The Song Fight Bulletin Board

need something small enough for a college dorm

i would prefer it if it didn't have to be cranked up really loud in order for it to sound good

i need a line out for recording

and it should be loud enough for live performances

i can afford to spend a little bit, but the cheaper the better

thanks

Peavey Transtube? They make a little amp for that.

I don't think you will get all three of those things in one magic amp that sounds good.

I've got a Fender Princeton and it sounds good at low volumes, say 2-3, but it is also plenty loud for shows and get cranked.

Maybe you can find a cheap Peavey Classic 20 or an Electar 10, both good small tube amps.

Ken

my friend suggested a tech 21 trademark, supposedly the "king of solid states."

solid states = better at lower volumes?

what do you think

also it doesnt have to be miniscule or anything

i'll have a decent amount of space in my room

i just probably can't have a full stack or anything huge

I was talking to Sam about this on the way to the airport this morning. He plays a Marshall JTM30 which he picked up used for $400 I think. Check out the direct tones on Otalgia's Hit By A Train.

Low watts = better tone at low volumes.

Ken

I've got a Zoom Fire 30 which is cheap, small, loud enough to play live and has the added bonus of being a modelling amp too. It also has a line out/headphones socket.
They make the Zoom Fire 15 as well which is... smaller.

Bjam and I have this little sucker and had a few folks use it at there to get a great variety of tones Vox AD15VT Pretty affordable too as we picked it up when our local Sam Goody closed and they remaindered it brand new in box for $99.[/url]

Solid state sounds the same at any volume, as tubes sound better at high volumes because of the way the power saturates the tubes. Some solid state amps saturate when you drive the shit out of them, but it's not a pleasant thing.

So, at very low volumes, a solid state amp might sound better than a tube amp. At mid-high volumes, though, a tube amp will blow any solid state the hell away.

Don't bother with direct outs on a guitar amp. That'll sound like doody. Mic it.

For a solid state amp, Peavey is pretty damn solid. Anything smaller than the Bandit, and you're probably not gonna be loud enough for a gig.

Don't pay attention to wattage, especially when comparing tube to solid. A 30 watt tube amp is way louder than your average 100 watt solid state. "Wattage" is a sales pitch, it's bullshit. It means nothing. There are a hundred other things that make an amp loud.

For a small tube, old peaveys rock, the fender champs or whatever are good, and the new crate palominos are good. All can be had for under $300.

I just got a Marshall MGD30FX. I like it. Even though it's solid-state. (But it's a huge step up from the Microcube, I tell you what. And it sounds great with my new guitar. It sure is nice having a real income now.)

The Sober Irishman wrote:Don't bother with direct outs on a guitar amp. That'll sound like doody. Mic it.

That's not exactly true. Most direct outs sound like crap run into whatever. But I have one of these and it has a Balanced Red Box DI-Out that sounds pretty darn good run straight to the board and recorder. The really cool thing is that it doesn't cut out the speaker so you can still mic it and balance the 2, or just run it straight and use the speaker for feedback effects. Either way it's a great little 20 watt amp and it has an extension speaker output for a mini stack kind of thing for live gigs.

The model on the link is the one I have, but there are other 20th Anniversary models out there that may or may not have the LowZ output.

EDIT: Like this one for instance which clearly only has a HiZ out and would suck like Sober said.

The direct out on my Marsall functions the same way, and sounds decent. As Ken said, I used it on the Otalgia song. The clean channel sounds actually good, and the distortion sounds OK and can be improved greatly with a little EQ once it's been recorded.