Tube amps for Family Home Use?

  • Thread starter Thread starter ibanez4life SZ!
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Remember when Rock meant you didn't care who wanted you to turn it down :D
 
brickford":2ae296l0 said:
Have you tried the Two notes torpedo live? its enable me to keep my 100 watters exactly as they are set whether on quiet nights in or rehersal or gigs.
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Me too!

My situation is shaping up very similar to the OP's but the Torpedo (VB 101 in my case, got lucky on ebay) has completely changed the way I practice. I've got my 3 100watters set up on a rack with the Torpedo at the top and I just switch out the speaker cable and let rip with whichever one I desire. I'm playing plugged in at least an hour every night and that was just not an option before I go this one. The lady is chuffed with it. Not chuffed enough to understand my "needing" a 2nd one, but chuffed with the headphone practice that goes on.

Get a Torpedo!
 
IMO, all of the benefits of playing through a tube amp are lost at low volume. Whether you attenuate, use an iso-cab, or just have a great master volume, you lose the "oomph" and dynamics that a properly lit-up tube amp offers. I see no point to using a tube amp in that scenario with all of the great non-tube options available these days. The Axe-Fx is a great tool and sounds fantastic at low volume...using a tube amp at those same volumes will simply be different, not better. The Boss eBand units are amazing home practice/jamming tools. I fire up a JS-8 daily at home and leave my tube amps for gigs, jam sessions, and rehearsals.

That said, I can see the motivation for a player who doesn't gig or jam wanting to enjoy what a good tube amp offers. I get it...but that doesn't change my stance that there are better tools for the job. Unless you have a space where you can light it up and realize the interaction between guitar and amp, you should pass on tubes IMO.
 
Personally I like an Axe into a Matrix amp into a quad. Sound like a traditional amp without the volume issues.
 
A lot of us have that same issue. As you've discovered digital can work wonders because you can use headphones.
I've got a Digitech RP255 and I am very impressed with the huge variety of tones and tweaks this thing offers, and it even has tone and touch sensitivity from sparkling clean to ultra gain sustain.

Have you considered a tube gain/distortion pedal that has a headphone out? A lot of the tube feel comes from the tube preamp circuit.
Tube power amps of course are part of the overall tube sound formula, but a tube preamp still gives you a lot of that tone and feel.

Here's an interesting little TUBE headphone amp. http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdet ... er=310-350
It doesn't have 1/4" guitar cable input, but I'm sure you can come up with a "Y" adapter 1/4" to stereo RCA to feed the left and right RCA inputs. You can then plug your guitar into a tube distortion/gain pedal and feed it into the tube headphone amp.
Basically you now have a very lower power ALL tube guitar amp that plays through your headphones. :)
I may give this a try myself.

I'm surprised that the market hasn't come out with tube distortion/gain pedals that have headphone out. Maybe there are some.
Most items I see are digital effects pedals that offer headphone out like my Digitech RP255, but those are not tube driven circuits.
I think the Orange Tiny Terror has a headphone out. You could plug in a tube distortion to it and then use the headphone out for quiet playing and turn the speaker on when you want to play louder through it's speaker.
 
C1-ocaster":uqhqrze6 said:
A lot of us have that same issue. As you've discovered digital can work wonders because you can use headphones.
I've got a Digitech RP255 and I am very impressed with the huge variety of tones and tweaks this thing offers, and it even has tone and touch sensitivity from sparkling clean to ultra gain sustain.

Have you considered a tube gain/distortion pedal that has a headphone out? A lot of the tube feel comes from the tube preamp circuit.
Tube power amps of course are part of the overall tube sound formula, but a tube preamp still gives you a lot of that tone and feel.

Here's an interesting little TUBE headphone amp. http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdet ... er=310-350
It doesn't have 1/4" guitar cable input, but I'm sure you can come up with a "Y" adapter 1/4" to stereo RCA to feed the left and right RCA inputs. You can then plug your guitar into a tube distortion/gain pedal and feed it into the tube headphone amp.
Basically you now have a very lower power ALL tube guitar amp that plays through your headphones. :)
I may give this a try myself.

I'm surprised that the market hasn't come out with tube distortion/gain pedals that have headphone out. Maybe there are some.
Most items I see are digital effects pedals that offer headphone out like my Digitech RP255, but those are not tube driven circuits.
I think the Orange Tiny Terror has a headphone out. You could plug in a tube distortion to it and then use the headphone out for quiet playing and turn the speaker on when you want to play louder through it's speaker.
Click to expand...

 
i just moved in an appartment. Im not used to having neighbours and im rocjing a diezel herbert.
I play at really low volumes, no prob here.

I also checked out the axe fx etc.

I found that using the WOS of two notes is perfect for me. Just run the effects loop out to your recording interface and just rock!
Mastervolume on the herb is then set to 0
 
Punish them. Establish who is man in the house. Orange Thunderverb 200 with matching full stack.
 
Can you put in any isolation into the room? I ended up building a room (double walls with spacers... and a bunch of other things) in my basement as part of the basement finishing project (well... I had a contractor do it.)

3388306257_11e3efbe1e_b.jpg


I can play guitar loud, drums loud even when the family is sleeping (2 floors up.) In the kitchen above the room my wife can hear it but it doesn't bother her since it's not loud. I've even had a band in there and the kids right outside the door can still play xbox at reasonable volume. Bass is a problem though. When I practice bass, I have to be very quiet. Neighbour in house beside me said that loud bass is the only thing that bothers him. He never complains about drums or guitar so I abide by his request and turn the bass down.
 
Zachman":3r86ll6z said:
C1-ocaster":3r86ll6z said:
A lot of us have that same issue. As you've discovered digital can work wonders because you can use headphones.
I've got a Digitech RP255 and I am very impressed with the huge variety of tones and tweaks this thing offers, and it even has tone and touch sensitivity from sparkling clean to ultra gain sustain.

Have you considered a tube gain/distortion pedal that has a headphone out? A lot of the tube feel comes from the tube preamp circuit.
Tube power amps of course are part of the overall tube sound formula, but a tube preamp still gives you a lot of that tone and feel.

Here's an interesting little TUBE headphone amp. http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdet ... er=310-350
It doesn't have 1/4" guitar cable input, but I'm sure you can come up with a "Y" adapter 1/4" to stereo RCA to feed the left and right RCA inputs. You can then plug your guitar into a tube distortion/gain pedal and feed it into the tube headphone amp.
Basically you now have a very lower power ALL tube guitar amp that plays through your headphones. :)
I may give this a try myself.

I'm surprised that the market hasn't come out with tube distortion/gain pedals that have headphone out. Maybe there are some.
Most items I see are digital effects pedals that offer headphone out like my Digitech RP255, but those are not tube driven circuits.
I think the Orange Tiny Terror has a headphone out. You could plug in a tube distortion to it and then use the headphone out for quiet playing and turn the speaker on when you want to play louder through it's speaker.
Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Great tones. Even has a nice tube like sound. The great fluid playing always makes products sound better too.
A wee bit pricey though at $400, but great utility with basically 2 separately eq'd channels. That's very nice too.

But no tubes though. And it doesn't have a real headphone out. Seems that would be so easy to do, and that's what I don't get with a lot of these high tech and high priced units. Put in an impedance match switch on the output and you're good to go, and would attract more buyers who want something they can play quietly at home and then use with live with amps for jamming with the band.

Thanks for the heads up and link. Cool find. :thumbsup:
 
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