Low watt amplifiers for home use

M

MilkTea

New member
Hi Softies,

I read through the forum about small wattage amplifier but couldn't get the info that i want. So here is it :)

I'm currently looking to get an amplifier with good cleans. Budget is below 200. I tried a few low watt amps like the marshall mg15cdr, vox pathfinder 15r, smarvo 15 and laney lx20r.I like the vox pathfinder's clean sound. My only question is will the amplifier be able to handle pedals well? I play a wide range of genres - from blues to metal. I'm not sure if the amp is able to hand metal pedals well. I had bad experience from my previous amp which would vibrate when I used a high gain pedal.

And, I heard that the amp socket comes in a 2 pin plug which will cause unnecessary noises/hum? Is that true?

If there's any amp with nice clean sounds, do recommend to me too ^^ (tube/solid state is fine)

Thanks for reading my post and hope ya guys can help me out :)

Cheers
Milktea
 
That's a fast reply sub :)

I see, is it must to swap it? As in if i don't change it, will it have the extra buzz/noise?
 
I'm personally looking at the Vox AC4TV. It's "only" 4 watts but sounds pretty amazing to me. Chime-y cleans you'll expect from a Vox tube and you can crank it at bedroom levels thanks to its ability to work at 4, 1, or even 1/4 watt. Think you'll find quite a lot about it if you search this forum.
 
Sub: I see. Thanks a lot :) Beez does the swapping of the plug right?

Carbonxymoron/psychoholiday: Thanks for the reply! I have heard it on youtube. The clean sounds awesome and the amp looks nice :D However, it looks to me like that amp don't look like it can engage pedals to play metal. Please correct me if I am wrong. Another thing is because it's a tube amp. It means that as i increase the volume of the amp, the clean will start to 'breakup' and have a little overdrive sound which i'm not in favour of :( If there isn't such thing, it would definitely be in my list! Nice recommendation guys!
 
I'd go with the Pathfinder. I consider it to be one of the best, if not the best small practice amp out there. Yes, it takes pedals pretty well, whether its your normal analog drives and distortions or your multi-efx. I used to own one and i have to agree with your assessment of its cleans, simply amazing for the price. However, i had 2 major bugbears with it (nothing is perfect y'know). There is a lack of a midrange knob, and this limits the range of EQ you can set. Also, the headphone output is simply terrible. But all in all, i'd say it pretty much beats the competition out there IF you're looking for good cleans and you're not looking for sparkling default drive tones, although it isn't bad in that respect either.
 
psychoholiday/naviros: Haven't tried it. But it has onboard effects which i don't need it cos i have external effect ^^

loldude333: thanks for letting me that it can handle pedals well :) yeah, quite disappointed when it doesn't have the mids knob cause at times I will scoop the mids. Why is the headphone output terrible? I do use the headphone output of amps to do recording so i may be affected by it :(
 
1. It sounds completely different from what's coming out from the speaker.
2. The sound you get is super muddy and unclear, there's no definition.
3. Basically, the sound that a pair of el cheapo $5 speakers from pasar malam makes. Or maybe even worse

Haha get the picture?

That being said however, my amp was bought in 2006. I don't know if the problem has been fixed yet.
 
loldude333: I see :) Woah, pasar malam. Hahahaha, that bad :X But for the price, i should not expect high quality products from it. There could be factors affecting it like the headphone set used.

Hydrogencynide: I wouldn't mind getting the blackstar but don't really wanna spend so much money on an amplifer now as i'm still a student. I would get a vox night train for that budget tho :P I'm also looking into getting the blackstar distx pedal rather than the amplifer cos it's more portable. It's one BADASS pedal right there \m/
 
Blackstar $$ man, I believe Milktea here isn't looking for a portable amp with onboard effects, just probably a good clean tone and perhaps reverb? You can rule out the microcube and da-5 then. Marshalls are good for their cleans, beez has a marshall stack at his place with the cool looking led lights, you might wanna try that.

On the other hand, you can try the fender frontman15r, though the onboard distortion is really horrible, i doubt you would be you using it anyway, the cleans are really chimey, and the reverb i must say is an added value. And it also has eq settings where you can tweak your mids and stuff, i'm currently running it through an overdrive pedal only, for simplicity sake, and it has served me well :)

And grounding your amp no need ask master beez, can diy :)
 
If the amp uses an IEC plug, DIY is not even needed. Find a spare pin power cord lying around your house or just buy one.
 
@MilkTea: I tried a variety of headphones with it, not much diff, still sounded horrible. Ranging from pasar malam earphones (i'm surprised my ears haven't got a permanent ringing in them from those experiments) to my friend's Creative Aurvanas to those $500 Bose headphones (also borrowed).
 
I would recomend the Vox ad30vt-xl. If the promo is still available from sound alchemy u cld have gotten a fender frontman 25r at $199. Other than that i'm aiming for the frontman and marshall 15 cdr
 
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