Hey............I've decided to get my Epi acoustic/electric fixed.  I'm ready to restring it and see if I can repair the loose wire that's just "hanging around" inside the body.  If this works, and the electronics "come to life", I'm going to be looking for a nice, reasonably priced practice amp.  After being at this git stuff for 6 months and trying to be nice to my wife and neighbors, it's time to "make some noise".  I want to be able to hear what my playing sounds like from the other side of the git.

Any suggestions??  Reading other things about amps, it sounds like a TUBE is a more desireable unit, WHY?

Dean

Get this Dean ! http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/prod … sku=480729

Seriously though, it depends on what you're going to want to do later on when you become the serious guitarist i know you want to be.

Here's another link to an acoustic amp comparison. http://www.acguitar.com/Gear/Reviews/AmpReview.shtml (some acoustic/electric tube amp info here as well as 'try before you buy' comment)

But, just like ever, it comes down to taking your guitar to the music store and trying it with some amps if you can. If you can't, then your coach should be able to help you or you can prolly find what you're guitar sounds like through different amps by going to youtube. Hope this helps.

As an aside, i've got an Ibanez TA 35 that i found at my music store and it seems to work well enough for what little i got it for at the time. It's a tip back model which i find helpful.

Tube amps for acoustic/electric guitar. Well, i looked around and you'll pay dearly for that it seems and i didn't see much mention of it. Apparently some vintage acoustic/electric amps (first guitar amps) were tube but i when looking for them i only noticed one as in the mention in the second website above in the text  towards the end of the review. I'm sure that you could find more tube amps for acoustic/electric though. For me anyway, the key now to buying anything is not to 'cheap out' since i've quickly found that you get what you pay for. That won't stop me from buying used gear though and i'm always looking for that elusive Fender vintage amp that i want so bad. Ok, good luck Dean ! Hey, thought you were going to take the 'Newbie' off yer nick? Heh, heh...

Cheers,

GuitarZen

My advice to anybody thats looking for an amp"Take your guitar to the music store and try several till you find one you like" The reason i say this is cause ive taken peoples advice about amps you the stuff like " Your not gonna be happy till you got a 800 watt fender stack" they were wrong not only was i disappointed i couldnt get sold quick enough.....Anyway theres my advice. Take some suggestions from other people like i like the crate accousitc amps try one of those fender has a couple nice ones to roland has some battery powered ones that sound great to but this should be your chose i only suggest you should play thru them and decide and make sure you use your guitar cause they might give you a nicer guitar than you have to try thewn you get your amp home and say "Man this amp just aint right for my guitar" Then you end up like me with a closet full of amps.....

Thanks for the quick replies!!  I've heard some good things about Crate amps.  My coach has one.  The other one I've heard recommended is a Vox.  I'm a little limited for music shops up here in Northern Wisconson, so I'll have to "let my fingers do the shopping".  The next time I "go to the big city", I'll have to take my git along on my shopping trip.

I'm going to start getting prices on line so I have an idea of what I can/want to afford.

Thanks Again,

Dean

Dean the crate i have is a limo 50 battery amp i really like it but its 50 watts you might try that one out . Vox makes some nice amps to tho .

i want to say dont rule out Kustom stuff it is very nice entry level equipment and has a great clean tone. the other channel needs just a little extra fuzz added to it to get that deep grunge sound but that is pretty standard with alot of amps. my prize is a fender 4x10 deville man is it hard to move but you dont have to move it far casue you can hear it from across state lines . just point in the direction you want to broadcast turn to about three and hold on to your hair. lol

I play through a Peavey Classic 50 2x12 tube and a Fender Acoustisonic Jr., and have come to appreciate the craftsmanship and ease to get my sound out of the Peavey. I played in a worship team through a Roland 60 and it was nice because it had decent effects and it could also be run through the mixer system as well as using it for your monitor. Keep playing through different amps until you find your sound,and read the reviews. I also, talked to the "Pros", who fix them for a living. The Peavey line up came highly recommended. Good luck in your search, and for some reason you'll just know when you've found your "sound".

If you can find them somewhere, check out the Blackstar HT-5, Krank Rev Jr., and Orange Tiny Terror amps. Both are great low wattage (5 - 15 watt range) amps that get plenty loud for home playing. Don't let the low wattage fool you. Tubes are loud as hell. The Tiny Terror in 15 watt mode is known for being capable of competing with live drums pretty easily.

If you're looking for something that sounds halfway decent but can do low volumes, I'd have a look at Line 6 stuff. The Spider IVs are out and have some fairly decent modeling. If you're looking to find your sound a modeler may be the way to go. I've heard that the Peavey Vypr stuff sounds pretty good too, and being a modeler is pretty versatile.

This is all great stuff, you guys.  THANKS!!!  I'm out in Denver right now holed up at a friends because of a SNOW STORM.  When I get back to Wisconsin, I'm going to get the e-pickup on my Epi fixed and start doing some homework on amps.  I'll let you know what I wind up with.

Dean

If you can find a vintage Fender tube amp (such as Delux Reverb or Twin Reverb) at a decent price, I would go that route.  They are bare bones amps (no effects other than reverb and vibrato), but you can really mess around with them power-wise.  By playing with diff tube combo's (among afew other things), I took the output wattage of the Delux from 85 W, RMS up to 98+ W which made it peak at about  115 W or so.  I did change the driver to a JBL 12",  but I cant think of the spec numbers for that spkr right now.. I also added a second audio output transformer to handle the JBL driver,  and left the original transformer for the EXT Spkr output jack. 

Just some food for thought for those who like to mess around with things....

Jim

I thank this is the place for my ? I have a 40 watt crate amp ,And when I turn the volume up it will make a loud cracling sound ,you have to get it just right, Any help would be great. thanks

That's called 'dirty or worn potentiometer' bulldog...look at the topics and you'll see where Jag explained how to clean them with some spray stuff for electrical components...your problem may be that the volume pot is worn out though, so you may have to replace it. Something i do on my stereo that has a badly worn pot is to turn it back and forth a lot in the area where it crackles...but with the power off...this gives me a temporary fix and i can turn it up or down without my speakers blowing out. Just make sure the power is off if you do that...and if nothing helps, remove it and put in another...you can find a replacement at some music stores where they do electronic service, maybe evn radio shack...then there's Ebay, etc. Hope some of this helps !

Cheers,

GuitarZen