Looking for an mini amp for Green day tones

Ivor

Ivor

Newbie
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13
Hello
Iam 15 years old and i love playing the guitare and love green day , so playing green day songs is the best of both worlds. i have got a harley benton les pauls but want to make a telecaster style partscaster with angled humbucker like he uses at the reading festival in 2013 and a squire sp10 amp and i am trying to get a green day tone from it but apparently these aren't very good amps and doesn't sound good on distortion so i want a cheap but good amp to practise with that gets close to billie joe armstrong tone .
I have looked at little practise amps and ones i am looking at are the boss katana mini, the blackstar fly 3 ,fender mustang tl 25,. or big ones the boss katana 50 . what does anyone thinks ? has anybody got any suggestions? what does anyone recommend ?
Would a marshall ms4 work ?

Thanks
Toby
 
Ivor said:
Hello
Iam 15 years old and i love playing the guitare and love green day , so playing green day songs is the best of both worlds. i have got a harley benton les pauls but want to make a telecaster style partscaster with angled humbucker like he uses at the reading festival in 2013 and a squire sp10 amp and i am trying to get a green day tone from it but apparently these aren't very good amps and doesn't sound good on distortion so i want a cheap but good amp to practise with that gets close to billie joe armstrong tone .
I have looked at little practise amps and ones i am looking at are the boss katana mini, the blackstar fly 3 ,fender mustang tl 25,. or big ones the boss katana 50 . what does anyone thinks ? has anybody got any suggestions? what does anyone recommend ?
Would a marshall ms4 work ?

Thanks
Toby
Click to expand...
Welcome Toby! I have no idea what platform will give you the best tone you are looking for, but I can point you in the right direction as far as gear buying goes.

The best advice I can give you is to save up longer for good gear. Get a part-time job, wash your neighbors car, weed some flower beds, or whatever you need to do but dont cheap out on your purchase decisions. In the long run you will just waste money and time.

If I were in your shoes, I would get one of the Katana Artist series at least the 50w or Line 6 Catalyst 100. These can be picked up for a few hundred used and $300-$500 new. Either of those amps should get you about as close as anything to the sound you are looking for. Mini amps are okay for couch practice, but not too much more, IMO.

Good luck in you hunt!
 
Hello!

If you can swing the Boss Katana 50 that's a really good in expensive amp for versatility. It has a lot of different amp sounds and a lot of different effects built in. Depending on where you are you should be able to find one used for a good deal.
 
I agree with the Katana......and then, in the future, you can get a sealed extension cabinet.....do a simple mod, and plug that Katana into a sealed cabinet, which will get you a lot closer to what you want .....so....

1. Katana 50
2. Cheap Harley Benton sealed extension cab
3. M and F 1/4" ends .... soldering iron and solder...
4. Dookie

(Edit ... For those that don't know, the Katana 50s do not have a speaker out ...so you splice the output from the amp...and Viola...speaker out )
 
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Yeah early Green Day like Dookie, a guitar with a humbucker in the bridge into a higher gain Marshall will do pretty much all of it. Later stuff, it got to be a little lower gain between the amps and Billie using vintage Les Paul Juniors and what not.

Nice thing with the Boss Katana is there's adjustable output power, so you can use it at home in your bedroom at low volumes or take it out to play with others.
 
Welcome! You could not be living in a better time to start your guitar and gear journey. My advice would be to get a Katana or Catalyst because you can pull off anything with them, and since they model several different kinds of amps you can figure out what style of amp works for you in the long run.
 
Also, if you just want a mini amp to practice at home and don’t need to worry about playing with other people, the Positive Grid Spark amps are great.
 
Hello
Thanks guys for your replys, really nice to find somewhere to talk about guitares and amps . So the boss katana sounds like the best choise then . i'll start saving up , i work at a garage once a week for 40 euros so hopefully in a few weeks should be able to get it
I read somewhere else that a marshall dsl would be a good choice but it's the same price for less.Do they sound like plexis ? I can get an 50w for around 150 to 200 euros . What's the difference between the boss artist and the katana mkii?
i haven't tried a pedal but i was going have a look at getting a dookie drive but there were mixed reviews about that.
Has anybody got any advice on punk songwriting ?
Thanks
Toby
 
You guys remember first trying to sort out the sounds your heroes were making, but with your first amp and probably no pedals? This post brought me back in a big way.

@Ivor buckle up buddy, IMO this is the best part of the ride. The first big hill on the rollercoaster, if you will. Enjoy it!

Anyway, all the advice here is sound. Something like a Katana or Catalyst would be perfect.
 
Welcome Ivor. Best of luck learning the craft of guitar. I think most any affordable, modern amp will get you close to those tones. A Katana is probably just fine.
That kind of style playing is more about attitude and how you attack the strings as you probably are figuring out. My personal realization over many years is that the amps I had early on were more than sufficient, it's just my playing and ear hadn't caught up yet. But having decent gear is important too so just keep researching to get a good idea before you purchase. If you can play one in person before buying that would be even better.
 
Ivor said:
Has anybody got any advice on punk songwriting ?
Click to expand...
Start out copying your idols and in the process figure out what YOUR style is.

Also, I agree with the Katana recommendations because you should be able to practice at low volume at home and play at high volume with others in a band setting. As has been mentioned before, another good thing about the Katana and other modeling amps is that you can experiment with different amp types and figure out what your preferences are.
 
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In your tone journey be aware of the fact that the way you approach your instrument is the biggest factor in the sound that comes out of the speakers (that's my way of saying tone is in the fingers). If you play timidly, without confidence, you'll sound timid and without confidence. If you play hard with reckless abandon, you'll sound that way. If you play chords with only down strokes, it will sound one way. If you use up and down strokes, it will sound another way.

My point is, attack the guitar in different ways and pay close attention to the differences coming out of the speakers.

The gear you use matters too, but how you play matters more. If you learn this now at 15 you'll save a lot of time chasing tone with gear purchases.
 
Watch videos of your idols play and imitate their strumming hand even if your fingering hand isn’t there yet.

For songwriting just play around with chords and singing whatever melody comes to you naturally over them. Then try the opposite of making up a melody first then finding chords to go under. Then try playing a Green Day song backwards and see what you come up with. Then listen to the traffic and birds and find the melodies and rhythms in them.

And get a rhyming dictionary.
 
Hey
Thanks for your replys and advice sorry i haven't replied to them yet. I just found a behringer v-amp 2 that can do loads of effets and sounds and using it until i can get a boss katana but i can't get a green day tone does anybody have any suggestions ? It's got settings for a marshall plexi 1959slp 100w and 50 w and a jmc800 and got gain ,treble,mid ,bass volume and master and presence and different sounds at the top MIDI ,DRIVE,CABINETS REVERB and NOISE GATE . i tried setting i like billie joes set up like on rig rundown.. here a photo

Image


Thanks
Toby
 
Hi - Glad you are enjoying playing, and Green Day is a great place to start. Really, any Marshall type amp tone will get you close enough. Green Day actually uses much less gain than most realize. A lot of it comes from Billie's aggressive strumming style, and layering guitars on recordings.

I'd avoid super high-gain settings when trying to get close to their tone. They tend to get too fizzy sounding and flubby in the low-end. Any Marshall setting on your preferred device or Katana of choice, with medium gain will do it.

Also - Remember to not get too hung up on trying to get the 'exact' sound. Playing is most important.

I knew the guys in GD before they were huge. When I first met Billie, he was playing an off-brand Strat knockoff (his blue Fernandez) with a Bill Lawrence humbucker added (now a Duncan JB), and his amp was a Gallien Krueger 250 RL. He plugged straight in, no pedals. No expensive, sought after, or high-end gear. You can play great and sound great with simple tools. Enjoy!
 
...and also, regarding your question about the Behringer V-Amp 2 you are using for a while - probably stick with the JCM 800 setting. Yes Billie's rig includes the well known plexis, but those are modded for more gain. It would be easier to cop their level of gain on this modeler with a JCM 800 -style amp setting. Start with gain half way up, and go from there. As for effects, maybe only just a bit of reverb to add some space, but you don't need other effects for their core sound. Watch the bass setting - too much base on a JCM 800 can get flubby in the low-end as gain settings increase. Also depending on how well this unit models a Marshall, midrange is your friend to get a classic Marshall bark. Don't scoop it as you would for a Metal setting.
 
Nothing is going to get you close to that tone for less money than a used Boss katana 50.

You can buy one for a hundred bucks off marketplace if it's an older model.

While it's not going to sound as good as the 100 watt Marshall halfstack he uses, it will get you closer than a lot of players probably realize if you take the time to learn how to dial it in with the tone studio.

One pointer I will give you is to not just download some patch, and call it a day. The katana tends to sound radically different from one set of pickups to another, So any patch you download needs to be dialed in to your guitar.

Honestly though, the clean channel with the gain maxed on a Katana sounds similar to the tone Green day uses. They are one of those bands that uses a lot less gain than you would expect, much like ACDC or older Blink 182. They get that sound from beating the $h!+ out of the strings and playing at very loud volumes. You can emulate it pretty good without doing either of those things though, It just won't be exact.
 
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