Guitar amp with presets?

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lesmac
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Guitar amp with presets?

Post by lesmac » Sat Sep 12, 2020 5:50 pm

Is anyone here using a small amp that has clean and crunchy tones. I want something to play through that has some variation so I can be inspired latency free whilst DI-ing into virtual amp simulators. [Using a DI with thru]

At the moment going through my pedals into a deluxe reverb isn't doing it for me. Even though it breaks up early I have to crank it a bit too high to balance with the monitored song. It is a bit of a one trick pony to track with also. Maybe a Superchamp? Just thought I'd ask here before having a good look.

Edit:

I don't want anything too complicated with heaps of presets but something tweak able.

Actually I think I just need something like this [not insanely expensive]:

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... ects-pedal

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Re: Guitar amp with presets?

Post by Ted » Sun Sep 13, 2020 6:49 am

Les, my favorite small amp to play through is a Yamaha THR10. It's solid state but sounds so much like a tube amp to me and it has great clean and overdriven sounds and everything in between. You can easily save 5 settings as presets on it and it has a USB so you can run it into your DAW. I'm not sure exactly what it is you're planning to do, but if you've never played through one of these amps, they're amazing. They can get pretty loud if you want them to, but they're all about giving you fantastic tone at a volume level that is appropriate for sitting around the house and playing. And they're about the size of a toaster. They also have a nice auxiliary input which bypasses the preamp section so you can play backing tracks through the amp pristinely while playing a high gain lead for example.

They make a few different versions of this amp-- my brother has the high gain version, the THR10X (I think it's called) but I have the standard tan colored one and it does everything really perfectly. Now they've released a bigger 30 watt version which looks pretty sweet. But I swear by the original THR10. It also plays really well with all of my different guitars-- my high output humbuckers and single coil Strats/Teles all sound/feel great through this amp. Even the bass guitar and acoustic settings sound really good.


Those Fly Rig pedals look pretty cool for live performance. The Richie Kotzen one especially.

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Re: Guitar amp with presets?

Post by Kolstad » Sun Sep 13, 2020 1:23 pm

Superchamp XD is great, so is the Bassbreaker 15. Beats any modelling device available up to and including Helix (I haven't tried Fractal and Kemper, but probably those too). Also Egnater Tweaker is good.
Used market is you friend, should go for about 200usd (Superchamp XD), 300usd (Tweaker), 400usd (Bassbreaker)..

Superchamp speakers are noisy, so get the head. Bassbreakers come with meh speakers, so get the head. :D
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Re: Guitar amp with presets?

Post by lesmac » Sun Sep 13, 2020 3:56 pm

Post by Kolstad » Mon Sep 14, 2020 6:23 am
Superchamp XD is great, so is the Bassbreaker 15. Beats any modelling device available up to and including Helix (I haven't tried Fractal and Kemper, but probably those too). Also Egnater Tweaker is good.
Used market is you friend, should go for about 200usd (Superchamp XD), 300usd (Tweaker), 400usd (Bassbreaker)..

Superchamp speakers are noisy, so get the head. Bassbreakers come with meh speakers, so get the head. :D
Hi Kolstad :) . I remembered you had a super champ and thought you might drop by.

I have been mulling over what I need [or think I need] and why. I bought a Tokai Les Paul GT copy and was looking for that Gibson Marshall sound. I have been a little dissatisfied with the brightness of the Deluxe clone [Mojotone] but it's my own fault. I used to run new old stock tubes in it that were similar to Mullards. It mellowed the sound just enough for my taste. I had an earth issue with the amp and the local tech was grumbling a bit about user mods in some of his repairs lately. [I run the reverb tank through the first channel to get tone control. Anyway, long story short we put EH's in every slot. I'm going back to my old tubes though.
I seemed to be getting some unpleasant harmonics when the amp was distorting using a pro co rat peddle and/or an old boss distortion pedal.
Maybe a new set of strings might fix everything too as well as lowering the gain. Things just seemed like a battle though. [Has that ever happened to you- getting your sound?]

To sum up, I think getting a Superchamp would in a way be like doubling up. I should sort out the DR. It could benefit from a speaker replacement to sort the tone out too.

I like the look of that Yamaha Ted is talking about. I have seen them in a local music store so I will try one out.

Thanks for chiming in to help me sort this out. :D

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Re: Guitar amp with presets?

Post by lesmac » Sun Sep 13, 2020 4:09 pm

Post by Ted » Sun Sep 13, 2020 11:49 pm
Les, my favorite small amp to play through is a Yamaha THR10. It's solid state but sounds so much like a tube amp to me and it has great clean and overdriven sounds and everything in between. You can easily save 5 settings as presets on it and it has a USB so you can run it into your DAW. I'm not sure exactly what it is you're planning to do, but if you've never played through one of these amps, they're amazing. They can get pretty loud if you want them to, but they're all about giving you fantastic tone at a volume level that is appropriate for sitting around the house and playing. And they're about the size of a toaster. They also have a nice auxiliary input which bypasses the preamp section so you can play backing tracks through the amp pristinely while playing a high gain lead for example.

They make a few different versions of this amp-- my brother has the high gain version, the THR10X (I think it's called) but I have the standard tan colored one and it does everything really perfectly. Now they've released a bigger 30 watt version which looks pretty sweet. But I swear by the original THR10. It also plays really well with all of my different guitars-- my high output humbuckers and single coil Strats/Teles all sound/feel great through this amp. Even the bass guitar and acoustic settings sound really good.


Those Fly Rig pedals look pretty cool for live performance. The Richie Kotzen one especially.
Hey Ted! :) Thanx man this looks like an elegant solution for me. The models I quickly looked at have a battery as well which I could utilise if I ever need to do some busking.

I outlined where I'm at in my post to Kolstad [save repeating].

I just want small, simple, good/range of sounds. This looks like a real contender.
I have Guitar Rig Pro, S Gear and Waves GTR which I don't delve into enough [all 3]. I would probably use a blend of real and virtual amps which has been modus operandi in the past. I seem to be doing a lot of acoustic stuff lately and coming back to the electric has given cause to reconsider. I don't want the hassle of a Kemper or anything too complicated.

Anyway I'll let you know how I go. Thanks again. :D

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Re: Guitar amp with presets?

Post by lesmac » Sun Sep 13, 2020 9:44 pm

OK, I have pre ordered the Yamaha THR30IIWL.
I won't have it for 3 or 4 weeks.

https://au.yamaha.com/en/products/music ... oduct-tabs

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Re: Guitar amp with presets?

Post by Kolstad » Mon Sep 14, 2020 6:54 am

I have the Yamaha Thr acoustic amp, but cant tell you about it because it lives in my daughters room as an ukulele and keyboard amp. It sounded very good at a school concert she played (the soundguy mic’ed it up). I have only heard good things about the other THR’s, but never tried one myself.
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Re: Guitar amp with presets?

Post by Ted » Mon Sep 14, 2020 4:38 pm

lesmac wrote:
Sun Sep 13, 2020 9:44 pm
OK, I have pre ordered the Yamaha THR30IIWL.
I won't have it for 3 or 4 weeks.

https://au.yamaha.com/en/products/music ... oduct-tabs
Very nice! The new THR30 wireless looks to be even better than the THR10-- these include essentially all the tones of the three different versions of the THR10 (the Standard, Boutique and High Gain) plus a lot of new features and three times as much power. Looking forward to your review when you get it. :)

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Re: Guitar amp with presets?

Post by feaker66 » Sun Sep 20, 2020 4:08 pm

Hi Les I have been using a larger line 6 amp for ten years and recently and stumbled on a smaller one (spider four) for $50 at a pawn shop. It has four buttons...clean ...crunch..metal..insane. Messing with the gains on your axe and/or the channel settings on the amp gives you almost anything. The bigger amp I gave away with way too many combinations. Same as my boss 70 that supposedly has all the pedal combinations. Don't use that anymore either. My band had a jam session last week in my garage and it was so nice to haul up a ten pound amp. I didn't even play it through the PA. Smoke on the water was like scary. ha ha Hope you find something that works well for you
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Re: Guitar amp with presets?

Post by lesmac » Sat Sep 26, 2020 8:04 pm

Thanks for the helpful comments one and all.

I cancelled my order for the Yamaha and instead have a 20w Backstair Silverline on the way.

It cost $505 US [$720 AUD] express delivered. Should arrive in the next few days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lbdx5oe ... gs=pl%2Cwn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szPAp7l ... gs=pl%2Cwn

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