Hello everyone. I am happy that when my wife goes to U.S. to visit family she will be coming back with my new bamboo grand.

What I am asking here is advice on beginner equipment due to being financially depleted after paying for the new 'baby.' my considerations: A Behringer P1 headphone amp for $50 which would be easy to transport back to Costa Rica where we live, has great reviews, but would limit me to playing thru headphones and thus would rule out Skype lessons. The other possible choice I am considering would be Behringer K900fx priced at $250 with built in effects, a bit more money and weighs 40 lbs.

Advice anyone?

gracias (thanks)

some good options are listed here: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=12868

for a start i would go with
the cube street :

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... -combo-amp

or cube street EX :

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... -combo-amp

I think there are some amazing small amps to choose from. I hear the new Boss Katanas are really amazing. Not sure how good they are with bass but would be a great starting point.

For me though... I like a small mixer that can accept instrument level will be good. If you have active picups then any 1/4" input will be fine. If you are thinking of recording there are ones out there with interface built in. I have a Allen&Heath ZEDi10FX. They make smaller ones too. I love this thing in my home studio.
I've seen the Mackie Onyx Blackjack that might be a cool mixer/interface with headphone jack. Super small. 2 inputs switchable to instrument level.

Just some of my thoughts...

Hi Alberto, I can relate to what you are saying! Who wants to play a $3k instrument through headphones?!

I like the Behringer k900fx a lot. I used it pretty much exclusively for the Song of the week videos. Good enough for small spaces, cafes, etc. You can also isolate reverb for the bass and melody signals. The EQ is, however, shared by both sides.

The K900 will also allow you to run your laptop into it using a headphone to RCA cable. Now, you can play along with youtube videos. It has three channels too, so if you sing, you can use the Mic input on channel 1.

They are tough, I took mine everywhere and the speakers are relatively inexpensive to replace. The K900 and a good cable were largely what I used for my solo gig at Viva Vino in Temecula. You might be able to find a used one, hard to say. For what it's worth, I recommend the K900fx.

Thank you all for your replies. Gene, I love your endorsement and because of my limited budget I w believe i will go with the k900.

muchas gracias!

Great to hear Alberto. I believe that Pilar down in Chile uses one of these amps and likes it too.

We'll want to see some video just as soon as you get it up and running. Cheers!