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Power amp in pedal form

#21
Nev375 said:
I have an Amplite.

Not much to complain about other than what it cost.

I kinda wish the fan was a bit quieter, but i'm just used to my stewart power amp which was convection cooled and dead silent. Small price to pay for the compactness and light weight.

Hard to find these days, but not impossible.
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Thanks for chiming in. Better that someone with direct experience comment on it than my third-hand rumblings (twas just being cautionary given SWR was given the heave-ho by Fender. Pity.) Do you happen to know if Fender is still repairing/offering warranty etc?

I really liked the idea of the Amplite when it came out (still do). I was surprised it didn't sell better and prompt other manufacturers to compete in this niche.
 
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#24
kikstand454 said:
I have a 500w powered cab that I run an amp simulation to. ......

Its called a combo amp.
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Some of us would prefer to not have the redundant tone stack in the way. The whole point of having modular components is to be able to have as much or as little in the signal chain as we would like.

I have a nice rare Kern tube preamp for setting my overall tone. For me, It's the holy grail of boutique preamps. Why would I want to filter that through an inferior solid state GK, Hartke or any other combo's preamp?
 
#25
I've got the solution... built it all into your pedalboard, then put that on top of your cabinet. Then, build a portable stage with a cutout big enough for your tone-board (can't just be a pedalboard, because it's got all your tone shaping and power built in). I think there was a thread like this in Amps that, and one of the negatives of having a power amp on one's board was that you could get interference/ noise between your power cables and your speaker cables.
 
#26
Nev375 said:
Some of us would prefer to not have the redundant tone stack in the way. The whole point of having modular components is to be able to have as much or as little in the signal chain as we would like.

I have a nice rare Kern tube preamp for setting my overall tone. For me, It's the holy grail of boutique preamps. Why would I want to filter that through an inferior solid state GK, Hartke or any other combo's preamp?
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or just run into the Effects return? plugging into the combo's poweramp directly (in effect) :/
 
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#27
/\/\3phist0 said:
or just run into the Effects return? plugging into the combo's poweramp directly (in effect) :/
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Well, yeah I guess you could do that. I couldn't.

Having something in my rig that serves no purpose whatsoever would be a huge distraction to my OCD tendencies. I'd seriously have trouble maintaining focus. I forget that not everyone has that issue. Carry on.

/thread_derail
 
#28
danosix said:
It doesn't NEED to be pedal per se since I would hope you're not going to stomp on it - it just needs to be small/light enough to mount on the board.
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Exactly right. I fly inter-island for gigs on occasion and i am quite limited as to what i can bring. The planes are commuter Cessna's. I can put my bass and clothes duffel in the cargo hold which leaves 1 carry-on. I was thinking my pedal board and case are about the size of a brieface so if i could just get an amp in there i'd be set. Most of the smaller micros have no effects loop. The larger micros are...well....larger. I will have a look at those SWR's......thanks!
 
#29
Some gigs have a great setup. My last gig i got to play a 4pro and BRX10.4
Others have a mediocre amp with an effects loop so that works. Sometimes im stuck with a crap setup with no workaround. I was just hoping to have everything but a cab in a small, easily transportable package. For me, a small amp that fits on a pedal board is a dream....but not everyone is in my shoes or shares my goals.
 
#30
The only situation where i could see a benefit is when i'd be playing live and use a wedge speaker that is sitting right next to the board.
The downsides have been discussed here.
The main points were that a Class D amp usually has a fan and that will be picking up a lot of dirt when placed right next to the stompboxes on the floor,
the long speaker cable and the hazards that come with running a long speaker cable along the stage and having a poweramp right next to your muddy boots.

If the reason is to omit redundancy in the tonal shaping, a poweramp on top of the cabs would be a better choice.
 
#31
Even placing the power amp on top of the cabs, I still prefer having something the size and weight of my Micro 300 (which incidentally has an FX loop, weighs about 3lbs).

Too many power amp solutions suggested in these amp-0n-pedalboard threads are always the old rackmount dinosaurs. Given the proliferation of small lightweight 500w+ heads out there, and parallel proliferation of killer preamp pedals, I find it odd and discouraging that there aren't more options similar to the Amplite and Quilter.

The OP and many others including myself would seriously benefit from a standalone, compact, light-weight power amp — no matter where it is placed (top of cab is fine by me!)


Oh, and please don't feed the combo trolls.
 
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#34
Nev375 said:
Well, yeah I guess you could do that. I couldn't.

Having something in my rig that serves no purpose whatsoever would be a huge distraction to my OCD tendencies. I'd seriously have trouble maintaining focus. I forget that not everyone has that issue. Carry on.

/thread_derail
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If you are considering the powered speaker option- than a combo amp with an effects loop or aux in is the exact same thing. At half the price.
Not many combos over 500w though, so once you're above that. ...well. ..
 
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#35
Last time I checked the combo amps can't swap out the cabinet portion for different sized speakers and cab configurations. With a modular setup you can bring a 1x10 to a dinner-club jazz gig and a 2x15 to your rock band dive-bar gigs.

I've got nothing against combo amps per se, it's just not what this thread is about.
 
#37
The whole idea is practicality....for me at least. To have my sound in the smallest most travel friendly package which includes a way to power a passive speaker cabinet. I am glad to see this idea has been brought up before and there are many who share my vision of a standalone pedal sized power amp. Perhaps one day a bass friendly version will be made. :bassist: Thanks to all who contributed! This site rocks!
 
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