A rant on the term "Practice amp".

[BadSanta1281]

I'm pretty sure the smaller "practice" amps are the biggest sellers by far.

Serious players will upgrade before long and (wait for it...) another amp or two get sold.

As a bedroom player a Rumble 40 is all I will ever need.

 

[Altitude]

My first amp in 1984 was a Peavey Basic 40 like this one. It weighed about 45 pounds and hardly provided enough output for me to play "Purple Rain" in my middle school band.

This little rig right here weighs about 35 pounds (cabinet and head, not the case below) and I use it in small clubs with a four piece horn funk band. I do have a second 1x12 cabinet if I need it.

Certainly there is a price difference along with about 35 years of technology advancement. But both rigs are the same size, similar weight, yet one of them is far more fit for the job than the other.

 

[Thumpin6string]

I've never understood the reason for a separate "practice amp". All amps have volume knobs. This is my "practice amp".

 

[J-Mags]

I think people are expecting too much for too little. When I started playing in 1980, a horrible practice amp cost about $100 new. That's $354 in today's money. You could get a pretty stellar practice amp for that! Meanwhile, a Hartke HD25 sounds pretty good for $150, which would have been $43 back then, which would have gotten you a piece of cardboard with an 8" speaker. For $200, a Fender Rumble 40 has a 10" speaker and sounds good. That's about $56 bucks in 1980.

When I started on guitar, my Grandma bought me a 20-watt 1x10 Acoustic solid state amp that cost $169.00. That wasn't considered expensive at the time, and comes out to almost $600 2022 dollars. I didn't like the sound, and eventually bought myself a 1x12 Kustom practice amp with $90 my paper route money. That's $318 bucks, which would buy me a brand new 50 to 100-watt 1x10 or 1x12 bass amp of the consumer-level brand of my choosing, Fender, Orange, Hartke, Peavey, etc. That Kustom was used and was the cheapest amp in the store at the time.

 

[Hasty]

Physics allows a usable guitar amp at a price point that would produce a garbage bass amp.

Oh for sure! I built a small 3W tube amp that I pair with a MAS16 cab and it sounds amazing. Bedroom amp size and power, but I'd bring it to a studio session in a heartbeat because it sounds so good. However... when you factor in the cost and time I spent building it I could have easily bought something like a used Mesa Carbine and a halfway decent 112 cab of some sort.

So good tone in a small, low power, package is always a physical possibility... but not always cost effective.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

Oh for sure! I built a small 3W tube amp that I pair with a MAS16 cab and it sounds amazing. Bedroom amp size and power, but I'd bring it to a studio session in a heartbeat because it sounds so good. However... when you factor in the cost and time I spent building it I could have easily bought something like a used Mesa Carbine and a halfway decent 112 cab of some sort.

So good tone in a small, low power, package is always a physical possibility... but not always cost effective.

Yeah, I don't think I'd want to be the product manager that green lights a 10W, $1200 practice amp. Heh.

 

[metron]

Eh. It’s about selling stuff.

 

[Jefenator]

Well, you got to start somewhere. I could argue that a super cheap starter amp might be better than nothing. (I played unplugged for years and now feel that to be a mistake.)
But I would also concur that it is good to have some tonal response that inspires one to keep at it. Or at very least help develop the appropriate BG technique.
In my time, I've been spoiled. The bass practice room at my old music school had a '70s B-15. (Alas young stupid 1990s me didn't fully appreciate vintage Ampeg at the time.)
Now at home I play an old FET-powered rackmount head through my cocktail jazz cab and sometimes patch in a tube preamp for extra inspiration. Definitely not some cheesy starter rig!

 

[Standalone]

I have a feeling that the term "Practice amp" translates to amps that are too weak to carry a bass signal with any kind of authority.

"This cheap 8" woofer farts out when you try to play the open E string with anything more than library volume levels"

"that's okay, we'll label it as a practice amp"

I can see no real world scenario where this has any kind of advantage. Except that beginners buy a beginner set with one of these, only to screw up their technique (because they do not get an even response) and to buy the amp they should have bought in the first place later on.

In my book, a practice amp should focus on delivering a decent sound or mimic the sound of a much bigger amp, but at a lower volume.
The one thing a practice amp should deliver is a rich sound, the one thing it does not need to do is high volume levels.

What I fail to understand is the "But it's only for practicing at home" argument. I'm not a pro, which means that I have one band rehearsal most weeks and play live every other weekend during the gig season (May-Oct).
Most of my time playing the bass is at home. I want a setup that sounds decent for that. I don't want sub par.

While, I understand where you're coming from, I disagree.

Not all "practice amps" are like this. I also disagree with the statement "the one thing a practice amp should deliver..." -- practice amps are often also beginner amps; and price point is something such an amp needs to deliver. So is ease of use. So is (or should be) durability.

I also think of band rehearsal as not equivalent to "practice." I have an Ibanez TA 20 acoustic amplifier that has a nice full sound (which is a good thing) at a quiet level. But if I were a beginner, I'd probably not be able to use it well; I'd push it too hard and blow the speaker up. As a longtime player, I know how to dial it in and use it to woodshed on, or even on occasion play at church.

 

[brianrost]

Beck: Fender Pro Junior

I've played lots of gigs with guitarists using Pro Juniors. None of Fender's current tube amps are "beginner's amps". That's what they make the Frontman series for.

 

[SJan3]

I have a 20-watt, 8" speaker equipped Peavey MicroBass practice amp that I bought about 20 years ago. The thing sounds HUGE. I have turned it up to the 1 or 2 o'clock position before and the speaker never farts out and the amp still sounds great. I have never had a problem with it.

Now...contrast that with the Crate 20-watt, 8" practice amp I had back in the early 90s, that was complete junk. You couldn't turn it past about the 9:30 position on the dial without the speaker farting and sounding like garbage.

So, all that said, I think it depends greatly on the design and construction of the combo. The Crate was easily three times the size and weight of the Peavey, but the difference in volume, tone and clarity were miles apart. I'm sure there are still good small amp combos that can pull off the same thing the Peavey MicroBass did/does. I'm sure there are small amps that are on par with the Crate, and I am willing to bet that they are the majority, but there are definitely some great small amp combos out there.

Its really a shame that Peavey discontinued the MicroBass as it existed 20 years ago, because it was/is an incredible little practice amp.

Peavey gear is typically an incredible value.
I had a Minx 110 for decades. Solid as a rock until it finally gave up the ghost, but not after many, many happy years of constant use. If I were in the market for a practice amp Peavey would be high on my list.

 

[Discount Bassy]

I prefer use the terms "big amp" and "small amp". My big amp is a GK1001RB sitting on a couple of Peavey cabs. My small amp is a GKMB112 (thankfully purchased long before the price hike). Both have been used for practice and gigging, so neither is specifically designated to an exclusive duty.

 

[SJan3]

My first amp in 1984 was a Peavey Basic 40 like this one. It weighed about 45 pounds and hardly provided enough output for me to play "Purple Rain" in my middle school band.

This little rig right here weighs about 35 pounds (cabinet and head, not the case below) and I use it in small clubs with a four piece horn funk band. I do have a second 1x12 cabinet if I need it.

Certainly there is a price difference along with about 35 years of technology advancement. But both rigs are the same size, similar weight, yet one of them is far more fit for the job than the other.

Your "little rig" is a tad pricier than your Peavey practice amp.

 

[Altitude]

Your "little rig" is a tad pricier than your Peavey practice amp.

As I said. But in 1984 I don't think a 35 pound 800 watt rig with that quality of cabinet was available at any price.

Just commenting on how size isn't what makes an amp a practice amp, at least not anymore.

 

[Jefenator]

There's also solo tone vs ensemble tone. IME a good stage amp usually also sounds fine for practicing, but the reverse is definitely not automatic!
After decades and countless gear purchases, I am still not very good at predicting from a showroom or practice room how well a bass or amp will actually work on a gig.

 

[Akiyama]

OK, I'll bite...what was the point of observing that some guitarists have used practice amps for purposes other than practice?

There was no trolling. So, no biting.

Amp snobbery is real in the guitar world just like this thread.

In general, the arguments here are cycling. Ight, Imma head out.

 

[HardNHeavy]

my pract amp is a 4x10 hartke which weighs a ton. If i sold this house tomorrow its staying!
Tho my first practice amp was a peavey basic 40 when i lived in my apt. still got it but never use it. My Vox headphone amp sounds better imo. so anything can be a "practice amp", as long as i can hear it.

 

[EatS1stBassist]

HARTKE HD SERIES! ALL THE WAY! BOUGHT TWO HD 25’s. YOU CAN TURN THE VOLUME UP ALL THE WAY AND THEY STAY CLEAR WITHOUT ANY FARTING OUT.

 

[SJan3]

As I said. But in 1984 I don't think a 35 pound 800 watt rig with that quality of cabinet was available at any price.

Just commenting on how size isn't what makes an amp a practice amp, at least not anymore.

All true.

 

[agedhorse]

I think that sometimes experienced players confuse the concept of what a “practice” amp is, versus what their own needs might be.

Years back, I designed a couple of lines of “practice” combo amps, but these were also suitable for small gigs or acoustic gigs. They were a compromise between fully featured higher cost combos and the bottom of the market. Of course, they weren’t “cheap enough” and this was an issue to the buyer who placed their greatest focus on the price.

There are a lot of players that need a relatively small, lower powered, lower cost, reliable, less featured amp to live at a practice space, that sound decent at reasonable SPL, and make their lives more convenient.

The challenge today is that there are a lot of used amps that might suit the same purpose selling for pennies on the dollar, leaving more room for super-cheap (say <$150). Super cheap is at odds with good tone and reasonable SPL and good reliability IME.