Portable Amps for Portable Players By: Lon Spurgeon
I
ʼm a big fan of taking music out into nature; Iʼm not bragging, but Iʼve played fiddle on top of Mount Leconte, the Chimney tops, and other high perches throughout the Smoky Mountains and Iʼve taken my penny flute deep into the forests of many a mountain side. I certainly canʼt resist an outdoor bluegrass jam or playing folk songs around the camp fire either. But what about electronic music? For an electric guitarist or keyboard player its harder to get into those wide-open spaces to sequence and synthesize those high-tech spacey sounds.
ubiquitous battery powered pig nose amp was one of the few small battery-operated amps on the market; but now with the popularity of street busking and advances in battery technology there are more and more light weight portable amps to choose from. Let me illustrate with a few devices I like to use when I am away from any ac outlets and still just have to hear that electric guitar sound. My oldest tool for portable electric guitar is the Line 6 Pocket Pod. A small light weight palm sized effects processor that runs on batteries or ac cable with a handy belt hook. It houses tons of preset guitar sounds and has the ability to make and store some of your own. The sounds are very realistic and warm! There are
As a guitarist I can take along an acoustic guitar and play and compose some cool sounding stuff but alas, when I want the versatility of my electric axes, I donʼt have a leg to stand on or an amp to plug into. Recent innovations have solved this problem to a certain degree by offering portable devices to plug the electric guitar into. At one time the
MOBILE MUSICIAN
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