Headphone amp for steel for practicing at home ?

[Rene Brosseau]

I usually practice with headphones & ipad plugged into my Nashville 112, & it works fine...One of my friends uses a VOX headphone amp to practice bass & loves it..I've been researching them & found Fender & Katana have them as well...Has anyone tried these or use these with success?

[Jack Hanson]

Back in the seventies when inexpensive electric tuners were unavailable, I built a headphone amp from a Godbout Electronics kit, specifically to use for silent tuning onstage. It did what I intended it to do. Used it for years until it finally gave up the ghost, and I ended up purchasing a BOSS TU 12.

A few years back I bought one of those Audio Techica "VOX" headphone amps -- the one marketed for bass. It works, but it sounds like crap to my ears. Adjectives such as sterile, clinical, and cold come to mind. Diddled around with it, but was never able to coax a pleasant sound out of it. Works alright for silent onstage tuning, but modern electronic tuners are far superior. Haven't used the headphone amp for a long, long time. To me, a disappointment. Your results may vary.

[Tim Toberer]

You can plug headphones into the output of Valeton GP-5. Only slightly larger than a headphone amp and way more useful. Sounds amazing!

[Wiz Feinberg]

I use IEMs onstage. When this first was sprung on me, the band handed me cheap IEMs and a Behringer P2 headphone amp that clips on with a long spring. These amps are fairly inexpensive and can go a couple of days, or about 20 hours, on a pair of AAA batteries if you only turn it on when you use it. It has a volume control and a 1/8 inch headphone jack on top, with an XLR input jack on the bottom. If your phones have a quarter inch plug you can get an adapter to a 1/8" plug. It has a decent amount of gain.

[Steven Paris]

Jack Hanson:"A few years back I bought one of those Audio Techica "VOX" headphone amps -- the one marketed for bass. It works, but it sounds like crap to my ears. Adjectives such as sterile, clinical, and cold come to mind. Diddled around with it, but was never able to coax a pleasant sound out of it."
You might wanna try the "Rockman" headphone amp by Tom Scholz of the group Boston fame. It's mainly for 6-string use, but it has a good sound.

[Gary Spaeth]

i have a vox blues model headphone amp. it sounds great clean like a fender amp and all levels of adjustable distortion. it has reverb, echo and chorus. cost me $50. you connect your backing track into the mix or send the whole mix to a stereo set up for out loud listening.

[Tim Toberer]

i have a vox blues model headphone amp. it sounds great clean like a fender amp and all levels of adjustable distortion. it has reverb, echo and chorus. cost me $50. you connect your backing track into the mix or send the whole mix to a stereo set up for out loud listening.

I listened to some samples of this and have to say it sounds really convincing. The breakup on the Blues version is really nice too. A lot of people like the Clean version as well which still has a little breakup, but much less than the Blues. I like that it is solid state.

[Jack Hanson]

You might wanna try the "Rockman" headphone amp by Tom Scholz of the group Boston fame. It's mainly for 6-string use, but it has a good sound.

Agreed. I had a Rockman years ago, and was quite happy with its sound. Until it failed.

[Dave Grafe]

My favorite is the Roland CUBE Street

I use the second channel's MIC input for clean analog sound (not the amp modeling options) with excellent Roland effects. I use the headphone out from my phone, MD/CD or video sources plugged into the Roland's stereo line in to play with tracks. Runs on 120vac or AA batteries and works so good I bought two!

[Steven Paris]

You might wanna try the "Rockman" headphone amp by Tom Scholz of the group Boston fame. It's mainly for 6-string use, but it has a good sound.

Agreed. I had a Rockman years ago, and was quite happy with its sound. Until it failed.

What failed? No sound? Does it indicate power? The in/out jacks on those units sometimes get flakey and sometimes lift traces off the PCB due to over-stress.

[Steven Paris]

I just listened to a demo of an Emmons GS10 pedal steel guitar by Doug Beaumier. Man it sounds good!!

[Jack Hanson]

What failed? No sound? Does it indicate power? The in/out jacks on those units sometimes get flakey and sometimes lift traces off the PCB due to over-stress.

It was so long ago, I can't remember. One day it worked, then the next day it didn't. Since I so rarely pitch anything, it's probably buried in my storage unit somewhere. If I somehow happen to come across it (iffy), I'll check it out and report back.

[Jack Hanson]

I just listened to a demo of an Emmons GS10 pedal steel guitar by Doug Beaumier. Man it sounds good!!

Both of the GS10s I've had sounded fantastic.
Doug could make a swinette sound good. The man has "the music" in him.

[Rick Contino]

Here's another vote for the Valeton GP5. For $80 you get:
- a headphone amp with bluetooth connectivity to your phone to practice along with songs
- drum tracks
- a bunch of crazy amp models and effects (all in stereo to play around with)
- a recording interface...plugs right into your computer through a USB-c cord
- a tuner pedal (when in bypass mode)

[Cartwright Thompson]

Before I had a room where I could practice through an amp at all hours, I used a small mixer with a stereo reverb pedal. Two channels for guitar and two for a stereo music source. You can get a four or six channel mixer for peanuts. I’ve used Behringer, Mackie and Yamaha mixers and they all worked just fine. I haven’t looked at them in a while but I’ll bet you can get a good one for less than $75. The sound quality and flexibility are a lot better than any headphone amp I’ve ever heard

[Willie Sims]

GET AN OLD CASSIT RECORDER, SET ON PAUSE, AND RECORD ,PLUG IN GUITAR AND HEAD PHONES' WORKES GOOD, WILLIE SIMS

[AJ Jacobson]

Hi, I’m using a Fender tonemaster micro for playing with a headphone. I plug it into my volumepedal and choose one of the available amp models(most of the time the Fender twin). Attach the headphone and to my surprise it sounds good. An advantage is also the bluetooth connection with my Ipad or Iphone so I can select songs I want to play to.

[Sonny Jenkins]

TuneBomb by CFG,,,,, great at home practice amp,,,,reverb, drum machine built in, bluetooth, lithium battery, headphone out,,,,10 powerfull watts. Also 5 effects,,,clean, metal, distortion etc,,,,around 100 bucks

[Rene Brosseau]

Wow! Thanks for all the suggestions...I will do some research