Practice amp for daughter.....

blue2 · #1 10-25-2003, 03:20 AM

I want to get my 11 year old daughter a practice amp which
she will be using in a bedroom. She has a rg421 guitar. I've
been reading about the new Ibanez TB15-D Toneblaster. Do you
think this would be suitable??

15 watt guitar amplifier with DSP
15 effect settings including reverb, chorus, flange, and octaves
Independent analog distortion
8" "POWER JAM JR" speaker
Active 3-band EQ
Clean and overdrive channels
Headphone out
CD input
Closed-back cabinet design

Soloist · #2 10-25-2003, 04:33 AM

The features of that amp sound like it would be great however I would like to suggest the GX-15R from Crate (not the GFX model with DSP). It has a very warm distortion sound and a great clean sound.

revsharp777 · #3 10-25-2003, 05:33 AM

As a parent, save yourself the aural assault & get her a Smokey amp (1 watt). After she gets good, then get her a bigger amp.

Ibanezer · #4 10-25-2003, 06:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by revsharp777

As a parent, save yourself the aural assault & get her a Smokey amp (1 watt). After she gets good, then get her a bigger amp.

lol!!! 1 watt amp...

Fabe · #5 10-25-2003, 06:09 AM

The real question is, does she really need all these little effects? You should look at the VOX Pathfinder Series (10 Watt; 15 Watt, with Reverb and Tremolo). They have a great, almost tubey sound for non-tube amps. And they are not too expensive.

Fabe

BeastofLove · #6 10-25-2003, 08:53 AM

I'll second what Soloist said- the Crate GX-15R is really a great little amp; far better tone than comparable amps in the wattage and price range.

-Ben

blue2 · #7 10-25-2003, 01:56 PM

No, she doesn't need all of those effects and I
wonder if it would be a distraction. I've thought
something basic like the Ibanez TB15-R with reverb
mighty be better. Are the Ibanez and Crate comparable
in quality. A couple of people mentioned the warm tone
of the Crate.

darren wilson · #8 10-25-2003, 11:37 PM

As long as it has a headphone jack, your family will be much happier.

I kinda liked having access to chorus and flanging when i was just learning. It gave me really cool clean sounds which made me want to try different things like writing or trying atmospheric stuff other than just rocking out all the time.

The CD input is also a good idea for someone learning out. I spent countless hours as a teenager jamming along to Def Leppard's Hysteria album and The Cure's Disintegration, both of which helped me learn a lot about song structure, texture and melody. (Yeah, i do realize that dates me.)

VanWyck · #9 10-26-2003, 08:57 AM

I bought myself a Roland/Boss 30 watt practice amp. It has about eight good models from Roland JC to Vox, marshall, metal, tweed, blackface and rectified. It has reverb/delay, and chorus/trem/phase/flange. Look into it. Pretty nice little amp - and it's really easy to use.

Two hands31 · #10 10-26-2003, 11:43 AM

Find a POD 2.0 for dirt cheap and a nice set of headphones

microdmitry · #11 10-26-2003, 05:51 PM

But it sounds like a total crap through headphones! I think he wants his daughter to learn to play guitar, not to dump it. Also, can you imagine an 11 year old trying to tweak a POD?

I suggest getting a 100W Diezel full stack using your baby daughter's new hobby as an excuse for your own GAS. Jus' kidding.

I don't know what to suggest. This particular niche seems to be completely ignored by amp manufacturers. When my kid grows up (and if he gets interested in electric guitar at all) I'll build a tube amp for him myself. It'll be a relatively simple two channel amp with pretty dirty clean channel and moderate to high gain on the "dirty" channel. Most likely single-ended, no more than 3-5 watts of power.

Many may label me as a purist, but I suggest you to stay away from solid-state amps. Tube amps are the best choice of course, then modelling amps (take a look at Flextone III and new Spider), and only then should you be looking at "straightforward" solid-state junk.

BeastofLove · #12 10-26-2003, 06:01 PM

Upon reflection, I seem to remember that anyone in High School who stuck with guitar (now nearing 30 yrs. old) had a halfway decent amp to start with; not a practice amp. 3 of us had Peavey Bandit 1x12's (great, underrated- anybody remember the blue 'Saturation' knob?), one had a Roland JC-120 and then there was the kid with the Marshall 1/2 stack and rack effects.

So, maybe buying her a used 1x12 Peavey may not be a bad place to start? Much more tone and projection than a tiny practice amp... definately will make her want to play more and feel more enthusiastic about the playing. And since it's a 1x12 solid state, you're not investing a lot in case she doesn't want to play anymore in the future.

-Ben

darren wilson · #13 10-26-2003, 10:18 PM

Freaky. I had a Bandit 65 (precursor to the Bandit 112) as my first "real" amp. In fact, i still have it. I just took it over to my brother's for his jam space a few months ago. Not a bad amp. But those Peavey speakers were crap. I blew mine at least once.

However, after i got the Bandit, i quickly started adding effects, mainly chorus and delay, then a Rockman Distortion Generator. That was my sound for about 10+ years.

BeastofLove · #14 10-27-2003, 08:16 AM

That's what I had- a used Bandit 65! With the big knobs. Oh yea.
Luckilly, someone had replaced the speaker with a (casting memory back) Carvin 'British' series speaker (?) and it really sounded great.

-Ben

JEAPSON · #15 10-27-2003, 10:48 AM

Unsure your daughter will need and use all the effects of the Ibanez amp. As said by others, POD is just not a good option if she plays with headphones. I would go for a small Marschall amp (VS30 R) or a Bandit.

Practice amp for daughter.....

Does she need all of the effects?