[James Nighthawk]

Scanning this thread, it seems that a vital conversation point isn't mentioned (apologies if it HAS been brought up)

I use amps for guitars, always, for recording. But, I have a studio with soundproofed rooms.

Valve amps sound fantastic when heated up and belting out some volume! Played quiet, and a lot of that thick tone is lost.

Monty - if you can't record an amp turned up high, and few people can at home, I would say that for most electric sounds a VST will do the job admirably, and only audiophiles will notice otherwise. Furthermore, it is a good investment and even if you DO end up buying an amp in future, the A/B comparisons you'll get will be a great learning experience.
Plus, options are always good for a recording set up

Just my $0.02

JNx

[Mystic Dreamer]

I just want to echo the volume thing.  I turn the guitar amp up fairly loud.  Not obnoxiously loud. But louder than what I'm actually recording.  In other words, I keep the mic volume fairly low on that track.  So I end up with a fairly loud guitar being recorded more quietly than it actually is.  And in this way I get that nice full-bodied sound from the guitar without saturating the track.

I happen to also live alone in the woods with no close neighbors.  So I don't need to worry about how loud I play. 

I suppose this could be a problem for someone who lives in an apartment, or with close neighbors, etc.

I'm not sure if it's worth all the trouble.  Like Boydie has already said, you can probably get the sound you're seeking via an in-line DAW amp sim anyway.  With my set up, I prefer to play live through a mic.  But then again I don't have a fancy DAW.  I just use Audacity.

[Neil C]

Alan, birthday not withstanding, you've got a pod so i'd start with that and see how you get on.
:-)
Neil

[Mark Ryan]

Oh noooooo!!! Now I'm completely confused  Some say I don't need an amp and others say I do. Some say I don't need a valve amp and others say I do and someone says the Mustang is better than the Champion which is the exact opposite of everything I've heard about those 2 amps. Trouble is, that one opinion comes from someone who knows so much about amps that he builds them for a living....aaaaggghhh!

Mark, those amps you mentioned are £600 which is way over my budget which is around £150 for a 40W amp.

Ideally I would like to listen to some amps but neither of my local music shops carry much choice.

I have a small one-man business building valve amps, and I think you do need an amp. Here's why. A guitar and amplifier together are what creates a certain sound. Only by experimenting with different combinations will you find that sound you are looking for. You are not going to do that on a computer. I am not reccomending a valve amp for this, a good modelling amp will work better for you in this situation, and there is one that stands out in the crowd. The Fender Mustang II. It is cheap, reliable, flexible, and powerful. You need an amp anyway to practice guitar. I think the Mustang II even has a line-out.
I never liked the Champ, always sounded boxy and choked to me, and I make a better 5-watter anyway.
Seriously, you really do need an amp but you don't need an expensive one. You can always mic them too. My only Solid State amp is an Orange Crush 30R, but if I didn't have that I would buy a mustang II. Hell, I may buy one anyway, they're that good.

Jamie,

How much would you charge me to build a 40w practice valve amp with just a few simple effects which would produce a clean country sound (no overdrive, flanging and all that heavy metal nonsense). It would need a line out, headphones out probably just one channel into a 12" speaker. I would be very interested to know. Thanks .

Thanks to all who gave their advice. I have a birthday coming up so temptation is building.....

M

That being the case I would stick with your X3 right now mate, and save up to buy the valve amp which suits your needs. As a guitarist the difference in sound between a valve amp and a tranny is humongous, regardless of what others may say. Modelling amps still haven't quite got there either and the X3 is a much better option for you right now, So I would say spend some time programming the X3 because you can get pretty damn close as it's a great wee unit for the money. There's an amp model on there called Citrus, which models an Orange amp and if you mess around with the settings including the bias etc... you will get a close sound to what you're looking for. Stick a nice clean 65 Silverface on the other channel and you'll have a very convincing sound for your needs. I used to use one of these live for smaller gigs and I was very happy with the sounds, the only reason I stopped using it was because the build quality was very poor especially for live work so I got the HD500X instead for the wee gigs now.
Seriously Monty, keep your money and use the X3 until you can afford a valve amp because buying any of the amps you mentioned will only lead to disappointment I can guarantee it.

[Skub]

I only use my amp when gigging,all my recorded stuff is though my pedal board and into the desk/computer.

There is another aspect that perhaps has been touched on already and it's the joy of playing an electric guitar through a good amp and getting a great sound that can inspire creativity. Nothing moves the air and the soul like a good amp. It's the other half of your electric guitar.

Something I do quite often is have my amp very loud and play with as light a touch as I can,you'll never approach the dynamics and vitality this gives in any other way. It's spiritual maaaan.   

I use a Fender Bassman 59RI Ltd,but it's not best suited to home use for most. If you do decide to go for an amp,check out old Peavey Bandit 112,they often go for much less than 100 quid and they do great cleans with single coil guitars. I was given mine for free,'cos I was broke when I started back playing! Great amp for country stuff.

[Jambrains]

I used a X3 Live both for recording and gigs (through the PA) for a long time and was pretty pleased with that until I ended up at a gig where I could not run the X3 through the PA and had to run it through and amp. Disaster! Sounded terrible since my patches were tweaked to go through a full range PA, not an amp and there was no time to tweak the patches to fit the amp.
After that I got an amp with the intent to create patches that would work well through my amp that I would always bring with me. Well, pretty soon I was using the amp exclusively and the X3 stayed in the studio.
So for studio work the X3 is perfect (would never use the amp) but for live playing, quite the opposite. To me recording and live is to separate things with very different requirements and for me there are no gadget that could serve both purposes.