ultra-mini battery/travel rig for electric

The goal here is singalongs with friends and family in very small settings, hotel rooms and living rooms.

I have been thinking about this for years. What is the smallest/lightest battery-powered rig for an electric? One that is suitcase/airplane friendly. I decided to give the Bose option try, here is the rig:

- Electric Mando - my new mandostang.
- Bose SoundLink Mini II - 7x2x2", 1.5 lbs, hard case options available, very suitcase friendly.
- Pocket Pod (Express) - tiny, enough effects to get by nicely, phone out for Bose's aux in.

I've had the POD for years, and it's been my goto for headphone practice. The POD has an aux in too, so playalongs with MP3's are possible.

Speaker arrives this Sunday, first trip is in 2 months.

I am a complete tyro on trons for strings, but I just bought a NS WAV electric violin to travel with. It makes almost no noise when not amped, but I wanted something to produce real sound if I should find a nearby jam or session I could fiddle at. I ended up getting the oddly named "Aroma AG-03M 5W Portable Rechargeable Multifunction Guitar Amplifier Recorder Speaker" for about $27. It definitely doesn't have the power of the Bose or the processing power of the POD, but it is very small, produces sounds that go from natural violin sound to somewhat distorted electric instrument sounds, and would capably fill the bill for hotel and living room use. It's smaller than a large paperback novel, about 4"x5"x1.5". It evidently can record and play back from a micro-SD card slot. You supply your own card, and I haven't learned how to do the recording trick yet. It charges via USB cable. Additionally, I bought a Smokey Amp, mainly because I always wanted one. Twice as small, no real functions, but it flat out puts out the noise. For headphone-only practice, I use my old Honeytone eStudio, which was incredibly handy for hearing my mandolin while going back and forth to the desert in a C-130.

I used the Orange Crush Mini on tour for years, with satisfying results.

I have about 50 battery operated amps but i use my Roland cubes the most

So I gave it a try...

The Bose speaker is a bit of a disappointment, the sound quality and power is there, but it has a noticeable delay when producing sound (I am guessing about 20-50 ms, enough you can feel it while playing). It's usable in a pinch, but not an ideal solution.

Even so, given it's intended purpose, it is usable, and nothing else even comes close in size and power.

Take a look at the Yamaha THR-10 series , compact, amp modeling, all the effects, programmable, good battery life and lots of tone an sound. All in a lunch box size.
Dave

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Originally Posted by rockies

Take a look at the Yamaha THR-10 series , compact, amp modeling, all the effects, programmable, good battery life and lots of tone an sound. All in a lunch box size.
Dave

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I have one of these, works great with rechargeable batteries or plugged in. Expensive but cool.

I have a THR-10, love it, it's my goto practice amp, I have used it onstage as a monitor a few times too. Too big for a suitcase though.

I use a Vox Amplug into a Sony srsx5. Very portable and sounds great!

Attachment 177111

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...SABEgIIg_D_BwE

Attachment 177116

I love this thing. It weighs about 1.5 lbs and sounds big.

Attachment 177229
This is as portable as I can do for 15watts

what speaker is that? searching for ks battery powered speaker didn't come up with anything.

Maybe not ultra-mini, but I use the "legendary" Pignose...an oldie but goodie...

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Originally Posted by kurth83

what speaker is that? searching for ks battery powered speaker didn't come up with anything.

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Looks like:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kitsound-Bl...00ZBXLCXK?th=1

Ok, ordered one, the USD conversion rate is pretty favorable for the british pound these days.

Correct & right Kitsound hive 2. The 1/8 phono input is stereo so it's important for the preamp to have a "headphone" out. You can use a smaller headphone amp, however the set up I have has a super clean sound & the 9volt battery lasts much longer (the speaker is rechargeable).