As home practice amps evolve.....

FelineGuitars

I love my practise amp

Blueingreen

For me playing in the house = practising.  Anything that sounds decent is good enough.

 I did upgrade from a Microcube to a THR10C, but although theTR10C clearly sounds better (especially the cleans) I still think of it as a bit of a self-indulgence because the Microcube sounded excellent and did everything I needed.  I do like the convenience of the presets on the Yamaha though.

Rocker

I don't try to replicate a live sound situation at home. When I practice I want to hear the buzzes, the dead strings, the nearly right chords etc. To hear what I am doing wrong almost as much as what I am doing right. For six string electric guitar I use my battery powered Pignose. For bass I use my battery powered Blackstar Fly bass.  Both sound good enough to show up any playing problems or issues I need to attend to.

proggy

FelineGuitars said:

I love my practise amp

Bloody Hell, do you practise in a field?

delorean

ICBM said:

I quite like the Yamaha THR10, but only for clean sounds - anything beyond very light crunch sounded bad.

@ICBM - Have you tried the Yamaha THR10X?  There are some awesome filthy tones tucked away in there!

ICBM

delorean said:

@ICBM - Have you tried the Yamaha THR10X?  There are some awesome filthy tones tucked away in there!

No - but is it any different from the standard THR10 really? Obviously the amount of gain and the ‘model’ and EQ will be different, but I suspect that is not the problem. I could be wrong... but I prefer low-gain sounds, and if they couldn’t get those to sound even half-good in the standard 10 then I doubt I will like high-gain ones in the X. It’s a pity, since the clean sound was really good, easily the best of this type of amp.

But even then I still prefer the Vox.

p90fool

Rocker said:

I don't try to replicate a live sound situation at home. When I practice I want to hear the buzzes, the dead strings, the nearly right chords etc. To hear what I am doing wrong almost as much as what I am doing right. For six string electric guitar I use my battery powered Pignose. For bass I use my battery powered Blackstar Fly bass.  Both sound good enough to show up any playing problems or issues I need to attend to.

@Rocker ; that's exactly why I use a Pignose, but it also reacts like a real amp to playing dynamics, unlike compressed, flattering modellers. 

I fully admit it's kind of trashy sounding, but it feels like a real musical instrument. 

thecolourbox

FelineGuitars said:

I love my practise amp

Something about this reminds me of the old Birmingham central library:

http://www.birminghamroundabout.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/birmingham_central_library.jpg

Deadman

I use both a Fly 3 and Vox AC10 at home. Both get used, it just depends what time of day it is vs what sort of music I want to play. I rate solid state but it's still bloody good to have some valves in your life even when you're in the dining room.

Wazmeister

proggy said:

FelineGuitars said:

I love my practise amp

Bloody Hell, do you practise in a field?

Genuinely laughed out loud at that

munckee

I have a 5 watt champ which sounds better than the yamaha thr5 but for low volumes, ie when the kids are asleep the champ is too loud a sound even with pedals,  The THR means I can play crunchy sounds and not wake them up and face the wrath of missus munckee.  If that's what you look for in these type amps I don't think you will be disappointed.  

grungebob

For very quiet playing I have the Katana 50 I use this late at night when everyone is asleep and it sounds great, increasing the volume though and it doesn’t sound nice at all, the bass disappears and the gain fizzes. 
When I get chance to play when people are awake I use my Orange Dual Dark 50 into an Orange 1x12  and it sounds fantastic, built in attenuator works wonders and can go from conversation levels to very loud indeed. 

Snags

Depends. If sat up in the office/'studio'/general shit heap I use a Blackstar Fly 3 set bought on a whim, which is also my "holiday amp". If downstairs either no amp at all, or if Mrs Snags is out/amenable the Lionheart L5T-112.

interstellar

i use my Swart AST and turn it down.. personally i do the majority of my practice with a clean sound, makes me work harder and more accurately

Rigid_Digits

I use a Fly too. It's fine as a bedroom amp. It's small and takes up no room and can run on batteries for ages. And you can get decent sounds out of it if you use it properly.

FelineGuitars

Wazmeister said:

proggy said:

FelineGuitars said:

I love my practise amp

Bloody Hell, do you practise in a field?

Genuinely laughed out loud at that

It's only 10 watts into a 1x12...and you don't have to use them all

ICBM

FelineGuitars said:

It's only 10 watts into a 1x12...and you don't have to use them all

So true... volume controls can be turned down as well as up. When I lived in a second floor flat in Edinburgh I used to practice through a 200W Marshall Major into a giant 2x15" cab of ridiculous efficiency - with an external valve preamp I built, modelled on a 2203 front end - epic Made In Japan tone at lower than TV volume.

The only time I ever got a complaint was when I mistakenly tried using my 5W Marshall Mercury instead. OK, that sounded like crap at any volume so that might have had something to do with it .

But I've always found it easier to get a better tone at low volume with a big amp than a small one.

MentalSharps

mistercharlie said:

Stereo amps sound way bigger than mono, so you can get room-filling sound with smaller speakers and lower volume. And “full range” lets you use it to play music from a computer or phone, either backing tracks or just for listening. 

They’ll also use a lot less juice than a 100w head into a load box. 

Ahh I see. That's actually the same as the reactive loadbox into a PC then. I hadn't even considered to think about the electricity usage when buying the amp, hadn't realised valve amps used more than solid state. But it still seems to work out as pretty much nothing - about 10 hours of 100w amp is equal to one wash of the washing machine. Throw a couple extra socks and a t-shirt in each wash and playing the amp will cost nothing

p90fool

ICBM said:

FelineGuitars said:

It's only 10 watts into a 1x12...and you don't have to use them all

So true... volume controls can be turned down as well as up. When I lived in a second floor flat in Edinburgh I used to practice through a 200W Marshall Major into a giant 2x15" cab of ridiculous efficiency - with an external valve preamp I built, modelled on a 2203 front end - epic Made In Japan tone at lower than TV volume.

But I've always found it easier to get a better tone at low volume with a big amp than a small one.

I used a Major for a while at home too - the only downside was an uncomfortable feeling that it probably cost about the same to run as an electric shower. 

ICBM

p90fool said:

I used a Major for a while at home too - the only downside was an uncomfortable feeling that it probably cost about the same to run as an electric shower. 

My flat had no proper central heating then, so that wasn't a problem... it was an open fire, electric radiators or the Major .

It probably didn't even use that much at idle either - KT88s don't actually have a much higher current draw than any other valve.