Importance of practice amps

If you're looking for something that you can play at a decent level and use for practice I would recommend the Tascam CD Guitar trainer. You use it with headphones and it has multiple effects, that way you can play at a louder volume and get a nice guitar tone. You can also use it to slow down songs, loop parts of songs, and a whole bunch more. Here is the website:

http://www.tascam.com/Products/cdgt1mkii.html

Just an idea. Good luck

Well, you have 15 watts,
an 8" speaker,
a headphone jack,
and an aux input to plug in a CD player/mp3 player/drum machine to play along with on that amp.
It also has gain, so you can play at quiet levels and still get crunch.
And treb/mid/bass to shape your sound.

Not too bad for your beginners amp.

My practice amp has a 6" speaker,
5 watts,
a volume control,
and no plug ins at all.
And that's it!!!!

Why do I have it????
Because I like the way it sounds.

Do you like the way your FM 15G sounds????

That's all that matters really, other than what you can afford.

Let your playing skills develop some, along with your ear for the tone you want (not to mention your savings)
before you run out and buy the latest craze in practice amps. :wink:

Ken :D

Hi all...kind of an odd question, but how important is a good practice amp?

....

Or a better sound keeps you motivated better?

....

That could be part of it - but "better sound" is a slippery fish to catch. In my experience, the most important improvement in sound comes from your fingers as they get better with practice.

I started out with a modest 15 watt practice amp and quickly decided that it was holding me back... :roll: So I bought a much flasher one. But the extraordinary thing was that once I got it home it sounded just as ordinary as the smaller cheapo one had... :shock:

Many months of practice later I can now make them both sound pretty good. :D If something better is a motivator, or a carrot to aim at, then that's not a bad thing in itself. But I'd agree with Ken's comment about developing your skills and ear a bit more first. Good luck with it, whichever way you go. 8)

Cheers,

Chris

^^You know Chris, I'm starting to go down that same path. I'm starting to think, "ugh, I need a better amp." But then I'm thinking, "..what if it's not as good as it sounds in the store? Or on the soundclips online? Or the reviews I'm reading?"

So yea, I think a 15W practice amp is great. Stick with it for now. :)

Thanks...this was more a hypothetical than specific question.

I had time to kill the other day, and dropped in to the local guitar center. I wanted to get my hands on some high quality guitars to see the difference. Playing a Gibson 335 through a Fender Deville made me almost drool.

I plugged a few other semi-hollows (Ibanez, and Epiphone) into a Fender Blues Jr., and the sound was really nice. But it got me thinking about if it was nice enough to shell out >500 for an amp that would still probably never leave my living room.

So I wanted other opinions on practice amps. ;)

This squier beginner set (with frontman 15G) is perfectly fine for me right now. The sound is fine, the guitar has 6 strings, frets and stays in tune. What more can I ask for?

Of course, that drive channel with gain means that my son sneaks up behind me and switches me over to serious distortion in the middle of Margaritaville. (The only song I can 'almost' get all the way through. G<->D gives me problems)

They let you practice. (without others getting harrased by it.)

I used to have a Frontman amp - pretty decent amp, came as part of a starter set. I could get pretty much the distorted tone I wanted out of it, but I upgraded to a 15W Roland Cube practise amp. More settings, more sounds & tones available. But from what I've been told the 5W Microcube is great value - you can actually do more with it!

BTW, I used the frontman amp in a fairly large pub one night - didn't need to have the volume much above #4, if I remember correctly...there's more power in that wee beastie than you'd think!

:D :D :D

Vic

I used to have a Frontman amp - pretty decent amp, came as part of a starter set. I could get pretty much the distorted tone I wanted out of it, but I upgraded to a 15W Roland Cube practise amp. More settings, more sounds & tones available. But from what I've been told the 5W Microcube is great value - you can actually do more with it!
My main problem with the Roland 15W is that it buzzes like a mad man. If I have too much treble or too much gain, it buzzes like mad. Especially with the new distortion pedal I have.

And it gets really annoying sometimes.

It may just be external interference. Things, such as fluorescent lights and CR tubes (TVs, Computer monitors), put out electromagnetic interference, which your guitar/amp picks up as buzzing.

It may just be external interference. Things, such as fluorescent lights and CR tubes (TVs, Computer monitors), put out electromagnetic interference, which your guitar/amp picks up as buzzing.

Very true - which is why my amps are on the other side of the room from my computer. Kevin, I've never had the slightest problem with either of my cube amps - no buzz whatsoever. Then again I don't have any pedals - are you using good, shielded cables? Worth the extra expense, I've found.....

:D :D :D

Vic

The only thing I'd consider important in a practice amp would be responsiveness. Last week I went with a friend to a local music store to get him his first setup. We tried the new SpiderIII series, the Roland cube 30 and the Vox AD30. Eventually he went with the Vox because he preferred how it sounded over the cube but both would be excellent practice amps. The Spider felt odd, it just didn't feel like the amp was really outputting what I played into it. Hard to put to words but it just responded in a rather plastic or artificial way. The actual soundquality wouldn't matter to me in a practice amp but you need it to respond well, after all, how else are you going to practice your technique.

Right now I mostly practice on a Epi Valve Junior, a $99 5W tube amp. No features besides a volume knob but I don't care. It really shows my mistakes and that's what matters.

I had time to kill the other day, and dropped in to the local guitar center. I wanted to get my hands on some high quality guitars to see the difference. Playing a Gibson 335 through a Fender Deville made me almost drool.

I plugged a few other semi-hollows (Ibanez, and Epiphone) into a Fender Blues Jr., and the sound was really nice. But it got me thinking about if it was nice enough to shell out >500 for an amp that would still probably never leave my living room.

I think you kind of answered your own question. Let's face it, you want an amp that sounds GREAT. When an amp and guitar sounds great you are going to enjoy practicing and playing it far more. You will improve faster. Now, a Fender DeVille is quite a large and fairly expensive amp to buy for practice at home. And tube amps like this sound best played at volume. But they sound great at low volumes too.

You are not always going to stay in the bedroom if you keep playing. Sooner or later someone is going to ask you to come over and jam with them, or you are going to hit an Open Mic, or perhaps join a band. You will have an amp that can be played at home or in live situations.

This is just a personal opinion of mine, means nothing really, but I don't like amps with single speakers smaller than 12", they just sound small and boxy to me. A 12" speaker is much fuller with great low end. That said, the Blues Junior (10") is an awesome sounding amp. Another personal opinion is headphones, I can't stand them myself. The sound is too focused, I honestly worry that they will cause hearing damage, even at low volumes. Just me, but I've got to hear an amp out in the open, the real way amps are supposed to sound... the way that DeVille and Blues Junior sounded at the music store. The family will not always be home, sometimes you are gonna be able to crank it up a bit. 8)

If you want to experiment with lots of different tones, try a modeling amp like the 30w Vox. These modeling amps are pretty great today, many sound very close to a good tube amp like the DeVille. But it is hard to beat the true tube tone from an all tube amp like the Blues Junior or DeVille.

If you have the money, get an amp that really turns you on. You will play it more and improve faster.

Just my 2 cents.

I have a roland cube 60 and I get buzz, particularly from my laptop... but the buzz isn't because the amp is too close to it, it's because the guitar is too close to it (the overdrive knob amplifies it). That buzz is annoying, but it's not an indication of a problem with any of my gear (not that I wouldn't like a really nice guitar... I'm sure the really good guitars pick up interference twice as good).