Did something this weekend that I should've done years ago; I traded my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe for a tiny little practice amp: Fender Vibro-Champ XD.

The Hot Rod put out 40 watts and weighed 45 pounds. It had a gorgeous clean tone, but the overdriven sound never did anything for me - at least at volumes I could use in our house. I could put various pedals in front of it to get a better crunchy sound, but I hate fussing with pedals. And since I never joined a band, or played it anywhere but the bedroom/study in the 14 years I had it, I never turned either of its volume knobs above "1". But after starting married life, I bought it to be a bedroom / practice amp, having traded my giant Fender Super Amp (which also sounded amazing) for it. I figured 40 watts would be just right for a bedroom - much more practical than the Super's 60 watts.

In retrospect, that's like thinking the best car for someone with a 2 mile daily commute is a new 400hp Corvette - hey, it's not as fast as the 660hp Corvette Z1, right ?!

It was totally wasted.

This little Vibro-champ, though, is only 5 watts, so I can turn it up and let the tubes work a little bit (though even 5 watts can put out more than enough volume for my needs). Instead of a big-ass Corvette, this is like a little Triumph Spitfire - it's fun to drive around the block, and sure it'll only go 90mph, but that 90 feels like 160! And, even better, this little thing has built-in amp modeling, so it can sound like 16 different amps - including one or two that sound a lot like the Hot Rod's clean channel, and a few that sound like crunchy chewy awesomeness. So, I can still get my rawk on, but I don't have to shake the drywall loose to do it.

Check out this demo:

(no, that's not me)