[Closed] Childrens guitar amp advice

Does depend where your son intends to use it but, just for practice in our end of terrace house (ie not too loud for the neighbours), we went with a little Marshall MG10 CF for our daughter...not quite the JCM900 stack my brother has but does the job. Also a 15 & 30 in the range as well

We have just got my daughter a Blackstar Amp. It was from Dawsons in Manchester and so far seems good for the job

Orange do some tiny little practice amps, plus some larger but still small amps I’ve seen being used on stage by some bands.

https://orangeamps.com/products/guitar-amp-combos/crush-series/crush-mini/

Blackstar are indeed  good.  Crush Mini is also good. I have a little Vox for home practice. It's also very good, almost indistinguishable from my real '64 AC-30, apart from being about 500dB quieter at full chat.

All of the small 8" ish speaker modelling amps do a good job these days, so pick your budget and check EBay / Gumtree / FB - I see them come up often for much cheapness have to keep stopping myself buy them.

The question of how close gigging is, is relevant - you mgiht be better of with a larger 30W ish modeller if its iminent, but the small amps do a fine job these days.

A second-hand Fender Mustang 2, 3 or 4 in version V2 (there are lots at sensible prices on Gumtree and they are very reliable so safe to buy second-hand).. That way he can model everything from a 50s Delux to a Peavey stack and can play through headphones. Valve amps start to sound good sound good at the point you can't hear anyone speak, the Mustangs sound fine at any volume.

I've got a 45W Bassbreaker valve amp which can be turned down to 1W but it's still painfully loud in my living room and too loud for my ageing ears on stage when it's cranked up to its sweet spot. My ears still haven't fully recovered from being on stage with two valve amps last week - next time at that venue I'm taking -20db plugs. The Mustangs sound much the same at any volume and can be lined out to the PA which means they can be  kept down to sensible volume on stage - this helps with singing.

This is all perhaps too much information, but really, a valve amp played at home is like a full-on downhill bike to nip down the shops.

After a lot of umming and arrring I finally bought a Black Star ID Core 10v 2 from Amazon a few weeks ago and although early days I am very happy with it so far

cost me £85 but seem to be priced at £90 just now,

goes well as part of my 60th birthday present to myself, matched with an Epiphone Les Paul.

It has a load of built in options and is more than loud enough for this absolute beginner

Yamaha thr5. All the sounds you could want and still sounds awesome at low volume. Can plug in MP3 player to jam along.to tracks. Most importantly a headphone jack.

Slight Hijack - I have a 50W LIne6 Spider gathering dust. It's from 2002 I think. 1) is it worth anything, and b) where would I be best getting shot of it? I want to get one of those tiny Orange amps above, now that I'm fairly sure the opportunity to be a rock star has passed me by.

Thanks - in true STW I'm now looking at stuff the pro's use on stage!  I should have said he's an absolute beginner!  I can't go for an Orange Crush as every time I type that in to Google I start looking at buying a new hardtail.

Headphone jack - now that is good advice.

I've got the Orange Micro Crush, the older version of the Crush Mini linked to above. It's handy for what it is but is limited. Most people raving about the Micro Crush love the fact it can power a separate cab. Hell, I think that's a cool feature, but realistically I doubt I'd use it. People think that the inbuilt speaker sounds poor, and I kind of agree.

I've also got a Vox pathfinder 10 that's ok, but mains powered only. If I was buying a portable amp now I would look at the Blackstar Fly 3, Boss Katana mini or a Yamaha THR, or the Vox Adio. From what I've seen they're top of their game at their respective price points, they all sound great.

We've got/had a couple Orange in the past and will highly recommend them.

But as with all things like this it's really a case of budget, and how loud are you prepared to go? For an amazing sound a Micro Terror is unbeatable, but probably more than what you wee planning to spend.

Crush 12 would not be a silly place to start.

Another vote for the Blackstar Core 10. My daughter has one and she loves it. Loads of features for her to play around with, easy to carry and plenty loud enough. Also has some very nice recording software with it.

Another vote for Orange Crush, I have a 20 but the Mini Terror or the 12 are great amps to start with

Do you people with Orange amps have half a dozen pedals or a modelling pedal board? All the Orange amps I've used (a Rockerverb 50 most recently) have been two trick poneys - clean or dirty Orange. There's not even an EQ on the overdrive channel, just a shape knob that gives too little treble or even less treble. After a few minutes playing with the knobs I can get a Marshall JCM 900 clean enough for Country and a Fender Bassbreaker dirty enough for Punk but the Orange amps always sound typically Orange whatever you do with the settings. And they lack top end sparkle so the guitar competes with the bass player for frequencies.

The pedal effects in modelling amps are remarkably realistic  I use a Mustang floor with valve amps which some will no doubt consider to be dancing with the devil but it means that you are one click away from a preset that takes you from Val Doonican to Slayer. Your son will learn what all the pedals effects sound like and how to use them without having to buy a dozen pedals to try.

I have a Yamaha thr10 and it's great (similar to thr5 suggested above) Having battery power is more useful than I expected too. They also look cool!!! 😀

Peavey VYPYR sounds great. Available in 100w, 40w and 15w (from memory)

I've got the 100w and had some great sounds from it, very versatile too.

Do you need to listen to him play? If not, then can I suggest a modelling board set up to the PC?  I use a Digitech DNX 3000, set up so I can play through the headphones, and play along to backing tracks saved to the PC or on YouTube.

Pignose.

Turn the only knob up to full. Leave it half open.

Control with guitar volume.

Sound amazing.