I started a new hobby today! (Guitar)

Something to bear in mind is that valve amps don't always sound glorious, especially at home volumes even if they're only 1W output, but if you're going to get into the tonequest then be prepared to spend silly amounts of money.

Both those amps have a variety of sounds available, and clean is only one of the options. If you still fancy a Vox then look out for the Pathfinder 15 - it's quite 'valvey' in behaviour for a solid state amp, sounds genuinely good, sensibly cheap and takes pedals/processors well.
 
Wow, definitely a different reaction than from the guys at OCUK.
 
OCUK?

Amps have been a bit of a hobby for me, and when I started having problems finding an amp that sounded how I wanted it to I began building my own. Since I mentioned the Pathfinder, at one time I acquired a dead one, which I gutted and build a little single ended amp into, based on the AX84 P1eX, and able to run any power valve from a 6V6 (6W, crunchy) to a 6550 (20watts, big bass). It was my main amp for several years until I could afford an Eminence Red Fang for my Madamp A15 and also acquired a Ceriatone 18watt clone.

Cab02.jpg


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BTW beware power ratings. In terms of volume a decent 15W-18watt valve amp with decent speaker seems as loud as a 50-100 watt solid state amp. I have been happy to play out with my 15W valve amps in front of several hundred people.
 
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I recently went back to playing guitar, mainly because I discovered the SE range of the PRS I always wanted. It's a lovely instrument, but it encouraged me to look at the latest practice amp options.

I looked at a few & found that the Yamaha THR really is something special. I bought the 10C, as I'm not interested in really high gain. It's incredibly responsive to play & reacts greatly to your picking, very tubelike but at low volume. Still very loud in your lounge, by the way, & a very wide spatial sound.

It's budled with Cubase & connects to your PC for easy recording, which really helps with your practice. I can't recommend it enough :)
 
Comfortably Numb said:
I recently went back to playing guitar, mainly because I discovered the SE range of the PRS I always wanted. It's a lovely instrument, but it encouraged me to look at the latest practice amp options.

I looked at a few & found that the Yamaha THR really is something special. I bought the 10C, as I'm not interested in really high gain. It's incredibly responsive to play & reacts greatly to your picking, very tubelike but at low volume. Still very loud in your lounge, by the way, & a very wide spatial sound.

It's budled with Cubase & connects to your PC for easy recording, which really helps with your practice. I can't recommend it enough :)
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That is good to hear ! I have not read a single bad thing about this amp. I guess it seems expensive for £250 for something that small. I am new to the Guitar world but it seems to me that people expect BIG watts when the price goes up. The initial reaction to Marshall's 1 watt amps are people saying you can get a real JCM800 for the same money but they don't get the fact that to play the real JCM800 at home at a level that the amp sounds good means you probably end up with the police at your door.

Anyway, this Yamaha amp seems more a HiFi product with great sound quality but is also an HiFi amp and £250 for an amp is a drop in the ocean in the grand scheme of things. I will have a quick play with it in the store but on paper this seems like the perfect amp for what I need.

ancient_mariner said:
OCUK?

Amps have been a bit of a hobby for me, and when I started having problems finding an amp that sounded how I wanted it to I began building my own. Since I mentioned the Pathfinder, at one time I acquired a dead one, which I gutted and build a little single ended amp into, based on the AX84 P1eX, and able to run any power valve from a 6V6 (6W, crunchy) to a 6550 (20watts, big bass). It was my main amp for several years until I could afford an Eminence Red Fang for my Madamp A15 and also acquired a Ceriatone 18watt clone.

Cab02.jpg


Cab03-1.jpg


BTW beware power ratings. In terms of volume a decent 15W-18watt valve amp with decent speaker seems as loud as a 50-100 watt solid state amp. I have been happy to play out with my 15W valve amps in front of several hundred people.
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That is a monster !
 
Learning on a Taylor.. that's impressive! I've been looking at a 410CE for a number of years.. I learnt on a cheap old acoustic with an action like a bow & arrow! That was in my early teens I've now had 30-odd birthdays since!

.No more gigging these days (only family/friends parties & BBQs!) but there still a dozen guitars & basses in the house!

My eldest son is an accomplished guitarist too and his brother plays bass in a band.

Enjoy!
 
Sirius said:
Learning on a Taylor.. that's impressive! I've been looking at a 410CE for a number of years.. I learnt on a cheap old acoustic with an action like a bow & arrow! That was in my early teens I've now had 30-odd birthdays since!

.No more gigging these days (only family/friends parties & BBQs!) but there still a dozen guitars & basses in the house!

My eldest son is an accomplished guitarist too and his brother plays bass in a band.

Enjoy!
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Lol, I don't plan on getting a lot of guitars so might as well get one that I dream of from day one! :p

Although now that I have one, I am really tempted to get a GS Mini to practice too, something just pick up on the sofa, a beater as they call it.

But then I would also want a bigger Acoustic - 314ce? :p and a proper electric....not a clue there yet !
 
I used to play guitar when i was at school (we had a Rickenbacker the same as Paul Weller's in The Jam in the music room) so I had a blast on that for a while, formed a group called The Targets (cliched maybe, but not at 14) and did a few school concerts. I then had to stand in on drums after our drummer fell off the stool and broke his leg somehow, it was all shortlived though as we left school not long after that. A couple of years later and I ended up having an accident at work and I've lost the feelings in two finger ends on my left hand so that was the end of my flirtation with guitars.

That's a very nice Taylor guitar Raymond, I hope you give it a good shot with all the determination you can muster.
 
I've been playing it everyday since I got it, except yesterday when I wasn't at home much.

Today I was just doing chords and harmonics while watching a movie even...the tips of my fingers are constantly numb...lol
 
Slimbert said:
I used 4 x 250w heads (all running at very close to full power) but I had to play them through bass cabs as I went through normal 4x12's like I go through hot dinners......it got a bit mental towards the end tbh. Sound engineers hated me!! :D
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I've mixed arena and stadium gigs where I've had around 150,000 watts of PA at my fingertips and yet the first 10 rows of the floor have had their sound ruined by a 100 watt guitar amp being too loud on stage, I dread to think what that was like in a smaller venue...
 
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PMN said:
I've mixed arena and stadium gigs where I've had around 150,000 watts of PA at my fingertips and yet the first 10 rows of the floor have had their sound ruined by a 100 watt guitar amp being too loud on stage, I dread to think what that was like in a smaller venue...
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I think it's probably worse in a smaller venue. I had that recently at a gig in a holiday camp ballroom. Idiot with a borrowed Fender amp up full and the fader all the way down! As a guitarist, I really don't understand why you would want to play so loud that you can't hear anyone else on stage.

As you say, in an arena, it's only the first few rows, and you have the benefit of removing him from the front fill. In a smaller venue, it's the whole room and he has to come out of the whole of FOH as it's just the one send.

I should have blown his ears off with his monitor send!

Steve.
 
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It could be the above guitarist with everything apparently on 11 is dumb, but it could also be that his amp just simply works best run loud. It was almost always a problem when I only had an AC30, because at low volumes it sounded really dry & crappy, and only came alive when it was too loud. I know how to deal with that NOW, but as an inexperienced guitar player it was really hard to get a decent sound with an antisocially loud amp and just a couple of effects.

And TBH it's a lot more fun playing on a stage with highish volume levels - much more immersive than when everything is quiet, clear and a bit antiseptic.
 
ancient_mariner said:
And TBH it's a lot more fun playing on a stage with highish volume levels - much more immersive than when everything is quiet, clear and a bit antiseptic.
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Yes, but you don't have to be so loud that you drown out everyone else on stage and that your front of house sound comes from your amp instead of the PA. Better to get your extra on stage volume through your monitor directed straight at you and have your amp a bit lower. That way the sound man has control and can produce a mix to suit the whole room. If you run a big guitar amp flat out, you will find that you FOH PA level will be cut to nothing.

In my opinion, it's a lot more fun playing on stage when everything sounds good and you can hear everyone else. Remember, you up up there as a whole band, not an individual.


Steve.
 
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I did say levelS.

It may be somewhat old fashioned, but I would much prefer for smaller numbers of people that all FOH apart from vocals came from individual amps on the stage, rather than through PA. It won't give the sound that's closest to a CD in your livingroom, but it will sound like a real band that you can get involved with.

And on that note (straying and punning simultaneously) where I've heard carefully and professionally amplified music recently it has sounded just like listening to a CD and not at all like it came from a live band, probably because that's the experience they have been aiming for. Sure some people - everybody probably - won't have a perfect sound at a gig set up the way I prefer, but at least it would be exciting and sound like a live performance.

I agree about it being more fun where you can hear each other and sounds good, but what's good is very much in the ear and mind of the listener. And I am still thinking very much of the whole band working together, rather than just a star guitarist.
 
Far enough. It's just that Paul and I were moaning about guitarists being too loud on stage whilst we were trying to mix them.

Personally, I'm with you. I much prefer playing in small pubs to larger venues. My small pub amplifier is a seventeen watt valve Watkins amplifier which sounds wonderful near its maximum output. I have a Line 6 amp for bigger pubs but if I am going to be playing a large venue with everything going through the PA, I go back to the little Watkins amp and have a microphone in front of it.

A mistake which a lot of bands who usually play pubs make when playing on a big stage is to get overwhelmed by it and spread out over the whole stage. I play in a four piece rockabilly band with acoustic guitar, stand up drums, double bass and me. When we play on a large stage, I make sure we set up close to each other just like we would in a pub as that is what we are used to. I find it works very well like that.


Steve.
 
So I went to pick up my Yamaha THR10, lovely sound, its not loud but loud enough for practice and it does a LOT of sounds.

0DZnw0H.jpg


but I also came out with a GS Mini Mahogany....

Oops

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Nice. :D

Good piccie too.

I must try a THR10 some time soon, except that it may well make me want to own it, and I don't need more amps. Actually I need to do some work on my 18watter as the non-trem channel has started motorboating after being unused for a couple of years.
 
Having sold my zoom pedal a wee while back and barely touched my guitar since, I'm now thinking of trading in my little Pathfinder to get one of these. What's it sound like through headphones - obviously not as good, but any good at all?
 
I don't think you can turn off the LED on its own. It is just 2 tiny LEDs, you can see it through the vents at the front, located top inside, right below those dials. I guess if you are so inclined it doesn't take much skill to disconnect them if you open it up. Although If you are playing in a regular lit room they are not as bright as shown there. I took the photo with the lights off and only an LED light behind the TV was on at the time.

As for the headphone, it sounds like the speakers I guess, I haven't tested too much, I only tested to make sure it works.

I have to say though, the sound coming out of it is better and more clear than a regular guitar amp I've tried but compare to my hifi speakers (see second pic, on the left, they are on stands), the Yamaha falls shorts. The first pic the amp is sitting on my sub-woofer to give you an idea what I am comparing it to.I played some music out of it from my phone, it is perfectly clear but obviously lacking the bass that I am used to.

But for guitar practice, for the variation in sound, for not annoying the neighbours, it is awesome. And you know, if I take the headphone out straight into my HiFi amp...
 
The LEDs are there to give the impression of thermionic valves, so that us traditionalists feel happier. ;)

The thing to remember about guitar is that it's all about the mids. No matter what kind of clever technology is used, there's only so much bass to be had from 2 1/2" drivers.
 
Raymond Lin said:
I don't think you can turn off the LED on its own. It is just 2 tiny LEDs, you can see it through the vents at the front, located top inside, right below those dials. I guess if you are so inclined it doesn't take much skill to disconnect them if you open it up. Although If you are playing in a regular lit room they are not as bright as shown there. I took the photo with the lights off and only an LED light behind the TV was on at the time.
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Thanks Raymond that's useful information. I'm no stranger to the insides of electronic stuff, the first thing I did when I got my MG50 was to disconnect the fan - there's no way I'd wind it up enough to get it hot enough for the output transistors to need cooling! You could argue that I'm not playing it loud enough, but I'm a learner and even I don't want to hurt my ears with my practice.

Chris
 
ancient_mariner said:
The LEDs are there to give the impression of thermionic valves, so that us traditionalists feel happier. ;)
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Sadly I'm old enough to remember valves, when I was a young apprentice in the TV trade, vales were just fading away, but I can remember the joys of PL509s in the line output stage and ECC83s used the sound amp - happy days! I was amazed to discover that valve amps are still the holy grail of guitar amps, despite the very basic low-tech designs.

I'm not keen on the red LEDs in the Yamaha as it's just not an authentic copy of the cherry red glow of valve heaters - and of course the smell of hot valves and melting capacitors will be missing too!

Chris
 
Foxbat Flyer said:
Sadly I'm old enough to remember valves, when I was a young apprentice in the TV trade, vales were just fading away, but I can remember the joys of PL509s in the line output stage and ECC83s used the sound amp - happy days! I was amazed to discover that valve amps are still the holy grail of guitar amps, despite the very basic low-tech designs.

I'm not keen on the red LEDs in the Yamaha as it's just not an authentic copy of the cherry red glow of valve heaters - and of course the smell of hot valves and melting capacitors will be missing too!

Chris
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Trust me, I want an value amp, I wanted a Blackstar HT-R5 but a value amp at 5 watt needs to be cranked to "call the police, disturb the peace" level for it to sound great. This amp sounds great at low levels.

The alternative I was looking at Marshall's limited edition 1 watt amps, with a button for it to run 0.1watt. Even at 1 watt it is still quite loud, plus those are hard to find and the one that I want are like £600.

I just want to practice without annoying my neighbours so this has the sound (even if it's fake) and at the right price.

This video is a good demo to show what it sounds like and the red light in a regularly lit room.

 
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Foxbat Flyer said:
Sadly I'm old enough to remember valves
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They are still being made in quite a few factories and are the preferred technology for a lot of guitarists (including me).

Valves are also used in recording, particularly for microphone pre-amplifiers. Just to bang my own trumpet, this is a two channel mic pre-amp I have made quite a few of:
main1.jpg


side.jpg


A few years ago, I made a nine channel, all valve mixing desk for a friend.


Steve.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Trust me, I want an value amp,
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Thanks for posting the video link Raymond, it's a good demo and I can now see what you mean about the red LED, it's quite subtle.

Good luck in your quest for a valve amp.

Chris
 
Steve Smith said:
They are still being made in quite a few factories and are the preferred technology for a lot of guitarists (including me).

Valves are also used in recording, particularly for microphone pre-amplifiers. Just to bang my own trumpet, this is a two channel mic pre-amp I have made quite a few of:


A few years ago, I made a nine channel, all valve mixing desk for a friend.


Steve.
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That look likes a good construction job there Steve. I didn't know valves were still in use in mic preamps, I thought they were just the preserve of high-end guitar amps.

Chris
 
Foxbat Flyer said:
Is there an option to switch off the red glow?

Thanks,

Chris
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I haven't tried it myself, but I believe that the LED's can be switched off using the software editor, that is included with the THR. You'll also find lots more presets, unlimited space for your own patches, additional compressor & noise gate!

I hope you enjoy it, Raymond, don't forget to try the app & Cubase. The Cubase registration is quite complicated, let me know if you need a heads up.
 
EDIT: Removed after overcoming laziness preventing poster from googling it himself
 
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Comfortably Numb said:
I haven't tried it myself, but I believe that the LED's can be switched off using the software editor, that is included with the THR. You'll also find lots more presets, unlimited space for your own patches, additional compressor & noise gate!

I hope you enjoy it, Raymond, don't forget to try the app & Cubase. The Cubase registration is quite complicated, let me know if you need a heads up.
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Thanks, i'll give it a try this weekend :)
 
Steve Smith said:
How are you adjusting for each valve type? Is that a bias pot on the bottom of the chassis?


Steve.
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Different cathode resistors on a rotary switch. It was a single ended amp with cathode bias rather than fixed bias, so easy to arrange that way. All valves shared the octal base, so quick to swap except when one breaks off the centre peg. :(
 
ancient_mariner said:
Different cathode resistors on a rotary switch. It was a single ended amp with cathode bias rather than fixed bias, so easy to arrange that way. All valves shared the octal base, so quick to swap except when one breaks off the centre peg. :(
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Thanks for the reply.

I have built a few guitar amps over the years. The only one I still have is this one. 100 watts, 4 x EL34, basically a Marshall circuit but I added tremolo modulating the grid bias.

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Steve.

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Steve.
 
That's a tidy job you did there, Steve. Is that a recycled head box?

This is probably the most complicated amp I ever built - a Madamp A15 MkI kit for a 2 channel amp with gain boost and various smoothing/fat boost etc switching controls. It's still one of my favourite amps, through an eminence RedFang alnico speaker, with channel 1 being brownfaced, channel 2 soldano-ish. Takes pedals really well too.

Kitchen table shot:

Completedtopside.jpg~original


Completedinside2.jpg~original


Completedinside.jpg~original
 
ancient_mariner said:
That's a tidy job you did there, Steve. Is that a recycled head box?
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The box is one I made from MDF. The chassis came from an old Thor amplifier which I chopped up and re-arranged.

That one of yours looks very nice. Where do you get your chassis and eyelet boards from?*

If you want any custom boards made, I have a CNC router at work and could make them.

About 18 months ago, I had planned to make myself an amplifier based on the Marshall 18 watt circuit. Then a friend gave me the Watkins Dominator amp which uses the same circuit. As it was supposed to be a bass amp, it had a 15" speaker - which had fallen apart. I made an intermediate plate with a 12" speaker on which fits onto the 15" speaker studs so If I want to put a 15" speaker in it, I still can. It currently has a Fane Acoustics speaker from the 1970s in it. I do have a green back Celestion which I keep meaning to try but the Fane sounds so good that I don't bother!

ancient_mariner said:
Takes pedals really well too.
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I don't really do pedals. I have a valve Watkins Copycat for slapback echo and will use tremolo if the amp has it but will happily get by without it. I like having the guitar lead going straight back to the amp. I never did get on with stuff on the floor in front of me (I hate music stands too!).

EDIT*: I see, it's all supplied as a kit.


Steve.
 
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Thanks for the offer with boards - I've mostly stopped building now as I can see close up enough to solder tiny switches well, and hate wearing glasses. :( I need to finish my last project, which used a cascode-based preamp stage (to mimic pentode preamp valve tones) into another of those ubiquitous single ended output stages. It sorta worked, but then I got distracted and it's still upstairs in a hacked around hammond chassis.

If you want 18 watter tones then don't look at the greenback (a bit too harsh & middly, loose bass & not enough headroom) but instead the G12H which has more headroom, crisp trebles and big tight bass. It's a better rock speaker. Having said that, I do have a G12M in mine, but it's an old 20W version, very heavily used, very soft-toned compared with both old and current 25W versions. BTW don't bother hunting down old G12Hs - they seem to sound more or less the same: I have both 1970s and anniversary versions.

As for pedals, as a teen I wanted to sound like Clapton from his time with cream, but had an AC30 and a guitar with lipstick pickups. o_O A coloursound fuzz and crybaby helped get me closer, and I've always been a happy pedal and later processor user. Curiously I dislike modellers. :meh: :indifferent: These days I either use the Korg AX30G that I bought in '93 or '94 or a small pedalboard with drives, compression, delays, chorus and a volume pedal. I did build a big 'Gorm' pedalboard, but that doesn't leave the house as it's too large.
 
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