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BOSS Katana 100 head has a power amp in socket plus of course all the BOSS amp modelling goodness.
£375 new but a few on the secondhand market.
EDIT: Here's one for £250
I’ve yet to hear anything bad about the Boss Katana so good call ( although the orange looks cooler 😉)
I think if you are using it as basically a cleanish tone to stack pedals on, the basic tone of the amp doesn’t matter too much anyway
Plenty of classic 80s/90s metal was recorded with the “older” solid state stuff. Peavey was big in that era
Katana is a good shout too, thanks. I have actually played through one of those with another band, but it was hard to hear much of the details of it (spent most of the time trying to work out how to drive it, so once I was at least audible I just left it alone! 😂)
I agree @ceepers so long as it's loud and has headroom I can probably just stack fuzz pedals until the appropriate doom tone has been achieved...
Fender's 150W Mustang 5 V2 head is worth a try. The amp models are pretty close and there are all the common effect pedals and cab emulators built in. Junior has one, it sounds better than the genuine valve amps it models at non painful volume levels. It works very well with a cab loaded with Vintage 30s with its Vintage 30 cab emulator in addition.
@cheekyget you and your lad have done a great job there. Nice to see a non trem Strat occasionally.
Thanks chum
@cheekyget that's very nice! The artwork is very impressive.
What renovation work did you do with it beyond the obvious visual stuff?
@Edukator -- thanks, another search term for eBay 🙂
I will note that "painful volume levels" is kind of the brief, but I also imagine 150W should be plenty loud.
So I am now slightly obsessing about loud amps 😀
A slightly left-field approach might be to drive a separate power amp using the Orange Micro Dark as a preamp (I think @eddiebaby might have been suggesting this with the Katana "power amp in" idea?).
It turns out Harley Benton make one of these:
THOMANN.DE 100W into 8 Ohms at least *sounds* workable. Any experiences?
@cheekyget, it looks like you spilled a ton of grey plectrums on your floor.
I'm not sure about defacing vintage Strats though. Even if the artwork is very impressive.
I will note that “painful volume levels” is kind of the brief, but I also imagine 150W should be plenty loud.
I've got a 100W Marshall JCM tube amp too and the 150W Fender Mustang is similar. I can't use either flat out with my 1960a 4x12 Greenback loaded cab which is only 100W rated (junior has an open back 2 x V30 cab to use with the Fender ). 100W tube amps push out about 180W peak. The Marshall starts to sound better than the Fender "British 80s" model at the point I need -20db ear plugs. The Fender "2000 metal" model is really impressive loud.
Transistors are no barrier to loud. The loudest concert I've been to was when Slade were using transistor heads back in 1972.
@tomparkin .. thanks chum...the only bits that needed changing were the bridge bolts because some had pinched ends, a bullet hole because some numpty put a old nut there and a small bit of soldering...apart from the last humbuck the electrics are ALL original 1977....it seemed that the one of the previous owners had resprayed the laquer without any prep because it look like it had been waxed under the old laquer....so I had to remove the wax then sanded it back to bare ( 95% of the resprayed laquer just peeled off)....then my kid did the artwork, then I applied sander sealer x3 coats...flattened with 1200, then x5 coats of 1k on the body and 2 coats on the neck...let dry for 2 weeks then sanded with 1200, 2000, 3000, 5000...then lastly 8000...and it was shiny...then got a mirror finish with cutting compound on a buff wheel in my drill.
@superficial..it was my sons plan all along originally I was just going to get him a mim fender with a maple fret and his plan was to change the electrics to texas pickups ( texmex)..then I was trying to get a 2006 .....then I came across the 77 on ebay.
I did say to him as soon mark it...your knocking off a few hundred quid..his reply was, I'm never selling it, and I really hope he doesn't...its now his pride and joy along side his epiphone flying V, solar and a les paul looking lou we made together from a kit ...we changed the humbucks to distortion mayhem and I put a jimmy paige wiring rig on it
Just out of interest, PMT have a few good deals atm, most notably some PRS S2 models.
Regarding the Katana, I've got a little 50w combo and really like it. Had it about 9months and just played it, didn't really mess about much with the effects or anything. Installed the Tone Studio app yesterday out of curiosity: holy crap! There's so many effects! I've been fancying a Uni-Vibe for ages...oh, there is one! Need a compressor....tada! I want to make my guitar sound like shit...RingMod and Synth! Want to try a different drive...there's like 15?! So much more powerful than I realised, I'm a little overwhelmed.
@cheekyget thanks for typing all that up! Interesting to read and it does sound like a labour of love 😄
@andeh I feel I may need to revisit multieffects at some point. I'm kind of scarred by mid-nineties Zoom units, but there are some awesome sounding digital effects now.
I was excited as I had no idea they were even there. They're never quite the same as pedal, even just for the knob twiddlability, but it's nice to sample a range of things.
Anyone looking for a smallish pedalboard with a built-in power supply?
This popped up on another forum.
Yes, the Uni-vibe on a Katana. You can spend a whole evening playing "Breathe".
I use the Rotary speaker on the BOSS GT-1000 for the same thing with a footswitch for the slowing down/speeding up thing.
Magical. I love BOSS effects.
I heading off to a local open Mike with my band this evening.
First time playing guitar as part of a band live 😃
First time playing live in about 5 years 😃
I'm excited!
Any open Mike hints and tips?
dont panic
remember hardly anyone notices your mistakes unless you completely stop playing!
It went well,
One guy sat straight at the front 1m in front of me and just stared at me/ the band. Which was a bit freaky, although I suppose that is literally the point of playing music!
It was interesting to hear 10 different types of guitar played through the same amp. There is no way I'd be able to tell or point out the difference between any of them.
Been trying a couple of software modellers this week and been impressed with the Neural DSP Rabea. Does some really nice less heavy tones as well as the eye ball popping heaviness expected of Rabea. The guitar synth is especially fun to play with and tracks very well on all but the fastest playing. 50% off for Black Friday too.
Helix native worth a look too at £200 or £100 if you own any HX hardware unit. link
If you buy any Native Instruments interface currently you get the full Guitar Rig 6 Pro package free
I have had a Helix floor for a couple of years now. Initially I was not mega impressed. Once you get past the presets though its brilliant. It took me a while to get to grips with it but now I have, I have no desire to go back to an real amp. I either run it through my studio monitors or a Headrush FRFR speaker.
I do have guitar rig 6 and helix native too (I record using Logic Pro) and when I first got the Helix I could get better sounds from Guitar Rig. Now I much prefer the Helix. Helix native pretty much sounds the same as the real hardware.
Helix and family keep getting better and better
I visited barefaced cabs factory in Brighton yesterday to try some cabs, lovely people and impressive cabs - the 10" speaker cab is tiny but still great tone
As mentioned ^^up there^^ I've been trying a few software modellers and ended up going with the IK Multimedia Axe I/O bundle with Amplitude 5 Max and (the star of the show and the reason I ended up choosing this) ToneX MAX.
ToneX is IKM's answer to the Kemper Neural QC but decoupled from the hardware. I was absolutely blown away by the sounds I was getting straight away and at £340 all in with a new interface it was a no brainer for me. The Dumble model is fantastic.
Light and loud (enough) amps?
Junior is at Glasgow Uni and playing in various groups / ensembles.
He's currently having to lug around a small Fender Mustang LT40 combo amp at 6kg.
I'm thinking about lighter options, but struggling to come up with anything, either a new combo e.g. Yamaha THR30 or amp pedal + small cab which could lighten the load.
We've discussed leaving it in the music dept and plugging an amp pedal straight into the PA, but something a bit more self sufficient would be better if possible.
Any ideas?
Nope, nothing that's lighter will be as loud. Make up a shoulder strap with a couple of buttons from a guitar and his guitar strap, the guitar can go in a rucksac. That's exactly how I get around town with an old Mustang II V2.
He’s currently having to lug around a small Fender Mustang LT40 combo amp at 6kg.
I got a Fender Mustang GT100. 100 Watts, twin speakers. Too loud for a flat or bedroom really, a decent gigging amp. But I only bought it because, it weighs literally 1/4 of what my Fender Pro reverb 70's silverface valve amp weighs, which sounds amazing with an analogue reverb tank fitted. And I live on the 4th floor. And it is also far too loud for a small flat.
. Fender Mustang LT40 combo amp at 6kg
You'll struggle to find that power even close to that weight. Everything I've looked at as an alternative is 2x the weight for a fraction of the power.
6kg isn't heavy. Tell him to suck it up
Fender Mustang GT100.
I used one of those in a shop to compare some guitars, very impressed, the Brit Watts setting has real bite clean and then dirties up just like my tube amps as you increase gain and/or attack more with the pick.
Thanks all, what I suspected. 👍
Might be worth looking at a small valve amp. They are generally much louder than their wattage suggests. It depends a bit on how much clean headroom he needs and how hard his drummer plays but....
I’m regularly playing “out” with a vox ac10 and with the gain on edge of breakup I’m too loud if the master volume is over 4. It’s a pretty portable size combo. Not sure how it compares to the mustang.
This is the ac10 ( the red amp to my left ) on volume 4 boosted with a tube screamer, outside. Plenty loud enough!
To be honest, I’ve also got an older vox ac4 tv which has a darker non top boost vox sound and that is plenty loud to play in a band at edge of break up unless your drummer is animal from the muppets ( or unless you’re making the drums but then you can mic the vox too) It’s an 8” speaker and super light weight.They turn up on eBay for not much cash quite regularly.
Might be worth looking at a small valve amp
I'm guessing you haven't googled the Mustang LT40. It's a small desktop amp. Can't think of a tube amp combo that comes close to it size wise.
The Marshall Origin 5 watt is twice the size and weight.
Only lighter tube option that I can think of is an Orange Micro head and one of their cabs. Lighter, but massively bulkier. If they have cabs wherever they're rehearsing then maybe a small head would be an option
GUITAR.CO.UK If there's a cab where he rehearses then fit a switch and a jack socket in the back of the Mustang so he can use the amp part to drive the cab with internal speakers disconnected. I've done that on one of my small Mustangs and it does a remarkable job of driving a 4x12.
If he’s got access to a cab to plug into then there’s lots of options.
The aforementioned orange terrors or orange even do a pedal size stomp box version which is reviewed as loud enough for gigs.
Sure others do similar things
Anything combo wise with a speaker that’s pushing enough air to be loud is not gonna be especially portable.
Fender Mustang II V2 is 12kg which is bearable on a shoulder strap. 40W and a 12" celestion are just about enough unless the drummer is heavy handed. Cheap as chips second hand.
Bringing two disparate topics together, I have a Barefaced 1x10 cab, which is awesome, and among other toys, I use it with a Mooer Baby Bomb, which is a LOUD 30W into 8ohm. It'll fit into a pocket - the power supply is bigger - and sounds great with any preamp pedal (like a Boss FDR1 or a Victory Sheriff...) - anyone want to buy a Kraken head? I can't see me ever running it past '1' on the dial... 🙂
I have an Orange Micro Dark which has a valve preamp and a 20W solid state power amp, so the same sort of thing as the Terror Stomp but in a different box.
Running through a 4x12 there's no way I can cut it over our drummer in the rehearsal room.
@chipps am I right in thinking "Kraken" is Victory Kraken and hence megabux?
@tomparkin - yes Victory Kraken - a bit of a(n expensive) impulse buy when I joined a Dad Rock band a couple of years ago. After about 18 months of fortnightly rehearsals, we still hadn't played a gig (Covid etc) but I should have realised that we weren't going far when I saw that the Facebook messenger group was called 'New Band' for the entirety of the time... 🙂
Anyway, yes a Kraken VX EL34 40W lunchbox, great amp. Open to silly offers, (though you won't get it until mid-Jan at the earliest.)
Just a PSA
Catalinbread, makers of fine pedals, are having a Christmas giveaway all through December.
Final prize is a fully powered board stuffed with pedals (I own 5 of them already 🙂 ).
The draw is free to enter.
Best of luck.
Enter here.
Balls, I didn't win the Les Paul 😥