I’ve read quite a bit about travel guitars, but I’m not seeing much about travel amps.
I recently travelled to Guadalajara, where I danced to Mariachi bands, learned about tequila, and supported my spouse while he got dental implants. Since I’m trying to keep a schedule with the BLIM lessons, I borrowed my son’s travel guitar and amp. All of this is to say, that the Positive Grid Spark GO amp is absolutely fabulous! As soon as I got home, I went online and ordered one for myself. This thing is so freeing! Now I can take my electric guitar just about anywhere. When visiting my family, I used to think I had to limit my practice to the acoustic guitar if I didn’t want to haul around speakers, pedals, or full-sized amplifiers.
I think this is also a great little gadget for people who are just starting out because it’s not very expensive, and the app provides plenty of tone options without investing in pedals and such. Best of all, this tiny beast sounds good. You can even use it as bluetooth speaker when you just want to listen to music.
Does anybody else have a favorite amp or setup that makes their electric guitar more portable?
Also pictured is my Yamaha THR10ii which is my main “portable” amp. It’s less portable than other options, but useful for if I spend any more than a week or so away from home. For the 2+ years I was in Singapore, this was my main guitar amp and music listening device.
More recently, I’ve picked up two headphone amplifiers: a Nux MP3, which I used a lot when I temporarily moved to Malaysia, and a Boss Katana Go (sadly, currently unavalable) which I bought after I moved back to the UK, and which I now have as my main portable device.
I also replaced the Shure IEMs (which are a bit ) with some Mee Audio ones which are better (and cheaper).
Not likely. Although the Mariachi bands in Mexico were much better than any I remember from US restaurant serenades, it’s still not my gig. One of these days, I’ll pop up in the open mic with something I want to share. For now, I’m content to sit in the cheering section.
I have one of those Spark amps, and they are great, especially as a practice amp with it’s various ways to accompany you.
But a device I prefer is the tiny amp modeller unit that plugs into the guitar, and headphones run from that. It’s great when you’re in different places and especially when you don’t want to bother other people.
It was OK, but the lack of the upper part of the body was quite weird and took a fair amount of adapting to, and it has quite a lot of neck-dive.
Also, the tuning stability is not that great. I’m not sure if it’s because the neck is relatively thin and flexible,or because of the trem system. Tuning up and stretching after putting on a new set of strings isn’t much fun.
Now I’m back in the UK, if I’m travelling in the UK (like I did to Glasgow last week) I can throw a full-sized guitar in the car. In that case I will either take the THR10ii (like I did when I went camping a few weeks ago) or a headphone amp and IEMs if I’m practicing in a hotel or somewhere else where I don’t want to disturb other people.
I’m in two minds about getting rid of the Travelcaster, but I have this niggling feeling I would regret it and that, just as I did, some situation would pop up where it would be useful to have it.
An “amp modeller” is any of these modern digital amps that models a conventional analogue guitar amp. This includes the Spark series amps, the Fender Mustangs, many of the Blackstar amps and the Boss Katana range (although the full-sized Katanas are actually a hybrid digital/analogue design).
As @WayneR refers to a “tiny amp modeller unit that plugs into the guitar, and headphones run from that” I believe he is specifically talking about “headphone amps” which are modelling units like the Spark GO, but which plug directly into the guitar and are designed to be used with headphones (so no speaker on them).
Examples include the Fender Mustang Micro, The Nux MP3, and the Boss Katana Go.
In general, an amp modeller will duplicate (model) various amplifiers.
The ‘unit’ ( I was struggling with remembering the name of these things!) I was thinking about is a mini-amp that plugs directly into the guitar. It’s about the size of a chocolate bar, the headphones plug into it, and you can strum away without annoying anyone - or practice in a more public setting and not worry about performance.
I’ve pasted a link, but not sure if this will work…
Haha, yes the tequila excursion was fun. I learned that true tequila only comes from the town of Tequila. The worm story is a myth that actually goes with another drink. If you get a worm in a tequila bottle, it’s no good.
The quality depends on such variables as type of agave plant, fermentation method, and aging. People don’t usually mix good tequila with anything. You’re supposed to order it by the shot in restaurants. When we did the tasting, we could tell for ourselves that cheaper tequilas need to be mixed or chased with fruit juice. The good stuff was really smooth. It wasn’t hard to drink straight shots of it. The guide swore you could drink a whole bottle without getting a hangover. I took a pass on that one though.
Yes, mezcal. Mezcal is similar to tequila, but very different: much smokier due to its production process.
When I was in Mexico City, I hardly saw anyone drink tequila, but mezcal was everywhere. It’s often consumed with slice of orange with a red powder sprinkled on them.
The red powder is Sal De Gusano or “worm salt” which is produce by combining dried, ground worms (and sometimes other edible insects) with salt and chilli. I was told this might be the real origin of the practice of drinking tequila shots with a lick of salt and a bite of lime, but it’s much more refined.
Personally, I prefer mezcal to tequila, although I do enjoy a good sipping tequila.
) with some Mee Audio ones which are better (and cheaper).
