Im looking for a practice amp to bring to college next year. I blew the speaker out on my old MG100DFX, which i thought was a piece of shit anyway (although the cleans were nice i thought) I have a Peavey XXX half stack (which i like alot) but obviously that will be way too loud and i dont wanna piss off the neighbors and my roomates.

I play a schector C1 hellraiser w/ emg 81/85 if that helps and im looking for a practice amp that has a decent thrash tone and maybe decent cleans. However the thrash tone is #1 haha.

Im not looking to spend much money, just want a few suggestions on what to look into so that i can go test them out for myself.

if you wanna blow some cash, tech 21 trademarks.
If you want something that doesnt sound amazing, but is versatile to fuck with, go for a line6 spider or a roland cube. Personally, i like the line6 better because its cheaper and sounds better to my ear.
I personally use a marshall mg15dfx, serves me QUITE well. I'm also getting a pignose amp because those things sound sexy, are portable (they even have strap pegs), and are only $75. Both the Beatles AND Frank Zappa have used them in recordings.
Any peavey combo will do the trick, they have nice distortion and are cheap.

Dont get a tube combo practice amp unless you intend to gig with it, its not worth it if its just for practice.


Keep this in mind, and i tell EVERYBODY this, and almost nobody listens.
ITS A PRACTICE AMP
it doesnt have to sound amazing, it just has to get the job done. Plus, you already have an XXX, so you have your tone monster, just get something super cheap that gets the job done. Pawn shops are a mans best friend for cheap ass thingers.

__________________

I'd go for a roland cube 30. Great cleans and distortion for the price, built in effects, has more features than you'll probably ever need.

Line6 POD / Behringer V-amp + a great pair of headphones?

You don't want to piss off your neighbors, and based on your descriptions you don't really need a speaker. A box like these is a great way to practice with, and it also has a ton of decent effects etc. I wish i had one, sometimes at night when the woman's sleeping (my amp is in my bedroom) i really feel like playing / recording whatever, a POD would be so sweet. Also for silent practicing if you're like me who doesn't like to tell the world how sloppy you play this or that solo.. i feel like that a lot of the time.

Man i just gave myself GAS for a POD. Damnit!!

__________________

+1 for the cube as a practice amp, i have one. jopop has a good idea, but the cube also has a headphone out for when you need to be ultra quiet. i think an amp is better than something without a speaker because chances are you will meet someone to jam with, and you will want a combo to drag around campus and jam with people (most likely without drums). one nice thing about modeling amps (or at least the cube) is that the headphone output sounds exactly like what would be coming out of the speaker.

__________________

Cube 30 is great. They have the new Cube 15 X also.

^ i believe there is a 30 X too? from what i can see it adds that dyna amp feature which i think the 60 had all along.. i guess the gain responds to your picking dynamics or something? i think they added an on-board tuner too.. useful, grrr.

__________________

I had a Cube 30, thought it was okay. It doesn't really sound amazing through the speaker though so i sold it and bought a "real" amp, but it was okay

If i had a real amp back then i would probably have kept it for home use.

__________________

What's a "real" amp then?

One that's not intended to emulate another amp / set of amplifiers?

I was gigging at the time so it didn't quite cut it. The drummer drowned it.
I also ran it into the FX return of an Ampeg 4x10 bass combo, sounded very good.
However the Peavey Triumph at the practice room pretty much ate it, but the Triumph was a noisy fucker

__________________

The cube is not meant to be a gigging amp. Not to mention an amp can be a good amp, regardless of whether it's a one-trick-pony or a 100-modeler amp. How impractical would it be, if you're not a professional musician or anything, and you like many different styles, so you buy many different "real" amps to accomodate your tastes?

It is a good amp.. :-/ I don't see why you would bash me for buying another amp when i had limited resources and was in a band? It's excellent for bedroom practice. The built-in speaker isn't that great though, i liked the sound better through headphones.

__________________

.....when did I bash you? You were simply basing the cube's quality based on it's performance in a band situation and the idea that it's not a "real" amp. This guy needs something for use in a college dorm. I think the cube 30 beats the shit out of the MG100DFX at a lesser price.

I was basing the cubes quality on the fact that the high-gain lacks a little something in the treble and the treble control when set at a fair level (6 and up) makes the bass and mid controls fairly ineffective.

That said, I'd surely take one for home practice. I had a lot of fun recording it, it sounded pretty good. Mic'd through the speaker not so much though, which led me to believe the speaker wasn't very good. "Metal" model with treble fairly high was my fav. model, or the Recto with treble fairly low for some sounds (i listened to black metal back then).

You may also want to check out the new Vox modelling amps, they're made for high-gain.. and the AD series sound pretty good.

IMO also the cube kicks the MG series ass, and stands side-to-side with Line 6 Spider / Vox valvetronix. Line6 Vetta wins though, but the price is higher.

__________________

I've played all of the cubes save for the micro... they sounded horrible, far better stuff out there for the money if you look harder...

__________________

If i had money I'd get a Vetta, it's amazing.

__________________

Vetta is out of his range since he said he's not looking to spend much. That's beyond a practice amp IMO.

Here, I made a quick test of most of the amp models on my Micro Cube. I know I'm not the best player and I used a shitty computer mic so it doesn't exactly do it justice, especially on the higher-gain tones. You can have your opinions, but I'd hardly call this "horrible" considering it's a 2W amp with like 3 inch speakers, and I got this thing new for $80. I don't really think you need much more if you're staying at a small place for college.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/son...&songID=5330050

How about a Epiphone Valve Junior + a cheapo distortion. Bet that would sound a lot better... Maybe an EH Micro/Nano Muff - that would sound awesome. Just stuff the pedal in the back when you need to store it or carry it around. It only has 2 tubes too, so its not like it would be high maintenance, just make sure you get a Ver.2 model which had the noise issues fixed.

__________________

Thats not a bad idea at all in fact I was considering at one point. But youd want a good pedal to boost it if you really wanna get brutal with it, probably spending 80$ for something like a Maxon, Proco Rat, Roccaforte Bastard, etc. plus the small speaker really doesnt help, but since you want it for apartment use it may suffice...

Honestly, look on ebay for a Tech 21 Trademark 10. For what they sell for now, you will absolutely not find anything that can touch it. It does everything, and it doesnt do it just halfassed like all modeling combos do, it really does a kickass job with high gain, and cleans are spectacular as well

__________________

Sorry I actually meant Nano METAL Muff, so no need for a boost, that thing has all the gain you'd need. +1 on the Tech21 though, that would be my next choice. The full-size Metal Muff sounded amazing with my Hellraiser.

__________________

ah yes, once again the battle of the cube. silent night remains unwavering in his stubborn yet practical support for the cube, while soeru continues to pimp the tech 21 trademark 10 because the kids on ultimate-guitar.com never heard of it

megadeth1017, don't procrastinate, make sure you spend time trying out everything in your price range before you get stuck dragging some last-minute choice p.o.s. off to college.

__________________

I never understood why you cant just turn the fucking volume down on your good amp?
you're not looking for a magnificent saturated tube tone from a practice amp anyway.

__________________

No, because I don't even post at that forum, and have owned this series of amps and know of their quality, particularly for apartment playing.

__________________

dude get a thd hotplate. that way you can get your xxx tones you like at lower volumes. (300 bucks u.s.)

Turning down your good amp will also still sound better than a small modeling combo. Id just save your money get an attenuator like deanguitars mentioned. Although id get a Weber Mass 100, far superious to a HotPlate IMO and cheaper.

__________________

The reason im not taking my XXX half stack to college is mainly because its just too much of a hassle, not to mention i have limited space in my room to begin with...I dont have room in my car to haul it back and forth either.

I tried out a roland 20 cube yesterday and didnt think it was too bad, didnt buy anything yet though.

I think the Hotplate is overrated. Even with it, it's still to loud to be practical for bedroom use in a small apartment-like room IMO.

Personally I'd rather have something that sounded good than something more versatile. You'll go mad having only a roland cube to play for what 6-8 weeks at a time. I nearly went mad only having a Marshall MG15 to play for 3 weeks. All those presets means nowt if it sounds like crap. Now I'm not saying that the Roland is all that bad but I don't think I'd want to have to rely on it for a long time, especially after being used to something like the XXX. How about trying to find an Ampeg SS-70 1x12 on ebay?

__________________

do what i did and get a fuckin pignose. 60$, does anything you need. Beats EVERYTHING in price.

__________________

i've been curious about those things. can you get a good dm tone from it alone or do you need a pedal?

If you like to use a computer all day, Guitarport is what I recommend. At the same time, I miss practicing out of a real amp!

If not, I would just keep the volume low on your XXX, I know it would take very tiny adjustments of the knob, but 'bedroom' level is available on pretty much every amplifier with a volume knob.

i have the roland microcube, it sounds... ehh.. okayish for thrash and stuff like metallica and older metal like pantera, it's got a few different models, each sound decent.

dean has a little amp-in-a-box- thing that that you put headphones into, i heard it's not too bad, and some people even use it for distortion or to record with.

The micro cube is really great for what it is.....Let me repeat, FOR WHAT IT IS. It's a little box that's got like a 3-inch speaker, it's 2W, and it costs about $120. You can't possibly be expecting or comparing it to sounds you get from something that's....well, "more".