I’ve been focusing lately on playing instruments, especially guitar. This is something I’ve done a lot of in my life, but I’ve spent most of my time the last few years focusing more on the production/electronic side of things, and less on the “play an entire piece of music with your hands” side of things. I’ve missed it! Not to mention my abilities have suffered, and I’m not happy about that.
Mostly, this has meant playing my acoustic. It’s a low-end Taylor that I bought when I was 18. It’s the only instrument I’ve kept throughout my entire adult life, and I love it madly.
BUT a couple of years ago I acquired an electric guitar that I also obsessively love. It’s kind of a weird guitar; it’s an “Eagle” brand, which doesn’t appear to have been a real company. It was made in the FujiGen factory in the early 80s in Japan. (If you know you know.) It’s a gorgeous, hand-crafted, neck-through guitar with a very nice electronic design that lets you switch between humbucker-style and single-coil pickups. It feels great, it sounds great.
Here’s me noodling on the guitar whilst learning how to use the MXR Layers pedal, just for reference:
Anyway, I realized I haven’t been playing it much. As I pondered why, I quickly realized that it was because I couldn’t play it in my living room. And damnit, I love playing in my living room. That’s where I do pretty much all my songwriting and long-session guitar playing. And I am a creature of habit, so that’s probably not going to ever change.
My electric guitar setup has been gloriously amp-less for awhile, and I generally couldn’t be happier with that. That said, an amp-less setup is kind of a drag if you want to play outside the studio. There’s a reason guitar amps were invented…they’re DAMN convenient!
So of course I realized that I needed some way to play electric in basically the same way I play acoustic. That means relatively quiet volumes that go nicely with un-miced singing and other acoustic instruments. So I went out to the marketplace to take a look, and lo and behold, it turns out that the amp market has changed a lot since 2006!
I turned to the awesome Fediverse music community for help, as I’ve been doing so often lately.
Guitar question!
I want to be able to take my electric guitar out and about and play it at about the same level as an acoustic guitar.
I only care about the clean tone, because if I want amp modeling I have a Strymon Iridium that suits me. Don't need bells and whistlesj like effects etc.
It would sometimes need to be mic'd up, and would usually be played with acoustic instruments (e.g. piano).
Anyone have personal experience with a small amp that could achieve this?
The conversation was really helpful in clarifying my goals for the new amp. I started by thinking I just wanted a clean sound, but as I thought through it, I realized that I was partially wrong about what would fill the amp-sized hole in my life. I wanted a bit more than just a clean tone.
What I really wanted was an all-in-one box that would sound reasonably good without hooking any other thing up to it. Something I could pick up and move quickly and easily, and that would let me just plug in and start playing, anywhere, any time. It didn’t need to be some high-end boutique amp, but it had to sound good, or else I knew I wouldn’t use it.
So what did I buy????
After checking out a lot of very cool options suggested by Fedi people, I ended ordering a Yamaha desktop amp that I hope is going to suit me very well. Here’s why.
The Primary Reasons
- To my ear, it sounds notably better than most of its competitors. This will make me enjoy it more and use it more, even though it was a little pricier.
- It works without an app. Although there IS an app, you don’t need it to access the features. This is crucial to me, which if you know me at all won’t be a surprise. Feck yer app.
- It has lots of hardware controls.
- It’s stereo. Ooh la la!
- It has a stereo direct out. Crucial if I want to play it in a room bigger than my living room.
- It’s made by Yamaha. If I could only buy musical instruments from one company, it would be Yamaha because a) they do it all, and b) they pretty much never make shitty things.
- It has a clean aux input that I should be able to use for a sampler, drum machine, etc.
The Bonus Reasons
- It’s wireless. I’ve been expecting to live in a wireless world since my early 20s, and it hasn’t really happened yet, but when I can make it happen, I do.
- It’s also a big bluetooth speaker. I will use this sometimes and that will be just fine.
- It’s cool-looking, in that “I’m a millennial who likes retro shit” kinda way. And I am, after all, a millennial who likes retro shit.
I’ll likely not record with it, but that wasn’t the goal! It will be lots of fun to be able to practice, write, and sing songs in the living room and other acoustic-appropriate places on the Eagle.
