I usually play acoustic Guitars and sing, both completely unamplified.
But id like to start with E-Guitar too and slide Guitar, and I have two 3 stringed Cigar Box Guitars. Specially for them I need an amp.
Because I like to play outside in the Park for an Audience I want a mobile amp.
And than I maybe want to amplify my voice too (still don’t know)
Wich effects do I have to have?. In the Amp or as a Pedal? A Looper would be nice too. Maybe a little Cigar Box Amp is enough?
I’m completely inexperienced with amplicifaction …open to recommendations, but my budget isn’t endless; around 300 euros starts to hurt.
If anyone can tell me which effects I definitely need and which ones are “nice to have,” I’d be happy to hear them. And Recommendations please
I have a Roland Micro Cube with inbuilt effects + it runs on 6x AA battery. Such a great amp not too big not too small. I’ve been using it for years when I’m on the road. Highly recommend.
If you want to amplify your voice too your options are more limited because you need an amp that also allows you to also connect a microphone. And if you want your voice to reasonably resemble a human voice you’ll want to buy an acoustic guitar amp.
I just checked the largest German retailer for:
battery-operated acoustic guitar amps with microphone input
and this is what I got in your price range:
I don’t know which of these models are available in your part of the world but it gives you a peek at what is available. Plus, the starred models come with a lot of insightful user reviews that might help you with your decision.
I don’t endorse this company but I added the link because it gives a lot of useful descriptions.
You don’t need any effects, but you probably want some for certain styles or music or songs.
Probably the most useful one is reverb, for both guitar and vocals. Then, for acoustic style songs, chorus is popular.
Not many portable amps include a looper, so I would budget to get a separate pedal for that but bear in mind that the looper, generally, goes after any effects that you want to turn on/off during a song. If the effects are built into the amp, that can be difficult to achieve.
Back on effects, for electric guitar you probably want some sort of boost, overdrive, or distortion. These are definitely effects that you would want to be able to turn on and off if using a looper.
Depending on the song and style of music, you may find delays good. They can also be used with short delay settings to fatten the sound
Finally, compressors can be useful for some styles of music and to help balance the sound more in live performances, but this is usually a more subtle effect, and you can probably do without it.
There’s loads of other effects, of course, but they tend to be less commonly used.
I would focus on reverb and some sort of overdrive for the electric guitar.
I do wonder if the Spark Mini really would be loud enough.
In my experience, using an amp outside in an open space reduces its effective volume to about 1/10th of their indoor volume.
I’ve not heard the Spark Mini cranked, but I have heard it’s big brother, the Spark 40, and that would struggle to be effective in an open air situation (plus it sounded pretty bad when turned up that loud).
And in a potentially busy/noisy space, my suspicion is something like the Mini would be barely audible from more than about 15 feet away in a park setting.
Similarly, I would have thought the Yamaha THRs might struggle a bit, although the THR30 would possibly be loud enough for a small audience.
I would have thought something like the Spark Live or Edge would have been more appropriate. Of course, they are a lot more expensive.
The Street Cube is the classic buskers PA, and you can probably pick up a pre-loved unit quite cheaply, and they are built like tanks.
You could then use a cheap multifx unit with it which would give you all the effects you would probably ever need, plus many multifx units have built -in loopers.
Remember to look for battery powered units. Something like the Boss GT-1, for example. Again, these are cheap on the used market.
Good points, I was thinking mobile and price. Plus the mini is loud though possibly not for an audience outside. Both the Edge and Live would do it, but that would break the budget.
Hi Andreas, Here’s an article covering guitar amps for beginners. I don’t know that you’re a beginner, but I think this covers the types of amp you’re looking for without getting into the weeds while staying in your budget.
It’s never mentioned here, but I have a Vox Mini Go 10. It’s portable, runs on a usb battery pack (not included), takes a mic input for voice. It has 9 amp models, 8 effects, rhythm, and a 40-second looper. For me a big selling point is that it has no app to run it, and no fancy stuff you have to set up to get your “sound”. I love the sound of Vox tube amps, and figured their model in this amp would probably be pretty good. I know this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea (or wine or whatever), but it’s got what I wanted and more.
I’ve got the JBL Eon One Compact. I was also looking at the Bose S1 Pro. What swayed me to the Eon was 4 full channels. What’s handy also with it is a good mixer app on my mobile phone. Means I can easily adjust EQ / volume / fx from where I’m playing without getting out of chair or stool to fiddle with knobs. Comes with a rechargeable battery pack. I play acoustic fingerstyle and strumming, which means the app is great as I need to pull the volume back a bit when strumming.