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practice amps
- Thread starter Jiro
- Start date
I'd personally go with an ibanez SW65. Bigger speaker than the 2 you listed and more watts. I used one at a pep band game and it cut through the whole band like a hot knife through butter.
Also what's your price range?
Save your pennies and get something of better qualitry. If you are just useing the amp as solo practice by yourself than you don't need a whole lot, but look into some 12'' and 15'' speaker combo's.
Check out ibanez, hartke, peavey and swr combo amps.
A buddy of mine has a hartke kickback 112 and he's had for it about 5 years and has never let him down, he's gigged it also at school dances, basket ball games ect.
Also what's your price range?
Save your pennies and get something of better qualitry. If you are just useing the amp as solo practice by yourself than you don't need a whole lot, but look into some 12'' and 15'' speaker combo's.
Check out ibanez, hartke, peavey and swr combo amps.
A buddy of mine has a hartke kickback 112 and he's had for it about 5 years and has never let him down, he's gigged it also at school dances, basket ball games ect.
kinda sorta needed a practice amp, on and off for the last year and a half.
Every time I bought a practice amp, I felt let down.
If the budget is real tight and it is simply a bedroom amp type use,I would consider First Act. Cheap, they sound ok enough, low e will didtort some at anything above speaking level. Disregard the Microbass.
I currently have two bedroom practice amps and I use them on gigs (with additional; power amp&speakers and or PA support). They are an Ampeg BA112 and A Trace Elliot BLX110(?).
Somebody here a while ago had a BA112 for less than $200. You probably will find it more appealing than the Microbass.
Best of Luck,
Wesley R.
Every time I bought a practice amp, I felt let down.
If the budget is real tight and it is simply a bedroom amp type use,I would consider First Act. Cheap, they sound ok enough, low e will didtort some at anything above speaking level. Disregard the Microbass.
I currently have two bedroom practice amps and I use them on gigs (with additional; power amp&speakers and or PA support). They are an Ampeg BA112 and A Trace Elliot BLX110(?).
Somebody here a while ago had a BA112 for less than $200. You probably will find it more appealing than the Microbass.
Best of Luck,
Wesley R.
Do a search, I had asked a similar question about buying a "good practice amp 15 to 35 watts" last week. Last count there were 27 replies on it.
After all the replies I came to a few conclusions. Everybody has their different favorites on the small amps. But the Fender Rumble, and Peavey seemed to stand out. Granted they are also the more expensive, being around $140 and $120 respectively for the 15w amps.
The best cheaper amp that seemed to stand out is the Hartke, Ive seen the 15w running around $80, and I think the 25w was cheap too, around $80-100.
But the bottom line is the cheaper practice amps wont sound all that great compared to larger combo amps in the 60watt+ range. So dont expect any great sound out of any of the small practice amps.
I settled for the Fender Rumble 15w, I got a semi used demo model at the local music store for $100 (actually $200 for a used bass, cable, and the amp). Sounds ok, but not nearly as good as my old Holmes 25w I got back in 1985. I dont think they make em like they used to.
After all the replies I came to a few conclusions. Everybody has their different favorites on the small amps. But the Fender Rumble, and Peavey seemed to stand out. Granted they are also the more expensive, being around $140 and $120 respectively for the 15w amps.
The best cheaper amp that seemed to stand out is the Hartke, Ive seen the 15w running around $80, and I think the 25w was cheap too, around $80-100.
But the bottom line is the cheaper practice amps wont sound all that great compared to larger combo amps in the 60watt+ range. So dont expect any great sound out of any of the small practice amps.
I settled for the Fender Rumble 15w, I got a semi used demo model at the local music store for $100 (actually $200 for a used bass, cable, and the amp). Sounds ok, but not nearly as good as my old Holmes 25w I got back in 1985. I dont think they make em like they used to.
After some searching and investigating I bought a Peavey Microbass. Good amp for what it is. It's loud enough with my 5 string to compete with acoustic guitars and bongo drums. It doesn't like the really hot output of an active bass but if the bass controls are run flat it's fine. It also doesn't have a lot of low end (what do you expect) but I generally run the passive EQ (cut only) with bass on full and mid & treble cut almost all the way down and it sounds great with my Lakland fretless and an acoustic guitar in the living room .
The main two reasons for me were portability (it's very small and light) and it has a external speaker out that disables the internal 8inch speaker. This amp is loud enough to power an 8ohm Yorkville 15inch cab at my modest volume band rehearsals (I usually use a SWR WM12 combo) and it sounded good. I couldn't do the rehearsal with the Microbass alone but plugging it into the 1x15 cab works.
The only other amp that I considered after doing a lot of research was the Yorkville, mainly because it had the DI out, but I ended up with the Microbass because of the small size. Hope that helps.
Benner
The main two reasons for me were portability (it's very small and light) and it has a external speaker out that disables the internal 8inch speaker. This amp is loud enough to power an 8ohm Yorkville 15inch cab at my modest volume band rehearsals (I usually use a SWR WM12 combo) and it sounded good. I couldn't do the rehearsal with the Microbass alone but plugging it into the 1x15 cab works.
The only other amp that I considered after doing a lot of research was the Yorkville, mainly because it had the DI out, but I ended up with the Microbass because of the small size. Hope that helps.
Benner
My Vox T-60 is the best sounding 60W amp I've tried. Vintage vibe, pretty loud, not quite light at 38 lbs. but it's workable.
