Recommend me a portable guitar amp

Cafe Society
1

Picture this:

It’s a beautiful spring evening. The heat of the day is past and a gentle breeze wafts away my cares.
I am sitting in the shade of my new umbrella on my new sun lounger on my newly paved patio. I have a pint of Fuller’s ESB by my side and my surf green stratocaster on my knee is straining as the tension builds in Clapton’s solo in Sunshine of your Love.

But I can’t hear it.

Because I’m not plugged in.

What’s a good ( cheap ) portable amp for such a situation?

Extra credit if I can use headphones with it!

2

Fender AmpCan.

Crate Taxi.

The Crate Taxi can be used with headphones. The Fender, I think so, but I haven’t actually used one. Neither sounds as good as a full sized amp, but either one can be taken to some pretty remote locations and still work.

3

From the taxi site…

I am perfectly willing to sacrifice tone for mobility :). I just want something that I can use for practicing. I won’t be performing.

Any cheaper suggestions?

4

This page has a bunch of mini amps that look interesting, but are they worth the trouble?

5

They all look fun, but I have no personal experience. Can you hie thee down to the nearest Guitarre Shoppe and check a few out?

(I have no idea why I got all Ren Faire just then…)

6

I had the Pignose Hog 20. Had problems with the batteries and/or recharger (I’m not the tech kind.)

7

For headphones and minimal pain in the assery, there is my cheap-ass Danelectro Honeytone.

It is $20. It has a belt clip and a headphone jack. It lasts forever on a 9-volt. You can hear it abouuut the range of a porch. (It’s a 1-Watt amp.)

I wouldn’t busk with it, I wouldn’t gig with it, but for practice, I’m loving mine.

I should note that I wouldn’t know a good amp if it bit me on the ass and yelled ‘STACK ME BABY’. But this just works. Frankly, I like it better than the ones that plug directly into the guitar, it doesn’t make the balance feel weird.

8

Oh, yeah. I have the Fender MD-20. I like the Danelectro better.

9

Oh - and just to get it out there: I love an *acoustic *guitar outside with a beer on these types of evenings…

10

I considered that too but I’d have to spend some $$$ to get my acoustic in decent shape. That’s how i ended up with strat, remember?

11

I like the look of that. How bit is it?

Amazon says it ways a pound . The pictures make it look big, but you say it has a belt clip.

I’m curious.

12

I just ordered the Dano Honeytone for Attacklad. I will send a review in a week or two, after its been put through its paces.

13

Sorry to double post, but there are a bunch of youtube clips of lots of these minamps, including the Honeytone. They’re helpful for getting an idea of the size and volume.

14

That looks awesome! Will I be able to play like that if I get one?

It looks exactly like the kind of thing I want. I like the short and curly lead too.

I’m going shopping!

15

Epilogue

I ordered the nifty aqua. Looks pretty close to Surf Green!

16

Arrived today! It’s beautiful! Color is exact match to guitar.

Sounds great too. Louder than I expected. Incredible value for $20!

17

The Squier SP-10 is a pretty decent practice amp…portable but not battery powered.

Whatever happened to the Rockman and a set of headphones?

18

Still made (by Dunlop, IIRC):

I got a Pocket Rockit as a Christmas present from my parents:
http://www.guitarcenter.com/C-Tech-Pocket-Rockit-V2-Guitar-Headphone-Amplifier-103388344-i1124571.gc

it’s also a pretty nice little beastie, though the design means that, if I were to plug directly into the jack on the guitar (as it’s designed to do), it’d be on the bottom of my Les Paul, which is kinda awkward…so, I use a cable and a female-female connector.

19

I can’t believe nobody mentioned the Vox DA5.
I love mine. The batteries last a long time on the .5 watt setting and it’s plenty loud enough to piss off the neighbors.

Trust me, awesome!

20

Of course, if you want to spend some money, the best microamp, I’m hearing, is the Roland Micro Cube.

That said, I’m sure glad the Honeytone is working for you. Want fun? Bring down the volume fairly low, and play feedback games with it. neeeeaaar… faaaaarr…