when bedroom amps sound better than real ones

A bedroom amplifier is actually a real amplifier.

A lot of music was in fact recorded through much smaller amps. Lenny Kravitz and Stone Temple Pilots used small amps in the studio, which is interesting considering how much gear would have been available to them.

all 4 of my amps are 15w or under (15,15,7,6). it's really nice to turn a 7w amp past breakup, and not upset the neighbors!

what ive noticed in particular about almost any well made small/ practice amp is that they have the best clean tones. when you put a little reverb over them with a nice clean tone and filter out some of the trebble, they sound so damn amazing. makes for some really great r&B and neo soul recordings. def not anything for a live setting where a wall of sound is needed to fill the room, but when it comes to recording or practicing in your bedroom alot of these smaller amp's are punching way above their weight class. i love that it makes practicing affordable and therefore possible/ available to more people. Thanks to the budget friendly options, alot of new and amazing future guitarists, that would otherwise never have been created, are now practicing and on their way to become true shredders. when i was starting out, a guitar that cost sub 150-200ish usd would either be: Broken, cut you with the side of every fret and have action high enough you could slip your fingers under the strings, or just not show up after ordering it. Now during the right time of year and from the right brands/ stores, you can get a decent entry level guitar, a practice amp (not a good one but one that atleast works), a strap, gig bag, some picks, instrument cable, a tuner, etc. I was lucky enough to have a fender player strat vintage series growing up. it was my first, dad knew what a decent guitar was and didnt buy me a piece of caca so i could actually learn. Its not a true vintage era, just a vintage remake series. got the ugly black lined sunburst, but it has a charm to it, looks like a yorkie wearing a pair of converse lmao. its a good guitar, dont play it much since its leftie and i became able to play righties after i learned violin (makes it much easier to find guitars tbh) Im sure i could go leftie again if i wanted, but then id have to cut my nails and grow out the ones on my left hand, too much effort with nothing to gain. My cousin however was not so lucky. His parents at some point around like 2010 bought him this crap ass guitar set they found either on tv or at a target or some shit. it was 115 bucks total. came with a stand, book with music, tuner (that didnt work), some weird cheap strings, terrible action, and a lot of warping. thing sounded like it was made completely of popsicle sticks when you strummed it. the frets were practically square with sharp edges. I never had a lesson in my life, still playing 19 years later after picking up and holding my first strat. My cousin? he took lessons for two weeks, 1 week per lesson, and then quit after his guitar "mysteriously broke" one day (he smashed the crap out of it while his parents were at work and continued with piano instead).

I like how you can get such good tones, clean plus a little reverb and the clon sound at such a low volume. It really sounded great. Thanks for the videos.

I just got the Gremlin, and it is everything as advertised. The attenuator is awesome. This amp can get really loud if fully cranked.

I really like the dissonance and note choices in the pieces that you played. ❤ I became a Blues Cube guy. Great amps. They sound fantastic.

Man for the short amount of guitar playing here, you really do put in alot of feel into your playing. Very tight and accurate playing with some really good technique nice job!

I used to play really loud amps like a 100-watt Marshall JCM800 which I still have. But in those days, I was playing with full bands in rehearsal spaces . Now that I'm older, I only play at home, and I live in an apartment. I have a Yamaha THR30 II, a Fender '68 Custom Princeton Reverb (which is a 12-watt tube amp), and a Vox AC15C2 which is a 15-watt tube amp, but with two 12" speakers so it looks the same as Vox AC30, but it only has half the watts.. I have to use an external attenuator with the Fender or the Vox, because both of them are too loud for an apartment. So, between those three amps, I really feel I have all the amps I need for an apartment.

I bought a pignose amp recently and I'm impressed with the quality and the volume. I never thought that such a small amp would have such a good tone

Mike this is fantastic! One of the best reviews I have seen to date. Honest, clear and concise. Thanks for taking the time to review this! I will check out your other videos.

A wonderful perspective and insight. Thank you Mike!!

Great video! This was really interesting! Thank you very much, Mike!

I enjoy your playing. Quite refreshing.

Back in the day I had the Epiphone Valve Jr. 5 watt head which I played into a 1x12 or 2x12 cab. The Valve Jr only had a single Volume knob. I played it at church for several years. I rarely was able to get the Vol past 9:00.... so yeah, 5 watts can be CRAZY loud. That Tone King looks really nice!

It does matter what you think! You made a great video about it. I agree with everything you say, and it's not just apartments. People like me with a family where kids have bed times and playing through a little practice amp is all you can do.

I normally play straight to the mixer but 2 years ago I bought a Blackstar Debut 15E and it was one of the best things I've ever bought! the breakup in the clean channel is incredible and the lead is good enough to get that blues tone, plus it has a tape delay and an option to emulate a Vox or Fender sound so it's really cool having all of those options for just my bedroom and feeling the air rumble

Definitely noted the Supro behind you. One thing we need to remember- most of the best amp “sound” recordings weren’t stage rigs, but scaled down. Hendrix was one who often recorded using blaring Marshall stacks, but even he used Twins and other amps during recordings. Stadium performances require much more volume than the sweet spot most players are looking for. You almost need a separate rig for differing applications. I really miss my 60’s Plexi 8x12 100. But I don’t miss lugging a refrigerator to indoor jams or the authorities banging on the door. There are indeed some recording situations where you want massive volume because of the physical interaction with so much air mass (EXP spaceship liftoff) but 8 or even 4 12” transducers is overkill in a closed room. Now we at least have selectable output wattage, but you still have the weight and size to pack

ToneKing is amazing. Right up there with Magnatone, Soldano, Synergy, and Amplified Nation as my favorites amps of all time. But having the built in attenuator in the Tone King is really handy for apartments.

Interesting video. I've got a Supro Delta King 8 and I run a TS808 Tube Screamer in front of it for overdrive sounds. Using the volume and master volume on the amp, I can get great tones on it at low volumes, the best tones I've ever had, and it doesn't annoy anyone.