Recommend me a "Baby Rig"... lol

[danger5oh]

Hey SSO... this might sound like a weird request, but my wife and I are expecting pretty much any day now, and I'm looking for recommendations for a new baby/grouchy wife rig. I already did the unthinkable and sold my Mesa Tverb Recto half stack, as well as a bunch of my gigging gear (coincidentally, 40% of my band is going on deployment as well).

Basically I'm looking for a small, minimalist rig that will allow me to do 2 things... 1) Play some convincingly heavy tones at baby friendly volumes... 2) Dabble in recording (I should add that thus far, I've been a very low tech musician... pedals into a tube amp are all I really know)... I figure if I'm going to be at home a lot, I might as well learn something new.

I recently picked up a Vox Mini 3, and, well... it is what it is. Worked great for throwing into the overhead compartment on the airplane during my last trip, but I don't think it's going to satisfy my creativity and my GAS for very long.

Any gear you guys could recommend would be greatly appreciated...

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Can't recommend the Jet City PicoValve enough. It's super flexible, can sound great at whisper volume, and it's crazy cheap.

I picked mine up with matching 1x12 for $200 shipped, new.

It will need a TS style pedal to tighten things up if you're going for the modern br00t41 tones, but can do old school thrash and hair metal out of the box.

I've just started swapping all kinds of tubes in the power section (it's designed to take ANY octal power tube with zero biasing needed) and it's really fun getting all kinds of different tones.

 

[danger5oh]

I've never heard of the Pico Valve, but it looks pretty cool. I wonder how it compares to the Blackstar HT-5... I've been strongly considering picking one of those up. Or maybe an HD500 and just using it with headphones.

 

[TemjinStrife]

The Blackstar would be my other suggestion for a fun little rig.

 

[carcass]

just few days ago I found very interesting thing, pedal poweramp (Electro Harmonix 44 Magnum or EHX 22 Caliber) that can be used with some kind of distortion pedal (like AMT preamp series, f.e. S1, P1, E1, B1 etc) .. I think that this could be possible solution or at least something to think about. Anyway, congrats to the offspring man!!!

 

[cardinal]

Budget? I went through the same thing earlier this year. Sold a VH4 and went with the AXFII. I kinda want my VH4 back, but the Axe isn't terrible by any stretch (especially with V 6.0). Through headphones, I'd amost say that it's sounds blah, but into a cab at even very low volumes, it does really well.

I've given up on the headphones because 1) I thought it sounds too harsh, 2) the Axe to a cab sounds good at the same volume as just the pick hitting the strings, so why bother, and 3) perhaps most importantly for you, I've found that once he's solidly asleep, our baby will sleep through a lot and some fairly loud AIC or Van Halen riffing didn't bother him in the slightest.

 

[danger5oh]

Thanks for the suggestions so far. The EH pedal amps sound like they might be a good idea paired with a decent floorboard or multi effects unit. I would love to have an Axe FX, but I don't really want to shell out that much cash at the moment. It also seems like it would have a beast of a learning curve lol.

 

[Bigfan]

I'd probably get a Pod HD of some sort or an Axe-FX.

Just add a poweramp+cab or a powered speaker and you're set.

 

[cardinal]

Oh, and I've used those EHX power amp pedals, and they're awesome.

 

[xCaptainx]

I use an HD500 + poweramp for a live rig, and some M-Audio AV40 speakers at home for practise in our spare room. Works really well and a great setup for a modest budget!

 

[Fenriswolf]

You could get a Hughes and Kettner tubemeiser, they can do 1, 5 and 18 watts and if you get a recording interface you can just use headphones with it

 

[Leuchty]

POD HD + Powered speaker.

 

[Stealthdjentstic]

Pod x3 or hd500 + powered speaker OR a cheap solid state power amp and a 1x12. So flexible!

 

[JPhoenix19]

I've played the Blackstar HT5 and it rocked for bedroom jamming. If you were willing to go more "high tech" I'd recommend some recording monitors, a good interface, and some VST's.

 

[Bevo]

The HT5 is pretty loud at a decent tone level, I find at whisper volume it sounds like crap.

HD500 and a powered monitor would be perfect!

 

[Sephael]

+1 for the tubemeister, I absolutely love it. I use a cheap 4 channel USB mixer to record and it let's me go through my headphones with the H&K on full power soak. If I want heavier I run a tightmetal into the power section. Family is gone and I can turn it to the full 18 watts and relish it the beauty.

 

[Dark Aegis]

Amptweaker tight metal + EHX power amp pedal

 

[noUser01]

Personally I record with a Blackstar HT-20 head which has an emulated output built in. I practice and record with:

Guitar > Tube Screamer > Blackstar HT-20 > Audio Interface > Computer

That way I can record or just practice through my computer speakers, my studio monitors, or whatever I choose.

 

[amarshism]

if you has the money a mark v combo is a very nice lounge piece

 

[Garrett]

I have Ht-5 and a hd400. To me, I can't just get as much gain as i want on the ht-5. It does a great modded Marshall tone and maybe a decent thrash tone but nothing more. I normally run my hd400 straight into the effects return. Also I'm running it into an avatar 2x12 with v30's to give you an idea of my rig.