Amp recommendations

[Walter Sobchak]

I started the learning the guitar recently and am slowly grasping it, I can change between open chords pretty well and am soon going to start on barre chords, only thing is I'm not particularly happy with the amp I've got, it seems to be quite buzzy and bad sounding - it's a Squier SP10, my guitar sounds a lot better when plugged into my tutors amp.
I'm not looking for anything particularly bigger as I just want it as a practice amp at home, just better quality that will last me for a while.
Budget wise I'd be looking at £100-£200, sound wise, I currently have a Squier Strat but plan to buy a proper US one within the next 6 months so preferably something that works well with a Strat.
Any advice much appreciated.

[6th Gear]

Get a Yamaha THR10. You won't find a better sounding practice amp.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8q09xG1gxw

http://www.musicradar.com/reviews/guitars/yamaha-t...

Brilliant little amps.

[rgw2012]

I'll add the Roland Sound Cube range into the mix - great value little practice amps with some useful effects built in. Bought one when I decided to venture into six strings instead of the usual four and it's been brilliant.

[Billsnemesis]

A few years ago I needed a small practice amp and compared the Roland Cube against a Peavey Vypyr and the sound quality on the Peavey blew the Roland off the stage. I was amazed as I have always had a great respect for Roland products but on these amps it wasn't even close.

I haven't tried the latest Vypyrs and they seem to have taken the range up several notches since I got mine about four years ago but they are certainly worth considering.

[oddman]

Boo-urns said:

I'd definitely recommend a valve amp. Transistor amps have their advantages but if you're looking for the best tone, tube all the way.

I'd be looking at a Blackstar HT-1R. Don't be put off by the fact it's 1W - that's plenty loud enough for home use.

When you are playing an electric guitar, the amp is part of the instrument. It's not just that a little valve amp sounds better, it responds to playing better.

I would recommend guitar->lead-> low wattage valve amp with gain turned up. Control the volume/distortion from volume on guitar.

Do this for at least a year before buying any pedals. Use your ears - there is a massive range of tones available from pick up selection, volume and tone controls.

[Loyly]

If you're investing in a decent Stratocaster, get a good amp. Nothing really sounds better with a Strat than a Fender blackface amp. Have a look around and see which Fender tube amps you can buy cheaply. It'll be worth it.

I got a nearly new Super Sonic 22 for £500 a few years ago. The sound with my Classic 50's Strat is just amazing. Fender tube amp cleans are still an industry standard and they'll handle gain nicely too, especially if you drive the amp with a good pedal.

[vournikas]

Walter Sobchak said:

I started the learning the guitar recently and am slowly grasping it, I can change between open chords pretty well and am soon going to start on barre chords, only thing is I'm not particularly happy with the amp I've got, it seems to be quite buzzy and bad sounding - it's a Squier SP10, my guitar sounds a lot better when plugged into my tutors amp.
I'm not looking for anything particularly bigger as I just want it as a practice amp at home, just better quality that will last me for a while.
Budget wise I'd be looking at £100-£200, sound wise, I currently have a Squier Strat but plan to buy a proper US one within the next 6 months so preferably something that works well with a Strat.
Any advice much appreciated.

If you're not that interested in an overdriven / distorted sound, and just want to play around with clean tones with various pickup combinations then I can recommend a Fender Princeton Chorus.

For less than £100 second hand, and considering it's solid state, it's got a lovely warm musical sound and a very lovely proper spring reverb.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZFOG8yTTKY

[Walter Sobchak]

Thanks for the replies, they've been really useful, I'm going to have a better look online over the weekend and see what's around, those Rolands look pretty good for the money.
I really only need something small at the moment as I now live in a flat and don't want to annoy the people below me!.
While I'm not at a stage where I can appreciate effects at the moment I'd certainly like to have them available for me to experiment with once I've learned to play a bit more.
I will be sticking with the Squier for at least the next 6 months but after that I'd like to get either a US standard or if I can find a good used one a '62 reissue.

[andy-xr]

THR10 would be my recommendation. You're not going to be able to gig it, but for home practicing at acceptable noise levels, plus the option to link it up to a computer if you want to record yourself at reasonably high quality to listen back and figure out where you went right and where you didnt.

I bought a 10C which is a bit less high gain than the standard 10.
In some ways I wish I'd bought the normal one, but I've put a distortion pedal infront of it as the stock models on the 10C dont give me enough drive

[Turn7]

6th Gear said:

Get a Yamaha THR10. You won't find a better sounding practice amp.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8q09xG1gxw

http://www.musicradar.com/reviews/guitars/yamaha-t...

Brilliant little amps.

This.

Until you are ready gig, I dont see the point in buying Blackface size amps or even the small tube stuff.

[gmaz]

Another vote for the THR10 here. PMT in Bristol sold me an ex-display model for £230.

[Walter Sobchak]

I went to Andertons today and bought a Roland Cube 10 GX it's perfect for what I need at the moment.
I'd like to know where I need to set the gain at, the rest is fairly straightforward.
One other thing about that place wow they've got some nice guitars in there!, it took quite a bit of willpower not to buy one!.
One thing that surprised me was how glossy the maple fingerboards were on all the Fender models.

[Turn7]

Andertons is my favourite music shop, I think Ive bought nearly all my gear from there.

[andy-xr]

Walter Sobchak said:

I'd like to know where I need to set the gain at.

Wherever you want it to be. I generally have the guitar volume quite high, I'm not really a fan of rolling off to clean up that much and would rather switch channels

I prefer the gain to be somewhere around middle on a clean channel and a bit more than that on a dirty channel but I don't know of you're getting drive from the amp or pedals or none.

Play around and find a sound youre happy with

[suthol]

Set the amp dials around the 50% mark and rock and roll them until you find the sweet spot

When I was still gigging I ran my bass amp
Volume 10
Treble 9
Bass 6
Guitar vol 7 - 10
Tone full treble

Enabled me to control the tone and attack by how and where I hit the strings, played predominantly with a pick.

I apply the same principle with my guitar amp to dial it in to my sound

Edited by suthol on Sunday 15th January 11:05

[davepoth]

suthol said:

Set the amp dials around the 50% mark and rock and roll them until you find the sweet spot

Pretty much. Conventional logic dictates that you want settings that get you on or about the point of breakup - that is, if you hit the strings hard you put enough signal into the amplifier to overdrive it and get some distortion, but gentle playing gives a clean tone. At that point you have the full range of the amplifier available, all controlled by how you play the guitar.

[Walter Sobchak]

Thanks guys, have been playing about with amp settings today, unfortunately I've ended up with a new guitar to go with it too

[andy-xr]

There's a demo VOX AC30 in my local guitar store that's managed to sell me 3 guitars this past 12 months.

Looking back it'd have been cheaper to just buy the amp.instead

[JLC25]

DELETED: Comment made by a member who's account has been deleted.

Bingo - People talking about driving the front end of an amp hard and using the volume to roll off - How is this going to help for someone who needs a lot of headroom? Especially if they don't know how to explain what they need in tonality terms of an amp.

[Walter Sobchak]

DELETED: Comment made by a member who's account has been deleted.

I have a pretty varied taste but in terms of guitar players I really like, I have a huge appreciation for the greats-Hendrix,Clapton,Rory Gallagher.

For more modern players I've always really liked the sound of John Frusciante,Dan Auerbach and Jonny Greenwood.
I expect it will be quite a while before I will be attempting to learn any of the mentioned above songs though!, and if I've made the wrong amp choice I'm fairly certain I've at least made the right guitar one.