practice amp (headphone) solutions?

Nicholas Dedring · Post by **Nicholas Dedring** » 11 Apr 2006 9:58 am

I need to find a decent way to woodshed tracks without making my neighbors (apartment building) lose their minds...

Ideally I'm looking for a practice setup that takes an input of either 1/8" or 1/4" headphone cable from my computer to play tracks through the same headphones as the practice amp.

Any recommendations? Where to buy etc... any help is much appreciated.[This message was edited by Nicholas Dedring on 12 April 2006 at 11:22 AM.]

John Davis · Post by **John Davis** » 11 Apr 2006 10:16 am

If you can get hold of a JSH rockbox it the canines genitalia fantastic stereo directly to your ears.....3 hours gone in a heartbeat!!

Nicholas Dedring · Post by **Nicholas Dedring** » 11 Apr 2006 10:30 am

Does it take an additional input for backing tracks? Also, can't seem to find a listing for them anywhere...

Robert Porri · Post by **Robert Porri** » 11 Apr 2006 10:45 am

This thread might help also.
http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum11/HTML/005717.html

Bob P.

Dan Beller-McKenna · Post by **Dan Beller-McKenna** » 11 Apr 2006 11:43 am

Fender has a cheaper brand, "Brand X," which offers a little 10 watt amp with an input for a CD player (or other device) and a separate headphone output and on-board reverb.

I should mention, however, that I fried two of these for no apparent reason(!) before I picked up an old Peavey Backstage+ on Ebay. When they weren't blowing up they fit the bill perfectly. Maybe you'll have better luck than I did.

Dan

------------------
Dan Beller-McKenna
Durham, NH

Dean Parks · Post by **Dean Parks** » 11 Apr 2006 4:52 pm

If you have a Pod, and a fairly modern computer, you can download a driver from Line6. Then, you plug headphones into the Pod, and hear your computer thru the Pod also. Balance between the two is handled by adjusting the computer level from the computer, and the Pod level from the Pod.

-dean-

Alan Rudd · Post by **Alan Rudd** » 11 Apr 2006 5:40 pm

I run a CD player and my steel into a Roland VS 880 digital studio, then headphones out. You can get one of those pretty cheap these days.

Tom Mortensen · Post by **Tom Mortensen** » 11 Apr 2006 7:11 pm

Behringer Eurorack UB502 $35.00

5" x 7" mixer with headphone output
http://www.zzounds.com/item--BEHUB502

[This message was edited by Tom Mortensen on 11 April 2006 at 08:13 PM.]

Dave Magram · Post by **Dave Magram** » 11 Apr 2006 9:12 pm

I bought a Korg Pandora PX-3 for about $90 on Ebay about four years ago for a headphone amp, and it works great.

It is about the size of a pack of cards, and includes adjustable effects like reverb. It was designed to be used as an effects box on a gig or a headphone amp.

It has a 1/4" and a 1/8" input and a 1/4" output so that you can plug your guitar cable and a line from your CD player into it, and run your headphones from the output.

It even has a little memory card to capture 15 or 30 seconds of a solo you are trying to learn.

Description: "100 Programs, 56 on-board effects, intelligent pitch shifter, phrase trainer, hyper bass boost, advanced cabinet resonator, 40 preset rhythm and bass patters, center canceler and key transpose, headphone output/ line output, quick edit with value dial, backlit LCD Display."

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 12 Apr 2006 3:58 am

I like to buy multi-purpose stuff when possible. Either a little mixer like the Behringer mentioned above, or an amp modeler like the Korg or POD would do the trick. I have a Samson MDR624 mixer and Genesis 3 modeler, but the priciple's the same - maximum bang for the buck. They're both useful for recording back IN to the computer, playing along with your TV, multi-tracking etc.

Billy Woo · Post by **Billy Woo** » 12 Apr 2006 8:24 am

Funny that no one has mentioned the Tascam GT-1 or GT-2, anyway they play Cd's and you also have pitch control. Just plug your steel to input, put on your headphones and no one will be the wiser (cept you)Oh they go for about $100.00 at Guitar Center.

Bronco Billy
Zumsteel U-12

Curt Langston · Post by **Curt Langston** » 12 Apr 2006 8:38 am

If you can get hold of a JSH rockbox it the canines genitalia fantastic stereo directly to your ears.....3 hours gone in a heartbeat!!

What the heck is all that jibberish?

Nicholas Dedring · Post by **Nicholas Dedring** » 12 Apr 2006 9:56 am

Ended up picking up the Korg PX4D Pandora... takes an aux in (which you can transpose up to an octave by semitone), also can "trap" loops for review off of the aux in which can be slowed down, etc. etc. The modeling it does isn't so important, since it won't see gig duty (just using a Steel King for gigs recently), but all the other stuff means my significant other and my neighbors won't be made crazy by me taking prep time for things.

Thanks for the suggestions, and I will report back... in electronics this time, though. (sorry b0b)