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small amp, REALLY SMALL

sickest beast

sickest beast

Apr 22, 2006
1,010
16
niagara falls, ON
#1
i'm looking into putting together a nice little amp for home practice. i keep my stack at the band house. i'm tired of playing through an old Fender frontman guitar amp.

i like the idea of a single 8,10 or 12 inch speaker in a tidy little cabinet with a small pedal amp powering it.

i've seen an amp that the size of a stompbox on here before, i've done a search but was not able to find it.

anyone know of any tiny amps?
 
#4
Rick Auricchio said:
For practice, all you need is to hear yourself. It isn't important to sound "good." In fact, if you hear lots of fret noise you'll be motivated to clean up your playing.
Click to expand...

Actually, I've found that sounding good is important. Imho, if you hate your tone, that can affect your playing in a negative manner, and in fact, can make you not even want to play.
It happened to me, anyway. I grew to loathe the tone coming from my amp. That, in turn, made my playing worse, untill I eventually stopped playing for a few weeks. Every time I'd play, within 2 minutes I was reminded of why I stopped.
Then I found an amp I loved. Problem solved.
 
#9
i was kinda hoping for something a bit more "boutique"

maybe a little tube pre-amp into an efficient neo type Eminence speaker.

is there a pre-amp out there (maybe even with 1 or 2 12AX7s) that has enough power to run a small speaker? i've heard of people using the SWR interstellar overdrive as a small practice amp.

i've had small combo amps in the past, i'm looking for something a bit more unique and personalized, maybe with a vintage vibe to it.

i really wish there was a bass equivalent to the Epiphone Valve Jr.

I was actually thinking about an older Ampeg Jet combo. I plan on playing a baritone Telecaster through it as well.
 
#10
I have one of these:

http://bass-guitars.musiciansfriend...483055&src=3WFRWXX&ZYXSEM=0&CAWELAID=65415308

I pulled the grill and painted in flat black. Couldn't stand the silver "W."
It has good tone, effects loop, passive and active input, speaker handles ALL the volume.
Pretty good practice amp, for sure.

A friend got one of these:
http://bass-guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Vox-amPlug-Bass-Headphone-Amp?sku=581087
Doesn't get much smaller than that. I've never used one, but he said it works o.k.
Good luck.

Slackerprince
 
#17
HaMMerHeD said:
Might go nicely with this Invalid Link Removed.
Click to expand...

That looks like a deal, but it's 28 lbs, and as a guitar cab, it may be less than ideal for bass. It will certainly be audible, but guitar speakers usually drop off pretty fast below 80Hz.

Check out the Genz Benz STL-8T (1x8 bass cab, 11 lbs) or the STL-10T (1x10 bass cab, 16 lbs). They probably can't be had for the price of that Blackheart, but they're small, light, and dedicated bass cabs.
 

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