Mini Amps for Practice: any good?

[dpbird90]

I'm not really clued up with guitars and amps etc, thinking of getting my first guitar, only have a tiny budget so looking at cheap Chinese made lookalikes (theres a nice looking Les Paul-alike on eBay for under £50), but obviously I need to buy an amp with that. Came across these sort of thing, start at a fiver but this ones a bit pricier:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/3W-Portable-Mini-Guitar-Ampl...

From the dimensions given it sounds like they're around the size of a large tape measure, maybe a bit bigger, and the cheaper ones do seem a bit of a bargain, however seeing as I don't have a proper amp at all is it worth getting one of these?

[shirt]

search ebay for 'amplug'. they're made by vox [legendary amp. co.] and get positive reviews [not tried one myself].

my mate uses his the line in on a cheapo mini hifi.

and if you're buying a cheap guitar, stick to a second hand squier. don't buy anything on ebay with a chinese listing.

[dpbird90]

shirt]search ebay for 'amplug'. they're made by vox [legendary amp. co.] and get positive reviews [not tried one myself said:

.

my mate uses his the line in on a cheapo mini hifi.

and if you're buying a cheap guitar, stick to a second hand squier. don't buy anything on ebay with a chinese listing.

Cheers I'll take a look. Hmm those Squiers do look pretty good. There's a music shop in London called Swift as well who make their own guitars, they seem to offer quite a lot for £49.99, a Strat or LP copy. Any good?

[shirt]

£50 for a new guitar from an unknown. not going to be good is it?

the squiers are so cheap because of the volume they sell in. anything at a £50 level is going to be hopeless. a hopeless guitar makes you quit learning in no time, i know as i did many times until i bought a decent one last yr.

ebay/gumtree etc are your best bet. there's a website caleld harmony central that has a massive database of user reviews for guitars.

[dpbird90]

shirt said:

£50 for a new guitar from an unknown. not going to be good is it?

the squiers are so cheap because of the volume they sell in. anything at a £50 level is going to be hopeless. a hopeless guitar makes you quit learning in no time, i know as i did many times until i bought a decent one last yr.

ebay/gumtree etc are your best bet. there's a website caleld harmony central that has a massive database of user reviews for guitars.

Thanks I'll take a look. Of course I'm not expecting something truely astonishingly good at this price, but if the ones I'm looking at are going to be hopeless I'll look on eBay for some Squiers

[shirt]

the electrics will be cheapo and the wood will be crap, but what i'm trying to get across is playability.

my first guitar was a tanglewood telecaster copy and it was shocking, buzzed like a hive of bees no matter how it was set up and went out of tune after each note. when you're learning you want/need to see improvement which is nigh on impossible with such a shaky guitar.

a properly set-up squier will be your friend.

[gingerpaul]

Try looking through forum on Music Radar and look for their classifieds. There are quite often cheap guitars up there. You can also ask if anyone has any cheap guitars for sale and people will tell you what they have. There was one topic a few weeks ago where 5 or 6 different guitars were offered to the guy asking.

[gingerpaul]

Sorry, also meant to say that a new guitar for £50 will be rubbish unless the shop is taking a massive hit on each one they sell. A Yamaha Pacifica 112 is a good starter electric and are about £130. On that forum you might get one for about half that second hand if you're lucky.

[crofty1984]

dpbird90 said:

shirt said:

£50 for a new guitar from an unknown. not going to be good is it?

the squiers are so cheap because of the volume they sell in. anything at a £50 level is going to be hopeless. a hopeless guitar makes you quit learning in no time, i know as i did many times until i bought a decent one last yr.

ebay/gumtree etc are your best bet. there's a website caleld harmony central that has a massive database of user reviews for guitars.

Thanks I'll take a look. Of course I'm not expecting something truely astonishingly good at this price, but if the ones I'm looking at are going to be hopeless I'll look on eBay for some Squiers

You won't be able to tell the difference between a pretty good guitar and an amazing one at this stage. But a crap one will be a nightmare!

I can recommend an older squier strat I have one that I got for christmas 12 years ago and it still plays well. Though I do have another which isn't as good. Still perfectly acceptable though.

Yamaha Pacifica is becoming the "mx5" of these threads, and not without good reason. They're very, very good guitars.

Might be worth looking at an epiphone as well.

Amp-wise, it might be worth getting a proper 10W practice amp. You don't need any bigger for home playing (I have a 45W Carlsbro Hornet and I hardly ever take it above 20% volume) I also have a smokey amp (google is your friend) which is a cracking bit of kit.

Moral of the story: DO NOT buy cheap. Inexpensive by all means, but it's worth saving another tenner a month and getting a decent budget guitar in 6 months time.

Edited by crofty1984 on Thursday 5th March 13:13

[garycat]

I have the Orange Micro Crush which is probably the best small amp but it is £30

http://www.imuso.co.uk/directory/reviews/equipment...

Really good sound for the price and size.