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Practice Amp. High price worth it?

#21
my main rig is a 500w amp with 2x10 and 1x15 cabinets..my at home practice amp is a 15w fender rumble, and its more than loud enough for home practice sessions. I wouldn't fuss to much over a practice amp.. the tone settings you like at home might not sit well in the mix with a live band. I have to admit I loved how my ibby sounded thru the micromark but it's freaking expensive. $100 for a 15w fender rumble is all you need at home...(and that's brand new..used? psh)

** unless you're hoping to have it for backup should your main rig go bonkers one night...then yeah.. go ahead and get something more powerful.. but if it's purely going to stay at home...just get something that will make noise.

*Edit having missed some tidbits - I personally know nothing really about running in stereo..so my post doesn't seem to pertain much to the OP - that's a completely different story. But I'm going to leave it here if the mods will.. because it would be my answer to the question in the title. - which is strictly for home practice? You can still anger your neighbors with a 15w amp at home. It's perfectly acceptable to mic it up and record with it as well if you don't have a DI box.
 
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#22
I've never played an Ampeg so can't pass judgment, but I do have the MarkBass Little Mark 250 Blackline head and absolutely love it. A good sign that it is right for ME, is that I have yet to move any of the EQ knobs away from flat, ie the amp's natural sound is my perfect sound for my MIA P.
If you are going to go stereo, you might as well get two different amps, or else you'll just be repeating the same tone,which defeats the purpose of going stereo, imho
 
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#23
Two things on the stereo thing.
1. Go for two of the same amp so you are controlling the differences between the two sides.
2. As a rule, stereo tends to take away from bass unless you have a very sophisticated cross-over system the different channels are highly likely to end up creating phase cancellation issues in the low frequencies.
I'm guessing you've been "warned" about this before, so assuming you have made you decision, good luck and just try to make your effects affect the higher frequencies and you'll have a more successful sound.
 
#27
Hey OP, I just remembered the Eden metromix amps. The 275 is a little big at 150 watts but it has 2 independent channels with eq and a pan control to even out the volume deferential between pickups. In a pinch it can be used to jam with a guitarist as well.
 
#28
Open Lane said:
My question ---- I have found my ampeg satisfactory for the purposes I have been using it. The Markbass is like 3x the price. Do you think I will notice a big difference between the tone I get out of the markbass compared to the cheap ampeg? Or do you think for practice amp purposes, getting a second $200 amp would serve it's purpose just as well?
Click to expand...

I say, spend $$ on your gigging / stage amp, the one that you really want to plug into and rock. You can spend $50-100 on a used combo amp and get pretty great tone out of say, an ampeg 1x10 or orange 1x10 for home. Maybe consider a nicer / more expensive 1x12 if you want something portable for smaller gigs and for home, which would work too and is probably worth your $$.

Personally, I play out of a crappy Peavey trans-tube guitar combo amp at home and honestly, the tone is fine, I actually kind of enjoy it. $50. Then again, one is probably going to play a lot more at home so it may be worth it for a nice one.
 
#29
I have a BA-115 and two Markbass players school combos that I stack and use the bottom combo just as an extension speaker which gives me a backup amp already on stage if ever needed.I like both very well but can get much louder with the MB,250watts@4ohms versus [email protected] also really like the light weight of the MB's,two of them weigh about the same as the one Ampeg.But if you are going to run stereo I'd think you would want identical amps and two BA-115's should be much louder than one,but not twice as loud(no flamers please!!!LOL)
 

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