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Practice amps: What's your choice?

What would you recommend for practice at home for me?

  • Get a little $100-$150 practice amp and call it a day.

    Votes: 75 51.0%
  • Oh, just MAKE 'EM FEEL THE THUNDER and use the rig.

    Votes: 49 33.3%
  • Just order a pizza. (A little homage to the AGF.)

    Votes: 17 11.6%
  • Pack it in and go back to playing guitar primarily.

    Votes: 6 4.1%

  • Total voters
    147
By myself, I like listening to the timbre of the timber. I have the EQ on my rig dialed in. So, tone isn't an issue. I also have a 350w combo but use it primarily as a guitar amp. If I need to hear myself amplified, I have an effects system I can plug headphones into. In a band practice setting, I use the rig. I think it makes sense to practice using the same tone that I would live. That way you know what you've got, no surprises.
 
A mixer is fine if it has a dedicated instrument input but otherwise plugging a bass (especially a passive bass) into a mic or line input is not a good idea. The impedance of mic and line inputs is way lower than that of instrument inputs and will load the pickups resulting in loss of highs.

This is not airy-fairy theory. My high frequency hearing is not good but the effect is still really noticeable.
 
The Fender Bassman 25 has been my practice amp for 12 years.

FenderBassman25.jpg


25W
1x10" driver
FX loop
Headphone jack (which mutes the speaker)
Aux RCA inputs
Tuner out
Mute and Enhance switches
Active and passive inputs
Bass, Mid, Treble EQ
Line out and external speaker out
Kick-back design

thumbsup.gif
 
small keyboard amps make nice practice amps and can be found cheap if you shop used.i have a fender kxr-60. It is 60 watts and has a 12" and a tweeter. I primarily use headphones while practicing but i can plug in the following and use it all at the same time:
1. bass guitar
2. drum machine
3. electric guitar
4. i-pod or any other music player (rca inputs..hellzyeah)

5. headphones (optional) :bassist:

by simply adding a few pedals i have had a guitarist over for a two man living room jam using a drum machine many times and it worked out well enough.