Advice please - small, light, amp. Has to be loud...

meltedbuzzbox

ICBM said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

Ashdown bass amp (why not?)

Because they're unreliable and over-rated, as well as heavy…

but some have a sub octave dial :-)

Remember, all work and no play makes ICBM a dull boy ;-)

impmann

Y'see I don't buy the sh1te that you can't make a lightweight, good sounding amp. Mark Bass proved that you can do just that with Bass Amps and now everyone and their dog are making small, compact, light bass amps that sound great.

The ZT comes so close - if only the little speaker could give a bit more... but of course it can't its half the size of a regular guitar cone! A valve preamp with a class D back end, plus a lightweight 12in speaker (Neo) housed in a lightweight cab shouldn't weigh any more than 20-25lb. In fact, it could be less - especially if you used an injection moulded cabinet (waits for hails of derision about plastic cabinets - I used to think the same til we upgraded the PA speakers to EVs). Such an amp, selling for £300ish, would sell bucket loads - if it sounds great.

Guitarists can be incredibly small 'c' conservative about these things, and highly dismissive. 

But back on topic - so apart from the ZT (and the rack mount jobbie at the beginning of the thread) there is *nothing* then?

steamabacus

impmann said:

But back on topic - so apart from the ZT (and the rack mount jobbie at the beginning of the thread) there is *nothing* then?

Have a look at this which is due for release soon.

ThePrettyDamned

AMT Stonehead?

Or an old Peavey Bandit, but pull the head out and put it into a new chassis? Not sure if this is doable easily (calling @ICBM).  Should cost all of £100 all in?

EdGrip

My approach to a Bandit head would be to get a piece of ply the same size as the chassis but a bit longer on one end, screw the chassis to it and cut a Jem-style handle into the extra end bit. I nearly did this at one point. 

impmann

I'm liking the Bluguitar Amp... pity it isn't a grab n go combo...

steamabacus

impmann said:

I'm liking the Bluguitar Amp... pity it isn't a grab n go combo...

At the London Guitar Show, Thomas Blug was playing it through the BluGuitar cab (Cab1?). It's about the size of a hifi subwoofer and sounded pretty loud in a very noisy guitar show environment. No prices for the cab on his website yet, though.

Voxman

The ID60 TVP weighs just under 40lbs and retails for circa £399. The FS10 floor controller is around £50 and in my view is essential for gigging and getting the most out of the amp. It's one of the few dsp amps that works very well with external pedals and responds almost exactly to then as a valve amp. However they take a bit of getting used to because they model valve configurations rather than specific models.

For the OPs purposes a 'straight' amp might be simpler to use.

I would buy one for myself except for one important issue (at least it's important for me) and that is it has no patch namimg facilities without which its 128 patch memory is virtually useless for live gigging because you can't remember which patch is where.

I'm hoping Blackstar will add patch naming that is well lit and easily visible on the floor controller in a mk2.

newi123

If it`s a weight issue and you have a HRD..........

I put a celestion neo (one of the original century vintage I think) into a blues deluxe. Made a huge difference in portability and sounded awesome. Then maybe buy a EHX Magnum 44 for a back up? All in about £200 I should think.

Voxman

newi123;420410" said:

If it`s a weight issue and you have a HRD..........

I put a celestion neo (one of the original century vintage I think) into a blues deluxe. Made a huge difference in portability and sounded awesome. Then maybe buy a EHX Magnum 44 for a back up? All in about £200 I should think.

£200? A Celestion G12 Century Vintage 'neodymium' on its own is around £115.

ICBM

meltedbuzzbox said:

Remember, all work and no play makes ICBM a dull boy ;-)

Work? How do you think I get the time to be here?!



Actually it's because I have my computer in my workshop. Right now I am waiting for an old amp to warm up on a Variac...

newi123 said:

If it`s a weight issue and you have a HRD..........

I put a celestion neo (one of the original century vintage I think) into a blues deluxe. Made a huge difference in portability and sounded awesome.

I'm always amazed when people say this. A neodymium speaker saves at most about 4lbs from the weight of a 12" speaker, even if you start with one with a larger magnet than the stock HRD speaker - I would guess more like 3lb for that one. In a 45lb amp, that can't make much more than a psychological difference, even if you're very sensitive to small weight changes in things you're very familiar with.

I've never heard one I liked the sound of either, at least for guitar. It just doesn't seem like a good trade-off to me.

newi123

Voxman said:

newi123;420410" said:

If it`s a weight issue and you have a HRD..........

I put a celestion neo (one of the original century vintage I think) into a blues deluxe. Made a huge difference in portability and sounded awesome. Then maybe buy a EHX Magnum 44 for a back up? All in about £200 I should think.

£200? A Celestion G12 Century Vintage 'neodymium' on its own is around £115.

I think the OP commented he already has a HRD as his main amp? So £115 for the speaker and £90 ish for the EHX magnun 44 = £200 ish. 

ICBM said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

Remember, all work and no play makes ICBM a dull boy ;-)

Work? How do you think I get the time to be here?!



Actually it's because I have my computer in my workshop. Right now I am waiting for an old amp to warm up on a Variac...

newi123 said:

If it`s a weight issue and you have a HRD..........

I put a celestion neo (one of the original century vintage I think) into a blues deluxe. Made a huge difference in portability and sounded awesome.

I'm always amazed when people say this. A neodymium speaker saves at most about 4lbs from the weight of a 12" speaker, even if you start with one with a larger magnet than the stock HRD speaker - I would guess more like 3lb for that one. In a 45lb amp, that can't make much more than a psychological difference, even if you're very sensitive to small weight changes in things you're very familiar with.

I've never heard one I liked the sound of either, at least for guitar. It just doesn't seem like a good trade-off to me.

So a 7.5 - 10% weight saving isn`t too bad! Maybe the rest is psychological.............

I got it wrong, wasn`t a current neo vintage, was one of the original ones they brought out - think they changed them? Simon Law fitted it for me - his face dropped when he saw it too, but when he returned the amp he made a point of saying how surprised he was by it - in his words really similar to celestion blue. I trust his ears over mine, and I guess it depends what you want from it. But it was a great clean sound in the fender.

newi123

Voxman said:

newi123;420410" said:

If it`s a weight issue and you have a HRD..........

I put a celestion neo (one of the original century vintage I think) into a blues deluxe. Made a huge difference in portability and sounded awesome. Then maybe buy a EHX Magnum 44 for a back up? All in about £200 I should think.

£200? A Celestion G12 Century Vintage 'neodymium' on its own is around £115.

Yep - the OP commented he already has a HRD as his main amp, so £115 for the speaker, £90 ish for the EHX magnum 44 is £200 ish.

ICBM said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

Remember, all work and no play makes ICBM a dull boy ;-)

Work? How do you think I get the time to be here?!



Actually it's because I have my computer in my workshop. Right now I am waiting for an old amp to warm up on a Variac...

newi123 said:

If it`s a weight issue and you have a HRD..........

I put a celestion neo (one of the original century vintage I think) into a blues deluxe. Made a huge difference in portability and sounded awesome.

I'm always amazed when people say this. A neodymium speaker saves at most about 4lbs from the weight of a 12" speaker, even if you start with one with a larger magnet than the stock HRD speaker - I would guess more like 3lb for that one. In a 45lb amp, that can't make much more than a psychological difference, even if you're very sensitive to small weight changes in things you're very familiar with.

I've never heard one I liked the sound of either, at least for guitar. It just doesn't seem like a good trade-off to me.

So a 7.5 / 10% weight saving isn`t bad - maybe the rest is psychological............

It was one of the original Celestion neos - sounded fine in the Blues Deluxe - nice loud clean sound. Simon Law fitted it for me, his face dropped when I told him my plan, but he made a particular point of saying how surprised he was by it - said it sounded closed to a blue. Haven`t tried one personally, but I trust his ears over mine! 

newi123

Voxman said:

newi123;420410" said:

If it`s a weight issue and you have a HRD..........

I put a celestion neo (one of the original century vintage I think) into a blues deluxe. Made a huge difference in portability and sounded awesome. Then maybe buy a EHX Magnum 44 for a back up? All in about £200 I should think.

£200? A Celestion G12 Century Vintage 'neodymium' on its own is around £115.

Yep - the OP commented he already has a HRD as his main amp, so £115 for the speaker, £90 ish for the EHX magnum 44 is £200 ish.

ICBM said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

Remember, all work and no play makes ICBM a dull boy ;-)

Work? How do you think I get the time to be here?!



Actually it's because I have my computer in my workshop. Right now I am waiting for an old amp to warm up on a Variac...

newi123 said:

If it`s a weight issue and you have a HRD..........

I put a celestion neo (one of the original century vintage I think) into a blues deluxe. Made a huge difference in portability and sounded awesome.

I'm always amazed when people say this. A neodymium speaker saves at most about 4lbs from the weight of a 12" speaker, even if you start with one with a larger magnet than the stock HRD speaker - I would guess more like 3lb for that one. In a 45lb amp, that can't make much more than a psychological difference, even if you're very sensitive to small weight changes in things you're very familiar with.

I've never heard one I liked the sound of either, at least for guitar. It just doesn't seem like a good trade-off to me.

So a 7.5 / 10% weight saving isn`t bad - maybe the rest is psychological............

It was one of the original Celestion neos - sounded fine in the Blues Deluxe - nice loud clean sound. Simon Law fitted it for me, his face dropped when I told him my plan, but he made a particular point of saying how surprised he was by it - said it sounded closed to a blue. Haven`t tried one personally, but I trust his ears over mine! 

ICBM

I *initially* thought it sounded quite like a Blue too - the same sort of bright top-end, lack of bass and 'chimey' upper mids - but very quickly I found it started to get very fatiguing to listen to. It really just sounded shrill and a bit thin, and seemed to respond "too fast" or something (knowing that is not at all a technical description!). It was a huge relief to replace it with a Gold - just a much more natural-sounding speaker. (And I know a lot more expensive.)

EricTheWeary

Roland Blues Cube Stage is 30lbs, the Artist version 35lbs. I have yet to find any kind of independent review of these but I do like what I've heard on YouTube.

newi123

ICBM said:

I *initially* thought it sounded quite like a Blue too - the same sort of bright top-end, lack of bass and 'chimey' upper mids - but very quickly I found it started to get very fatiguing to listen to. It really just sounded shrill and a bit thin, and seemed to respond "too fast" or something (knowing that is not at all a technical description!). It was a huge relief to replace it with a Gold - just a much more natural-sounding speaker. (And I know a lot more expensive.)

Ah - I adopted the approved method of selling the amp and buying something else before I got to that stage......... :-)

camf

My Pro Jr in the custom 2x10 cab is loud enough to play in my band (against a Bassman 50 and an AC30) and very light too. It's not exactly cheap but it's great wee amp.

Voxman

Tonal preferences aside Neodymiums can actually save a lot more weight than you might think and it can be more than 4lbs. For example the Celestion Neo Century Vintage is 3.7lbs whereas a Vintage 30 or G12H75 is 10.4lbs. Thats a difference of 6.7lbs per speaker and in a 2x12 amp thats a weight saving of 13lbs which is very significant.

Even an average weight speaker such as the G12M Greenback is 7.9lbs i.e. 4.2lbs heaver than the Neo. In a 2x12 a weight saving of 8.4lbs isn't to be sniffed at...although in a 1x12 I agree its probably not a lot.

Jalapeno

Voxman said:

Tonal preferences aside Neodymiums can actually save a lot more weight than you might think and it can be more than 4lbs. For example the Celestion Neo Century Vintage is 3.7lbs whereas a Vintage 30 or G12H75 is 10.4lbs. Thats a difference of 6.7lbs per speaker and in a 2x12 amp thats a weight saving of 13lbs which is very significant.

Even an average weight speaker such as the G12M Greenback is 7.9lbs i.e. 4.2lbs heaver than the Neo. In a 2x12 a weight saving of 8.4lbs isn't to be sniffed at...although in a 1x12 I agree its probably not a lot.

Totally agree Neodyimum Speakers can be back savers.