Hello All, I have a rather peculiar question but am hoping for a serious and productive response. I was/am a guitar player who gave up playing music 3 years ago after suffering damage to my ears. I suffer from a severe sensitivity to sound, hyperacusis, and the much more common ear-ringing syndrome tinnitus. Recently, out of desperation for my lost love I've picked up my guitars before bringin em to the pawn shop and am playing again, I pawned most of my older amps, but play through a 75 watt fender champ1-10 that I have to be oh so careful about not getting anywhere near playing at the one out of ten setting, it's a real pain in the bum trying to keep it set at like 1/2 of one out of ten, but I can't get anywhere near the 1 volume level because of my ears, yes, what a drag. What i'm wondering is what amps are there out there at say 5 or ten watts that will give me awesome tone at VERY VERY low volume levels. I'm NEVER gonna play it loud ever again, but really really don't want to quit playing altogether like I had. So basically what is the absolute best sounding amp I can get at the LOWEST volume level. I'm sorry to stress the fact but I'm talking REALLY low volu me level here, the quieter the better. And no headphones either. I did see a tech 21 10 watt sans amp for 250.00 that looked like maybe what i'm looking for, but dunno if that's any good, and I would be hoping for even less watts if possible. For me a 1 watt or 1/2 a watt amp might be good lol. Too bad most amps I see are 100 watts, which is a death sentence for me. I actually have a MArshall JCM 2000 TSL that I am looking to trade in, hoping to get a small amp and guitar for it. Anyway I play metal and some rock such as my screenname alludes to, so amp will have to be able to handle tones like a Marshall would (rock-metal). Thanks in advance, hoping for some really good responses here.
Hi there, this is a hifi amplifier forum - not for guitar amps. I do however sympathise with your predicament as I too have the hyperacusis pain in the a*s problem. Best thing to do would be to get a Pod 2.0 guitar amps processor and then play it through your home stereo. That way you can get the sound of just about every amp and cab there's ever been that cut the mustard AND the device enables you to have that tone (including max distortion) played at a more leisurely volume through your hifi speakers IN STEREO. I use one, great bit of kit. They retail around £200 here in the UK but I expect they go for peanuts in the States.
HIHI
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Eddie Van Halen used a VARIAC device, which was like plugging his amp into a dimmer light switch, he could crank his amps and get the balls of the amp but keep it at low volumnes. Mind you this is increibly dangerous but it works =/