Best headphone amp for clean & loud?

Jonathan Slyker · From: Montclair, New Jersey, USA

I play my lap steel on the train 40 minutes each way to and from work every day. I'm using an amplug AC30 now, but I'm not really satisfied. It works, but got a short in the gain knob real quickly.

I DON'T NEED DISTORTION OR EFFECTS.

I'm a simple guy who loves the sound of his steel naked.

I play along with my ipod so I need it to be loud. This thing is not loud enough except when the batteries are brand new, and it get's expensive and inconvenient to be changing batteries every few days.

I know there's a dunlop product, c-tech, and the cigarette pack amps (politically incorrect), but do you guys like a particular product?

Cost is not really the issue, within reason.
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MCI D-10 (Curly Chalker's last guitar) Curly's C6th on front neck; Johnny Coxâ€™s E13th on back with E9th pedals.
Widgren custom-built 12 string keyless lap.

John McClung · From: Olympia WA, USA

Try the just discontinued Pocket Pod Express, pretty decent sound, has effects, can plug your iPod into it, has a basic tuner that would be fine for lap steel...very handy, light and small, perfect for a packaseat or your commute. Build quality isn't high, a little plasticky.

How do you get any practice done with fellow passengers always asking, "Wow, what's that?" Wink

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E9 INSTRUCTION
▪️ If you want to have an ongoing discussion, please email me, don't use the Forum messaging which I detest! steelguitarlessons@earthlink.net

Jonathan Slyker · From: Montclair, New Jersey, USA

Thanks, let me look into this one. How I practice is that people in New York City area on the train fall into 2 categories:

1) they ever never heard of a steel guitar, don't care about guitar based music, or worse yet, hate the steel guitar (they leave you alone).

2) they look starstruck, have never seen a real live steel guitar, and then talk to you for a while about their musical experiences, and they're really nice people. so you don't practice and maybe make a nice connection with someone from OUR SIDE.

group 2 is the reigning majority and group 2 is about 1/10.

Amazingly, not one person, ever, in hundreds of rides, has said "shut that thing up or get away from me" (or words to that effect)

But I fully expect some conductor someday who's having a bad day will say "It's against the rules."

So if I refuse to leave the train and they arrest me, is there an attorney out there to help me?
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MCI D-10 (Curly Chalker's last guitar) Curly's C6th on front neck; Johnny Coxâ€™s E13th on back with E9th pedals.
Widgren custom-built 12 string keyless lap.

Lana Carroll · From: Brooklyn, NY

I've lived in NYC for most of my life and I can't imagine practicing lap steel on the trains. I have a hard enough time reading a book!

On the Pod Express - even though its discontinued, they had a couple of these at the 14th street guitar center in case you're interested. I actually bought one myself for stage tuning and I am not super happy with it. I find that it really doesn't handle the signal from either of my steels very well(BMI & Dekley), and also the Kidney shape is a little weird for me to use as it doesn't sit well on my lap or flat surfaces either. That said, it DOES have reverb and I'm not sure you could find anything better.

Also, i'm a lawyer, and you'd be surprised what kinds of things are illegal here.
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http://music.karenandthesorrows.com/

Jonathan Slyker · From: Montclair, New Jersey, USA

I should have been clearer; I ride the NJ transit commuter train, not the subway.

thanks for your advice. I DON'T WANT EFFECTS, so the reverb will not help me. maybe I'll go into some of the big houses and make them show me their stuff.

I guess I'll keep looking. pretty soon, there will probably be an iphone/ipod app that takes the signal from your guitar output and feeds it thru your ipod for amplification, recording, etc. maybe it already exists. I know there was supposedly a microphone/amplifier app. for use with the voice/headphone ipod mic.
_________________
MCI D-10 (Curly Chalker's last guitar) Curly's C6th on front neck; Johnny Coxâ€™s E13th on back with E9th pedals.
Widgren custom-built 12 string keyless lap.

John McClung · From: Olympia WA, USA

Yes, there are more and more apps for guitar for the iPhone/iPod touch. Just go to iTunes.com and poke around. Interface gizmos are pretty cheap, and the software is amazing, from reviews I've read.
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E9 INSTRUCTION
▪️ If you want to have an ongoing discussion, please email me, don't use the Forum messaging which I detest! steelguitarlessons@earthlink.net

Pit Lenz · From: Cologne, Germany

Hi Jonathan,

Here`s another vote for the PocketPod Express.
I was, just like you, looking for a plain and simple headphone amp to warm up before a gig or noodle in the tour bus on a long ride.
Tried several things, but the PocketPod impressed me the most.

I didn`t want any bells and whistles with my amp, but I found out that if you play for a longer time than just a small warmup, a LITTLE reverb added lets your steel sit in the room nicely instead of being heard in the middle of your head. This is much less fatigueing to me and let`s me play and enjoy it much longer....
As for the othe simulations and effects: just leave them off.

Talking about volume (the PPE has plenty), I think it`s much more important to choose a nice pair of InEar headphone buds that isolate the noise from the outside world, so you won`t have to play too loud.

Pit

Jonathan Slyker · From: Montclair, New Jersey, USA

Yes, I thought I was at risk of having a soliliquy, because after I wrote yesterday I surfed and came up with what most reviewers is saying is the superior app (on my limited unscientific sampling): ampkit

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ampkit/id364011231?mt=8

only problem is you still have to buy something to connect the guitar to the ipod/pad/phone, and the one that's designed to be compatible with the amp goes for $40 ($25 used at Amazon) anyhow, same as the amplug (or another hardware product?.

the hardware that is needed, obviously, is something that separates the input part of the interface from the output, like the mike headphones do. Also, something has to happen to the voltage coming from the guitar to put it into the ipod correctly (excuse my electronic unsophistication). Probably cheaper ways exist to use the app without all the effects.
_________________
MCI D-10 (Curly Chalker's last guitar) Curly's C6th on front neck; Johnny Coxâ€™s E13th on back with E9th pedals.
Widgren custom-built 12 string keyless lap.

Jonathan Slyker · From: Montclair, New Jersey, USA

I'm talking to myself again, feel free to chime in, y'all.

I did get the amplink and have started to use it.

I got the free app for the ipod touch to use in conjunction with the amplink hardware.

so far, it's a typical app, does a million things you don't need it to do, at least right away.

it has the ability to mount your music files and play them simultaneously with your own amplified playing.

It's much louder than the amplug. It also seems plenty loud in the clean settings.

I haven't tried the recording, audio copy and paste, re-recording with effects, etc., that you supposedly can do. also supposedly you can export your creations, but I'm nowhere near that point.

It takes AAA batteries but doesn't seem to eat them up like the amplug does.

I was on the train this morning and it seemed like the electromagnetic fields created by all the train infrastructure was messing a lot with the guitar signal. this was even with the noise reduction/filters etc.

I'll keep you posted.

anybody else using using the amplink/ampkit combo?
_________________
MCI D-10 (Curly Chalker's last guitar) Curly's C6th on front neck; Johnny Coxâ€™s E13th on back with E9th pedals.
Widgren custom-built 12 string keyless lap.

David Mason · From: Cambridge, MD, USA

I am curious - are you playing with in-ear buds or some nice isolation circumaural headphones? Obviously the phones take some power to vibrate, but if you're trying to drown out your surroundings wearing earbuds, it may be another approach would work - better isolation. I have a pair of the Extreme Isolation ex29's, and you can absolutely escape the bother of reality with those puppies. Smile

http://www.extremeheadphones.com/index.html

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