like $35....Nuts!!

 

100_0988_zpsb290bebc.jpg

 

Finally, a Yamaha THR5, 5 watt amp that is smaller than a loaf of bread. They are pretty cool, but obviously quite limited on the low end of things. Another cheapie.

 

100_0983_zps6d9f1474.jpg

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Kuz, if the Axe-Fx is that good, that versatile...then why do you keep buying amps?

 

There must be something about the live one that you can't dial in on the modeler.

I have defined my amps vs AF utiilization a number times. Amps live always. And AF for home recording and practice. The AF could definitely be used live, but then you need a powered mixer or power amp & speaker, plus the floor controller.

 

My whole point of bringing up the AF as a bedroom amp, is that is exactly how I use my AF: home recording, practicing, and awesome sound at low volume/headphones.

 

I don't understand why someone would buy a dedicated amp that you can't gig or limits you with recording abilities. The AF is more practical, better sounding, more versitle, doubles as 40 different recording amps. The downsize is it will probably be much more expensive, but you get what you pay for....

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Its all compromise.

A 5watt amp still sounds best with the volume between 4-7.....generally. Thats still to loud for home use.

Ive tried little amps and digital profiling and modelling devices. Theyre all cool and they all have short comings.

The Kemper was pretty cool though. If I was ever stuck in a situation where I could only have one choice for a home guitar sound generating device it would be the Kemper.

But Im not ever going to be in that position so I can use the most cost effective and pleasurable way to generate guitar sounds at low volumes at home.

For me right now its 60-100w amp that I can also use for jams and gigs.

 

For me regardless of medium it all comes down to speaker movement. There really isnt anything on the market that replicates at low volumes what speaker break up adds to the sound.

You can buy attenuators for power amp crunch and modellers that give you every preamp known to mankind but not one device that gives you the thing that matters(to me anyway), a speaker that when the amp is turned down to 1-2 sounds like the amp pushing the speaker when its on 4-7.

 

That for me is the compromise. If some bright spark would offer up that product I would be as happy as a guitar geek locked in a room full of guitars and amps could be.

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