Need and Amp and a pedal - advice?

[irishdazzler]

Guys (and Gals if there are any)

 

I cant have anything too loud in my place currently, but the little practice amp i have is a waste of time. the tone coming out of my guitars is pretty woeful

 

so, what would you recommend as a little amp to use about the house? something rich and bluesy ...... i know that may not be achievable but if not, what should i get as my first ever pedal?

 

i play middle of the road music, a little rocky, a little folky - never heavy....and i really want to start learning basic blues

 

ps - im not talking about blowing budgets here, just a couple hundred pounds (£)

 

cheers

D

[RenegadeMaster]

I'd recommend a Vox VT30 or VT50 meself, beautiful amp once you know how to fiddle about with it :)

[charlie brown]

Yeah, that or Roland's "Cube" series. Awesome little amps, with a wide variety of sizes and wattages, to choose from.

Pedals?...wow...there are a LOT to choose from, so the best thing is to go out and try them out. Should become easier

once you do, and with your own expectations/requirements, knowing what music you prefer to play, and (of course)

your "budget!" Having said that a good overdrive pedal, and perhaps a Compression/Sustainer and/or EQ, would be

good "first" pedals. If you can only afford one, get the overdrive...unless the amp has a decent one, built in? If so,

get the Compression/Sustainer...IMHO.

 

CB

[m-theory]

These are pretty nifty:

 

http://www.songworks.com/

[rafaelh]

I cant have anything too loud in my place currently' date=' but the little practice amp i have is a waste of time. the tone coming out of my guitars is pretty woeful[/quote']

 

So what's the waste of time awful practice amp you have now? Might be recommending the same thing....then again if it is that bad just about ANYTHING could be an improvement. FWIW, I prefer Fender amps.

 

I'd find an amp first before bothering with pedals. Some amps and pedals, guitars too for that matter, don't like to play together to well sometimes.

 

BTW..and probably nothing you might be interested in. But found this little SS amp thing one can build for probably under 40 bucks.

 

Anyhow, LOL...I thought it's a cute looking little amp, and thought some might like it. Seems easy enough to build. Sound samples don't sound to bad either.

 

M, I'm sure you've already seen it...or probably have a few similar ones build your self.

 

http://beavisaudio.com/Projects/ruby/

[strangedogs]

I've owned a VOX DA 20 - small 2-speaker modeling amp that can also run on Batteries - much nicer than the DA5. I also own currently 2 Roland Amps - Rolands are nice! I recommend the Valve Junior though. Get a cheap Multi-Effects pedal and you'll have all the sounds you'd ever want and it's 5 watts of Tube Goodness!

[Boogieman]

Im very partial to my fender Blues Jr. With just 15 watts, it will give you hot tones at lower volume while still being powerful enough to take out and jam. I use a budget distortion with it. Danelectro fabtone distortion. $21.00.

Used with the fat switch on the Jr it creates great blues tones.

[twangster007]

I am all about the Valve JR head and cab, Got mine for $200 American, for at home use. I also use a Danelectro Cool Cat Drive. 25 dollars American.

 

The Blues Jr is a Great amp.. But with the price increase almost 700 American now. and if you have upstairs or down stairs residents, they will hear you. Heck my Valve Jr can be heard by my next door nieghbors at 11 o'clock on the dial

[twanger]

Since talking pounds for trade purposes I'll assume you're on the other side of the pond. Lucky guy! Have you checked out the Blackstar HT-5 amp head? Another gadget would be the Blackstar HT-Dist. It's a tube driven distortion pedal that may help you achieve the tone you want but a levels that won't disturb the neighbors. In the states the pedal is available for $179. On conversion to pounds that should be in the neighborhood of £120. The HT 5 amp head sells for $299 which is about £200. You can check out the Blackstar line of products here: http://www.blackstaramps.co.uk/products/index.html

[Axe2Grind123]

Not sure about the amp - I'd probably just get a fender combo amp. But pedals?

 

I like the Ibanez Tube Screamer for overdrive.

 

 

And I just picked up this Fender 65 Deluxe Reverb-amp pedal from Boss which is giving me a lot of tone . . .

 

Model FDR-1

[RSDx]

I recommend the Valve Junior though. Get a cheap Multi-Effects pedal and you'll have all the sounds you'd ever want and it's 5 watts of Tube Goodness!

I can vouch for that - the EVJ really seems to take a shine to a cheap multi-fx unit - nice to be able to equalize it a bit more than the one volume knob allows on the amp ..... LOL

[chewy1281734128]

i'll second the tubescreamer, maybe the turbo tubescreamer for more options.

[mrjones200x]

Not got one but i hear good reviews on the boss blues driver as a good pedal for blues. With it modded it sounds much better too. check youtube. I got a laney LV200 65 watt amp from GAK which is really good at low volumes still. That cost 240 pounds and there a slightly cheaper one which is the laney LV100 which has two channel. One clean and one overdrive. Mine came with a footswitch and i think the LV100 does too. Nice overdriven sound one the crunch channel. You can get the older model which is similar on ebay quite easily for about 100 pounds called the Laney tf200 and maybe the laney tf100.

 

Also the Valve junior is very good for all sorts except heavy rock/metal but can be loud after half way up.

[fenrirlupus]

welsh?

 

umm, for cheap pedals i'd probably go with danelectro... just know that it's best to have the power adapter (you need to take out the battery because there's no on/off switch, just activated/deactivated and the battery will heat up, plus, taking the battery out could break a wire out of some solder... so just get the adapter...)

 

if you'd be willing to spend a bit on a good pedal, i'd suggest a blackstar ht-dist distortion pedal (it goes from 100% clean to a sort of 60's/70's distortion tone, so you could get a light bluesy sort of overdrive i'm sure... not as good as power tubes, but still better than solid state...)

 

then there's line 6 roto-machine if you'd like a leslie speaker effect... it has filters for leslie 147, 122, and vibratone (147 is brighter than 122, both have a separate upper and lower rotor with different ramp speeds, the vibratone is a single rotor amp from the time that cbs owned both leslie and fender, and it was released under both companies names... this pedal models the L16 vibratone...)

 

then there's the danelectro fish & chips 7 band eq... it's not expensive, but i still haven't bought one for some reason...

then again, after getting the blackstar ht-dist and using the speaker emulated output into my epiphone firefly 30 dsp with an eminence legend 1058 speaker... i've found that i prefer a flat EQ...

[scott58]

I've owned a VOX DA 20 - small 2-speaker modeling amp that can also run on Batteries - much nicer than the DA5. I also own currently 2 Roland Amps - Rolands are nice! I recommend the Valve Junior though. Get a cheap Multi-Effects pedal and you'll have all the sounds you'd ever want and it's 5 watts of Tube Goodness!

 

+1 I've got a DA 20 also. Nice little SS amp. Like the VJ better, but the stuff i have hanging off of it makes

it a much more expensive rig.

[JesusOfSuburbia]

How about the Fender G-DEC Jr.?

 

Great little amp with great sounds, backing tracks and performance loops. It should be easily in your price range as well as the regular G-DEC, so lots of great options and fun for a practice amp.

 

Heres some dude on Youtube playing clean blues with the amps backing track:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqwyZsqAhYU

 

I have the G-DEC 30 and love it!!! I mainly use it for my lessons but also at band practice a couple times and it worked great. I almost got the Jr. but my local store had a used 30 for a good price but the Jr. was my first choice.

 

JoS

[Dave]

I have the Roland Cube 60 and highly recommend it for a small amp with great tone and LOUDness. I also like the Vox Valvetronix line. There are numbers of great small amps out there. I'd recommend spending a day at Guitar Center before making a choice. One amp will grab your ears and go home with you.

[sledge57]

I just returned my Blues Jr for the same reasons you're speaking of, need something that sounds good at low volume and a Blues Jr is loud.

 

I bought a VOX VT 30 (has a built in attenuator) and so far it's a winner, I was playing the other night and it was sounding great, I asked the wife about the volume (she's 12 feet away watching the tube) and she said it wasn't bothering her at all.

 

VT30 gets my vote. Almost $400 cheaper than the Blues Jr too another bonus!