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Need some help - Quiet in the house!

Smellybum

Smellybum

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 11, 2004
Messages
3,420
Location
Evanton, United Kingdom
I'm posting this because I have a young family and only get to play my EBmm through my marshall at weekends, there's no time in the morning before work and when I get home it's time for the wee fella to get his bath and then off to bed...

So, I really need to get myslef one of these pocket/portable FX units with or without drums, and or recording.

I'm looking at the Pandora, the Zoom PFX-9003, and used stuff. Any comments or opinions welcome!

Thanks in advance
Smellybum.
 
Hello Highlander

The first mistake you made was to do a baby. I can tell you, I have 2 kids ...;) (3 & 7 years old) and perhaps we will "work" on the third...

2 solutions I use :

1. I have a specific room in my house with a decent isolation. I can play with a reasonable volume when everybody's sleeping.

2. I have an USB interface and I play with headphones with my PC. So I can record myself, have the drums and so on ... The advantage of the Pandora is the portability. But if you have a PC at home and you don't need to move, well just an USB interface and some software is enough. For the software, it exists now free software that are good enough. When I go on holydays, I take my MusicMan, my portable PC and an USB interface.

You can also buy "ear-protections" for your baby, but I am not sure that your wife will appreciate this solution.

Happy baby-nursing ...
 
I guess the choice of unit will depend on what you are looking to do with it.

Is it just for silent practice, do you want a metronome or drums, are you looking to use it as an effects processor or do some recording with it...

I have a bass Pandora and it's OK. The controls are a bit fiddly and the drums very basic - it's more of a metronome really.

I much prefer 'silent' practising on guitar using headphones plugged into my Pod 2 or Pod XT Live, but neither of them have built-in drums - although the free software you can get for the XT or XT Live has a metronome if you plug the unit into your computer. You can pick up a used Pod 2 or XT quite cheaply on ebay.

Also heard good things about the little Roland Microcube, which has built-in effects and a few amp sims, as well as a headphone socket.

I've not used any Zoom gear or anything else recently, so hopefully you'll get some suggestions on the worth of other gear from the forumites here.
 
I have the Zoom PFX-9003, and it is OK. I just got back into playing electric, and at this point it is my only option. I am looking for an alternative, mainly because:

-I fiddle around with the thing so much...it is hard to get a sound that you will not be tired of after 5 minutes.

-It has trouble driving my favorite headphones (best sounding and most comfortable headphones I have)

-Some people love headphones, some don't...no matter how hard I try, wearing headphones is always a huge compromise for me.

As starsky said, a nice practice amp with headphones out may be a nice option, and one that I am looking at.
 
I have a Tascam Pocketstudio 5 (that I'm selling; if you're interested, PM me, as I don't want to put up an ad per the rules of the board). It's a 4-track digital mixer but comes with a COSM modeler, and various drum & bass patterns that you can arrange. While it's not a full-fledged sequencer by any means, it's nice for practicing or composing lead parts over progressions.

Here's the product literature.
 
+1 on the Roland Micro Cube. It comes with a power supply, but it can also run off of batteries. I've had batteries in mine for months and haven't had to replace them yet!
 
I use wireless headphones with a separate volume control. I just plug them in to my existing rack and cut the volume back (so I don't completely blow my ears out).

I also have a Roland micro cube. Works really well for a small 8 watt amp. Built in amp emulator and effects (phaser, flanger, delay, reverb). I've actually heard of people gigging with this thing.
 
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Thanks guys
The microcube doesn't do it for me - I just need something palm sized that I can plug in and F*ck about on - an old zoom 9002 would do!
There's a couple on ebay,

But I saw the openhouse pics and the Pandoras in the metal boxes..

Ideally just an FX box if it does all that other crap then fine..... cheaper the better:)

I'VE GOT A DD LUKE TO PAY FOR YOU KNOW!!!!!
 
SteveB said:
A new micro cube only costs about USD$125 here in the states. You'd pay more for a Boss delay pedal!
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, we do pay more than that for a delay pedal :(

I've seen guy using a pandora through a Marshall stack. He got a pretty good sound out of it, although there was some background hiss. For what you need it for, I reckon it would probably be a good choice.
 
Mate I notice that Sound Control are having a summer sale and they had a Johnson J station (sort of line 6 pod type thingy) for £9.99 !
It's a deal, it's a steal, it's the sale of the bloody century
 
fbecir said:
Great solution ...
But I don't understand : do you want Smellybum to play in the cabin or do you want the baby to sleep in the cabin ????
Click to expand...

Well, temperature changes and humidity can play havoc with the tuning of the guitar......

;)
 
Jimmyb said:
Well, temperature changes and humidity can play havoc with the tuning of the guitar......

;)
Click to expand...
You are definitly right, you are wise man.
I am sure it is not a problem for the baby, those Highlanders are so strong !
 
Man feel your pain...my family is not so small anymore (11 years old) but still my wife is a control freak and want my daugther to go to bed by 8~9, and still can only play a little on the weekends. Anyway for my "midnight snack" I use now severa things according to my mood and desire to connect and disconnect stuff.
Rockman X-100
Rockman Soloist
Boss DR-880
Tascam CD-GT1
ADA MP-1 Pre-amp 2.1
Digitech GSP 2101.
Yamaha DG-Stomp pre-amp.

All work great and have their differen tone and capacilities, the mos powerfull to play is the Digitech GSP 2101, the ADA is very cheap and nice but have to add an EQ and multi-effects for reverb, the most fun is the Boss DR-880. If you can find a rockman, those are great. Good luck.
 
I have the same situation. I recommend the pandora.

a) its small
b) its portable
c) it sounds good
d) you can jam with cds/ipod
e) its pretty cheep
f) its what i use

Jonny.
 
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