#172285  by jopyeweed
 
Hi all,

Anyone have any luck with IOS apps (Jamup, Bias FX, amplitube, etc) for practicing with a Jerry clean tone? My experience so far is none of them have any real clean headroom on the skinny strings. They sound really brittle and thin...Jamup and Bias FX even sound synthy and strange in the high end. Seems this stuff is only really good for distortion tones. I have the Vox Amplug "clean" which is better but still fairly brittle. I can use it but as you guys probably know when you have a tone that inspires you, your playing becomes much more uh..inspired. :???: I know it can be done, I have a Korg PXR4 that can do it but you can't use amp sims and reverb at the same time, in real time. Only one or the other. Have to have reverb. You can record dry, then add reverb and it sounds great, but I want to practice with the tone. Sorry for rambling a little. Many thanks
 #172286  by Jon S.
 
Welcome to RUKIND.

My own approach to practice amps may not help you much but then again perhaps it will. If it's just for practice, I don't sweat the details. I put my effort into the practicing itself.

Hopefully, others with more direct responses will chime in soon.
 #172296  by NeilG1
 
Check out the fender mustang micro. I played around with one for a bit. It's a little thing that plugs into your guitar jack. Wear headphones and play. Can also bluetooth connect to other devices, so it will play a jam track etc along with your guitar sound. Has a handful of amp models, including a BF Twin (with a bit of compression) and a BF deluxe reverb. you can add pretty nice reverb to either. Bunch of other dirtier models etc, and other effects that work with certain amps only - delay, chorus, dirt, etc.
The Fender clean with reverb is actually pretty good. It isn't perfect obviously, but given that the unit is like $100 or so, it's not bad. Might fit what you're looking for. Try one out.
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 #172299  by jopyeweed
 
Thanks friends, the mustang micro seems like something to try. I like the ease of use that goes with the amplug I have. I need it to be as easy as possible to work with. If I have to drag out stuff and cables it’s just not going to happen. I don’t have a dedicated playing space right now, pretty much the couch most of the time. The fender micro is basically the same form factor as the Vox Amplug line but with more features and probably better tone so that’s probably my best bet. Thanks again!
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 #172302  by Jon S.
 
Question for jopeyweed: curious why you made Eupatorium maculatum your screen name?

Also, while I don't personally own any of them, these also seem to come up frequently in discussons of good, small practice amps:

Yamaha THR
Katana Air
Katana Mini
Vox Mini 5
Roland Micro Cube (actually, I had one of these once but gave it away when I copped my Cube Street)
Nux Mighty Lite
 #172305  by lbpesq
 
If you are looking at mini amps along with the tiny guitar plug amps, I would suggest the Blackstar Fly 3. It’s the only mini amp I’ve found that is a real amp and not just a toy. You can also add a matching powered extension speaker and, voila, you have a cool little portable stereo too!

Bill, tgo
 #172318  by jopyeweed
 
Jon S. wrote: Tue Jan 11, 2022 7:33 am Question for jopeyweed: curious why you made Eupatorium maculatum your screen name?

Also, while I don't personally own any of them, these also seem to come up frequently in discussons of good, small practice amps:

Yamaha THR
Katana Air
Katana Mini
Vox Mini 5
Roland Micro Cube (actually, I had one of these once but gave it away when I copped my Cube Street)
Nux Mighty Lite
I didn’t know eupawhatum was my screen name. Must’ve defaulted somehow. Does that mean something specific? If it’s some kind of reference I’m not familiar with it. I thought my screen name was Jopyeweed.
 #172319  by jopyeweed
 
Thanks again all for the suggestions. I am looking at some of them. I love browsing gear of course! Thanks Jon S, I forgot about that Boss Katana stuff! I wanted to see what that was about when it first came out.

I think I also just maybe wanted to sort of commiserate in a way about the unique challenges Garcia tone chasers face with a lot of available gear. Ever watch a “great cleans” amp demo video just to have them reel off SRV licks or some kinda chunka -chunka rhythm playing? Sigh.

It seems with amp simulations the dynamic way of picking melodic lines we get from Jerry just really shows how hard it is to simulate twin-like headroom. You hit it hard on the accents and it doesn’t sing and resonate in the reverb, it just fractures. Like glass breaking. Crink. So I’m excited initially about an all in one solution, all the amps, effects, etc. but then oh wait, it fundamentally doesn’t react to this kind of playing approach, now all the other bells and whistles are irrelevant. We’re never getting off the ground in this thing. :? Oh well, long post sorry. Keep on trucking!
 #172320  by jopyeweed
 
jopyeweed wrote: Thu Jan 13, 2022 6:49 pm
Jon S. wrote: Tue Jan 11, 2022 7:33 am Question for jopeyweed: curious why you made Eupatorium maculatum your screen name?

Also, while I don't personally own any of them, these also seem to come up frequently in discussons of good, small practice amps:

Yamaha THR
Katana Air
Katana Mini
Vox Mini 5
Roland Micro Cube (actually, I had one of these once but gave it away when I copped my Cube Street)
Nux Mighty Lite
I didn’t know eupawhatum was my screen name. Must’ve defaulted somehow. Does that mean something specific? If it’s some kind of reference I’m not familiar with it. I thought my screen name was Jopyeweed.
Wait, I got it. Scientific name. Guess I failed that test. Jopyeweed has been my email handle for a long time. My girlfriend, now my wife, knows a lot of wildflowers and whatnot and used to point out Jopyeweed growing along the roadside. I liked the name, used it for my email account, and it has stuck around with me for 20 years or so now! :o
 #172321  by Jon S.
 
jopyeweed wrote: Thu Jan 13, 2022 6:49 pm I thought my screen name was Jopyeweed.
Eupatorium purpureum, or Joe-pye weed as most people know it, ... produces pale pink-purple flowers that last from midsummer through fall. https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/orname ... e-weed.htm See also: https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/eutr ... maculatum/
 #172323  by jopyeweed
 
Jon S. wrote: Thu Jan 13, 2022 8:05 pm
jopyeweed wrote: Thu Jan 13, 2022 6:49 pm I thought my screen name was Jopyeweed.
Eupatorium purpureum, or Joe-pye weed as most people know it, ... produces pale pink-purple flowers that last from midsummer through fall. https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/orname ... e-weed.htm See also: https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/eutr ... maculatum/
Sorry, I can be a little dense sometimes. :lol: :roll:

If you didn’t see it I tagged another reply onto my first, when I first figured it out.
Hey I really enjoyed your vacation song you posted elsewhere here! Great tune, great vibe, great lyrics! Fun and funny.
Jon S. liked this
 #172338  by Chocol8
 
jopyeweed wrote: Thu Jan 13, 2022 7:28 pm I think I also just maybe wanted to sort of commiserate in a way about the unique challenges Garcia tone chasers face with a lot of available gear. Ever watch a “great cleans” amp demo video just to have them reel off SRV licks or some kinda chunka -chunka rhythm playing? Sigh.

It seems with amp simulations the dynamic way of picking melodic lines we get from Jerry just really shows how hard it is to simulate twin-like headroom. You hit it hard on the accents and it doesn’t sing and resonate in the reverb, it just fractures. Like glass breaking. Crink. So I’m excited initially about an all in one solution, all the amps, effects, etc. but then oh wait, it fundamentally doesn’t react to this kind of playing approach, now all the other bells and whistles are irrelevant. We’re never getting off the ground in this thing. :? Oh well, long post sorry. Keep on trucking!
The solution to this problem is not cheap and definitely not portable, but it does work well for quiet or headphone practice...

Real Twin ---> Suhr Reactive Load IR (with JBL IR) ---> Headphones

or

Real Twin ---> Suhr Reactive Load IR ---> Clean amp ---> JBL loaded cab

For non-tone chasing just want a cheap light weight and super portable headphone amp, check out the NUX Mighty Plug. It has a lot more options and configurability than the Fender Mustang Micro, with the tradeoff being you need to use an app to configure them. You get 7 or so presets that you can setup and then cycle through, each with delay, reverb, and one other effect. You can stream bluetooth audio to it from the Re listen app (or any app) and play along, or it also has built in drum tracks and a few backing tracks. I think it is the best of the mini ampplugs out there right now, but it is going to have all of the limitations of a small modeler relative to a real Twin Reverb.