Dshow Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 Hi, it is 20 years ago since I've owned a tube amp. I mostly play at home with headphones connected directly to my HD500. Now I'd like to buy a little tube amp and found that the Bugera V22 is a really good sounding amp for a good price. Even if it is a 22 watt tube amp I'm afraid that it could be too loud for playing at home, since you have to crank a tube amp up a little to find its sweet spot. Now my Idea was to connect the HD500 with the 4 cable method to the Bugera amp and place a volume pedal as the very last effect in the HD500 in the effects loop. So I could crank the Bugera up a little and then reduce the volume with the volume pedal so that the output would be in lower volume. I don't know if this is possible. Anyone tried that out already? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NucleusX Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 Sure its possible, but I don't think your going to achieve your desired result. AFAIK, the Bugera's pre-amp would just simply see a low volume, and then pass that onto the tubes without saturation into the dynamic range you get with a high output. The main output tubes need to be driven hard into the "sweetspot" your hunting, and that's only achieved by raising volume levels within the pre-amp stages of a tube amp first. There is a device called an attenuator, some use to load an amp at the speaker terminals, which results in a volume drop, but keeps it in that sweetspot, this is the only solution I know of that would do the trick. With amp-sims tho, its a non-issue, you can sweetspot the hell out the amp-sim, and pass it on @ low levels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBob-Irwin Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 I agree with NucleusX I have used attenuators in the past and in my experience they are good at lowering the volume at a gig where you have found the sweat spot of the amp and want to reduce the volume to tolerable levels for the audience but still compete with a drummer, but to reduce the amp to bedroom volume you will loose that sweet spot sound because you will have lost the speaker interaction with the amp among other factors and will probably be back to square one with what you want to achieve by just turning the amp down. By the time you buy the amp and a decent Attenuator (they are not cheap for a good one) you would be just as well buying a good 1 watt tube practice /studio amp to do this or a second hand DT25 and use the low power setting switch on the back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NucleusX Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 Oh, and just to add to this... I have a pair of solid-state Roland Cube amps, which have a "Power Squeeze" switch, that pretty much achieves the same thing as an attenuator. Even tho its not a tube amp, the effect is still apparent. I imagine if Roland can put this feature into a solid-state amp, there just might be a tube amp out there with the same kind of feature. If amp-sims are the core of your tones, and not the amp itself, then maybe a simular solid-state solution would do your situation justice, just a suggestion. You can already get your sweetspots in the amp-sims, regardless of what amp you choose later. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dshow Posted February 1, 2015 Author Share Posted February 1, 2015 Thanks for the replies. In fact I'm struggling since quite some time because I can't decide between the Mustang III and the Bugera. Maybe for home use the mustagn might be the better choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBob-Irwin Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 The Mustang III is a formidable modeling amp I had one and gigged with it and it sounds the same a low volume as it does at gig volume and for the price it is one of the best bang for the $ out there. The only reason I sold mine is because I got a Variax JTV59 which I was impressed with and decided to go the whole route with the dream rig and the Mustang partly funded that. But if I fell on hard times and had to sell all the line 6 stuff I would be happy with the Mustang III This guy did a patch every week called Mustang Monday which was compared with the real amps side by side on some video's he also did artist patches. I remember one he did where you had to vote which amp was the Mustang and which one was the real deal. You can download patches for the Mustang with there fuse software I managed to download some pretty good Dumble patches which were quite convincing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NucleusX Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 Seems with one of those mustangs, you'll be stuck in mono, unless you plan on getting two of them. Personally, I'd think hard on this one http://intl.fender.com/en-AU/series/mustang/mustang-iv-v2-120v/ It has a stereo FX Loop, so your POD can deliver a stereo signal to the mustang. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dshow Posted February 2, 2015 Author Share Posted February 2, 2015 The Mustang III is a formidable modeling amp I had one and gigged with it and it sounds the same a low volume as it does at gig volume and for the price it is one of the best bang for the $ out there. The only reason I sold mine is because I got a Variax JTV59 which I was impressed with and decided to go the whole route with the dream rig and the Mustang partly funded that. But if I fell on hard times and had to sell all the line 6 stuff I would be happy with the Mustang III This guy did a patch every week called Mustang Monday which was compared with the real amps side by side on some video's he also did artist patches. I remember one he did where you had to vote which amp was the Mustang and which one was the real deal. You can download patches for the Mustang with there fuse software I managed to download some pretty good Dumble patches which were quite convincing. Thanks for your reply. I already saw those videos and the mustang sounds great indeed. Thanks for telling me your experience. I really appreciate that - maybe the mustang is the better choice than the bugera in my case Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dshow Posted February 2, 2015 Author Share Posted February 2, 2015 Seems with one of those mustangs, you'll be stuck in mono, unless you plan on getting two of them. Personally, I'd think hard on this one http://intl.fender.com/en-AU/series/mustang/mustang-iv-v2-120v/ It has a stereo FX Loop, so your POD can deliver a stereo signal to the mustang. Thanks for your reply. Yeah I was thinking about this myself. The IV and V have the stereo option but they are big - I think too big for mostly bed room playing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NucleusX Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 Fair call, I was put in the exact same position once, which is how I ended up with the 2 smaller 20 watt Roland Cubes that I could separate, rather than the one larger combo I couldn't. In stereo they are quite loud enough, but not over the top for a bedroom. I have no personal experience with the Bugera's, but if I had to make a choice on those 2 company names based on reputation and excellence, I think the Mustang would win-out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ldgante Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 The Mustang III is a formidable modeling amp I had one and gigged with it and it sounds the same a low volume as it does at gig volume and for the price it is one of the best bang for the $ out there. The only reason I sold mine is because I got a Variax JTV59 which I was impressed with and decided to go the whole route with the dream rig and the Mustang partly funded that. But if I fell on hard times and had to sell all the line 6 stuff I would be happy with the Mustang III This guy did a patch every week called Mustang Monday which was compared with the real amps side by side on some video's he also did artist patches. I remember one he did where you had to vote which amp was the Mustang and which one was the real deal. You can download patches for the Mustang with there fuse software I managed to download some pretty good Dumble patches which were quite convincing. By any chance did you used the POD HD 500x with this amp? would you be able to advise me what settings should i set the amp to get the most out of my POD HD 500x? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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