Does anyone here gig with small amps, like practice amps? I got a Roland Micro Cube GX today. I posted it on a guitar group on FB. Some snarky guy said that it's good for a practical amp, but if he saw me giggling with it, he'd die laughing. What are your thoughts?

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I gig with small amps all the time! Depends on the venue, how big a crowd (bodies absorb sound), how echoey the space, and whether or not they have a soundboard and house PA. Your snarky guy is an idiot. I mic my amps through the soundboard, and can assure you that I can make a Pignose 7-100 sound HUGE through a house PA. I also gig with a Fender Champ 600 Reissue single tube with an 8" speaker, a 200W 6.5' speaker solid state ZT Lunchbox (and yes, it can take on a Marshall half stack - I've done it), the Roland Stereo Mobile Cube (played in a gym for 1000 people with NO PA!)...My largest amp is a Crate V16 Palomino 15W 12AX7-EL34 tube with a 12" speaker. In all cases except the aforementioned Roland (I was making a point), I mic the amp through the soundboard and out through the house PA, usually using a Shure SM-57 mic. This helps reduce stage volume, so you don't blow your ears out. I've also experimented successfully with DIY plywood versions of the Sound Enhancer, which is a passive radiator amp cabinet and stand that reflects the backwave off a speaker in an open backed amp, and rotates the wave in-pfhase with the frontwave of the same speaker out through ports underneath the amp. You get a 10 dB increase in heard / felt volume, and better bass response.

Where did I learn this? Indirectly, from Frank Zappa and Neil Young. Frank used a mic'd Pignose 7-100 extensively in the studio, and Neil has a special late-50's Fender he has mic'd backstage in an isolation cabinet, despite the wall of amps he appears to have. Until recently, ZZTop also used ZT Lunchbox amps onstage; they, too, have amp walls just for show, with no speakers even in the cabs.

I use a Line 6 Micro Spider though I KNOW the micro cube is immensely popular amongst CBGers. I don't gig, being a lowly ham-fisted learner, but I'd be happy to busk with it if I were better at playing and circumstance allowed it. Why not? Loads will scoff and laugh at CBGs themselves without bring amps into the mix. Let 'em scoff then blow their minds with the music you produce.

Besides, doesn't the micro cube have a line out to a PA facility so you can buffer it and make the mixing guy's job easier by shaping your own tone?

Yep. And all of the aforementioned amps I use also have Line Out capabilities. The reason I don"t generally use it is that most of them also have an internal speaker cut-off when the Line Out is used. I need to hear the amp onstage behind me, angled upward a bit toward my ears; using the Line Out actually defeats that.

Not sure if this works but does the line out cut off allow you to use a single headphone ear piece so you can still hear it?

Not usually. Unless you get one of those fancy cords which feature both a 1/4" standard male jack, and a headphone jack. The Roland Stereo Mobile Cube has separate Line Out and headphone jacks, so I know you can do it with that one.

Behind every wall of Marshall amps is a 65 Deluxe Reverb   

Image result for small behind wall of big amps

Mic the amp into the PA system and you are fine, Seasick Steve does that all the time.

Line Out jack (XLR) will not mute the speaker, a headphone jack (1/4 in) will, but I've piped the headphone jack of a lot of small amps to my PA and with house mains and stage monitors its been golden.

I gigged in a rock band with a small amp. My amp sat on one side of the drummer. With a full Marshal stack on the other. My amp was a blast to set up. And very easy to travel with. And when playing live was just as easy to put a mic in front of as any drum or singer. Gig away my friend! 

My thing is, as one who has seen many shows at bars and things, I wanna be heard, but not blow the roof off the joint, and make everyone deaf. I have to use small amps becausevportability is key. My vision won't allow me to drive. I have to walk or Uber to gigs.

Just back from Glastonbury...yes,  that Glastonbury, 175 000 people, 100 stages etc. We were demoing guitars with a Sessionette 75 watt amp for one guitar, and for another rig we used a Roland MicroCube with the line out into our PA and it worked just fine. We even used a 1/4 watt cigar box amp lined-out into the PA and it was cool.  The people who might scoff at such an idea have obviously never played proper gigs and won't have had to improvise stuff on the road in this sort of way. If we can do that outdoors at a festival like Glastonbury, you can do it anywhere.

Zackly. Hey, John, could you do a Glastonbury blog post? Some of us would be interested...

It's here on my website.

https://www.chickenbonejohn.com/blogs/news/glastonbury-2017

Our 2nd Glasto...great weather (but TOO hot!) and  takings up 40%. I got to play somewhere else as well as a my stand! I got an invite to perform at the John Peel Stage hospitality suite...so I didn't refuse!

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