To amp or not to amp?

[Siva]

So I'm heading back to college within the next two weeks. This year I wanna bring my electric guitar, just so I can play unplugged without annoying the crap out of my roommate at times. The question is do I bring my amp? I was gonna bring a tiny practice amp, but I just don't have the money to buy one. I have a 40w Fender Hot Rod Deluxe (tube amp, kinda expensive). I don't know if its worth bringing to school (I doubt I'd have any gigs without a band) or if I should just leave it at home.

Being that I don't like to make decisions myself, I will leave it up to the fate of the poll. Or a well thought out arguement that I think defeats the opinion of the masses.

 

[minendo]

Bring it. One of the main goals of college is to piss off your roommate.

 

[mobobuff]

You'll miss the amp after a while of not being able to hear the highs and lows of the unplugged strings. Unplugged electric = boring.

Bring the amp, and you can always use headphones.

 

[MacBaine]

If you are good, bring it. If you suck, don't bring it.

 

[KEV1N]

Bring the amp and plug in headphones if he starts being a douche about it! You'll be able to advertise that you are a guitarist and wish to meet like-minded guitarists, as well as chicks.

 

[minendo]

Originally posted by: MacBaine
If you are good, bring it. If you suck, don't bring it.

Exactly why Macbaine brought his knee pads to school this semester.

 

[MacBaine]

Originally posted by: minendo

Originally posted by: MacBaine
If you are good, bring it. If you suck, don't bring it.

Exactly why Macbaine brought his knee pads to school this semester.

As funny as this may be, I actually did bring my kneepads this semester.

 

Just get Cubase and play through the computer. I would not trust my amp in a dorm.

 

[RagingBITCH]

Originally posted by: dwell
Just get Cubase and play through the computer. I would not trust my amp in a dorm.

But you trust leaving your axe there?

 

[FrustratedUser]

Originally posted by: KEV1N
Bring the amp and plug in headphones if he starts being a douche about it! You'll be able to advertise that you are a guitarist and wish to meet chicks.

Corrected for reality!

 

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH

Originally posted by: dwell
Just get Cubase and play through the computer. I would not trust my amp in a dorm.

But you trust leaving your axe there?

I paid more for my amp than my guitar so...

 

[thirdlegstump]

You can't plug a headphone into a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. That sucker is going to take up more room than you would want. I'd recommend getting a little modelling preamp like a PodXT and some decent headphones. I made the mistake of bringing a Blues Junior (smaller version of your amp) into my dorm. Not only was it too freakin loud for it to sound good, it took up valuable space even considering the BJ isn't as big as the Deluxe. Also by the time the tubes start warming up and you're ready to go, your roomates are going to be asking you to stop playing because he can't study. Heh.

 

[phantom309]

Vox makes a little 15 watt practice amp that costs about $100 and sounds GREAT. Or you can just plug it straight into your computer - that's prolly what I'd do.

 

[pkananen]

more info on the plug-into-computer options?

 

[phantom309]

Originally posted by: pkananen
more info on the plug-into-computer options?

With a $3 adapter you can plug your guitar into the mic input of your sound card. Depending on what kind of card you have, most cards have built-in effects like reverb and EQ you can access from the utility. I'm sure someone out there makes a freeware/shareware program that'll give you distortion, etc. or you can use a pedal.

For about $50 you can also get a pretty good multitrack program called n-track by FAsoft.

There's also a virtual drum machine called Hammerhead that's a replica of a Roland 808 - a little techno-dated but fun to play with. Last I checked it was freeware/careware.