Fender Greta as a low volume practice amp/preamp/OD

[PurpleDrank]

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/ampli...itar-combo-amp

So I was thinking about picking up one of these cool little combos to use as a kick-around practice amp for guitar and to listen to mp3s around the house or at work. They certainly look sweet enough. The Greta is not too expensive, but it's actually a bit pricey for me if that was all I was going to use it for so...

I was thinking that I might be able to use it for a low volume bass practice rig if I used the speaker out into one of my bass cabs (as it's pretty obvious a bass would just toast the built in 4" speaker). My cabs are all pretty efficient, so the whopping 2W this beast puts out might actually be pretty decent. Also, it has a line out, so I could run it with one of my real amps into the front end as an OD or as a preamp in the loop.

I know some people on here run ultra-low wattage tube practice rigs, so I'm hoping somebody has tried this out and has any thoughts. Sweet sound? Fart city? Better to run the line out into the front end of an amp or into the effects return?

Any info is appreciated.

[PurpleDrank]

Guess I'm the only nut-job who thought about this, huh?

[kellyrojo]

looks shweet to me. Like the name--Purple drank. Reminds me of

[christw]

You aren't the only one who thought of it. I just feel there are better options out there. If you're willing to drop $200 on that guy, look into a Hughes and Kettner BATT. It's smaller and works as a preamp, offers more EQ options, pre/post power amp outs, speaker outs, and it even has an internal power soak for when you don't plug in a speaker. It's great to get mild squish to full on gnarly tube drive in your living room or in front of your power amp. They usually sell for $250-$275 shipped.

I tried a Greta with a guitar and found it anemic and probably even more quirky sounding than my 1940's Executone intercom I converted to a guitar amp (4" speaker/~1w). I'm not sure I would want to use it for bass.

[fuzzy beard]

I'll look but it was in one of my adds for 99 bucks.

[christw]

Oh, then that's not bad. I think that a Valve Junior would be a better buy at the $100 mark. They make sick little bass amps. I used one as a practice amp for two years. They're also a great amp to modify with lots of beginner friendly kits available.

[PurpleDrank]

Yeah, I guess asking a 12AT7 to be an output tube for bass is asking a bit too much.

I actually have a 5W Gretsch G5222 combo (exactly the same as the Fender Champion 600 except it's covered in tweed, and therefore much cooler) that I use for filthy blues harp playing. It's great for that, but when I unplug the speaker and run it through my bass cabs, it's not so great. The transformer wants to see a four ohm load, and plugging in two cabs isn't the most practical thing for easy, low-volume practicing. Also, it sounds pretty dark with the 12AX7 and 6V6. Maybe a lower gain preamp tube would help, but I'm kind of just looking for something different.

Actually, I've been really interested in the BATT and also the SWR Interstellar overdrive for a while now. They both seem like they would be awesome, but I have never seen one of either come up for sale locally, so I could try it through my rig first. I'm decent with a soldering iron, so I would totally be down to pick up a Valve Jr and mod it out in the future. They seem to be scarce down here too, strangely enough. I guess people just aren't giving them up.

For now, I was just looking to pick up a little something retro that didn't exactly look like an amp (and could fly in under the gf radar). I think the Greta wouldn't be so great for all-around use. Still looks cool, and I'd still snatch one up if it was used and cheap enough.