10 Watt Amp

[47Taskmaster84]

Does anybody have any reviews or comments on this amp? I am thinking about buying it from Amazon.com. It costs 24 dollars.


http://www.amazon.com/Generic-Watt-Black-Guitar-Amp/dp/B001KYJHK4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328628705&sr=8-1

[deeaa]

I'm pretty sure it sounds horrible...what do you need it for?

10W isn't enough for anything but bedroom playing anyway...maybe you'd be better off buying some headphone gadget?

[47Taskmaster84]

Mainly for playing it my room. Just with the guitar no other intruments. I am just starting guitar so should I buy a cheap amp to play with or should I just wait and get a better quality and more expensive amp with more wattage (?)?

[Katastrophe]

Just get a Fender Mustang I. It's $99.00, sounds great, and has tons of features you can use as your playing gets better. As a start, use the clean models for learning. IMO it's the best bang for the buck out there in cheap amps. The amp you're looking at is most likely going to give you some not so good tones. It's cheap, but I would avoid it!

[tunghaichuan]

Mainly for playing it my room. Just with the guitar no other intruments. I am just starting guitar so should I buy a cheap amp to play with or should I just wait and get a better quality and more expensive amp with more wattage (?)?

I'd hold out for something better that actually sounds good. I agree with Deeaa, that amp is likely to sound very bad.

If you're just playing by yourself, you probably don't need a lot of wattage. However, my rule of thumb with solid state amps is to get the most powerful amp you can afford. Why? Solid state amps don't sound better cranked (as opposed to tube amps.) So you'll want as much clean headroom as possible.

Having said that, this is a good starter amp:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Cube15XL?utm_source=CSE&utm_medium=PPC&utm_campaign=none&utm_term=Cube15XL&zmam=89202644&zmas=1&zmac=2&zmap=Cube15XL&SID=0

It's about 4X the price, but you get free shipping. The amp sounds very good and has some cool features: line out for recording, headphone jack for practicing, and an aux in to connect an MP3 player to jam with.

If you can't swing that much right now, you might look at getting a used headphone modeller. I've seen the low end Digitech headphone processors for as low as $30 used. They sound good for practice, but you have to use headphones as there is no power amp circuit. You can get a new one for about $50.

The Roland Cube isn't the only one and I'm sure others on this board will make equally good suggestions for other brands.

[47Taskmaster84]

Thx. Would that amp be loud enough to play with a drummer, singer, and bass? Down the road when I learn a few songs I would like to be able to play with my friends. Also is the Line 6 Spider 4 a good choice? It is also $99 dollars which I can get a Samash.

[tunghaichuan]

Thx. Would that amp be loud enough to play with a drummer, singer, and bass? Down the road when I learn a few songs I would like to be able to play with my friends. Also is the Line 6 Spider 4 a good choice? It is also $99 dollars which I can get a Samash.

Any of the amps listed so far are going to be about 15 watts. If you're just practicing, they might be okay. If you gig with it you may need to mike it through the PA (if there is one) or run the line out into the mixing board (again, if there is one.) If you use it by itself, it may be drowned out by all the other instruments. With solid state amps, more power is better.

[deeaa]

All those are good choices, roland, spider 4, Mustang.

For band playing 30w is bare minimum (solid state that is). So if you're gonna need that go straight there or higher. 10w amps are fun too at home, but do you want two amps right away?

You could find a Vox ad30vt used pretty cheap too, and something like that, or the 50vt, or maybe cube 60 ...those would be good enough even for pro players...or like I just paid 40 used for a Behringer Gmx110 which is surprisingly good too if not pro-level by any means.

Sent from my HTC HD2 using Tapatalk

[47Taskmaster84]

Thx

[47Taskmaster84]

No right now I only need one amp for practicing and stuff. Later on I will need a amp that can be heard over the drummer, vocals, and bass.

[stingx]

Laney Cub 12R - .75-15 watts and cranked @ 15 will peel the paint from the walls. Pretty cheaply priced online for a great sounding tube amp. Will work easily with a drummer and you can always mic it if you happen to be playing with Neil Peart.

[Sada Yairi]

I'd make an alternate suggestion: try a Vox amPlug. These gizmos a great - they plug into your guitar, and then you plug the headphones into them. In the US you'll pick one up for maybe $30. It'll sound better and more enjoyable than a prac amp and it's cheap. They also have an aux in jack to jam with an mp3 player. With an amPlug you can play loud without hassling anyone, plus no-one will be able to hear your (many) mistakes as you learn (wish they had them for classicals guitars when I was learning all those years ago!). As well as that, the tones are actually much better than a cheap dodgy prac amp. They have volume, gain and tone control so there's a fair bit of variety to play with. Then as you get better and start to understand the difference in amp tones, you'll be in a better position to buy an amp down the track.

[msteeln]

It's only $25, get it! If it sux, you have a learning experience while you still get to practice (it can't be too bad for just that) and save for a Mustang or better.

[47Taskmaster84]

Thx. That was actually what I was planning on doing. Right know all I need is a cheap practice amp. Then when I become more skilled and need/want a better amp I will purchase the Fender Mustang 1/or another better quality amp.

[msteeln]

No sweat, an easy call, but give us a review of it after you break it in, k?

[47Taskmaster84]

No sweat, an easy call, but give us a review of it after you break it in, k?

Hey sorry it took so long to review it, anyway the guy on amazon sent the wrong amp. It was almost the same as the one I got. The main difference was that it had a different name brand. So the guy said I could keep it and he would give me a partial refund. So the amp only cost $10. :)
Anyway the amp is nice. It perfect for me when I am practicing and it has decent distortion. It can get pretty loud too. I would recommend it for a practice amp. I did try to play it with a drummer, the drummer said he could not here my guitar, but I could. I knew it would not be loud enough I just had to make sure.

[goteyes]

Since everyone is weighing in on small amps, thought I'd put in my 2 cents too. A while ago I got a deal on an exec model (fancy wood finish) of Fender's KILLER small practice amp, the G-DEC. They cost a bit more, but in the house I use this pretty much exclusively. It's like a Swiss Army amp- it does EVERYTHING! It's deep, and if you have the time to get into it, it can teach you a LOT!! First off, get the one w/the 10" speaker, a G-DEC 2 OR 3 model. They sound pretty badass, and I seldom even get off of the first tone on there, but it can sound like almost ANY kind of ax of STYLE, from grunge to acoustic to jazzy. You can tweak the sounds, and save them to user presets. THEN, there's the BACKING TRACKS- to jam over & help w/song ideas- you can change the tempo, instruments, other cool stuff. Look it up to see what all it can do, and I dont even have the most up-to-date model. It's the best $$ I've spent on some gear inna while, and I have WAAAY too much stuff, but this gets USED, and when I have time to really explore, I always learn something NEW! (Has a tuner too). Go to a music store and try one out. Dont let the guy TELL YOU what you need, either- play as many as you can, even if you cant afford them. Then YOU pick the one that best suits YOU, or you think will take you the farthest (furthest? I dunno.) The G-DEC is DEF. worth a look though- if you want something that will help you GROW, AND sounds killer w/out needing extra FX or stomp-boxes either. I would stay away from that whole scene, as w/computer recording you can usually find any tone that you need. Lots of people like them, I've always used multiFX boxes, but would rather find something I can just plug into and be DONE w/it! Good luck! -Al

[goteyes]

One rule of thumb, for your life-long quest for GEAR, musical or 'other', if I MAY: Rule #1: Don't buy JUNK, even if it's a 'good deal'. ALWAYS but the BEST QUALITY you can AFFORD!! i can pretty much guarantee it will be CHEAPER in the LONG RUN, and easier to SELL when you get tired of it, or want something BETTER!! Just look at guitars! Well-made (esp. US-made) guitars almost ALWAYS hold their value, and the top-tier instruments consistently GO UP in value over the years!! Quality holds up better over time, and never goes out of style, like the 'flavor-of-the-month' amp or import ax. At least, that's what I've found to be true, and I thank the guy that told it to ME when I was looking for ANYTHING LEFT-HANDED! Axes were hard to come by, so I sometimes got sucked in JUST BECAUSE it was a lefty, not necessarily a great guitar- so I got stuck w/a lemon or 2. A friend told me to be patient- save my bread for something really worth the scratch- and I'd never regret it! It's been good counsel until now. You do get what you pay for, but for me, quality is still always CHEAPER! OK, I'll shut up now. -Al

[bcdon]

One rule of thumb, for your life-long quest for GEAR, musical or 'other', if I MAY: Rule #1: Don't buy JUNK, even if it's a 'good deal'. ALWAYS but the BEST QUALITY you can AFFORD!! ... You do get what you pay for, but for me, quality is still always CHEAPER! OK, I'll shut up now. -Al

Totally agree with you. Quantity does not equal quality. It's better to save up and buy one really nice item than have 5 not-so-great-ones.

[stingx]

I subscribe to that point of view as well.