Amps for low volume / home practice?

[Pavlos]

Just wondering what amps everyone uses at home or for low volume practice / playing in front of the TV and other such things that won't get the neighbours all up in arms about too much noise? Is there any preference for valve/tube over solid state, hybrid or modelling and what sort of power output does everyone find works best for them?

[Neil mcNasty]

I highly recommend the Yamaha THX series modelling amps.
Small in size, sounds like the real deal and responds great to pedals.
Doubles as a USB interface, so it's great for recording as well.

[Marbles]

How little noise can you make?
I have a solid state Fender Vibro Champ XD which sounds surprisingly good, but aren't made anymore.

If you're a bluesy kind of guy, and especially if you have a strat: Try the Blues Junior Tweed. Not the cheapest option maybe, and you can't really push the volume past 1.5, but I was sold when I plugged a strat in. Nice syruppy fender on the verge of overdrive tones on low volume. I live in a flat, and even though it can get loud, the tone on low volume is awesome.

Some people don't like the price for a PCB amp and my first one had to be replaced, but if you fit the before mentioned profile you should give it a spin in a store.

[Gabi Smith]

My tinyest amp is the Ibanez Valbee. With eletro harmonix tubes and a 8" old Goodman speaker, it is useful. To play at home and practice quietly with a band, the superchamp XD is really good.

[Ravenswerld]

     I have a 1 watt tube amp I built. It's called the "deluxe micro". Rob Robinette designed it. If you are handy with a soldering gun, which I assume you are then I would suggest checking this amp out. It takes pedals really well. Has a master volume and you can tweak the heck out of it to get the sound you want.
     I also have a matchless spitfire clone that I got pretty cheap. It was just the chassis so I had to build the cab and head. I also put a vvr in it cause they are insanely loud. It sounds great to at low volumes and takes pedals real well to.
     Also have a quilter 101 mini. This thing is amazing for a solid state device. Loves pedals, small footprint and very well priced. Sounds great at low, and stage volumes and gets insanely loud. 50 100 watts all the way down to whatever you can dial in and will go on pedal board comfortably. If I was low on funds and could only have one amp to do it all for me I think it would be this amp.
      Btw I a/b ed my 1 watt tube amp with the Yamaha thr10 classic. The one watt sounded way better to my ears. I know it's hard to compare a solid state device with a tube amp. Just sayin!
    Enjoy the search!!

[Sensei Tim]

2nd recommendation for a Yamaha thr!

They sound great!!! And they can be run off of batteries so you can play anywhere!

[alltrax74]

I use the ruby amp, great for home practice
http://guitar-fx-layouts.42897.x6.nabble.com/Ruby-Amp-td12813.html

[gul]

I have a Kay Model 703 that is the perfect apartment-volume amp IMO, at least if you want a tube amp.

[Pavlos]

well my current amp is a Marshall MG30, way more volume than I need for at home, drive chanel is a bit uninspiring, clean chanel is reasonable if nothing special but plays quite nicely with pedals, and even though it doesn't sound terrible, I'm sure I could do better. Personally my ideal would be good foundation of responsive clean to low/mid gain breakup, takes pedals well, sounds good at relatively low volumes (Conversation level) Don't mind if it's got glowing bottles, analogue chips or DSP, just as long as it sounds good


Marbles
I quite like the idea of a small Fender, but I think the Blues Junior might need to be run a little bit too loud for the neighbours for to get the best out of it, 7W Bass Breaker might be a bit more appropriate, maybe Vox AC4, Laney Cub etc

Neil and Tim
A lot of people are saying good things about the Yamaha THR's but are they really that good? Do they have the dynamics and touch sensitivity of a decent valve amp? And do they do justice to plugging a Bass in?

Alltrax
Ruby and the other 'baby' amps look worth trying out, just gotta get round to them on my ever expanding build list might see if I've got the right parts for that one and bump it up the order

And as always, many thanks for the replies, much appreciated

[Muadzin]

In my old pedalboard rig I used an AMT F1 preamp pedal, which has the option for cab sim output, and I know it takes pedals well because it did exactly that in my old rig. I reckon if I wanted too I could hook it up to my home mixer and play through it over my monitor speakers.

Amps, pff! Who still needs them.

[BetterOffShred]

I like Tube amps for everything.  They just do everything better imo.  Even 5 watts of tube amp is plenty for home practice, but I prefer at least a 10" speaker.  I guess if you don't want to spend much get a little solid state job and enjoy, but if you want tube dynamics and glorious tone, spend the money and get 5 watts and a 10" speaker.  Just saying ;)
Blackstar makes a 5 watt with a 12".. Marshall makes one with a 10".. both sound great.
http://equipboard.com/posts/best-small-tube-amp
Think about it
-Brett

[alltrax74]

I have to disagree here, all 5 watters I had needed to be crank way over conversation level to sound decently, except maybe one, a little 5f1 replica loaded with a g10 celestion speaker. But level at 2 with pedals, not cranked

[Gabi Smith]

The blues junior plays loud.

The tiniest sound I can have with the super champ won't annoy the Neighbours. The loudest is enough to practice with a drummer, but not to play in a blues jam.

[Travis]

It really depends what kind of sounds you're looking for. If you want saturated distortion or effects, solid state or modeling would be the best option. If you just want a normal dry sound then most any amp should do fine

I have a Vox AC4TV and I don't like it very much. The lower wattage settings sound so thin and useless, only the 4W setting is useable and it is too loud for an apartment IMO. Even at the best sounding 4W mode, there is extremely limited headroom and a lot of noise. I switched the 12AX7 to a 12AY7 and that helped but it's not a great amp

Generally speaking even a small tube amp is going to be loud when you get any overdrive going unless it really has a great master volume

[alltrax74]

I'm considering building a practice amp with a Roland JC120 preamp section (clean chanel) into Ruby without the gain control (fixed 1k resistor instead)

[BetterOffShred]

Well. That's fair!  My two 5 watt amps are both heads and I play them through a 4x12 at the moment so my opinion is probably biased, but they both sound good.
-Brett

[Pavlos]

Travis wrote

It really depends what kind of sounds you're looking for. If you want saturated distortion or effects, solid state or modeling would be the best option. If you just want a normal dry sound then most any amp should do fine

I have a Vox AC4TV and I don't like it very much. The lower wattage settings sound so thin and useless, only the 4W setting is useable and it is too loud for an apartment IMO. Even at the best sounding 4W mode, there is extremely limited headroom and a lot of noise. I switched the 12AX7 to a 12AY7 and that helped but it's not a great amp

Generally speaking even a small tube amp is going to be loud when you get any overdrive going unless it really has a great master volume

Well for saturated distortion and effects I'd probably use pedals anayway, smidgen of reverb from the amp wouldn't be a bad thing though, but I'd always prefer the amp to be a good solid foundation to build upon/abuse accordingly. Seems to be a bit of a holy grail trying to find something that at lower volumes both sounds good and either has, or comes close to the dynamics and touch responsiveness of a valve amp in that sweet spot where you can go from nice clear clean through to a bit of drive just by varying playing dynamics and tweaking the guitars volume knob a few notches. Not sure if any amp is able to do that without a decent amount of volume though? Best I've managed is with modelling, or using a compressor between any gain pedals and a clean amp, can sound good but doesn't feel quite right to me, maybe just need to find the right pedal and combinations/settings, the endless quest eh!


Have seen a couple of veviews that said similar things about the AC4, other than they reckoned it was a good amp but a bit 'constricted' when using the power scaling. Unfortunately where I live in the UK, we don't have very much choice, or chance to try stuff in person without a day out to one of major cities so it's always good to have trusted real world opinions from you guys