Electric Guitars

[PeaveyPlayer]

I'm looking at buying a small, low cost, portable amp. I was considering a Danelectro Honeytone but one of the members, on another thread, left me with second thoughts. The second amp that I am considering is the Pignose but again the reviews are not that great. So, here I am throwing the question out for general discussion. Which would be the best small, low cost, portable amp to buy?

[PrawnHeed]

Yamaha THR gets good reviews.

[Tone Deaf]

I don't have any first hand experience with any that are on the market. However, if you already have an iPad, there are several fairly inexpensive apps that will turn your iPad into a practice amp. Depending on what you're trying to accomplish, this may be a viable option. I assume there are also apps available for non-Apple tablets as well. If this isn't a viable option, look hard at the new Yamaha amps that were released earlier this year.

[kit_strong]

Yamaha THR would definitely be my first choice for a table top amp. My 2nd choice would be the fender greta simply because it looks really cool.

[Lonnie99]

I've played both the Honeytone and Pignose and can't recommend either.

[MephitBlue]

Yamaha THR would definitely be my first choice for a table top amp. My 2nd choice would be the fender greta simply because it looks really cool.

I've never played through on either, but the after seeing the Fender Great I wanted one bad.

[wagdog]

I think the yamaha thr has the "tabletop" sized amp market pretty much owned at this point... however I really like the fender mustang series of amps, and a mustang 1 is a pretty small amp, with great, great tones. I've seen them from $35-$60 used.

[BeanoBoy]

Another satisfied THR 10 owner.

[flatheadpete]

Played both the Yamaha and Fender. The Fender sounds like a toy. The Yamaha sounds like an amp.

[GAS Man]

I've bought quite a few small battery mini-amps over the years. The HoneyTone is about the best value in that class. The Fender '57 Tweed is about the worst. But of course those are rather limited. You could also look at the Orange CR6S that Hello Music has on sale right now for $79. Orange amps have amazing cleans and interesting gain tones. I'm becoming a bit of a convert after buying a couple of their SS products. Actually, 1 of them is a hybrid amp. But if you want to move up from there, the Roland Cube 20X(L) works quite well for desk top. There's also the smaller 15XL but I haven't tried that one yet, but it's only $119 before any haggling discounts. The Yamaha THRs are indeed getting great reviews, but they are so much more than the $19.95 amp you're talking about. And yeah, the Pig Nose is better. It has a deeper tone that's not as plastic-y sounding. Like this guys says, more clean headroom than you'd expect from a little amp like this. There's dang near no clean headroom on that Fender '57 Tweed :rolleyes: [video=youtube;Cu5nh1mzkAM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu5nh1mzkAM[/video]

[wagdog]

lol - I forgot, I have one of those honeytone amps. They do sound surprising good.

[kit_strong]

My bad. I completely overlooked the low-cost part. Then I agree that the honeytone is probably as good as its going to get.

[Buttcrust]

works for me. The software program that comes with it works OK (amp/effects modeler) and it is an OK speaker system for my laptop. Works with batteries.