Amplifier help

[Ikiru]

I am wondering what settings to use for a 15watt amp with a drive button, gain, volume, treble, bass and middle. I can never get a good setting and the sound always comes out like too much bass or very dead or just plain bad. At least some idea of what to set it to for decent rock sound? Or should I just change amp? x__x

But if I want to get a better amp, what brand/model should I get and from where with a good price? Something that I can stick with for a long time preferabbly. My room quite cramp ;_; I don't even have space to sit.

Sorry for sounding noobish, I'm not very familiar with the tech specs of guitar stuff, but thanks for any replies

 

[HarrisonYeo]

wad amp do u have , and wad's u're budget if u're gonna have an amp change

 

[Ikiru]

Yamaha GA-15, also have a J&D Brothers LS-G15C that I use as a chair since it's like an extra unused amp.

Something below $300, hopefully. If it's an amp worth forking out another hundred or so then I might consider too.

 

[HarrisonYeo]

u might wanna consider a used roland cube 20x , some ppl at the buy/sell section selling thier's for a resonable price eh .

 

[Godspeed64]

Too much bass? Lower the bass..
Sounds dead? Add more mids..
Sounds just rubbish? Maybe its the treble..
Remember, you can have the most expensive of all amps, but without correct utilization of your EQ, your tone will be heavily compromised..
Other than that, does your guitar sound okay through other setups?

 

[Ikiru]

I agree, so I am kinda relunctant to buy another amp if I can get mine to sound decent with proper settings, but the problem is I tweak until fed up so decided to ask for maybe some possible suggestions.

I think the guitar is okay. It sounds good when the people at the store tried it for me the first time I got it with the same amp given. So I think it is the amp's setting. I try to lower bass and adjust but not sure why it just don't sound nice. I guess I'll just play around somemore until it doesn't sound plain.

But thanks HarrisonYeo for the amp suggestion too Will look into it sometime.

 

[subversion]

looks like you are experiencing the bog-down of a practice-grade amp... it happens.

should you be looking forward to 'upgrade', it is recommended you acquire a 12" driver equipped unit, regardless of the brand name. you will then need to consider if you are reliant on the amp's default drive or you can do better with pedals.

EQ can only supplement good tone if the amplifier is a balanced (frequency-wise) to begin with- you can max your bass on the EQ but if it's a 10" (or smaller) driver in there, it's like trying to make a ukele sound like a bass...

 

[Ikiru]

Hm, I'm completely lost as to what you're saying, sorry. Too technical to understand

Probably will sound noobish, but what's a 12" driver equipped unit? Never really read much into amps.

Think I should understand amps first before I touch pedals...

 

[van_halen]

what he said is if you are thinking of getting a new amp, get at least a 12 inch speaker. cos smaller speakers sound "boxy" so as to speak, and limit the tone/sound.

general settings i use on my amp will be bass 3 o clock, mid 10 to 11 o clock, treble noon to 2 o clock. i use this settings for pretty much every amp i plug into.

 

[Ikiru]

Ooh, okay thanks. But 12inch seems big? Really just need a good practice amp... Thinking about the suggested Roland Cube.

 

[subversion]

if you are still into practice grade amps, that limited tone is inevitable. the microCUBE or the DA5 are good units to own.

 

[sellingemall]

Speaker (cone) size greatly affects your sound. Some common sizes: 8", 10", 12" (rare 15")

Think about it... how much bass can an 8" pump out compared to a 12"? It's about how much air it can move. If you play heavy rock and love thumping bass, you'd definately enjoy a 12". I've got an 8" amp, sweet tone but coaxing more bass would result in a boomy, messy thump.

Since you don't have pedals, I'd highly recommend u get those emulator amps like the Roland Cube, Vox Valvetronix series. They emulate your classic Fender, Marshall, Mesa Boogie etc. Best of all, comes with time effects! Delay, chorus, flanger, phaser etc.

Good bang for buck. It'll give you a rough idea how the different amps/effects sound and what it does.


P.S: It's quite hard to find cheap practice amps with 12" speakers

All the best!

 

[fretness]

i got a ga-15 too. plug in a tonelab st by vox and tweak around a bit you can get awesome tones.

turn all to 12 o clock then rest of the settings do on pedal.

 

[bigblackbear]

nice thread digging

 

[EugeneSmasher]

TS, you're talking about distortion tones? Because I have to agree with the rest that small-wattage solid-state practice amplifiers almost always have weak distortion tones, which is why a lot of guitarists here use pedals for distortion.

But there are some hybrid amplifiers that sound pretty good. The Roland Microcube, Line 6 Spider III, etc would suffice. Or you could stick with your current amplifier, and use it for clean tones, and plug in a distortion pedal for your distortion tones.

Good thing about pedals is that you can bring your distortion tones pretty much anywhere especially when you go jamming.

 

[teleplayer]

Yamaha GA-15, also have a J&D Brothers LS-G15C that I use as a chair since it's like an extra unused amp.

haha i got the yamaha amp... I normally scoop the mid.. because this amp is quite shitty.. and sounded damn middy if i turn the gain all the way... however, if you play it loud, and if you want a rock tone, you can put the gain at 12, mid at full, bass at 12, treble at 8-9. loud as in level 4 to 5 with the gain at 12.

 

[mus]

Try tweaking your eq setting first. If you still don't like it, get a new amp.

If you want amp for just distortion and cleans, I recommend a Ibanez TBX15R or TBX30R. I really dig the distortion channel, has a great crunch. A Roland cube will be a worthy buy too as recommended by others. Can be found at Swee Lee.