Practice Amp Setups

[CASD57]

Originally Posted by Aspiring

For fun and for the op I slapped together some quick recordings on clean using my phone in a room..

They are the Katana head mkii through built in speaker
(Edit)Rerecord on katana different phone placement
Yamaha thr30ii
fractal audio FM3 through studio monitors


I was in a hurry so please excuse the playing.

https://on.soundcloud.com/x6HG8
https://on.soundcloud.com/5pXWP
https://on.soundcloud.com/zNq6s
https://on.soundcloud.com/DufRa

For the Yamaha and the Katana I only spent a few seconds on the tone on the fractal I've been working on this song on it so the tone has a fair bit of time put into it.

On all three i was using some of the built in effects.

At any rate I think it shows for clean you can get decent tones out of both the Yamaha and the Katana even through the built in 5" speaker for practice.

The Fractal is clearly in a different category at least to my ears recorded and very much so in person but that is a $1k piece of equipment playing through $1k studio monitors (although it also sounds great though headphones). I may have to rerecord the katana as the phone was placed on the carpet in the room for the recording the others had a bit better placement.

I think the THR is a great amp...Just that the Katana head makes a lot of sense for me..

[Aspiring]

Originally Posted by CASD57

I think the THR is a great amp...Just that the Katana head makes a lot of sense for me..

I owned the Katana Head before I picked up the THR. I was using it to drive a 1x12 cabinet and quite liked it.

It is louder than the THR30 even through the 5" speaker. And bang for the buck or is amazing in my opinion. Way more effects available than the THR.

Sound quality wise they are tough to compare the THR is lower noise floor and a little nicer to me but the 5" speaker definitely has some things that sound better and then through a 1x12 ...

Having all three setups I use my Fractal stuff the most. I use my THR the second most.

But the Katana served me well for a while.

[GoPappy]

Originally Posted by CASD57

I think the THR is a great amp...Just that the Katana head makes a lot of sense for me..

For someone who wants a small unobtrusive practice amp and, perhaps, has aspirations of gigging or otherwise needing more amplification than a THR30 can provide, the Katana head makes a LOT of sense. Plus, it's almost $200 less expensive than the THR 30.

For me, the THR30ii made more sense because I'm certain it will only be used as practice amp, and the battery operation, wireless and bluetooth features had more value TO ME than the additional power of the Katana. Plus, I bought mine for $400, so the price difference wasn't significant.

Between the two of them, it's kinda hard to make a bad decision. Just depends on your priorities.

[CASD57]

Originally Posted by GoPappy

For someone who wants a small unobtrusive practice amp and, perhaps, has aspirations of gigging or otherwise needing more amplification than a THR30 can provide, the Katana head makes a LOT of sense. Plus, it's almost $200 less expensive than the THR 30.

For me, the THR30ii made more sense because I'm certain it will only be used as practice amp, and the battery operation, wireless and bluetooth features had more value TO ME than the additional power of the Katana. Plus, I bought mine for $400, so the price difference wasn't significant.

Between the two of them, it's kinda hard to make a bad decision. Just depends on your priorities.

I couldn't agree more.
I do gig out once in a while and for me, equipment that does double duty is the way to go....If it sounds good

[CASD57]

Originally Posted by Aspiring

I owned the Katana Head before I picked up the THR. I was using it to drive a 1x12 cabinet and quite liked it.

It is louder than the THR30 even through the 5" speaker. And bang for the buck or is amazing in my opinion. Way more effects available than the THR.

Sound quality wise they are tough to compare the THR is lower noise floor and a little nicer to me but the 5" speaker definitely has some things that sound better and then through a 1x12 ...

Having all three setups I use my Fractal stuff the most. I use my THR the second most.

But the Katana served me well for a while.

From the recordings...
The Katana sounded bigger and warmer than the THR and Fractal
The THR was a little shrill at the top I'm sure it could be eq'd out
For me....... There wasn't enough difference between the Katana/THR and Fractal to make me want to go out and buy one"Fractal"...But hey it's just me

Now if the THR30 was the same price as the Katana I might go in that direction because you could always mic it for a gig or direct out to the PA
Great Song.....I do it live I don't play the lead though

[dnf777]

I didnt read every post, so my apologies if this has already been mentioned or discounted…but have you considered a headphone amp? The fairly new Fender Mustang micro is head and shoulders above the last generations of headphone amps. And it can be plugged into a small powered speaker if you want.

[Aspiring]

Originally Posted by CASD57

From the recordings...

The Katana sounded bigger and warmer than the THR and Fractal

The THR was a little shrill at the top I'm sure it could be eq'd out

For me....... There wasn't enough difference between the Katana/THR and Fractal to make me want to go out and buy one"Fractal"...But hey it's just me



Now if the THR30 was the same price as the Katana I might go in that direction because you could always mic it for a gig or direct out to the PA

Great Song.....I do it live I don't play the lead though

Right I didn't play around much with eq and mic (phone) placement. Each of these is also in a different room in my house and the phone was not an exact similar placement from each other than roughly in front and roughly 8-10 ft away.

The Fractal is very noticeable to me in person in the room as a difference but the others did quite well particularly in the recordings. The warmth aspect vs the bright is something characteristic of the katana vs the thr for sure. It's two small speakers vs one bigger one with no tweeter.

And I'm loving the song too. Just working it up at this point which is why I used it for the demo.

I also used the same guitar and kept the settings identical moving between amps

[CASD57]

Originally Posted by Aspiring

Right I didn't play around much with eq and mic (phone) placement. Each of these is also in a different room in my house and the phone was not an exact similar placement from each other than roughly in front and roughly 8-10 ft away.

The Fractal is very noticeable to me in person in the room as a difference but the others did quite well particularly in the recordings. The warmth aspect vs the bright is something characteristic of the katana vs the thr for sure. It's two small speakers vs one bigger one with no tweeter.

And I'm loving the song too. Just working it up at this point which is why I used it for the demo.

I also used the same guitar and kept the settings identical moving between amps

Nice playing, you'll get better...
You've inspired me to work out the riff so that the song works better for the audience.

[fpuhan]

Originally Posted by 1neeto

Spark 40 has the most practice features, and it’s priced right. It’s surprisingly loud, and also a killer Bluetooth speaker. There’s also the Spark mini which is a tiny battery powered amp with the same features.

+1

The Spark MINI is sitting on my coffee table. Using the XVive U2 wireless system I can happily plunk away while seated comfortably on my sofa and not get tangled up in wires. Despite its miniscule size, it has multiple settings, operates off a USB-chargeable battery, and fills my living room amply. Smaller than the original Pignose 7-100, and much more feature-rich.

[CASD57]

Originally Posted by fpuhan

+1

The Spark MINI is sitting on my coffee table. Using the XVive U2 wireless system I can happily plunk away while seated comfortably on my sofa and not get tangled up in wires. Despite its miniscule size, it has multiple settings, operates off a USB-chargeable battery, and fills my living room amply. Smaller than the original Pignose 7-100, and much more feature-rich.

The Spark amps are within $ of either the Katana MK2 50($269) or the 100w Head($369)..
Unless its because of size/room or needing battery power, I would go to something bigger(Katana-Fender LT25-50- or?)
But they do sound good for bedroom amps...

[Brent Hutto]

I went really cheap-and-cheerful with my own rig for super low volume. For me it's not "bedroom" it's more "hotel room" as I wanted something with an actual speaker to use when we're on vacation in either a hotel or a VRBO condo some place.

So I picked up a little Orange Crush 12 low-power solid state (not digital) combo on sale for 99 bucks at Guitar Center last year. It pairs well with the very inexpensive guitar I bought for my travel guitar. I set it up on an end table or nightstand and sit right next to it so it's turned down very, very low (no way you can hear even a hint of it outside a hotel room door) but has a pleasing sound because I'm sitting with it at nearly ear level on 2-3 feet away.

That gives me a guitar+amp that I wouldn't be gutted if something happened to it on a trip. And I quite like the sound. For our latest trip I did break down and buy a similarly low budget delay pedal (that runs off 9V battery) so it's now a quite fancy sounding low volume setup at a total cost for guitar, amp, delay and gig bag all just a few hundred dollars.

[1neeto]

Originally Posted by fpuhan

+1



The Spark MINI is sitting on my coffee table. Using the XVive U2 wireless system I can happily plunk away while seated comfortably on my sofa and not get tangled up in wires. Despite its miniscule size, it has multiple settings, operates off a USB-chargeable battery, and fills my living room amply. Smaller than the original Pignose 7-100, and much more feature-rich.

I want to get a mini just for that. Something to take into my office and keep a guitar there for downtime playing.

Originally Posted by CASD57

The Spark amps are within $ of either the Katana MK2 50($269) or the 100w Head($369)..

Unless its because of size/room or needing battery power, I would go to something bigger(Katana-Fender LT25-50- or?)

But they do sound good for bedroom amps...

Yes within the piece range of a Katana 50, but the head is a good $100 more. Positive Grid is currently selling the Spark 40 for $255, and Spark Mini for $209. I think they’re apples and oranges. The only similarity is that both can be played at very low volumes, and the head is roughly the same size as the Spark 40 and has a speaker.

[rollypolly]

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

Although I usually use higher-powered stuff (in the name of dynamic range/headroom) for home practice, when I've gotta go low-volume I reach for this:



https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...ss-a-tube-head



- or one of these, with a cab of your choice (while I use a Randall RG8 when size matters, any of these should work https://www.musiciansfriend.com/guit...Page=30&Ns=pLH):



https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...tube-combo-amp

No frills, no bells-&-whistles - just lotsa straight-ahead tube tone for not a lotta bucks...

I recently started a thread asking for opinions for a replacement for a Fender Pro Junior. I happened across a used Bugera V22 at Guitar Center for a really good deal. I've been really impressed with it. Similar tube tone to the PJ but it's got a very usable clean signal and it gets plenty loud with a 12" speaker. Only drawback is it's a fairly big amp.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by rollypolly

...I happened across a used Bugera V22 at Guitar Center for a really good deal. I've been really impressed with it. Similar tube tone to the PJ but it's got a very usable clean signal and it gets plenty loud with a 12" speaker...

Try the triode (15W) setting - there's a whole 'nuther set of highly useful/toneful clean and OD sounds in there (mostly of the pre-Top Boost Vox cum 18-watt variety) and the push-button mid-boost adds another layer of classic Brit vibe. BTW the oversize enclosure not only contributes to the tone, but it's built like a tank (and as I'm sure you've discovered, weighs only slightly less ): they use anchored machine screws throughout (FWIW there are big-buck boutique builders who don't even do that - not to mention their higher-priced mass-production competitors), and if you ever get the urge they're highly responsive to easy DIY mods/upgrades (tubes, speaker, etc.) - lotsa good stuff going on, for not a lotta bucks...

[Beachrunner]

Yamaha THR5