Personal Headphone Amplifiers, Any recommendations Options

[Guitar1969]

As if I don't have enough stuff already, I was thinking one of those headphone amps that plug directly into your guitar might be cool in a very quiet and portable situation - possible X-mas gift. I already have a Roland Microcube amp that is great but looking for a headphone amp deal now. There seems to be quite a few, and some have effects built in etc. Vox makes a line of them but they seem generic. There's a company called C Tech that seems to make the most feature rich ones, but also the most expensive - about $80.

Anybody have any of these and are the sound/features any good. Maybe there is some other portable effects unit that might be better, but I need it to be about the size of a pack of playing cards. I recall there used to be a company called Rockman that made these many years back

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[audiopaal]

The only ones I've tried is Vox, and they sounded quite good actually
The Ac30 and Classic rock versions that is, I haven't tried the other ones..

I haven't tried other brands, so hopefully someone else can help you

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[Dejan Farkas]

I don't know how these pocket amps sound, but I'm using Korg Pandora PX4D for the same purpose.. well it's a little bit biger than a pack of playing cards (4.41 x 2.99 x 1.06 inches), but you can plug your guitar and headphones in, have a ton of amps and effects.. and sound great

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[Guitar1969]

I don't know how these pocket amps sound, but I'm using Korg Pandora PX4D for the same purpose.. well it's a little bit biger than a pack of playing cards (4.41 x 2.99 x 1.06 inches), but you can plug your guitar and headphones in, have a ton of amps and effects.. and sound great

Funny you should mention that Pandora PX4D, as I've been checking them out now, and it seems quite interesting- can pick a used one up for a resonable price. My only question is, how good are the Bass and Drum sounds that are built in - Can you easily creat a custom bass and drum progressions/pattern I am also looking at the Zoom PS-04 which has all of that as well, but is also a personal 4 track recorder(More like the Pandora PX5) but seems more complicated(A lot of deep menus). I would really not need the recording stuff(Have Boss Br-600 that is great for that) but I am wondering if the Zoom can be set up to be easy to use for personal amplifying and rhythm patterns

If I recall, I think a few of the instructors use those Pandoras as well.

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This post has been edited by Guitar1969: Nov 7 2008, 11:27 PM

[Fran]

My only question is, how good are the Bass and Drum sounds that are built in -
If I recall, I think a few of the instructors use those Pndoras as well.

I believe most of Muris lessons are recorded with a PX4D, so it sounds good, but then again Muris could make anything sound good!

I have PX5D and the backings are good enough to jam over, but I hadn't taken the time to really get the most out of them. With the packed software seems easy enough though. (Px4d might work differently)

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[Andrew Cockburn]

I'm pretty sure that Muris just uses his PX4D for recording guitar thorough - the rest of the backings are done in Cubase, so don;t expect to get Muris standard backings out of this unit!

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[Ivan Milenkovic]

Yes, I think Pandora, or pocket POD is the way to go mate, ton of different sounds on them, very practical for silent practice.

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[Dejan Farkas]

My only question is, how good are the Bass and Drum sounds that are built in - Can you easily creat a custom bass and drum progressions/pattern.

You have some basic progressions and you can set the key, that's all, I did not play much with it, but think it will not be useful for recording, only for jamming maybe.

But another stuff that I find useful is the phrase trainer. I use it in a way to record rhythm guitar and then to solo over it, but mainly it is meant for recording some short phrase that you want to learn (through line in, you can also connect mp3 players and stuff to jam along) and then slow it down to learn the phrase.

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