Some of you will already know that I play guitar, well I try anyway. Most of the time I play an acoustic as it suits my style of music a lot better but over the past 6-8 months I have started becoming more and more interested in experimenting and learning to play the electric guitar. The problem is, I tend to play when I am at home so the amp I have is a little too loud and antisocial and would definitely give the neighbours something to moan about.
So what do you do? Well, first I tried playing through my amp with headphones but the sound is absolutely awful and uninspiring to say the least, but then I found an article for a guitar headphone amplifier and although I was a little dubious at first I figured, why not!
For something so small it really does give you a pretty cool, crunchy, full sound identical to the UK made 100w amp - even through headphones. Click To TweetAfter a little bit of research I found that Vox had a device called amPlug 2 that was supposed to capture that classic valve amp sound that I love, so a few videos later to see which one I would prefer and I was scouring the internet to find the best deal which came in the form of my favourite online shopping site, Amazon.
I ordered the headphone amp on the Thursday evening and to my surprise, it was delivered by the Sunday, which was amazingly quick. Like a child on Christmas morning I quickly ripped off the packaging, grabbed the batteries out of the kitchen draw and plugged it into my Fender Strat so I could play. Now this thing is so tiny it fits in the palm of your hand so playing while it is plugged in is absolutely not a problem, in fact I tend to forget that it is there most of the time and the folding plug mechanism rotates through 180 degrees to ensure that I can use it on any of my guitars.
Now for the important bit! I must admit, I was hopeful but not expecting amazing results from it so after playing about with it for about 10 minutes I was pleasantly surprised. For something so small it really does give you a pretty cool, crunchy, full sound identical to the UK made 100w amp – even through headphones. The amp has 3 settings so you can easily adjust the volume, tone and drive by using the thumb wheels situated on the top on the device and there are also 9 effects to choose from (Chorus x 3, Delay x 3, Reverb x 3) which are really good fun to experiment with, although for the music I tend to play the heavier effects were a little over the top. Oh, and if you want to play along to a track, no problem, just plug your media device into the auxiliary socket and you are good to go.
Personally I absolutely love this thing because no matter where I am I can just plug this in, throw on a pair of headphones and play til my fingers hurt and it sounds great. It’s an absolutely perfect gift for anyone who is learning to play guitar and still in the making noise phase, those who can’t use amps when they are playing at home but still want to hear some effects or touring musicians that just want to jam out anyway and everywhere and at £35 it is an absolute bargain.
Buy your Vox amPlug 2 here.
Also available in: AC30, Bass, Blues, Metal and Clean
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