The Steel Guitar Forum

What can you all knowing forumites suggest for a good headphone amp for practicing?

Thanks all,

Peter

I got one of these, and it works pretty good.
http://www.steelguitar.net/headphones1.html

If you want a headphone amp for pedal steel, from my experience you can forget about all those cheap ones designed for regular guitar players. Steel pickups are too hot for them, and they don't have enough headroom to give you the sustain you expect with your volume pedal. Those things will give you nothing but distortion, and your steel will sound like a couple of yard flys in a tin can. The best thing I found is a small inexpensive mixer, like the Behringer (around $99 for my 8-track MX802A), that has channels that can take a guitar directly in, or a line in from a preamp, as well as stereo input from your CD player. Any mixer will also have a headphone jack with its own volume control. You will be able to adjust volume and tone independently in each channel. Since I have my CD player, radio and TV all going into my stereo receiver, I can play along with CDs, radio or TV. You can go from the back of the receiver, but the simplest thing is to go from the receiver phone jack into the mixer. With that many different things going in, you may get a lot of hum. I had to get a Hum Eliminator, which cured the problem.<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by David Doggett on 03 February 2004 at 07:20 AM.]</p></FONT>

What I use isn't exactly a headphone amp, but it sure works great! The Behringer UB802 mixer is just the best, clean and plenty loud. Plenty of options for mixing in cd's or hooking up to the computer, etc. Got mine from Guitar Center. Also available online from Musicians Friend.
See it here.Sonny

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http://geocities.com/sonbone1
sonbone@geocities.com

Edited to Fix Link<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Joey Ace on 04 February 2004 at 06:43 AM.]</p></FONT>

You might try visiting some of the local Pawn SHops and see if you can find an older Peavey Backstage 30 or 35..whatever they are. And of course there are several brands of small amps with headphone out , most do not have reverb but you may get lucky.

Peavey backstage is very small light amp with reverb , 8 inch speaker and headphone out. Serves the headphones issue and a small practice amp at the same time.

I found one for $50..

I guess I should add that I also have a 4 channel Behringer headphone amp in my workstation rack as well and really like it as well..
t<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Tony Prior on 04 February 2004 at 02:53 AM.]</p></FONT>

Ditto to David. I run my steel and cd/mp3 player into my Boss 6 channel mixer, out to my Fender Champion, which has a headphone jack. So If the wife and kids aren't around and I want to make some noise, play along with Buddy, etc. I unplug the headphone and blast away.

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Marrs D-10, Webb 6-14E

Go with the Behringer series mixer. They have mini-amps on each channel so you can plug your steel direct and listen through the earphones.

I run my VCR, CDROM, steel guitar into the mixer; all with great success. I picked up the mixer on ebay pretty cheap.

Good Luck.

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Sho-bud LDG, Nashville 400, Session 400 LTD

Looks like the Behringer mixer is the way to go.
Thanks one and all.
-Peter

Here's a little known fact. If your amp has a phone jack for the internal speaker (like many of the old Fender amps), you can actually just unplug the internal speaker and plug your headphones in there (provided they are 4 ohm or more impedance). You will only be getting sound in one ear. But with an adaptor from Radio Shack you can split the signal and connect the two signals to a stereo phone jack and plug your headphones into that. Be sure to have the volume on zero when you crank this up. Obviously the amp can blow cheap headphones if you crank it too loud. As best I can tell (and I have talked to several amp techs) this does not hurt the amp, as long as your headphone impedance is greater than the impedance rating for the amp. Many Fender amps were rated for 4 ohms, and most good headphones are rated 4 ohms or greater.

You can also run your stereo receiver into the amp if it is like the old Fenders with two input jacks for each channel. You can run your guitar into one channel as usual, and split the signal from your receiver headphone jack into two mono phone plugs, and run those into the two jacks on the unused channel of the Fender amp. Now you have your guitar and CD/Radio/TV sound all going into your amp. And you have separate volume and tone controls for each channel.

In other words, many of the old two-channel, four-jack Fender amps will work as a mixer with a headphone jack. Some amp techs may be recoiling in horror at this suggestion, but I have done this for over 25 years with no problems. <FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by David Doggett on 04 February 2004 at 03:00 PM.]</p></FONT>

Hey Peter...a simple way to go would be to use a "personal effects processor" such as the Korg PX 3 (now PX 4). These are available at music stores for around $150. Phone plug in, phone plug out, plus an additional mini-phone in...all in a little box the size of a pack of cigarettes. BTW, thanks for your email back to me a couple of months ago.

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