Best AND Cheapest guitar amp?

[guitarron]

thought id chime in on the Mustang
Ive had a Mustang III for a couple years now and currently using it for bar gigs and studio.
It simply sounds terrific.
I purchased the 4 button switch for it so I could control the effects in a live setting and has been very reliable
my only "gripe" it doesn't have a line out to run directly to the pa so I mic it with my trusty sm57 -problem solved

the only out on it is the headphone which mutes the speaker- this does work well for recording tho

[chip]

Sounds great. I'm interested too. Anyone tried the headphone out into a boss recorder line in?  I find the BR1200 cosm stuff pretty bad. I use the American sound pedal which was recommended on here by Bruno? It's ok but a little noisy, I also have the Vox Joyo and California pedals too. but I don't use them much. I have been checking out the demo's of the Mustang and the little one may be enough for me, not for live use but for recording direct.

Hi Chip, I have the small Mustang for the studio and I have used the headphone out direct to my Fostex Vf160 recorder. It works well and is quiet enough to be useable. To get the most out of it (stereo out) you need a 1/8 " stereo plug or chord to 1/4 ". I didn't have one so I used it in mono and it worked fine but stereo would be better in my opinion.



Farrell

Hi Farrel. Cheers. A couple of questions. Did you go line in?  Also more importantly to me. what about noise, interference? I tried the American sound pedal into line in on the BR1200 and it was as noisy as hell, worse than using the 1/4 inch guitar input. I get the feeling I may have a hum? But, the keyboards etc are fine, no noise. The amp though does sound promising, if I can get it to work pretty silently that is?

I had a Line 6 HD pod which was absolutely terrible, any gain and the distortion was nasty, very noisy, even at low levels, I do not need another episode like that. Thanks.

[guitarron]

the tracks ive made using the headphone out of the mustang into the stereo in on the br or DAW was quite good sounding in my experience with it.
I used monitors from the recorder to hear it because the spkr shuts off when using the headph out on the amp
any noise you get would be from the pickups or ground issues that may exist, this should also be true for the POD as well

[Farrell Jackson]

the tracks ive made using the headphone out of the mustang into the stereo in on the br or DAW was quite good sounding in my experience with it.
I used monitors from the recorder to hear it because the spkr shuts off when using the headph out on the amp
any noise you get would be from the pickups or ground issues that may exist, this should also be true for the POD as well

Hi Chip. I completely agree with guitarron's comments. That's how I recorded also. I plugged direct from the headphone out to the VF160's 1/4 in and used my headphones from the VF160 to monitor the sound since it  silences the amp speaker when you plug to the Mustang's headphone jack. The VF160's in is a 1/4" mono guitar plug, direct in, that can be attenuated down/up to accept any signal level. There was minimal noise that I just chalked up to the noise my guitar pickups were making. I used it on my recording of S.F. Daze. The first guitar solo is a mic'ed Crate 5 watt tube amp. Starting at 2:45 and on out is the Mustang I headphone out direct to the VF160 1/4" in. I hope this helps. Here's the link if you want hear it.

https://songcrafters.org/community/index.php?topic=12054

Farrell

[guitarron]

ive also used a condenser mic about 4 feet away and a trusty old sm57 right on the speaker with pleasant results as well

[T.C. Elliott]

I just recorded some guitar parts using the headphone out to the BR-900 recorder guitar in. It worked fine.
Here is the song as is (not happy with the mix, but you can hear the guitars) The Acoustic and Bass were done separately, but all the electric guitars were phones out to BR-900.

https://songcrafters.org/community/index.php?topic=21030.msg258455;topicseen#new

[Johnny Robbo]

The last "good" guitar amp I owned was the Marshall 30th Anniversary combo which came out in the early 90s. It was my main gigging amp for about 10 years until I retired from live work around 2004. Then in about 2009, I was coaxed back out on the road for some gigs with a 70s tribute band (Bowie, Dr Feelgood, Boz Scaggs etc.). The only problem was I didn't have an amp & didn't have much of a budget either, so I played it safe & got the latest incarnation of the venerable Peavey Bandit... WHAT AN AMP!!! Lush clean sounds & an outstanding overdrive sound, it's effectively a 4 channel amp, as both channels have a footswitchable volume boost. The dirty sound cleans up beautifully to an SRV style crunch with the guitar volume control, too. Most of all it FEELS like playing through a valve amp - that touch-sensitivity & glassy sheen to the sound which were always the missing factors from solid state amps I remember from the 80s.

The other guitarist in the band had a Marshall TSL head & 2x12 cab & I was the one getting all the compliments on my tone! Solid state amps have certainly come of age, as this little beauty, with it's "Transtube" feature, was easily a match for my old Marshall Anniversay combo. Factor in the benefits of reliability - Peavey stuff will just about work under water - and it's the perfect workhorse amp. Can't recommend it highly enough 

[chip]

Cheers folks. I still haven't decided. I went upstairs and tried all the Joyo pedals out which I had not done with the BR1200, they sound better, but, you know, not quite. I like the detune cosm on the BR1200 at the moment and they worked well with that. I am though a Valve man for my sins, I have my Vox TV mini 6, although I can take it down to 1/10th of a watt it s still to bloody loud and you need to crank it to get the break up. And that is the dilemma, the break up or verge of break up that the solid states, line 6 and all the rest seem to lack.

The valve sound is what I am after but, I need to go direct unless I buy a mansion on a hill. I am assuming here that the Mustang has a speaker emulation when used direct? There are, I think, some small valve amps with headphone out, but I heard they ain't no good. The Mustang sounded fine on Farrell's song but I couldn't really hear it on the TC song.

The Mico terror looks and sounds great but the headphones out is apparently crap, I loved the sound of my Tiny Terror but, again wayyyyyyyyyy toooooooooo loud for in the house.

Of course the Mustang sounds fab on the demo's, but, I do think they have the magic button sometimes to make them sound better than what they are in the real world.
Also, they don't seem to spend much time on straight chords, open chords, chords I like. I am a big believer in the sound of the open chord through a valve amp on the verge of break up, something I can't quite achieve through digital as yet, it's close but there is always that little annoying fizz that tails off, something that I did hear the Mustang 1 had. I believe though that this fizz has been fixed in V2. Open chords anyone?

[guitarron]

venerable Peavey Bandit... WHAT AN AMP!!!:)

ive got one of the old ones a guy owed me money from a gig -its a workhorse- delegated for rehearsals these days

[chip]

Well. I have    not bought the Mustang. I have been messing around with the Joyo pedals with the Br1200 and at this moment they sound very good indeed. They cost me £20 odd each and for that price they are unbelievable value. Ok there is a little bit of noise when the gain/drive is near wide open, more so on the AC tone, but I can dial that back a little, mess with the voice controls and bingo we're in. They didn't work as well with the BR80 but they are working fine with their new pal. So my gas attack is over for now. Thanks for all the help on this one, I may pick up a Mustang on the cheap sometime though or a valve amp with headphone out, if they get it right.