Practice Amp advice

darnoldi

Hey all,

I am looking for a small practice amp for use away from my 'studio'. i.e. in the main house.

It's not always convenient to go sit out there in the evenings away from the missus. She is learning to play too and would like to jam with me but we have a two year old who will be asleep in bed and we don't want to leave him alone, nor do we want to wake him up.

So requirements would be:-

10 Watt or so (more is fine as long as physical size doesn't get too large)
Line input for backing tracks.
Two guitar inputs (not essential)
Effects not essential, but some amp modelling would be nice.
Tones should still be good at lower volumes.

Price < R5000

And now the kicker, it should be useable with electric and/or acoustic guitars.
I have read some great things about the Roland Cube GX range, with some saying that the Taylor ES system sounds great through it, although opinions are heavily divided.

Does such a beast exist, or would I be better off buying two 'specialist' amps?

Also, would you buy second hand practice amps, or would it be better to get new with a warranty?

All suggestions and thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

AlanRatcliffe

Much as I love the Cubes for practice amps, their performance with acoustics isn't great, IMO.

Get an acoustic amp and a modelling pedal like a Pod or Mustang Floor. Personal practice you can work with headphones and the modeller. Many of the acoustic amps also have more than one input too, further increasing the flexibility.

ArieRS265

@ darnoldi...I sent u a PM bud ?

darnoldi

Alan, sage advice as always, thank you. I think you've hit on the perfect solution.

ArieRS265, replied to your PM, thanks m8.

...Now to research acoustic amps... :-\

ParadoximA

If you already have a home laptop or media PC, you could consider getting a cheap(ish) interface for it and running the output to your hifi. Considering that you mentioned a "studio" you've probably already considered this - but just in case you hadn't...

It would cover everything on your list (except maybe the 10 Watt requirement, depending on your hifi).

It's not quite as convenient as just switching on an amp, but as soon as you start adding backing tracks into the picture a PC starts to make sense.

darnoldi

@ ParadoximA,

Thanks for the response, yeah I have thought of that and I do have all the necessary equipment to do it.
The Taylor actually sounds pretty incredible going through a small 12 channel mixer to my Yammie RX-A810 amp and Jamo speakers! ?

HOWEVER!!, that is the one room in the house that the missus puts her foot down about me leaving my 'toys' lying around in, so I would meet with a LOT of resistance. :-[

I have a samson XP308i portable PA system http://www.samsontech.com/samson/products/portable-pa/expedition/xp308i/ that I've been using to fill this roll, but she even gets upset when I wanna set that up 8).

I'm really needing something small and self contained that I can pull out, plug in, play and put away easily.

Actually I might be interested in swapping that samson PA ?

Thanks though.

glug

I have a crate ca30dg acoustic amp and sounds great with acoustic as well as distortion using effect pedals. this amp has 8 digital effects but obviously doesn't have overdrive as it is and acoustic amp.
also had 2 guitar inputs.

Swapped my cube for it and very happy.