Best Sounding Mini Guitar Amp (2024 Update)

Much more positive than negative. Interesting that Line 6 has changed their products (at least this one) to match Peavey's way of thinking. Turn this amp on, effects are on – just like Peavey's. My Spider Jam – turn it on – comes on clean, the way it should be. Anyway, the amp sounds good. My MP3 player, mics, and guitars all sound good on this amp. The battery power aspect is nice (no power cord needed – but adapter is supplied). All the effects work well. The low end is gutless, but you can feed it into a sound board if you need to. For an easy, take-along, practice amp, it is great and I would recommend it. The on-board tuner is nice also, but I have to crank my guitars all the way up to get it to work well – then do not forget to turn your guitar back down, and hit the INSANE button – because you will know why they labeled it INSANE – poor little amp sounds like it is about to blow it's knobs all over the room! It will get loud! For a student, or busker (as they say across the pond), this amp would be a very good choice. If Line 6 would change their turn-on sequence, and put in a long-throw, polycone speaker – this amp would easily dominate the mini-amp market. It needs a better speaker. Remember Line 6, and anyone else who might be reading this – always, always, always, always put your money into the speaker(s) – that is what you hear! For the money – great buy!

When I ordered this amp I expected to change out the tubes for JJs because if recommendations in the reviews I read. The stock tubes in this particular amp didn't produce any rattle and also provided plenty of clarity and bass. I don't sense the need to change out the tubes. This amp has more head room than my 1×10 2013 '65 Princeton Reverb Reissue Amp and I'll say its louder. The Vox Ac10c1 doesn't have a footswitch input installed onto it, if you want to switch from reverb to gain you will have to do it by hand as youre playing. The gain is rich, its a decent factory built in, the gain effect on my 4×10 2003 Fender Concert Reverb Amp doesnt sound nearly this good, if you buy the newer Marshall 20 watt tube amp or their MG solid state series amps their gain effects have a thinner, more static sounding than gritty sound to them. Vox amps have that more lush grit sound, akin to the sound we hear in the songs Ripcord and Vegetable by Radiohead (though Thom Yorke uses a turbo rat pedal) Haven't tried the Ac10c1 with a drummer, setting the Ac10c1 on an amp stand to project the speaker upward or placing this amp on a table should work just fine. The portability and light 27 pound weight are a huge plus if you decide on taking this amp anywhere. With this amp in one hand and a guitar stand and your guitar in a case in the other hand- you will be able to comfortably enter to set up and exit to load up in single trips. I originally expected to change the amp handle out for a leather handle but this vinyl handle is pretty thick. While playing through this amp, you can really feel and hear the nuances of its tube sensitivity while strumming and if you dig in with a pick, you can go from soft to really loud. The touch sensitive dynamics have been well calibrated in this amp. Again, the only downside is the lack of a footswitch input to switch between the amps good sounding gain and so so digital (not analog spring) reverb channel, no one seems to mention this. Everyone has their own effects pedals and loopers and what they already like to use so it almost balances out. I must say I actually like the sound of the gain on this amp. Again Im glad I didnt settle for a solid state Marshall in this price range, or the latest 20 watt tube Marshall which both felt and sounded lesser quality to me. I was looking for a good sounding portable amp. Glad I ordered a Vox Ac10c1

Overall: Amazing tube like tones from a solid state amp. Super portable. Crank a Strat through it and hear it wail. Don't expect clean tones; this amp is high gain. Club friendly, can easily handle a club gig.

Sound: As a stand alone amp it's best suited for people that play classic rock, hard rock, acoustic music, Doom metal, Stoner metal, Sludge metal, Jazz or anything that you're looking for a warm fuzzy sound. Features: Most useful,1. The FX loop.2. 2 extra gain stages.3. The compact size.4. 20watts.Least useful,1. The headphone jack.2. The mid shift control, a tone control would have been quite a bit better. Ease of Use: You can get a good tone out of this head depending on what sound you're looking for. Ex….. I'm a metal player so I put an Ibanez Tube Screamer Mini in front of the amp to tighten up the sound and get rid of all the muddy bass tone and I put a 10 band EQ in the FX loop the cut boost the frequencies that suit my sound. I also play through at least a 112 cab, anything less sounds lousy these days. Quality: As for the construction I have no complaints. Value: Actually if I had to do it all over again I would have went with the Joyo ZOMBIE which has more features and sounds far better for metal or had forked out a little more for a Monoprice amp which is a full tube amp. Manufacturer Support: All I can say is no. The Wow Factor: It looks ok I guess. Overall: Pros,1. Affordable hybrid 20watt amp head.2. Small and portable.3. Great backup head for gigging.4. Powerful enough to drive a 412 cab for practice.5. Has an FX loop.6. A headphone jack for quiet night practice.7. Has one 12AX7 preamp tube for a tube amp like response and tube overdrive.8. Has a great tube like clean tone.9. Unlike the Micro Terror it has 4 gain stages rather than only 2.10. It supports 8 and 16oh cabs(which are the most common).Cons,1. Just like the Micro Terror and the new Micro Terror Stamp it has a limited and horrible tone shaping control. In fact this Micro Dark is worse than the other two because it's tone control is a mid shift.2. The volume control is extremely touchy. If you're using it for medium to high gain and turn up the volume you'll have to do it in tiny movements otherwise you'll have you neighbors mad and possibly have an ear ache.3. The headphone jack isn't the most idea to because it has an emulated Orange 412 cab sim on it and just like the volume control is very touchy.4. If you go on YouTube to get a review of this amp please be careful who you go to because a lot of the reviews make this amp sound far far better than it really is. When playing high gain this amp without the right pickups, speakers, micing placement, post processing and/or pedals used that the reviewers conveniently never mention will sound way too bassy, fizzy and muddy. It's not to say this is always a bad, I know people that love this amp for doom, stoner and sludge metal for high gain and other that love it because they're not modern metal players that need a tight response.5. In order to get this amp to play modern metal that actually sounds good(not an Ola Englund post processed video with great pickups and speakers) you'll need a Tube Screamer(or a good Tube Screamer clone), at least a 112 cab and preferably an EQ ion the FX loop to iron out any bad frequencies. A noise gate would be a plus because when driving with all this stuff your rig may make a lot of unwanted noise.6. Only one channel, but you can't always expect much for an inexpensive amp.7. Lastly it would have been good if Orange included a aux in for jamming with other song and drum beats.