A what's this about and a what kind of amp question.

rlw

OK - total newbie, very much at the bottom of the steep slope.  Always wanted to play but never believed I could but had a WTF moment and went for it.  Now the owner of a Epiphone dot (natural and gorgeous) and an Orange Micro Crush 3 practise amp.

It's a combined question really and it goes;

To get a nice clear trebly sound through the amp, I use the bridge pickup with it set to it's most bright.  To get more, I can use the gain control and this helps quite a bit, but with the addition of some noise - a sort of crackly hum which is stilled by flattening the strings.  If I use the overdrive as well, the noise increases quite a bit and does not go away at all, unless the volume is turned off.

I assume the noise is feedback and that this is a characteristic of the hollow body.  Does this sound correct, or do I, potentially, have a wiring issue?  Or should it all be quiet if the guitar is untouched?  There is no correlation between noise/hum and placement of me or the amp I should add.

Leading into the second question, the amp is fine for what it's being used as, which is very much a learning tool, but when the moment arrives (and I can feel it already as I seem to have early AAS) I'm not sure what I should be looking for.  The dot is not the brightest sounding guitar as far as I can make out so what can I do to enhance that side of things amp wise.   I have been looking at the smaller Blackstar and Marshalls, as well as the Yamaha blues version and Vox offerings.   If I had to name a sound I would aim for, then Peter Green and BB King come to mind. (Or EC on Reconsider Baby).

I know that there is no substitute for going into the shop and trying them out, which I will do, but given my excess of enthusiasm over skill, (and the shame of not being able to play like a pro after three weeks...............) a few pointers for what to look for and what to avoid would be very helpful. 

Sorry to ramble and probably be a bit dim but you have to start somewhere.

ecc83

Just thought from left field?

If cash is tight checkout Cash Generator shops. I saw a Fender Mustang mk1 in mine a year ago but by the time I had checked in here and they told me they were v good it had gone.

Got a Line 6 15watter for son and shipped that to France. He said it was ok.

Dave.

rlw

Cash is not an issue as such, I mainly want to head off in the right direction with something that will fit the bill and will help me to get where I want to be(which ain't far in the grand scheme of things).

ICBM

Welcome, and these aren't dim questions!

The noise is not feedback or anything to do with the hollow body, it's electrical interference being picked up by the guitar. It's normal when not touching the strings to some extent with almost all guitars, but can be made worse by local electrical factors (noise from lighting, computers etc) and in this case because the little Orange is not connected to the mains earth, even when it's running on the power supply rather than batteries. That's not a wiring issue, it's quite normal with non-earthed equipment - the earth to the guitar strings is for noise suppression not safety, although the earth to a (directly mains-powered, ie not with an adaptor) amp is for both.

I quite like that little Orange amp but when I had one I did notice it was noisy as well - it's not terrible but it's definitely more of a fun toy than even a real practice amp.

The guitar is easily good enough and won't need upgrading unless you actually want to - and there's no wiring issue with it if touching the strings suppresses the noise, that means the strings are correctly connected to the guitar's signal ground.

I would suggest getting a better amp - it doesn't have to be expensive, and if you're just starting I probably wouldn't suggest a valve amp, with the possible exception of the Blackstar or something similar-sized. Actually a small modelling amp might be the best place to start, they give you a lot of options including effects, aren't expensive, and are generally more reliable and less prone to noise issues than valve amps.

Hope that helps .

Cacofonix

Set a budget first, then you'll be inundated with suggestions.

For a blues sound a small valve amp with a master volume or power scaling.  For expandability get a two channel amp.  Peavey Classic gets a good write up, usually, though not heard one myself.  I am a Cornford Hurricane fan myself, if you can get one.  Don't know about the really small amps.

A phrase trainer might be a better place to start.  A good one is the Boss mini BR.  Silent practice and the amp models are passable.

Another possible is to set the amp clean and use a valve pedal for the blues crunch.  Loads of those about, though my personal favourite is a Tube Factor, heavily modded though.

rlw

OK - thanks for the comments about the interference - it makes sense and is very reassuring.  I was surprised that the mains transformer wasn't earthed I must admit.

Budget will go to £400.00 if need be (that's the acceptable figure in my head..).  High volume is not a necessity.  A good clean sound is.  The guitar will supply loads of it's own sounds it seems, judging by what I can get out of the little Orange, but I am not opposed to a pedal for extra tones.

ICBM

rlw said:

I was surprised that the mains transformer wasn't earthed I must admit.

Even if the transformer itself is earthed - although it probably isn't anyway - the DC output won't be, so the amp isn't. This is completely normal for low-voltage power supplies. There are various ways of bodging around it if you have to, but to be honest a proper mains-powered amp is going to be better in so many other ways too. (And I say that even liking the Orange for what it is - I sometimes wish I hadn't sold it!)

Yamaha made the same mistake with the first issue of the THR amps, if it matters - the external power supply wasn't earthed through to the amp so they were prone to noise. They've updated them now.