best amp for practice (tone + headphone jack)

[Captain Jim]

Another Yamaha THR user, a 30ii. Plug in headphones and it is quiet in the room. Tons of great effects and tone. If I want to really crank it, it has stereo line outs to go to a PA/mixer.

This amp was designed to be a practice amp... just has a lot more capability than most.

[harpspitfire]

on the cheap-if you just want tone, clean and a nice overdrive with a headphone jack- its hard to beat the marshall mg10 for under $100 new, i got mine for nothing as i found an ad on craiglist for 2 free amps, i picked them up with the intention of selling both, i sold the one, but after playing the little marshall, i decided this wasnt going anywhere

[Dru Edwards]

Originally Posted by dnf777

I thought these were gimmicks until I tried one. If you want just headphone practice, might give one of these a try. Theyre only around $40, and run on a AA battery.

+1. Based on what the OP was describing this is a great option.

[harpspitfire]

i never tried one of those, i did get a joyo mini amp off ebay for $10, same principle i guess, works pretty good for all it cost, it uses a 9v battery or ac adaptor, headphone jack and mp3 input, clean/distortion switch

[Morrill]

You can pick up a decent headphone amp off Amazon for under $20. If you plan to use it often spend the extra $$ on the Vox as its a bit more versatile.

[ChrisN]

Originally Posted by dnf777

I thought these were gimmicks until I tried one. If you want just headphone practice, might give one of these a try. Theyre only around $40, and runs on 2x AAA batts

I have one of these (the "Clean" one) and it's great w/apple wired ear buds. I use it with a travel electric in the car. I think it may even have an AUX in port. It's got 3 effects (reverb, chorus, delay?), plus a fine amount of gain for my needs. They offer gainier models, too.

I have Mustang II and III amps - they sound great with headphones, and they have AUX in ports for play-alongs to another source. While I like and will keep mine, I no longer recommend the older Mustang line due to Fender's discontinuance of all support, including the forum and patch sharing. Fender stopped updating, and no longer downloads, the FUSE software that is integral to tapping these amps' potential (the stock patches are garbage intended to highlight possibilities), and FUSE is buggy to use (need Silverlight for Mac, but different versions, etc.). Since I don't need what Fender took away (because I have all the pre-made patches [ebay], FUSE, Silverlight, etc.), I'll keep my Mustangs until they die, or no longer connect to my current desktop computer due to OS upgrades. Even then, I suppose, I'll load my favorite amps/patches into the box and soldier on without the computer assist from FUSE. The Mustangs have had their day. Today, I'd go with a Boss Katana 100, but I'm always leery of these electronic-dependent modelers whose makers can make them obsolete overnight in order to push their Next Big Thing, but the Boss amps are cheap enough to consider disposable.

I also have a Bugera V5. It has a headphone jack that, due to the nature of tube amps, it has to function as a load simulator/emulator(?) in order to get the amp to produce the sound through the jack. To me, it doesn't sound great (clean or w/gain), or even good, though it is functional to be able to hear the guitar - kind of a dry/quiet/distant sound. I've read others who agree with me, and still others who say the V5 sounds fine with high quality headphones (mine are lower end $75 or so). I like the V5 for its feature set and tube tone, just not crazy about the headphone-out sound, but it does work.

To the OP, you've got a V5 on the way, but it will likely come with a good Return policy, so whether it meets your needs is up to you.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by ChrisN

...I no longer recommend the older Mustang line due to Fender's discontinuance of all support, including the forum and patch sharing. Fender stopped updating, and no longer downloads, the FUSE software that is integral to tapping these amps' potential...The Mustangs have had their day...I'm always leery of these electronic-dependent modelers whose makers can make them obsolete overnight in order to push their Next Big Thing, but the Boss amps are cheap enough to consider disposable.

- and that's precisely why I stick with old-school analog gear, whether tube or solid-state...

Originally Posted by ChrisN

...I also have a Bugera V5. It has a headphone jack that, due to the nature of tube amps, has to function as a load simulator/emulator(?) in order to get the amp to produce the sound through the jack. To me, it doesn't sound great (clean or w/gain), or even good, though it is functional to be able to hear the guitar - kind of a dry/quiet/distant sound. I've read others who agree with me, and still others who say the V5 sounds fine with high quality headphones (mine are lower end $75 or so). I like the V5 for its feature set and tube tone, just not crazy about the headphone-out sound, but it does work.

To the OP, you've got a V5 on the way, but it will likely come with a good return policy, so whether it meets your needs is up to you.

It is, it does, and IME it's a case of not only quality but impedance matching: I've got a set of very old Sennheiser and slightly less-old Koss (both 8 ohm) phones that both sound fine - YMMV - and even if you don't use the headphone jack (don't forget it powers down to 0.1W) it's well worth the investment as a practice/small-gig tone machine...

[ChrisN]

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

even if you don't use the headphone jack (don't forget it powers down to 0.1W) it's well worth the investment as a practice/small-gig tone machine...

Agreed! The build quality and feature set/tone justify keeping mine.

Also, I should have mentioned in response to another V5 post some place, that the replacement of various caps, resistor values, etc. (even pots?), usually refers to work done on the non-Infinium V5 (earlier model) that had larger pieces on a larger circuit board. The current Infinium version made everything micro, so I don't know how much of the old lore is applicable to the new model.

[bls82261]

I use a Yamaha THR10c at home but I got one of these as a xmas gift. I intend to use it as a camping rig. I will mostly play thru headphones but it can also plug into a portable speaker that has an aux in. I've only had it about 1/2 a day but it took me just 10 mins to dial in a tone I like very much.
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[NY Deadhead]

I play a Roland Blues cube Hot 30w. It is a great little amp. it has a headphone jack. It also has a power attenuator to go from 30w, 15w, 5w, 0.5w. It's not a tube amp but pretty good and cheap.