Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on April 3, 2015 at 6:30pm

http://miniampreviews.com/fender-mustang-mini-review/

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by BUGGY (C) on April 3, 2015 at 10:35pm

On the same type of question what Gigging amp / valve amp is best?

http://www.cigarboxnation.com/profiles/blogs/amp-quest-for-the-holy...

Cube is very forgiving and doesnt Buzz but a bit flat sometimes, the Fender with fuse software is awsome if your a fiddler and want perfection..

Ie Roland is a point and shoot amp and it will last forever and some (sounds are ok very goo but not perfection)

Fender if you want a £50 quid amp to sound like £400 valve amp. or fankly like anything you want it to..

but you need a computer and need to be a fiddler... very flexible amp (I don't really use mine)

My question now is what is the Holygrail for a portable gigging amp?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on April 4, 2015 at 1:38am

The answer? It depends. I use a Digitech GNX-1 through a ZT Lunchbox. 200 Watts of power through a 6" speaker, and any combination of amp cabs, valve amps, and guitar tones you could think of, with dozens of factory and user-tweak able presets, plus a pedal that can be used in wah or volume swell mode. They tell me I sound like 10,000 guitars...

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by BUGGY (C) on April 3, 2015 at 10:42pm

Apparently this one works well... so I'm told... as it has point to point wiring...

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by darryl kernaghan on April 4, 2015 at 3:54am

tayto or tahto

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Uncle Fred on April 4, 2015 at 1:34pm

For the past 3 months, my favorite practice amp is a Roland Cube 1x8 10GX.  It's 10 watts, holds 3 COSM amp types in memory and is powered by 5.7v DC wall wart.  It has three on-board effects: chorus, delay, and reverb (including plate and spring reverb types).  Also, it has Bass, Middle, and Treble tone controls, Rec Out/Phones jack and Aux In.

With an inexpensive voltage regulator and any battery up to 40 volts, it can be powered by the battery.  Specs say it draws 700ma, but that must be with it wide open because my battery is lasting a good many hours.  I am using a model air plane LIPO re-chargeable battery that takes a special charger.  Any small 12 volt battery would work.  Roland has an app for the smart phone that has a bunch of COSM amp types for the 10GX.  I like the "Black Panel" and "Tweed" models for Blues.

The Cube 10GX will get louder than you will want in the house, punches out a nice deep bass and weighs less than 11 pounds.  It costs $130.

The fact that it can be run from a battery is a great feature for my CBG playing.

Attached find a photo of the voltage regulator and battery I am using.

Uncle Fred

Attachments:

• volt_reg1.jpg, 272 KB

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Uncle Fred on April 5, 2015 at 1:44am

Wayfinder, you are right.  I know others are using an inverter to power transistor amps.  Maybe, there is a difference in inverters.  I tried my DC>AC inverter with my VHT Special 6 tube amp and the inverter gave off way too much noise to use.  I didn't try to solve the electrical noise issue.   I have used that 140 watt inverter to power an old Pentium 200 computer and monitor from my truck battery.

I thought I would elaborate on the battery, voltage regulator and polarity subject.

The amp/hour capacity of the battery[s] will determine how long a certain amp draw will last.  For example I'm using a 2200 mili-amp 8.2 volt battery and after regulating the voltage attaching a 700 mili-amp 5.7 volt load so it should run over 4 hours at full draw.  In reality I think its running longer because I'm not running the amp at full output.  I think a regular 9v battery will provide about 500 mah, or 0.5 amp hour at its 9 volts.  So, if the 9v battery was regulated to the 5.7v it should run my Cube 10GX about 3/4 hour at full draw.

The volts provided by the amp and the volts requirement of the device must reasonably match.  In my case the battery provides 8.2 volts at full charge and the Cube 10GX only requires 5.7 volts.  The Cube 10GX would not run on 8 volts. [A Micro Cube will.]  The inexpensive Buck voltage regulator, less than $5, will take the input voltage and make it 5.7v.

Now, this is very important.  The polarity of the input power must be the same as that of the device.  For most guitar stuff, this is negative on the plug pin and positive on the ring.  All of my devices have a little diagram on the back showing the correct polarity on the device.  For a lot of other non guitar related stuff, the devices require the opposite polarity.  So, we have to be careful using non-guitar wall warts on guitar related stuff.  Check the polarity.

All this amps, amp hours and volts stuff can be confusing.

I hope this helps someone,

Uncle Fred

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page