Silly Amp Question

it is amazing what $300 for a guitar and amp can a beginner (or returning guitar player) these days -- real working stuff. over the last 30 years, the quality and usability of low cost equipment has advanced far more than the high end. whether you prefer tubes or will "settle" :wink: for solid state, you can get a real, giggable amp for under $200.

Well, I'm a firm believer in the "you get what you pay for" party. When I was broke I've bought cheap tools, electronics, etc. But when I've had money I've replaced the cheap things with quality stuff and have found they have almost always performed better than the cheap stuff.

There is a reason some things are cheap and others expensive. Easily it could be argued that it's all marketing that pumps the price up on expensive things. I'm not saying to buy top-of-the-line things, but buy smart. That's why I've read Consumer Reports for the past decade. You get the best for your money.

Anyway Bluesy, I wish you well on finding the right amp for your budget. :)

you seem to be assuming these are simply budget amplifiers, Dennis. while it's true that they are not terribly expensive, they actually do perform well and also are reasonably rugged and reliable. I have EFX pedals that cost more than a Roland Cube 30. yet I recommend it not only as a good amp for about $200, but as a good amp, period. I can choose from my arsenal (much) more expensive amps to use for various gigs, but am always amazed at what I nice tone I can get out of the lowly Cube, so frequently it gets the nod.

There is a reason some things are cheap and others expensive. Easily it could be argued that it's all marketing that pumps the price up on expensive things. I'm not saying to buy top-of-the-line things, but buy smart. That's why I've read Consumer Reports for the past decade. You get the best for your money.

"Buy smart" is an excellent point but buying more expensive isn't always the smart choice even if one fully believes that more expensive things are by definition "better". Sometimes you just don't need the more expensive "better-ness" or it comes with tradeoffs that you don't want to take (every decision in life is a tradeoff).

And you can't really believe that more expensive is always better or you'd get rid of the "cheap" Fender Hot Rod and pick up a 65 Amps Monterey.

Or, to paraphrase a line from Love Actually, "Kids, don't buy amps....become a rock star and they give them to you for free!"

Well to correct one point - if I go with the Cube 30 or what seemed to be about the equivalent Vox (VT30) I'm more in the $250-$300 price range, so thats about half way between my original budget and what corbind suggested. I'm willing to bump up the budget a little if it means getting something that will be more reliable as I'm definitely in the same camp of wanting to pay a little extra for something that is a decent product. It just seems like the truly cheap stuff is in the $50-$150 price range, but that is why I asked for all of your opinions :D .

It just seems like the truly cheap stuff is in the $50-$150 price range, but that is why I asked for all of your opinions :D .

Some of the stuff in that price range is "cheap" and some of it is just "inexpensive". You really need to look at what your requirements are and pick something that meets them within your budget. It's far too easy to creep the budget and buy both a more expensive amp than you wanted and one is just too much amp for your needs (too large and heavy, too powerful so that you can't even turn it up, etc.).

You're still a beginner so you don't need a large heavy powerful amp for stage use. You want something small that you can turn up enough to get some distortion and still have the volume be reasonable. You probably want a headphone jack, a line in jack (for your CD/MP3 player), maybe some built in effects and amp models.

As I said above, I recently picked up a Vox DA5. I was really blown away when I tried this thing out - for such a small inexpensive amp it sounds very nice. It's got a lot of good features and for a practice amp it's a great choice. New these go for $140 but I was able to pick it up off of Craigslist for $70 used. For a little more money you can get the bigger brothers to the DA5 the DA10 or the DA20. The DA10 adds a second speaker and the DA20 has larger speakers. I would chose one of those over the DA5 if ultra-portability isn't your main concern (it was mine so I chose the DA5).

There are a lot of other good possibilities in your original ~$200 budget. You can find the really excellent Tech 21 TradeMark 10 (now discontinued) for about $100-125 on Craigslist/eBay. The Tech 21 amps are modeling amps but of a little bit different kind - analog instead of digital. These sound really good and have the ability to produce a variety of amp tones.

In newer non-discontinued amps there's the the Traynor Dynagain amps that are analog modeling but they only model one amp. You can get a nice 15 watt 10" speaker with spring reverb for ~$160. These sound good and do give a tube amp sound and feel.

There are also a number of small tube amps in your budget range. Most of these won't have headphone and line-in jacks or effects. These will likely be in the small 5 watt range but even that is too much to get them into good sounding distortion without being too loud for home use. You will likely need to pair this amp with an attenuator (a power sink) to limit the volume.

You can get a decent amp for that original budget - there are a number of good ones but there also a number of bad ones. Go try them out - it all comes down to what you like the sound of.

One requirement that your amp MUST have, if you're a beginner player, is a headphone jack . . .
you will frequently be requested to use it . . . by other denizens of your household . . .
so add the cost of headphones to your purchase.

This is slightly out of your price range (seems to be selling around $250 new), but it is a tube practice amp with power attenuator built in, and supposedly good tone. I say supposedly since I've not tried it myself, but thought I'd chuck it in here as I do intend to try this one myself as soon as I can and, if impressed, may go ahead and acquire one.

http://www.voxamps.com/us/modernclassic/ac4tv/

And it doesn't hurt that it looks bloody kewl too. 8)

That's a pretty neat amp from what I read.

Well hopefully everyone doesn't yell at me for going against some of what I've said here... :lol:

I was at the good ol' Guitar Center today in Syracuse, NY instead of my home location as my wife needed to help pick out bridesmaid dresses for a wedding she's in. They had the Roland Micro Cube on sale for $99 (normally $129 there) and a similar Vox amp that was slightly more.

I decided to try both amps just to see how the "mini" amps sounded and I had plenty of time to kill anyway. Plus, as they were smaller I figured I wouldn't be bothering the entire store with my horrible playing :oops: . I had a bit of cash with me on a just in case I find anything interesting basis which was probably a bad idea :lol: . I played around with the Vox amp first for a few minutes, but didn't really look at it seriously mostly because it was more than I had with me and the wife specifically requested I didn't spend too much money.

I then tried the Micro Cube out for a bit. I took a closer look at this simply because it was cheap enough for me to get with the cash I had and Dylan raved about his 8) . I didn't dare crank the amp up all the way in the store as explained above, but it seemed like it would have enough volume for my needs. I tried out all of the amp models and the few different effects it has which all sounded as I would expect given some of the demo videos I've seen of the larger cubes. So I decided to pick it up.

I haven't gotten to play with the amp much yet at home as I had car issues on the way home ( :evil: ) which needed to be tended to. However, I did crank it up pretty much all the way to see how loud it would get and it should definitely have enough volume for my practicing needs at this point. The amp models give me pretty much all I want to play with for the time being since there's a "metal" type setting, a couple kind of hard/classic rock settings, and a clean channel. With separate gain and volume controls I can definitely play around with the combination of the two to get a good sound without cranking the volume. The only drawback I can see feature wise at this point is the delay and reverb can't be controlled independently as in its only one or the other. Although I don't see myself using the battery feature, it seemed like a nice bonus with the sale price.

I still appreciate all the feedback on my original question as I still see myself getting something larger in the near future. I think the micro cube fits my needs for the time being though. My main problem with the bass amp I have is that I couldn't really get anything but totally clean sound out of it without turning up the volume all the way and even then the walls in my "cave" would buzz before the amp had any distortion to it. I've got to have fun sometimes with a good distorted tone :twisted: . As long as the micro cube doesn't break in a short period of time I'll be happy with the purchase.

Congrats on the new amp! Hope you have lost of fun with it! :D :D :D

Well, actually, Guitar Center is in Dewitt isn't it? :lol: Across from Olive Garden ....... That's where I bought my Peavey Classic 30. Congrats! I hope you enjoy the amp. 8)

Not sure about Olive Garden. I'm not completely familiar with Syracuse, I just looked up GC's in the area and google'd directions from the dress shop to there. I can say that its on Rt. 5, Best Buy is across the street and down the road a tad, and there is a mall further down the road - Shopping Town Mall or something goofy like that.

enjoy the MicroCube. it's a good practice amp, as well as reasonable battery-powered portable for "hanging in the park" and it is durable. the only thing to watch is battery drain, as it's very easy to turn it on inadvertently by bumping the power switch on the rear panel.