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Are the little 10W practice amps usable?


FnB

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I own a PA system and play rock cover songs.

 

I was wondering if the little 10W-15W amps that most manufacturers produce are usable - can you get good Marshall sounds from a Marshall MG10CD or Fender sounds from a Fender Frontman?

 

Volume levels aren't an issue with the PA - I can mic them up or run the headphone jack and crank the levels up.

 

Basically I've been looking at lots of the < £100/$180 range.

 

I have a vision of gathering together a multicoloured row of small 10W amps all miced up... Marshall, Fender, Peavey, Vox Brian May...

 

Am i mad?

Chris Griffin: Yo, did y'all check me when that hottie was all up in my Kool-Aid? Yeah, I was looking to break off a little somethin' somethin' but my crew gave me the 411 on that skank and she's all about the bling-bling.
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Originally posted by FnB:

Am i mad?

Yes but that doesn't mean anything.

Pick and choose. Some of those little practice amps can dial in some pretty nice tones & miked to the PA you just might have hit on a great novel idea. Who knows, it may be the next big thing. Instead of a huge wall of 4X cabs it'll be a line of tykes. :D

 

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"When you come slam bang up against trouble, it never looks half as bad if you face up to it." The Duke...

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Good question - I have lots of stomp boxes and the only hitch in my plan is that switching between little amps would be a pain in the Courtney Love's band.

 

I guess - ideally I'd want a magic floorboard that looked like this :

 

Little
Amp1   Amp2   Amp3   Amp4   Amp5
|      |      |      |      |
 ---------------------------
 | o     o    o    o     o |
 | Mar  Fen  Bla  Bla   Bla|
 ---------------------------
              |
         Stomp boxes
              |
            Guitar

Ummm I'll call it a "One input / Many output" switching box until someone tells me where to get one... ;)

Chris Griffin: Yo, did y'all check me when that hottie was all up in my Kool-Aid? Yeah, I was looking to break off a little somethin' somethin' but my crew gave me the 411 on that skank and she's all about the bling-bling.
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Originally posted by FnB:

Good question - I have lots of stomp boxes and the only hitch in my plan is that switching between little amps would be a pain in the Courtney Love's band.

 

I guess - ideally I'd want a magic floorboard that looked like this :

 

Little
Amp1   Amp2   Amp3   Amp4   Amp5
|      |      |      |      |
 ---------------------------
 | o     o    o    o     o |
 | Mar  Fen  Bla  Bla   Bla|
 ---------------------------
              |
         Stomp boxes
              |
            Guitar

Ummm I'll call it a "One input / Many output" switching box until someone tells me where to get one... ;)

This seems to be what you're looking for:

http://www.voodoolab.com/ampselector.html

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check out Carvin's little amp. I think it switches between 5 and 16 watts. I think that might be the best one.I own the Vox BMSpecial and it's nice, very bones, very loud. It looks like a Barbie amp.
All my stuff is here: www.timothychipman.com
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Originally posted by FnB:

I have a vision of gathering together a multicoloured row of small 10W amps all miced up... Marshall, Fender, Peavey, Vox Brian May...

 

Am i mad?

I've seriously considered this myself. I'm envisioning a Little Lanilei 33/50, Fender Champ, etc.. Probably wouldn't need more than 3.

 

The amp switching is a problem -- you'd need to invest in a really good switching system prevent noise, guitar signal degradation being split 3 or more ways (the "6 switches in a box" probably won't work well because the guitar's output is being severely degraded), but there are several solutions out there -- none of them cheap.

 

At the end of the day, however, you have a few small amps that could fit in one standard 4x12 amp case, a switcher and your effects. All at volumes you can live with!

 

BTW, when I saw CSN&Y last year, nobody had anything bigger than 2x12 combo, but they each had 3-4 amps on the backline, all small combos.

www.ruleradio.com

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The six switch option will work as long as you put a buffer (a small preamp) in front of the switch box to deal with the signal degredation. Something like an MXR Micro Amp or ZVex SHO.

 

I used to use a 15 watt Fender Champ 12 as my gigging amp back in the day. Threw a mic in front of it and it sounded huge. Sound guys LOVE small amps.

"You never can vouch for your own consciousness." - Norman Mailer
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Cool...

 

Now I'm thinking of using 3 or 4 10 watters, all at the same time, live. I'd tell the sound guy two pan them hard.

 

I would do it just to go opposite of guys that "only" play thru a full stack, at the very least...

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