Well after a few weeks of digging out all my guitar stuff and shuffling things around in my study, I've finally got myself a few areas setup to practice guitar. I'm so grateful to have my own little space as otherwise I'd no doubt drive the rest of the family crazy!
I thought I'd give a little rundown how what I'm using for my daily practice.
My study is directly underneath my eldest daughter's bedroom so I can't use a big amp or I'll disturb her. Many moons ago I bought this little Blackstar Id:core 10 amplifier. It has two 5 watt speakers giving it an output of 10 watts. More than ample for a little room.
It offers several different voice settings from Clean, Crunch to Overdrive in addition to Reverb, Delay and Modulation effects. Unfortunately the little selected knob for the voicing seems to have given up the ghost. I've taken the top off it but it's all so integrated it doesn't look like I'll be able to fix it easily.
Thankfully, Blackstar have come to the rescue with their Architect software. I've got this installed on my laptop and iMac. When connected by USB, the settings can be managed via the software. Perfect job!
Before now, I've always been a bit rubbish at getting things setup so I can play along with tracks. I've always wanted to learn blues licks using the minor pentatonic positions but haven't really applied myself. What I've ended up doing is connecting the headphone output to the line in, finding backing tracks on YouTube and noodling away to them. I think it's fair to say I'm not naturally gifted on the music front, but I'm slowly progressing and learning what notes sound best over which chords.
I also have this little 2 watt (I think - the newer ones are 3 watt) battery operated model that I can use in the bedroom. It can't be controlled by the software but does have the same line in functionality allowing me to easily play along with tracks. I grabbed this at a guitar show in Birmingham on a day out with 
At some point I'll write about my funky little recording setup allowing me to add create songs from midi files.
