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Old 08-25-2017, 08:01 AM
HesNot HesNot is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2017
Location: Charlotte, NC
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Just for anyone else looking into the same question I'll share my recent experience dealing with the same question. My main amp is a Blackstar HT40 that sounds great, but it is big and loud even with the master volume which can be sensitive at low volumes. Big being a relative word of course as it is a 1x12 but has a fairly large enclosure, and for the size is pretty darn heavy as well. I wanted a smaller setup both for volume and convenience to play in the evenings when the family has retired for the night.

Modeling: I started out with a Line6 Firehawk FX - taking the traditional headphones route and not wanting to spend the $$ on a Helix not knowing if it would be my thing. The Firehawk FX has the HD500x models but uses a Bluetooth interface and app to tweak the settings which I liked. It is not as flexible as a Helix in terms of routing, etc... but at less than half he price it seemed like a reasonable option. Pros: the modeling is quite good - the various amp/speaker combinations particularly the HD ones work and sound great. The effects are mostly usable and quite good as well with a few misses (none of the chorus effects really hit the mark for me as I am used to a vintage Boss CE2 that is just great). Still a ton of options and tones. The MP3 input works well if you want to play along with music. It has an effects loop allowing for 4 cord use if you desire and a load of output options for recording if that is important. Cons: there are limits to how many and in what order you can place the effects which can produce a signal chain that is not always ideal, and there is only one path (the Helix I believe allows two signal paths). The biggest issue for me is that as an old school guy who often practices by throwing on some music I want to learn or that I know and just want to jam along with I've gotten used to as a quick means to get a tone that fits the song. You can do this somewhat if you just pick a specific amp and add 5 pedals of your choice but it never seemed as easy as picking from my pedal selection. And there is the inevitable fiddle factor of tweaking patches - the presets mostly were not to my taste (typical of modeling it seems as the same is true of the Marshall Code25 I have and my sons Mustang II - you can get great sounds but rarely "out of the box" - they all seem to need tweaking.) Still on the fence with this - sounds great but the fiddle factor had me wanting a more traditional small setup. I'm reasonably tech savvy - wonder if the Helix would be better suited due to the greater flexibility but they do come at a steep price.

So I started exploring small tube combos. I tried the Bugera V5, Orange Micro Terror, Hughes & Kettner Tubemeister 5, a vintage Fender Champ, Laney Cub, Blackstar HT5, Jet City Custom 5, Vox AC4. I wanted to try the VHT Special 6 but couldn't find one locally to test out. Also checked out the Blues Jr and Orange Rocker 15 which were really more amp than I was looking for given I have a 40 watt main amp I was not looking to replace.

Really none of them sounded bad and any would make a good low watt practice amp. Some excelled at different things - the Fender sounded great but even used was a bit more than I wanted to pay. The Micro Terror and the H&K both really had terrific overdrive circuits and sounds. The Laney and Bugera were solid tube combos with nice tones. I ended up picking between the Blackstar HT5 and the Jet City Custom 5 - and ended up with the Jet City.

While not two channel - the Jet City has a ton of tone shaping features. There is a mid boost or low boost toggle, a bright switch, full EQ, master volume, effects loop and an attenuator to switch between 2 and 5 watts. Mine was also modded with a JCM like tone stack. Found it used at a good price and it really is a lot of bang for the buck. It's fairly heavy for a 5 watt head - has a massive transformer. With some tinkering it has a pretty good amount of clean headroom which I like. The drive variations are really flexible - maybe not modern gain per se but plenty of crunch and with the wattage adjustment it sounds really good at low volumes. I'm using a Blackstar 1x10 cabinet because I had one around and like the portability of that setup but would like to try a 1x12 just out of curiosity to see how it sounds.

While not at the top of the conventional list - I do encourage checking out the Jet City amps - they are a lot of value for the price and quite honestly sound as good or better than anything else I tried in the same class and general price range.
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