Advice on Amp

[chrissyinbkk]

Need to be pointed in the right direction if you guys can please, I'm looking for a small amp which will only ever get used in the house, I want one that will take pedals which I fancy experimenting with,

Currently got 2 amps, both are modeling amps which i believe are not the best to add any pedals to, correct me if I am wrong... one is a little Vox VX11, the other a whopping Fender Mustang GT100 which I bought out of naivety.

Don't want to break the bank as I'm still learning to play....

[Marcel]

A no frills 'up step' you could try a Fender Blues Junior III which is a very popular 15W tube amp that usually only costs new about 50% more than your GT100. They are known to take pedals very well.... Bargains could be had on the 2nd hand market...

And almost any VOX AC15 on the market is worth having a look...

But there is nil harm in trying your wonderful new pedal through your modeling amps... the only 'damage' you could do is to the sounds you hear at the time...

[chrissyinbkk]

Thanks Marcel, was going to get a couple of pedals to try out first as you said via the modeling amps, from what I had read they wouldn't be any good...so I was preparing myself.....

[dave.king1]

Set your modelling amp dead clean and you will get straight into the ballpark.

I run pedals through a Fender Mustang using the 65 Twin emulation with the default effects removed, at home and small practice levels sounds rather convincing, same pedals through the H||H which is 100W dead clean sounds much the same but is big and far too heavy for everyday use

[Marcel]

You'll probably find that some will work great while others will leave you scratching your head in bemusement.

Things like Wah's will often work universaly as they are usually at the beginning of any signal chain. Same goes for most 'distortion' or TS type pedals.... but reverbs, delays and phase/flangers are usually in the signal chain after any "input gain distortion" and typically on an insert loop or effects loop so putting them on the input of a modeling amp will often give less than optimal results.

If you run your modeling amp clean (as clean as you can get it) then anything you put on the input will often work quite reasonably, although your mileage may vary depending on how clean your amp actually is in reality (on how little "modeling" is still taking place)

I have a VX-I and a VT-40X both of which I can get quite clean, and I find there is still always "modeling" taking place within the amp. Yeah, I can check that an effect works and the effect does what it is supposed to do but to me it is always 'coloured' by all the often seemingly less than always 100% predictable digital modeling going on in the amp. Sometimes that colouration doesn't sound too bad but all too often than not for me it is simply annoying. Quite often I find myself wishing for a modeling free setting so that I can have a fixed and un-interfered with non-digital reference to base all the sounds I'm hearing on... so that's when I jump to my VOX Pathfinder 10 or my AC18W build, or depending on the effect even go and fire up the JVM210

[Dedman]

if you can find an Orange Micro Terror (not the Dark version which is a lot more gainy) they are a cool little little amp (valve pre-amp, solid state power amp). You will need a speaker however. yay new project!

[Simon Barden]

I'd suggest a used Blackstar HT-5R 5W combo. You can pick them up reasonably cheaply used, but they are not over-expensive new. The MkII versions have a 12" speaker which puts out a bit more volume than the 10" version and has a touch more bass end. It also has a decent digital reverb built-in. It's also very quiet with minimal noise (partly because the first gain stage is solid state), with a valve after that and a single power valve. The other guitarist in my old band now uses 2 for a stereo gig rig.

They sound good on their own without pedals, but also do take pedals well. It's got a serial effects loop so you can place your delays and modulations after the preamp if you want. Sound good at low volume and when turned up (which is pretty loud). Also has a mini jack input for an MP3 player etc. for playing along to, which won't give you great fidelity but is better than nothing.

[Rossc0]

I'd suggest a used Blackstar HT-5R 5W combo. You can pick them up reasonably cheaply used, but they are not over-expensive new. The MkII versions have a 12" speaker which puts out a bit more volume than the 10" version and has a touch more bass end. It also has a decent digital reverb built-in. It's also very quiet with minimal noise (partly because the first gain stage is solid state), with a valve after that and a single power valve. The other guitarist in my old band now uses 2 for a stereo gig rig.

They sound good on their own without pedals, but also do take pedals well. It's got a serial effects loop so you can place your delays and modulations after the preamp if you want. Sound good at low volume and when turned up (which is pretty loud). Also has a mini jack input for an MP3 player etc. for playing along to, which won't give you great fidelity but is better than nothing.

Ditto on the blackstar or any baby vox, the seperate head / cab setup in the minis look really cool IMO.

[dave.king1]

One of the most absurd rigs I have seen is an Orange Micro Terror sitting on top of a Marshall quad box, sounded surprisingly massive

[Dedman]

One of the most absurd rigs I have seen is an Orange Micro Terror sitting on top of a Marshall quad box, sounded surprisingly massive

Sounds great ( has a single 12 "Jensen in it)