practicing in home :smaller amp or attenuator

[bluesstar]

There are two ways to practice guitar in home.
1 smaller watt amp,
2. use attenuator
smaller amp , I need buy one more amp,one for gigs ,and one for home, otherwise, some people think samller amp were not better than larger one.But present samller amp cheaper.
Because I have had larger amp, buying one attenuator maybe better,but one THD attenuaor Hot plat is very expensive than one smaller amp?
How about other attenautor?

[SteveO]

If you already have a big amp, a small amp like a Line 6 or other modeling amp would be an ideal choice for home playing and would cost less than half that of an attenuator.

[blanche]

even an amp of two or three watts is pretty loud when you're in a home trying not disturb others, so I'd vote for the attenuator.

[fritferret]

2 days ago i would have said attenuator, but yesterday my traynor dark horse arrived. it's a little passed 11pm here, someone is reading in the next room, and i'm enjoying some great tube tone from the 2 watt side of this little amp. sounds great, feels great. if you're looking for a low watt home amp, i highly suggest checking it out!

[lang.murphy]

Depends on how many watts your "large" amp has... a Swart Night Light attenuator costs $200, works great, but only handles amps up to 30 watts.

I use my NL with my Swart STR... and I need to set it at max attenuation when the wife goes toes up. Or... I plug into my Egnater Tweaker and get anything from Voxy cleans to Mad Distortion at bedroom levels using the Gain and Master pots.

[bluesstar]

I found one attenuator kldguitar AT 50, It is cheaper, who did use it?
THD is very expensive

[lang.murphy]

Cheap is not the way to go with attenuators. At least that's been my experience. Not being able to find a single review of the unit you mentioned, personally I'd take a pass on it, I.e., not buy it.

[lukeII]

Small amp + inefficient speaker + Good Master Vol/ Power scaling or attenuator is the way to go.

Inefficient speaker is important as even if you have all the rest if the speaker isn't seeing a decent signal from the amp it still won't sound right.

[Butterfly]

Small amp, or a smallish one with master volume is the way I'd go.

[dspellman]

Lots of ways to practice in the home.

• Very small amp (there are 1/2 Watt amps on the market)
• Attenuated amp (there are attenuators from Bitmo for the 5W Epiphone Valve Jrs)
• Fluxtone speaker (play your amp at full chat, speaker reduces volume, no tone change http://fluxtone-speakers.com/)
• Pod XT or other modeler plus headphones or nearfield recording monitor speakers
• Korg PX5D battery-powered gizmo plus earbuds that does everything.
• Soundproof the basement room where you practice

[harryjmic]

Maybe I'm missing something here but both my amps can be used for playing stages or at home. Any amp with a decent volume control or possibly a master should work. What are you trying to do at low volumes?

[LHanson]

Personally, I use a Pod 2.0 into my computer sound card, and headphones. Works great.

[TS808]

Just my opinion but works best for me in a home situation is modeling amps or dare I say, solid state (Peavey Transtubes are excellent choices). I gave up on trying to use a tube amp at home as really I can't crank them to get power tube saturation. Even the 5-watt Blackheart amp I had was too loud for home use.

Again, this is just my PREFERENCE, and others may have other suggestions.

[Flameout12]

Originally Posted by harryjmic

Maybe I'm missing something here but both my amps can be used for playing stages or at home. Any amp with a decent volume control or possibly a master should work. What are you trying to do at low volumes?

Me too...I have three 50 watt amps....and I play all of them at home on moderate vol. settings.

I recorded this track using all 3 of them played at lower volumes:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page...songID=8906326