As a guitar player, I know the struggle of having to haul around an amp with my electric as I have a Carvin V3 halfstack and that is no easy task. Over the past few years, I have been discovering some really effective, yet very portable solutions that allow me to take my great guitar tone with me. In this article, I am going to show you a few of those options.
Hotone makes small, 5 Watt amp heads that pack a lot of punch. They are compatible with cabinets of 4-16 ohms of impedance and are small enough to fit in a sweatshirt pocket. Being in a metal band, it's no surprise that my favorite is the
Heart Attack. Hotone has made a head for any guitar player though. The variety of tones is incredible. It's not enough for me to just tell you that it sounds good, so check out this audio sample:
These amp heads even have a headphone output. That means you can use this without a cab. Check out our
Hotone Nano Legacy bundles with headphones if you like saving money!
This little amp is less than half of a cubic foot, but packs the tone of a much larger amp. It can go from smooth jazz to broken up and dirty rock and roll, all with only 35 watts. It has four simple controls: Gain, Volume, Tone and Ambiance. The Ambiance control is a digital emulation of an open-back cabinet. The higher it is turned up, the more room sound you get. It can really make the amp sound huge. Also available is a larger version for $449 that boasts a whopping 200 watts, but still weighs less than 10 pounds.
For years, Line 6 has been known for their legendary digital guitar effects. I had played a show with a band who's guitarist used one and his tone was some of the best I heard that night. Now, you can take those awesome tones with you anywhere, plug in headphones and jam. There is no limit to the variety of factory sounds that come with it, but I am always really impressed with their distortion. Both for metal and rock.
I wasn't expecting to put an audio interface on here, but Focusrite's
Scarlett Range is unique in terms of guitar. Last year,
Focusrite did a huge upgrade on their best-selling interfaces. They say the new Scarletts are built for guitarists with higher headroom on the Hi-Z input, lower latency, and 11 guitar pedal plug-ins included for free. What sets this apart from the other options is that it allows you to record into your computer using these effects in real time. The smaller Scarletts are small and portable, but built like a brick so you don't have to worry about taking it on the road. As always, enjoy FAST and FREE shipping on any order in the continental US. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to give us a call at 855-269-0474 or stop in our store in Downtown Appleton! Be sure to check out our other articles
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