I'm planning a bit of a clear out, and to potentially join the modelling set up club with my Digitech GSP1101 having recorded with it a bit recently and it sounded decent. Notwithstanding the need for a control switch thing for the Digitech unit, my thoughts are also turning towards what to use to amplify it should I need to play in public.
So for the £150-£200 mark (or even less!), what is the collective opinion, wisdom and thoughts of the Fretboard as to what would be the better option for a power amp into the Supro 16ohm 75 watt cabinet I already have. I've listed some thoughts of mine already after each one but these may not be correct...
1u rack solid state power amp, such as the Harley benton one or the Marshall 8008.
Would be lighter, could fit in a 2u rack (or 3u if I wanted something else in there like a mixer) with the GSP
Has ability to be stereo if ever I need that.
They tend to be above the power rating of my speaker cab so I'd have to be very careful, also need to consider 16ohm speaker as some amps I looked at for it halved or even quartered in power for 16ohms.
Cheap valve amp with FX loop, such as a Jet City 20w head.
Not sure whether valve power stage would work better with the digital modelling. Also I tend to use more Fender flavoured amps so not sure the power valves would work with it.
Could also be used as a normal amp for a simpler set up if needs be.
I'd be selling my Princeton (which has never worked for my use case, too loud for home and not loud enough for live), a few pedals, and hopefully a few other things but I don't want to spend the full proceeds on a replacement, hence the £200 upper limit. I don't think I can get a decent enough FRFR for the money I'd have reserved (would jump to £300 then as I could sell the cabinet)
Penny for your thoughts
Cheers
Comments
It is a general principle (but NOT caste in stone) that once 'modelled' you amplify the signal as cleanly as possible so you might consider a stage monitor or active PA cab? Or, an acoustic guitar amplifier? Double duty?
The extra cost, weight and fragility of a valve amp seem unwarranted to me.
Dave.
Look for an old solid-state PA mixer amp in the 100-200W range. They're not expensive - typically under £100, or even less if they don't have XLR mic inputs which makes them almost useless for PA nowadays - not that large or heavy usually, have basic EQ and usually reverb so are more flexible than a plain power amp, and into 16 ohms will normally deliver around a third of the rated power into 4 ohms, so ideal for a 75W driver. They are also usually very reliable, and a useful piece of get-out-of-jail kit for a large number of different situations.
Carlsbro, Laney, Peavey and many other budget/semi-pro brands made them, they aren't rare, although a Cash Generator-type shop is a more likely place to find them than a music shop these days.
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Do you mean the type of thing that look like this?
https://goo.gl/images/6MCyCp
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Well that didn't work
Most of them have some sort of preamp out/power amp in jacks too, so you can actually use them as a standalone power amp if you don't want the channel EQ etc.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Thanks @icbm I think those are only about £100 new aren't they? I know Maplin is more or less history but I'm sure they used to sell those for about that much. Probably not a bad idea then, thank you.
@austrianjohn doesn't seem to want to work for you!
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youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
Although to be honest, for about £100 it isn’t really a big gamble anyway...
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Something like Jet City will sound great up to a point but run out of clean headroom at band volume.
All that being said I’d up my budget and get a Seymour Duncan powerstage or if you want Valve a used Peavey Classic or similar.
Mooer are bringing out a small valve power amp which looks cool - not sure what it will cost though.
At the moment, I haven't found a compelling reason to replace the 44 Magnum. Does the job, sounds good and is plenty loud.
https://www.gear4music.com/PA-DJ-and-Lighting/Mooer-Tube-Engine-20-Power-Amp/2IOC
Cheers for the inputs
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