Small Room Guitar Amps

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valacirca

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What are usually the small/room amps of choice for most guitarists?

I currently have a MG30DFX, which as I've been told a lot of times, will not do my pedals (that I'm ordering soon) justice.

Well, what amp (around the same size) will? I'm willing to upsize to a 12" speaker from the MG30DFX's 10" and maybe even up to a 14", but I'll be having second thoughts about putting that in our small room already.

I'm sure some people associate some amps to certain genres, so I'm hoping what you guys will suggest will be good for post-rock/shoegaze/indie rock... maybe a bit of ambient, drone and some sludge metal.

Warm and dark preferably, and sounds decent when mic'ed since it will be used almost exclusively for recording.
 
14 inch speaker?? typo? Never heard of that one. Go Emery Superbaby. 6-12 watts, sounds amazing, you will need a speaker cabinet to go with it.
 
Is this for recording or practice? And with a band or without? And what pedals?

Sorry, I don't have any recommendations for those genres - I'm an old fart.
 
IMHO you should be looking at low power tube amps. I have not test driven one, but I hear very good things about the Vox AC-4. The power output is selectable and many reviewers have said it takes pedals well.
 
valacirca said:
I'm sure some people associate some amps to certain genres, so I'm hoping what you guys will suggest will be good for post-rock/shoegaze/indie rock... maybe a bit of ambient, drone and some sludge metal.

Warm and dark preferably, and sounds decent when mic'ed since it will be used almost exclusively for recording.
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For those styles, the amp that I see onstage the most often are older Fender "Black Face" and "Silver Face" amps. These include amps like the Super Reverb, Deluxe Reverb, Twin, Twin Reverb, etc. They are reknowned for their clean channels, but they can overdrive when really pushed hard. This makes them a little difficult to use in small rooms because of the resulting volume. They take pedals well, and produce a nice midrange crunch when overdriven.

Since most indie guys aren't after a super-tight low end, an open-back cabinet is probably going to suit you better than a closed-back cabinet. The open-back design gives a more loose, open low end.

If you're looking for a small amp suited to indie styles of guitar, give a tryout to the Fender Super Champ XD or the Vibra Champ XD. They're both small tube amps, but they have a modelling preamp built in. This gives you some flexability with effects and modelling but retains a fully tube path from preamp to power amp. And their small size/wattage allows you to crank them to "get the good tone" without blowing the windows out of a smaller room.

The little Vox AC-4 is a good suggestion too. It's received a lot of praise around here since its release. Selectable low wattage settings are a huge benefit to home recording and bedroom players.
 
Given the small/room + recording only type constraints, the Vox VT30 or VT50 will completely maximize your variety, versatility and sound quality for the least amount of money. It will also minimize your dependence on pedals. Biggest advantage for home recording in the middle of the night is the "power soak" knob they have on the back to set the speaker volume without changing the knobs for your sound/tone. The 50 has a speaker out jack for plugging into big cabs, which sounds awesome, and the 30 you can mount a "shorting" jack to do the same thing. If you put a 16 ohm speaker in it then you can wire so that both internal and external speakers can be used at the same time.

If you want one trick or two trick ponies and limited dynamic range and limited versatility even with pedals, then the 5 watt toys are ok, but after trying all of them I personally would not settle for anything less than a Night Train.

Frenzel hand-builds a few 5 watters that will do superb quality black face and silver face sounds and will take pedals like cake takes frosting, but it will cost twice as much as a Vox VTxx and you will still have a 1/2/3 trick pony when you get it all set up. I love my Frenzel, but it only does 3 or 4 sounds and it does them really well.

I dont especially like the Vox build quality as I dont consider them roadworthy, but for sitting in one spot in your house in front of a mic doing 10 or 20 different tricks with the touch of a button, they are perfect!
 
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Emery, Allen, Guytronix, and others make low power valve amps that can be overdriven without making your ears bleed. Most use a 12ax7 in the output for about 5 watts, which is still too loud for a bedroom IMO. If you're comfortable with a soldering iron, and can follow instructions, you can also build your own. That's what I did. This is my ToneFish, built from a kit, with directions at ax84.com. I opted for the 6n1p dual triode in the output for about 1 watt of power. I can assure you that 1 watt can drive my 1X12 celestion clone with more volume than I will ever need.

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I just bought a hughes & kettner cream machine and a h & k crunch master off ebay.They both are 1 watt tube preamp/power amps.The cream machine is more of a cranked marshall sound and the crunch master is more of a fenderish clean and bluesy crunch.

You can find clips of the cream machine on youtube if you want to give it a listen.You need to have a speaker cab though.These are both around 20 years old and were marketed as rack preamps back when rack mount gear was the big thing in the late 80's.They've both got great reviews on harmony central and at 1 watt their perfect for recording and the bedroom.

They both have crept onto ebay in the past several weeks and are going for $150-$200
 
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