The Practice Amp Thread

[Diamondjimi]

Recently acquired one of these. A Line 6 Spider II 112 .75 watts with 4 channels and digital FX.



FEATURES:

* 12 amp models that deliver a complete range from Clean to Insane
* 7 Smart Control effects (up to 3 simultaneous) including Tape Echo, standard Delay, Sweep Echo (all w/Tap Tempo), Chorus/Flanger, Phaser, Tremolo and Reverb
* 4 User-programmable channels
* Built-in front panel Tuner
* Enough power to kill pesky Chupacabras and Evil Payasos
* Optional footswitch available.

http://line6.com/spiderii/112.html


I love this fucker. Once I had my tones dialed in I was sold on this amp.
I have my presets as follows:

Channel 1: Clean Eric Johnson like tone with chorus, tape echo, bit of verb.
Channel 2: Blues tone similar to Stevie Ray with a short delay slap.
Channel 3: Dialed in to a modded Plexi tone.(No fx)
Channel 4: Lead tone dialed in to a Plexi tone with more gain with approx. 400ms. of delay.

At 75 watts, it's perfect to bring along as a backup for gigging as well as easy and light enough to drag around to jam with friends.

Got a practice amp?

Discuss...

[Diamondjimi]

Hey, good enough for this guy....




Good enough for me!

[Panamark]

When I saw the thread title I was gonna say a POD into
a mixer or stereo or whatever amplification device has
a free input....
Lighter than yours, but I like the look of yours better !

[Panamark]

Other than that, I have a really old marshall (I think its 15 watts ?)
Single speaker floor job... No good for gigging, but great tone
at low volume

[twonabomber]

i have an Epiphone Valve Jr. head and built a little poplar shelf-board box holding an Eminence speaker. sounds okay for stupid cheap. or i can plug the J-Station into my mixer and run it through the monitors.

[jhale667]

I wouldn't mind getting a Valve Jr.and doing the Mercury Magnetics Mod, those things sound sick, but it's a pretty expensive 15-watt amp by the time you're done with it...

[Nitro Express]

i have an Epiphone Valve Jr. head and built a little poplar shelf-board box holding an Eminence speaker. sounds okay for stupid cheap. or i can plug the J-Station into my mixer and run it through the monitors.

I have a modded Valve Jr. combo. I use it for bass and guitar practice. If I want dirt, I dime it or use a peddle. I sounds great. The key is to put a bigger output transformer in which was a necessity in my case because I fried the original.

[Nitro Express]

I wouldn't mind getting a Valve Jr.and doing the Mercury Magnetics Mod, those things sound sick, but it's a pretty expensive 15-watt amp by the time you're done with it...

Nothing wrong with the Mercury Magnetics Mod but it's on the spendy side. You can get a transformer that will sound good for less money from another supplier.

[ZahZoo]

I have a Marshall AVT50. It was fair as a practice amp... but on a whim I replaced the stock Chinese made, Marshall logo pre-amp tube with a Knight Mullard 12AX7 with a 1942 date stamp on it. Huge difference in both clean and dirty tone!!

Clean it took on a Fender sparkle and dirty it tightened the lows and mids without that solid-state grind typical of these hybrids. Actually breathes a bit...

I also tried a cirica 1954 12AT7 Mullard in it and it behaved a lot like a mid-60's cranked Deluxe Reverb. Real bright in the high mids, but it lost some of the low end spank and tightness.

I use this thing the most even when going out and jamming. Beats lugging my old 64 Bassman and cabinet around... plus I don't have to worry about trashing it as I can replace it for around $300 or less anytime...

[Nitro Express]

I use a SansAmp PSA 1.1 a lot. Our band practices where a PA is always set up, so a lot of times I will just run it to the board. Instead of amps and speakers I'm hauling a little rack mount unit.

[rocknrolldork]

I have a Mesa Studio Series amp. 1 x 12. Pretty versatile. I use my POD for home practice a lot more now that the baby is here.

My bass practice amp is a Hartke 1 x 15 combo. It's ok, but it's still Hartke. I have a killer Genz Benz bass head, Shuttle 6.0. Just wish I had a 2 x 10 cab or something instead of the refrigerator or the 4 x 10.

Anyone ever try that new 5 watt Marshall combo?

[jackassrock]

I've got a few little amps around the house.

A Roland Cube-15x
A Squire Champ
And a Marshall 6101 (for a VERY expensive amp it is not so useful in a loud band setting even through a cab)
Of course I usually use the Marshall, but the Roland is a pretty decent 18 watter with several different gain settings and a good clean sound.

[Hardrock69]

Crate 65-watt 1 X 12 combo amp, and a Fender Sidekick. Both transistor amps.
Almost never play through them. Marshall halfstack is in my living room, so if I wanna plunk on my axe while watching TV or something, I just play through that.

[Diamondjimi]

I also have one of these fuckers. An original Roland Cube-40.
Not bad for givin my kids guitar lessons. When it's maxed out ,it breaks up nice like an Altec speaker...

[Panamark]

I have a Marshall AVT50. It was fair as a practice amp... but on a whim I replaced the stock Chinese made, Marshall logo pre-amp tube with a Knight Mullard 12AX7 with a 1942 date stamp on it. Huge difference in both clean and dirty tone!!

Clean it took on a Fender sparkle and dirty it tightened the lows and mids without that solid-state grind typical of these hybrids. Actually breathes a bit...

I also tried a cirica 1954 12AT7 Mullard in it and it behaved a lot like a mid-60's cranked Deluxe Reverb. Real bright in the high mids, but it lost some of the low end spank and tightness.

I use this thing the most even when going out and jamming. Beats lugging my old 64 Bassman and cabinet around... plus I don't have to worry about trashing it as I can replace it for around $300 or less anytime...

Obi Wan where is it you find these vintage 12AX7's ??
Best I can buy new is Soltek or some Chinese unbranded...
Have you been holding onto them since 1942 ya old bugger !!

[Panamark]

Ive got an ADA MP1 here and have tried every brand of those
tubes I can find.... I remember one in particular was heaps brighter
and thats whats in that pre amp now... I shall look and see...
I went on a tube holy grail 2 years ago....

Electro Harmonix or some crap ?? I have a box of these
bastards (12AX7's) ........

[Panamark]

ELVIS sent me on a tone freakout..
I blame him !

[VanHalenFan5150]

My amp setup is pretty straightforward but good at the same time.

I used to have three amps.

I started off with a Washburn 5w practice amp. Not a good sound out of that amp, EVER.

Then my dad bought me a Flying V as an 8th grade graduation present. That was a fun guitar. But I grew out of it (as it was a mini-V) and sold it to a buddy of mine for a bargain. The amp that came with it was 4w and had a slightly better tone.

And finally, there's my Fender G-Dec 30 watt amp.

My dad's best friend is a professional musician/guitarist, who runs a studio out of his apartment. He's a really nice guy. We bought the G-Dec for him for $200, and I worked it off all summer. Heck, he even threw in a bunch of pedals and preamp stacks for me. He really got things going for me.

If you have any questions about my amp, let me know, i'll gladly answer them.

But before you ask, the G-Dec is solid state... But let me tell you, it sure does sound like a tube!

[ZahZoo]

Obi Wan where is it you find these vintage 12AX7's ??
Best I can buy new is Soltek or some Chinese unbranded...
Have you been holding onto them since 1942 ya old bugger !!

I bought em off a guy over at the Plexi-palace board... ton of old vintage tube guys over there and you can occassionally chat it up with Dave's old guitar player Terry Kilgore on that board.

[Panamark]

I bought em off a guy over at the Plexi-palace board... ton of old vintage tube guys over there and you can occassionally chat it up with Dave's old guitar player Terry Kilgore on that board.

Thanks mate

I think the Electro's I have in there are not the vintage
ones.... Its amazing the difference in tone with each
brand.... I would like some original EH before they were
gobbled up.....

[GAR]

I sent something to Australia once ten years ago. If I sent you tubes it wouldn't arrive for a month.

[Igosplut]

I sent something to Australia once ten years ago. If I sent you tubes it wouldn't arrive for a month.

You have to have them for them to arrive at all.

[Panamark]

I sent something to Australia once ten years ago. If I sent you tubes it wouldn't arrive for a month.

3-5 days

[Hardrock69]

I bought em off a guy over at the Plexi-palace board... ton of old vintage tube guys over there and you can occassionally chat it up with Dave's old guitar player Terry Kilgore on that board.

If I am not mistaken, Terry is where my NOS Seiman EL34s came from.

See, I flew to Seattle in 2006 for vacation, and part of the plan was to look up an old friend and pay him back on an old debt. Back in the early 80s, we were roommates who had moved to Dallas to start a band (long story). We had to move out of our house, he was moving back to Seattle, I was staying in Dallas. I owed him $500 but had no money until the next day when I got paid, and he did not want to wait 24 hours.

So....24 years later he has no clue I am coming to Seattle. We had not spoken since the late 80s. I show up at his house, walk into his garage where he is having band practice. Blew his fucking mind. I walk up to him and say "Here, have this $1,000. Now, stand there for a moment while I take your picture".

Blew his mind that I actually paid him back, WITH INTEREST.

So.....the following year he tells me he is going to set me up with some good EL34s, and not long after, I get a box in the mail. Sure enough, NOS Seiman EL34s. They are in my Marshall now and RULE.

But, long story shorter, haha, they came from Terry Kilgore.

[Cato]

I think this is pretty useful for the player who has no band mates, like GAR.

http://fender.com/features/gdec3/?ED...VW1-v1#/videos

[jhale667]

I think this is pretty useful for the player who has no band mates, like GAR.

http://fender.com/features/gdec3/?ED...VW1-v1#/videos

Yeah, but they won't let him turn it UP at the library...

[Diamondjimi]

I think this is pretty useful for the player who has no band mates, like GAR.

http://fender.com/features/gdec3/?ED...VW1-v1#/videos

Great 'lil amps. There's a cool video out there of Eric Johnson giving one a workout....

[Diamondjimi]

Yeah, but they won't let him turn it UP at the library...

[GAR]

Right now Im using something called a Castle amp, solid state it has L-R channel CD inputs with a mix knob in back. I think ten watts, 8 inch speaker and its big enough for a small place. Its very clean so I use a modded wah and invariably a couple other pedals from the pile usually a treble booster or distortion.

[Diamondjimi]

I think ten watts, 8 inch speaker and its big enough for a small place. Its very clean so I use a modded wah and invariably a couple other pedals from the pile usually a treble booster or distortion.

The van gettin a little over crowded, eh?! Who the fuck uses a treble booster?

[GAR]

I thought the opportunity to reply to one of my posts would give you a fucking stiffy, JACKASS!

Who used a treble booster, umm.. lets see, a short list, uhh:

Beatles
Stones
Sabbath
Queen

*cue up

[jhale667]

While your point is valid - who's used one since 1972?

[jero]

Not so long ago I bought the 15MSII Marshall (MG series). Great fat marshall sound with a cool look

[Diamondjimi]

I thought the opportunity to reply to one of my posts would give you a fucking stiffy, JACKASS!

Who used a treble booster, umm.. lets see, a short list, uhh:

Beatles
Stones
Sabbath
Queen

*cue up

Cocksucker, derailing yet another fine thread...

[GAR]

If I told you, you wouldn't believe me.

[Igosplut]

If I told you, you wouldn't believe me.

You don't HAVE to tell anybody, nobody believes your bullshit anyway....

[VanHalenFan5150]

Since my Fender G-Dec 30 is in a state of disrepair, I need to start considering some options.

Here's some I have played on:

-Peavey Vypyr
-Line Six Spyder 3
-Roland Cube

All three are really nice but I absolutely love the tone I get out of the Vypyr's. Vypyr's are excellent for the price too, probably the best in the price range of $100-300. My dad said I could get either a new guitar or a new amp of choice (within reason) since he owes me anyway. I was gonna get an Ibanez RG350MYE but come to think of it I really could use a new amp. Any thoughts?

[Diamondjimi]

Here's a good place to start...
http://www.rotharmy.com/forums/showt...ice-Amp-Thread

[VanHalenFan5150]

...Meanwhile with important and relevant posts forseen...

So I need a new amp. Not gonna lie, I loved my G-Dec but I always wished for better. So, since my dad said I could either get a new guitar or a new amp within reason, I've chosen to get a new amp. It has to be within 30-100 watts and is a practice/modeling amp.

I have played on several modeling amps, and i'm not complaining. They're all great! I've played on a Line Six Spyder 2 100w, a Roland Cube 15w, and a Peavey Vypyr 15 watt. Of those, the Peavey is my favorite. I just love the heavy tones you get out of it. And it uses TransTube technology so that's a big plus!

Any other good modeling amps?

[jhale667]

Leaning towards merging this with the other thread..