Amplugs for Guitars? any experiences of them?

[HiAsAKite]

Hi All.

Does anyone have positive or negative experience of using Amplugs on a guitar, e.g. the Vox AC30 or Clean Amplug, or the Blackstar Amplug2 Fly?
Also slightly more pricey (double - at £90 versus £35/£40 of the others) - Fender Mustang Micro
Grateful for you experiences & feedback.

The backstory

Currently most of my guitar playing is in the evening when the family has gone to bed.
Usually in one of the downstairs rooms, with my electric linked up to my VS65R on headphones.

I find I'm able to crank the volume on the headphones a fair way on the clean channel and get the most beautiful break-up when pushing on with my either of my electrics. I guess that's the valve in the preamp stage doing that

However -it's summer, hot, windows and doors all open throughout the house, and electrics do still make some noise as you play them.
Plus my OH has hearing like a bat - they literally can hear pine needles dropping on the carpet at christmas time...

So I'm trying to relocate some of my playing into the garage so as not to disturb the OH/kids (to be fair, the kids are not bothered).. but don't really want to lug my amp back and forwards...

So I was thinking of investing in one the portal Amplugs (I think Vox and Blackstar do them - plus others on Amazon) to use with my electric in the garage on headphones.

Ideally I'd like something that recreates the sound of my Marshal VS65R, ie a clean tone that has a rich warm break up if I crank the volume up.
I've read variable accounts of what's out there (both in terms of sound quality, but also durability), so interested in any first hand experiences of either the Vox or Blackstar products, or other alternatives.

Ta

Edited by HiAsAKite on Wednesday 21st July 14:54

[angusfaldo]

I've not tried an Amplug so my experience is quite limited.But I have tried the Boss Waza-Air headphones with wireless amp etc. I was pretty impressed, although maybe that's to be expected given the price (300 quid plus). I like dicking about with different sounds and rarely use the same sound for more than a few mins so the Boss set up is ideal. If you're just looking for an economical way of hearing your existing tones through headphones though, the Boss stuff might be over kill.

You could always try a Yamaha THR amp with your headphones. It weighs nothing and moving it around is a doddle (the missis could even carry it around like a handbag ). But again this is a 350 quid option. You see a few second hand on Reverb by the prices remain strong

Sorry this is probably not a lot of use to you, But being a gear tart I see these challenges as an opportunity to acquire more guitar-related stuff or encourage a fellow player to do the same

[gazza285]

I have a Vox Acoustic Amplug, it amplifies through headphones.

It also sounds dreadful. I’ll send it you if you want.

[chemistry]

I’ve got an Amplug; it’s OK but not great. Wouldn’t get another. I use a (now discontinued) Korg Pandora Mini which is miles better than my Amplug. I’ve also got a Yamaha THR - a brilliant practise amp - and an iRig HD 2.

Rather than an Amplug, what about something a bit more powerful/flexible/sophisticated like a NUX Mighty Plug or Fender Mustang Micro?

https://www.nuxefx.com/mighty-plug.html

https://www.fender.com/en-GB/guitar-amplifiers/hea...

Edit: sorry, I see you’ve already put the Fender on your shortlist.

Edited by chemistry on Thursday 22 July 22:09

Edited by chemistry on Thursday 22 July 22:10

[HiAsAKite]

Thanks - so consensus seems to be that the £35 AmPlugs dire enough to give away, and that should really spend £300;-)
I do like the wireless aspect of the Boss Waza-Air - but wasn't really planning on spending quite that much..

To be fair - I had looked at the Fender Micro (£90 or so from Andertons), which is not that far from a Micro Terror Head, which actually has valves...
..which is not that far from the THRs, the Micro Dark Head, or even the Bugera V5 (up to £160 or so)..... or £185 as a combo

I like the idea of real valves. I really like the idea of the attenuation to 0.1W in the bugera......

So I'd already mentally managed to man-maths my way up 4.5x in budget, but I am basically then in the "buy second amp for the other room/garage territory" - which does feel a "little" excessive...


Any other experiences of Amplugs or the Fender Micro?

[gazza285]

You could always buy another VS65R, looks like they are £40 to £60 on eBay.

[HiAsAKite]

gazza285 said:

You could always buy another VS65R, looks like they are £40 to £60 on eBay.

Fair point! - but I think I probably got the lucky with the one I have in that it all "seems" to be working ok,...

Plus ideally I'd like something smaller - hence the Amplug/Fender Amplug idea...

My only real gripe with the VS65R is that whilst is sounds awesome on headphones, when used without I can't get anywhere near the required volume to get the clean break up without deafening myself and the neighbours.

Which was where the appeal of something like the bugera which can attenuate down to 0.1 watts lay.

Albeit its still massive scope creep from "something I can plug into my guitar whilst I jam to myself on headphones in the garage"..


Chemistry: Thanks for the suggestion - will look at the NUX product..

[chemistry]

NUX also do well featured and affordable practise amps; I’ve no experience of them but they get good reviews:

https://m.thomann.de/gb/nux_mighty_air.htm

https://youtu.be/okFQmHU2Gk4

You mention the Orange Micro Terrors - great amps but they are LOUD and the sound through headphones isn’t amazing (Terror has no cab sim, Dark does but it’s still not brilliant). Better as a back up gigging amp than a practise amp in my opinion.

[thewarlock]

I've got one of these lying about. As you can tell from the dust on it, it doesn't get used much, but it might be what you need?

Makes a million different sounds, you can plug your headphones straight into it, or you can run it into an amp/pa/whatever.

[2fast748]

I use a NUX Mighty Plug for the same reasons, it's good enough for me (rank amateur in terms of ability!). It has lot of different sounds and effects so you can play with it quite a bit. Needs an App on a smartphone to get the best out of it but you can switch some modes with the button on it rather than using the app.

Edited by 2fast748 on Friday 23 July 10:41

[HiAsAKite]

chemistry said:

NUX also do well featured and affordable practise amps; I’ve no experience of them but they get good reviews:

https://m.thomann.de/gb/nux_mighty_air.htm

https://youtu.be/okFQmHU2Gk4

You mention the Orange Micro Terrors - great amps but they are LOUD and the sound through headphones isn’t amazing (Terror has no cab sim, Dark does but it’s still not brilliant). Better as a back up gigging amp than a practise amp in my opinion.

Ok- thanks. I don't need more loud - my valvestate is loud enough...

Will look into the NUXefx and Fender Micro in more detail (had a brief look last night following your note, and some of the others in this thread.

I don't really need another practice amp combo at the moment - will probably save that for "quiet" a valve set-up at somepoint

[Strudul]

gazza285 said:

I have a Vox Acoustic Amplug, it amplifies through headphones.

It also sounds dreadful. I’ll send it you if you want.

Can you feed the output into a computer line-in from the Vox??

[HiAsAKite]

thewarlock said:

I've got one of these lying about. As you can tell from the dust on it, it doesn't get used much, but it might be what you need?

Makes a million different sounds, you can plug your headphones straight into it, or you can run it into an amp/pa/whatever.

Thanks. I hadn't really considered that. I can see they go on ebay for c£150 or so.

I do have an effects unit - albeit it doesn't have head phone out, however I tend not to use it as I find it strips some of the tone out, and preferred the raw guitar straight into the amp sound. That said, i bought it in 1995 (its a Yamaha GW-10 - expensive at £270 at the time), but DSP technology has moved on a lot since then....

[gazza285]

Strudul said:

gazza285 said:

I have a Vox Acoustic Amplug, it amplifies through headphones.

It also sounds dreadful. I’ll send it you if you want.

Can you feed the output into a computer line-in from the Vox??

I should imagine so, just use a 3.5mm jack to jack. It will still sound st though.

[Pistonpants]

Have the vox amplug for bass and it doesn’t sound great.

I sometimes use my zoom B1ON as a headphone amp and that is a lot better, plus has some useful effects. There is the guitar version G1ON, about £60 from memory.

If you are willing to spend a bit more, get a helix stomp - lots of effects and amp modeling, sounds great.

[chemistry]

So OP, what have you bought?!

[HiAsAKite]

Nothing yet, currently dithering between the fender micro, nux or a 2nd practice amp (likely bugera v5)

Though I was looking up marshal origin ORI5Cs last night..

Nowt like a bit of scope creep eh?

Edited by HiAsAKite on Tuesday 27th July 10:06

[HiAsAKite]

Ok - price on the Bugera has just jumped up to c£200 mark.

Gone back to the original brief, Fender Micro ordered from Andertons, due in a few weeks...

[coppernorks]

I got a NUX PG-2 which works well with 2 AA batteries. It's got a flanger, tremolo, chorus,
with blues, rock and clean settings and a dozen presets.

Use earplugs rather than headphones, you can also plug in a MP3
unit into the AUX socket and play along with your fave songs.

Like the OP I play the electric guitar unplugged, but I also worry if the neighbours can hear the tuneless thrashing.

[HiAsAKite]

Update, delivery date for the Fender Micro keeps slipping back (10th Sept at the moment) so still waiting and nothing useful to report.... :-(

Eyeing up DSL1CRs and Bugeras again...