Guitar Amp Impedance Matching For Sale (2024 Update)

I just completed my Mod 102 kit. An excellent experience! I was delighted with the quality of components, clarity of instructions, and, perhaps most importantly, the sound of the amp. It is very loud – currently running into my Fender Twin Reverb cab (2×12) and very sweet! I will be running it into a new 1×12 cab with a new Celestion G12 M Heritage 'Greenback' when I get a case for the speaker (on order). My only criticism (and something to look out for) is that the chassis is very nicely painted in gray gunmetal paint. Even following the directions to file all the holes, it is very hard to get a good ground connection at every point a terminal strip connects. I worried about this, and about 1/3rd of the way through the build, took an ohm meter to check all the connections, and as I had suspected, some of the connections were not great (9-10 ohms or so!) So I removed the terminal strips (with the components I had already soldered still attached) and scraped away the paint under the tabs of the strips to ensure a good connection. Re-testing showed virtually zero resistance. I'd strongly recommend scraping the paint away at all holes under the chassis before getting started on the build. Even better, suggest that Amplified Parts leave the inside chassis unpainted (at least around the important holes). Aside that one criticism, I am delighted with the kit and with Amplified Parts. Everything was delivered promptly and they are a class outift. I'll probably try some of their other kits soon.vpmerlyn

I spent three evenings building the MOD102. The instructions are very easy to understand and the amp has a great Fender sound. I had one grounding issue that was easily fixed with a little help from tech support, which was excellent. If you're good at following step by step instructions and can solder well this is a fun little amp to build. Only small issue is the labels. They could stand an improvement.Brandon

I just finished this amp build and it sounds fantastic! I also just finished a Marshall 18 Watt clone and I have to say that the Mod102+ holds its own very nicely alongside the Marshall. In fact, I will probably use the Mod102+ for recording because it sounds amazing at lower volumes (the Marshall is loud AF). Honestly, if I were only going to build one of them today, it would be the Mod. I'm blown away by the tone! Great kit with excellent instructions. Great bang for the buck. The parts all seem to be top quality. I love the old style cloth solid core wire, too. I find it much easier to work with than modern stranded wire. The labels are a bit lame but I covered them with packing tape as suggested before cutting them out and they look fine. If you're thinking about building an amp, build this one.danjbeckett

I have 3 of these amps so far and love them. You can't expect a big tube sound because it's not that but rather a smaller very useful sound. I customize them slightly with an 8" speaker that fits in them and do a few other little things. For very little money you can have a killer little tweed looking amp. Works great for rockabilly and roots music with an archtop for me and takes any pedals well. Can't beat these little work horses.Travis

Beautiful cover and vintage tweed appearance. Good for an office. If it got ripped off you would get over it quick. Have to use pedals or limited functionality makes practice boring rather quickly. Clean very good. Gain option is unfortunately toy-like and useless. Just leave it off.Records Reills

Cool little amp. Been spending some time playing with it. Love the tweed look. Wish they hadn't put the Rogue plaque on the front of the grill, and had kept true to the Champ 600 look by putting it on the top of the amp over the speaker. The clean channel is good, wish it had some built in reverb. The distortion channel is good too. I ran my "Bluesdriver" pedal into it and it sounded even better. I will likely change out the stock speaker for the Eminence 6.5 speaker to try and coax a little more sound out of this great little amp.KWB MUSIC

I've owned several Marshall combos over the years, and they've never let me down, until I bought this piece of garbage. I couldn't get a decent tone out of it!! Very low and bassy, and barely present at all. Definitely wouldn't be able to punch through a mix, and playing live would've been a nightmare.CoopDBomb

Overall: Bought this at a great deal.I had it for 30 days and sent it back for a refund.I could not for the life of me dial in a sound with my Fender Blacktop Strat with humbuckers.Marshall should be ashamed of themselves for putting their name on this horrible POS.Went and bought a used Peavey Vypyr 30 for $135.00 and had great sounds in less then 24 hours.Blows this marshall away.Very underrated Peavey Vypyr amps . Great tube sounding amps and also feel.Frank

The Marshall name alone speaks for itself. There is no brand that creates a better sound than Marshall. It's not just my opinion, it has been the most used amp by some of the most famous musicians that has ever played an instrument. This amp in particular is absolutely perfect for use in the home use or in front of a small crowd. Perfect sound and perfect size.Michael

I bought the amplifier based on sound clips and others reviews. I love the amps clean channel with OD, Eq and delay in the signal chain for my driven sound. It gets a very articulated, clear, deep throaty sound that is intoxicating for rock sounds. I only have to turn it up to about 4-5 to be clearly heard in the mix. I don't care much for the OD channel as I find it a bit harsh for my taste, even when I dial it back a bit & Eq. it. The only comparisons I have are to my VOX AC 50 and Mesa V mark 25 valve amps. This amp is a great, inexpensive alternative that is ultimately portable – glad I bought it!Dr Crusher

This is a good amp that will give you different results based on your pickups and speaker cab. The tone stack is a bit dark so I like it less with humbuckers than with single coils, but it's still very useable either way. Depending on how you set it, it may or may not have trouble cutting through a band mix. I haven't had that problem, but my amp is always mic'd and we don't play super loud. The dirty channel is – from what I understand – more like an OD pedal overlaid on top of the clean channel. It sounds good and has its own lo/hi EQ and can go from a semi-clean boost to about as much gain as a tubescreamer or the like. Sounds very good, IMO, to the point that it would be possible to use this amp with no pedals for a gig. And it does take pedals well – I haven't run into anything that doesn't sound good. Overall this is an excellent lightweight amp that sounds great and is very giggable. I don't know that it's "better' or "worse" than "a tube amp" (as if tube amps are one generic thing). It just sounds good. I've never felt it lacked anything. I run it through either a 1×10, 1×12 or 1×15 cab and all sound great.Al

Love the clean channel – sparkly without ice pick highs. I don't care for the OD channel, it sounds too harsh for my style. I get the sound I want through an old GenX 2 from Digitech fed into the amp & out to 2 single 12" speakers. I'm blown away by how loud this little amp can get. It gives a full, thick throaty sound that is very articulate and gives singing highs when needed. The portability and sound delivery is amazing! I bought the open box model and couldn't be happier. My main amp is a Boogie & this sounds close – quality sound.Dr Crusher

This is a great little amp. The sound is clear, and it fits in my son's backpack for when he needs to take it to school.ktw1050

It arrived earlier than expected. Just what we needed to have our son practice His Bass playing for school . At home . Thanksjistilwel-5

I needed an inexpensive practice amp for home use, so I bought this amp – big mistake! I wasn't expecting the sound of a more expensive amp, but this amp is nothing more than a noise machine. The sound is filled with static and noise to the point it is unusable. The static and noise push the little sound you get to the background. Maybe, I received a bad amp, but I'll never know since MF felt the issue lay with my personal sound quality preference and not the amp. Apparently, for MF the sound quality is good enough for an inexpensive amp, and the customer should be aware. To a degree, MF is right – I should have known better, but I never thought there would be absolutely no sound quality. STAY AWAY FROM THIS AMP!Jack

Originally purchased a Rogue Rocketeer Electric Guitar Pack, which included this G10 Amplifier, for my Great Nephew for Christmas. However, the one which came with the Pack didn't sound right and quit completely after about 15 minutes. I notified Musician's Friend Customer Service about the problem and they immediately took care of it by sending a replacement. The replacement arrived and it worked fine, and sounded good for a 10 watt practice amplifier. Was very pleased with the sound and quality. It even has a little drive button which gives the amp a little bit of distortion if you like to play that sort of thing. Very pleased with the product and with Musician's Friend for making things right.Music_Al

I was getting a beater electric guitar for my new place and needed a small, inexpensive 10W amp. This was just about the cheapest thing on the market that met my criteria. Frankly, I was just blown away. It sounds like a legitimately good amp. Powerful too; I haven't once yet moved the volume knob higher than about the "2" setting when in overdrive mode. At the price it was everything I could have hoped for and then some.Z

I needed an inexpensive practice amp for home use, so I bought this amp – big mistake! I wasn't expecting the sound of a more expensive amp, but this amp is nothing more than a noise machine. The sound is filled with static and noise to the point it is unusable. The static and noise push the little sound you get to the background. Maybe, I received a bad amp, but I'll never know since MF felt the issue lay with my personal sound quality preference and not the amp. Apparently, for MF the sound quality is good enough for an inexpensive amp, and the customer should be aware. To a degree, MF is right – I should have known better, but I never thought there would be absolutely no sound quality. STAY AWAY FROM THIS AMP!Jack

Originally purchased a Rogue Rocketeer Electric Guitar Pack, which included this G10 Amplifier, for my Great Nephew for Christmas. However, the one which came with the Pack didn't sound right and quit completely after about 15 minutes. I notified Musician's Friend Customer Service about the problem and they immediately took care of it by sending a replacement. The replacement arrived and it worked fine, and sounded good for a 10 watt practice amplifier. Was very pleased with the sound and quality. It even has a little drive button which gives the amp a little bit of distortion if you like to play that sort of thing. Very pleased with the product and with Musician's Friend for making things right.Music_Al

I was getting a beater electric guitar for my new place and needed a small, inexpensive 10W amp. This was just about the cheapest thing on the market that met my criteria. Frankly, I was just blown away. It sounds like a legitimately good amp. Powerful too; I haven't once yet moved the volume knob higher than about the "2" setting when in overdrive mode. At the price it was everything I could have hoped for and then some.Z

Where do I start? Well, how about, this is the best tube amp I have ever played! 62 years with many guitars and many amps, some owned, some borrowed, and some tested in music shops, might give me a little credibility. I have loved a Fender Twin Reverb, made in the 50s that my uncle Keith, and my guitar mentor, loaned me for a while. It just sounded so good. Never could seem to find cash, or justification to buy a tube amp, but have owned a hal a dozen solid states. THEN THIS LITTLE BEAUTY! Having played the Twin for a couple of years, and others such as a Mesa Boogie, VOX's, and too many others to recall, THIS monster sounds like most of them with just little tweaks of the knobs and my guitar switches. I have played country, 60s and 70s rock, blues, finger-style instrumentals, gospel, etc. I believe this is the PERFECT combo, with the correct (JJ) tubes, a sweet (and dirty when desired) Seventy/80 speaker, and an amazing diversity of sounds, which works in every genre I play! I do not know how anyone can find reason to bad mouth this. I had it for 2 weeks, was asked to fill an absent, guitarist's spot at an outdoor venue, I took this little amp. We played to an area the size of a football field. I set the amp on 1 Watt, until I could hear it cleanly (behind me on stage), let the sound man mic and mix me in. Never had to turn it above about 4, with gain between 1 and 4, and many complemented me on my sound, and musicians asked me WHAT IS THAT LITTLE AMP? Those are the good points. I can only think of two piddly things I would like to see changed, and one would be a standby switch, and the second being a way to run the external speaker WITHOUT cutting off the amp speaker. Until then, I will just keep playing this sweetheart amp, and enjoy the statements about "my sound," and the question of WHAT IS THAT LITTLE AMP? Keep playing everybody…and maybe buy one of these. I do not believe you will regrety it.New User

These amps are fantastic, and at these bargain prices you simply can't go wrong. I upgraded the reverb tank in mine to a Mod and changed the speaker for a Warehouse GC12. OMG, this thing is a beast! Another WGS option I've seen people use is the ET65 for a more British tone, also with good results. The stock speaker is not too bad, but this one simple upgrade of swapping the speaker takes the amp to the next level. It just sounds awesome. The upgraded reverb tank is also an improvement, but not as much as I thought it would be. If I had to do it over again I would just take out the stock tank and use a pedal for reverb and make the amp even lighter to haul around. The more important upgrade imo is the speaker. It really makes a world of difference. Grab one reasonably while you still can, the price keeps creeping up and up and up… !Jeff

After a number of FEDEX issues, I received my amp about 5 days later than estimated. It did arrive in excellent condition and was worth the wait. The Stage Right 611815 has a really sweet tone that sounds particularly good with the single coil pickups on my Fender Sratocaster Player. It breaks up nicely! The reverb works perfectly, and is fine for most playing but you might want an external reverb unit if you are playing Dick Dale tunes. A really nice feature for home playing is the 15W/1W switch, where you can limit the amp to 1 W (be aware that with sound, you have to increase the wattage by 10 times to double the perceived volume, so the 1W setting is a lot more than 1/15th as loud as the 15W setting). It is a bit unusual to have a tone control along with the more common bass, middle and treble controls. Personally, I would have labeled the Tone control as Presence, because that is what it seems to be. I have mostly been playing in the 1W mode with all the controls (including reverb) at 12 o clock, and that is working out great. As far as construction, the amp looks fantastic and gives a vintage look that hints at its tone! The dark grill cloth provides a nice contrast with the blonde tolex, giving a true vintage appearance. The retro red, jeweled pilot light and metal toggle switch complement the vintage styling Keeping with the vintage look, the control panel is chrome with retro chicken head knobs. As others have mentioned, the control names are a little bit difficult to read on the chrome panel. After you use the controls once, you know where they are, so does it really matter (I noticed the blonde version of the Fender Blues Jr also uses a chrome control panel…probably where Monoprice got the idea)? The tolex is neatly installed and glued, at least the parts that are exposed. The leather handle is also reminiscent of old school amps. And I really like the metal corner protectors…very nice. As proudly announced by a badge on the front panel, the amp is equipped with a Celestion speaker…a Seventy 80 The only criticism of the construction, and it is minor, is that the 8 external screws are not chamfered properly to mesh with the finishing washers, which result in the screw heads protruding above the washers. The amp has a jack for an external speaker. When you plug in an external speaker, the internal speaker is shut off, as is common with guitar amps. The reason is if you plug in an external 8 ohm speaker and the internal speaker would still be on, a (combined) 4 ohm load would be presented to the amplifier, which it is not designed to handle. The back is open. The line cord is not detachable, but can be conveniently stowed in the back of the amp. The amp has an effects loop, which I have not tried yet. The amp is now equipped with JJ brand tubes and a metal, two spring, reverb tank, which are upgrades from the original issue I wish I could find a nice, economical (i.e. $20) dust cover for the amp. The only ones I can find are priced at $50 or more, a bit much for protecting an inexpensive amp. In conclusion, the Stage Right 611815 amp looks great and sounds great, and I highly recommend it.Chris

This little piece of hardware is just amazing. This can really give you that "extra feel" you just couldn't get with any software. I use no amp since line 6 guitar port was launched (now i use a line 6 tone port kb37), just my line 6 pod x3 live (before i had xt live) feeding directly to a mixer. Result? Maybe you just cannot explain, since it's a matter of feeling, but my guitar sounds bigger, thicker and more natural both in studio and on stage. I use a wide variety of guitars, from line6 variax, parker, fender, epiphone, gibson, san dimas (with emg active pickups), this works for all guitars. This works for basses as well. This is definitely a must-have if you are a emulator-based guitar o bass player, whether you work in recording studio or live on stage.Gilberto Gonz��́lez

It's an impedance matcher. It's a great value if that's all you need. It picked up a small trace of a radio station signal but sometimes guitar amps do the same so just move it to a better spot and all should be good. I used it on HI-Z through my Neve 1073DPD + Pro Tools. It looks like I am the first in the world to use & review it so far.Have fun,Joe Steals[@]Steals

I intended to use it in place of a regular direct box to interface my Turner Model One with my MOTU interface. Thought it might match the impedance of the guitar to the mic/line input of the interface better than a DI. Maybe it did, maybe not. Sounded fine, but not better, and it ate up maybe half or more of the signal. Tried it on other guitars, too, same result. Cheap, at least. I'd send it back but it's not worth the trouble. I'll just keep it in a drawer until spring cleaning.Johnyeargain

I recently completed the British 18W head kit from Tube Depot, and can't say enough good things about it! From start to finish, the kit exceeded my expectations. Ordering, shipping, and customer service were top-notch. No issues with components. The instructions and documentation were amazing, worth their weight in gold. The end result was an amplifier that sounds incredible! I incorporated a few of the suggested options- PPIMV, Tremolo HI/LO sw., Tube/SS Rectifier sw., and choke. The sound is amazing, I'm finding it very difficult turning the amp off- once I start playing through the amp I don't want to stop. I would absolutely recommend Tube Depot for anyone interested in building a guitar amplifier. The clear, well-written instructions really made this an enjoyable project. This was my first amplifier build, and I had no issues thanks to the great documentation.Dave R

I ordered this kit with a mod to use KT 66 power tubes. The changes were easy to make and it sounds fantastic. The classic JTM 45 tone at a manageable volume level with the master volume control. Just to test it out I've used a power soak and the tone is exactly the same using the master volume. A couple of real nice features of the design are the negative feedback switch and the ability to switch between solid state and tube ratification (the tube sounds better to my ears). Great product!Clint

Having been messing around with an acoustic for far too many years I decided to treat myself to an electric, and started the search for an amp. I had a few options but went with the Crush 20RT and haven't regretted it. For its size the sound quality is great, and the eq controls allow you to get a nice range of distinct tones. Having the dirty volume away from the gain dial takes some getting used to, but isn't a deal-breaker, and if you find the rather small switch to swap between clean and dirty channels a bit fiddly, you can pick up a foot switch which connects nicely on the back of the amp. Built in reverb is nice, but if you are big on using reverb I'd imagine you'd want to get a dedicated pedal. Tuner seems hit and miss, and again more accurate results will be obtained via a stand alone product. Both good features to have, especially as a starter amp. Overall, highly recommended!Kevin E.

This is definitely the best sounding practice amp I've ever used. The gain channel has several different levels of gain, all sound great. Anywhere from a slightly crunchy overdrive sound to sizzling distortion. I've never had an amp this size handle metal tones so well. The clean channel handles distortion pedals well and maintains the tone of the amp, and if you wanna add a little something extra, putting an overdrive in front of the dirty channel really pushes the mids through. All very impressive for an 8 inch speaker.
The big downside to this amp… is that its deceptively loud. At bedroom volume, it sounds kinda like a shoebox. but bump the volume knob even just a little bit and the full, rich tone punches you in the face, far too loud for playing in an apartment at 10pm. Kinda defeats the point of buying a small practice amp. The clean channel is even louder than the dirty channel.
I'm not knocking off any stars from my review for this however, because it has a headphone jack that actually imitates the speaker response quite well. So if you wanna play this amp late at night, plug in some headphones or you'll wake up the neighbors.
The only practice amp I've ever liked more was the old marshall valvestate, and those are hard to find these days, so this little amp fills that void well.Noah Nicotine

Now let me first state that Guitar Center is the only place I'd buy this from, to try it out and return it to the store. Guitar Center is the BEST. This little amplifier is the WORST. I bought this specifically for it's cabinet output and the fact that it can run on a 9 volt battery. I own four other mini amplifiers, two of them are pedals and the other two are Blackstar Fly 3 (with the extension cabinet.) Here's the crux of my review: The Blackstar Fly 3 is louder and sounds far better than the Orange Crush Mini, even if that Crush Mini is powering a larger speaker cabinet (a 2×10, in this case.) So yes, two 3" speakers in the Blackstar are louder, and the sound quality is far superior to the Orange Crush Mini driving a 2×10" cabinet. The Crush Mini's 3" speaker is unusable, sounds very tinny and is very low volume. Now, I also have two pedal amps that run on 9 volts, an Electro Harmonix 5mm and a VHT Redline 6. The 5mm is amazing, and the VHT is very good also. So if you want to drive a cabinet with a pedal size amp you can put in your pocket, try the Electro Harmonix 5mm. The VHT Redline is also very good and has the added features of an aux in jack and headphone out jack. An adapter cable to use a battery can be had (I have a few of them.) Avoid the Orange Crush Mini, the Blackstar Fly 3 is far superior.John

I was really surprised at how good this amp sounds. Years ago I tried Line 6 and was not at all happy with the tone; but this is another story. It does take me awhile to dial in a specific classic rock tone, but when I do, it sounds better than any other amp that I've tried. I have tried the Marshall Code, Blackstar id Core, Vox Valvetronix, Boss Katana; as well as some all tube amps. The only other amp that is a close 2nd is the Fender Mustang GTX; also a great amp. The Spider V is fairly easy to operate. It offers lots of choices for amp models and cabinets. I like that it has variations of a mic'd cabinet. The parametric eq is a plus. I haven't played around too much with the effects yet, so I can't comment on that. The only negative thing I could say is that when you're editing a preset and want to hear how it sounds before you save it, you only have a short time before it goes back to the Home Screen. This really is a small price to pay for the quality of the amp and all the versatility it has. I like the App too. Musicians Friend got me a great on this as well; and their agent is following up making sure that I'm satisfied. The funny thing is that I came across this by accident. I placed an order for a Peavey amp that was on back order. I called Peavey multiple times, but they never returned my call. I also emailed them, but they didn't respond to that either. As far as I'm concerned, Peavey doesn't have any customer support.crrkr

Been playing about a year, so my review is from the perspective of a complete newbie. The things I like- Lots of presets, mobile app functions, computer interface, and loads of user created effects available. Nice and loud, but no real basis of comparison to say if clarity is better or worse than other comparable amps. Don't likes- The micro-usb interface. I had to get an adapter and it's just not as good a connection as nearly anything else would be. IMHO, micro-usb is far too flimsy. Connecting to PC is far more problematic than just using the spider mobile app. It's probably a little more complicated than it should be for a beginner, but it's feature rich for the money.Nic T

I had a Line 6 120w amp for years that I regrettably sold a while ago and was looking for another amp. I looked at all the amp reviews I could find and decided that the new Katana was the way to go. I got the Katana home and absolutely loved it but the second day I had it it started a really loud buzzing that I couldn't stop. It probably was an easy fix but the fact is the amp was way too powerful for my purposes and their software wasn't compatible with the new Catalina OS. I returned and started looking again. I saw the 60w Spider V and the price was excellent so I made an on the spot decision to buy another Line 6 and I'm really glad I did. The tones this amp can get are incredible. There are so many amp models and cabs that you can dial in pretty much any tone you want from a crispy snapback country clean to the most vicious heavy metal and everything in between. You can use the presets as they are or you can use them as a baseline and tweak to your own liking or you can start from scratch and build your own rig from the ground up. The controls are intuitive and easy to use but there are some features where you'd have to be a professional to really know how to use or even care to use. The software and the mobile app are so easy to use and give you all the options at your fingertips. The amp comes with a lot of presets that I find are completely useless but there are a lot that are excellent as I already talked about. There are only four empty slots for your own custom presets and I wish there were more but if you use the mobile app you can have your own tone library on there. I bought the FBV3 foot controller so that gives me a lot of flexibility to have various effects. One of the limitations is the lack of good effects though. There's enough that if you work at it you can get a decent sound but there could be some better ones. Overall I would recommend the amp. Don't listen to the naysayers or the amp snobs, it's a quality amp and extremely versatile.Just Plain Joe

love this amp. but warning. DO read the fine print regarding speaker usage, or you may blow this amp. i.e. Make SURE you set it to bridge/mono, if using only one speaker, or stereo if using two. Also make sure NEVER to plug two speaker cables into an FG 2×12 cab, using the amp in stereo mode, or you will blow the amp. I was new to this tech. and couldn't wait to get going. Luckily I got the 3 year warranty. Now this was all my fault.. but one complaint is that dvmark needs to make the midi footswitch avail on musicians friend. I got mine from italy, which suprizingly was less than a week..I also recommend watching the tutorials on youtube. also one more thing… when using the footswitch, make sure the snd slot is set to off, or just take it out, or the footswitch won't work… could not find this info in the manual. you WILL want the footswitch.. having said all that…a fab sounding amp. I DO highly recommend the multiampfg, AND the fg 2×12 cab. great sound. I use it live every week. I make the other tube amps, with all the assortment of pedals, sound and seem silly. plus I carry my amp, speaker, and guitar easily in one trip…Bobd

I bought this amp to have a small, cheap portable amp to play harmonica through. For that, it is decent enough. I use a Shure bullet mic and the amp produces good enough tone and is plenty loud for practice or small gigs. When I plug my tele into it the clean channel is decent and clear, but the overdrive channel is junk and hurts my ears. I would rather run the clean channel and use a fuzz or distortion pedal. So that being said it is decent enough to practice licks on and it is tiny so it tucks away easy. If you look around you can find a bigger amp with more features used for the same price but if you want a new amp, this one is probably worth what they charge for it. I would only buy it if you have a specific purpose for it though.Roy

It's small, and pretty portable. However, the sound quality is trash, given the speaker is tiny, but the overdrive is just horrible. If you buy this, try returning it. If you can't return it, just get a fuzz pedal and leave it on clean. Imo, just buy the mustang lt25-50Hotdog Games

I have never offered a product review for any product but I had to make an exception for this one. I am 69 years old, have been playing music for over 50 years, and I have just begun learning the harmonica. This amp is perfect for me for a number of reasons. First of all, it's portable. I can take it anywhere – from my living room – to that picnic table at the park – to my guitar player's front porch. I've had it for a while and I'm still on the batteries that came with it. (You can get an optional power supply for it if you want.) Second – it sounds great and has plenty of volume for personal practice and for use in small settings. With the GAIN and VOLUME controls, you can easily get the response you want. The EQ control only makes a subtle difference in frequency response but nothing dramatic. The DELAY function, however, is very effective and fun to use. Next – a variety of additional input and output jacks make it very flexible. I can plug in my MP3 player and play along with a backing track, for example. It also has a headphone jack, an extension speaker jack, and a DC power jack. Finally – and most importantly – It's fun to use and, because of that, I find myself practicing longer and enjoying it more. I'm new at holding a mic and at first it felt awkward. Now, because the FLY 3W is so much fun to use, holding the mic has become second nature. OK – now you're waiting for the downside. Well, other than the EQ control comments I made earlier, I don't have any. At first, I thought it could benefit from a handle but, upon closer inspection, I discovered the recessed finger grip on the top of the case. (Very clever Blackstar.) This is a well designed portable practice amp. (It even looks aesthetically pleasing.)Bill

First things first; this combo pack DOES include the power supply but batteries are NOT included in the combo pack. Despite the great reviews, don't expect this to sound like a full-size amp; the small speaker mean this amp lacks low end. The pair does sound OK playing in stereo music through the aux input; good detail and sound quality except for the missing bass. As a practice amp, especially through headphones, this thing rocks; with the ISF control you can make it sound like a Fender or a Marshall Amp. Cleans are good but the high gain channel can sound a bit messy if you crank it to 11. The amplifier is more than loud enough for home practice even without doubling the power to 6 watts by adding the second speaker. I don't own a full-size electric amp but I've found out that running the cab-simulated headphone output into my acoustic amp's aux input gives an excellent equivalent so I probably won't bother with a 'real' electric guitar amp; this setup sounds sooo good.Dave W

I was very pleasantly surprised and the range of EQ and the control of compression the Fly 3Bass gives me, not only a great practice amp but mic it up through a PA and it sounds amazing. Great running on batteries (last about 12 hours) or mains. I did a back garden set with couple of friends on acoustic guitars me on electric bass via Fly 3 and it sounded really good so i am very pleased with my purchase. Only thing i had to do was back off tone and bass enhancer on my active bass as it slightly overpowered the amp but i get that on my stage rig as well so expected that.Barry J.

As others have written, I too chuckled when opening the box. It’s smaller than I thought it’d be. However, it can crank. Teamed it up with an Orange PPC12 and scared the neighbors dog. I appreciate not having 15 dials to create tone. For the price, you can’t pass it up. AMS, amazing as usual, speed, easy pay, secure!Mike

I play a Rockerverb onstage and figured hey I'll grab a micro Terror for the studio when I'm working on demoes and practicing. Everyone raves about how it does the Rockerverb thing so hey why not? Don't bother. At best it's a little practice amp but I honestly like my Hotone Heart Attack better. This terror is kind of scratchy and just a little league sound. I love Orange amps but this one pales in comparison to the classics. I guess you get what you pay for but I expected more than this.jq127

I bought this with a ppc108 cabinet – as my review for that cab says, I was very surprised how good and powerful they are together. I thought I would eventually get a larger cabinet for it, but i would only need to if using it for a live performance with a full band. (might be able to get away with ppc108 with a quiet drummer…) For just playing by myself or jamming with other guitar/bass players it is more than enough. This amp can get you great classic rock tone – but I play all styles of music and generally more jazz and hard rock sometimes into the metal range – and this sounds great for that as well. For full on metal you might want to add your favorite distortion pedal but the tube overdrive of the amp itself sounds fantastic! I haven't tried myself but this thing can drive a 4X12 cabinet pretty well according to videos that I've seen. It really sounds like a slightly scaled back version of a full amp head. for the price you will not be disappointed. You could definitely use this for amateur recording – probably professional recording as well but by then you've probably got a bigger amp. Any one who wants a tube amp to mess around with but doesn't have a lot of money to throw around should check this out – or if you just want something very portable. Note that this is a hybrid, it has solid state power and one tube for the preamp, but don't be afraid, it sounds great! It's louder than you might expect and although with the ppc108 it dosen't have extreme low end, it still has good low tones when used with six string guitars in standard as well as C tuning and I have used it with an 8 string guitar, which flops a little on the low string but with a larger cabinet would probably be fine. I highly recommend this amazing tiny amp. Watch some youtube videos if you aren't convinced. For portability the ppc108 cabinet works very well with this and still sounds very nice, but again you can power larger cabinets including 4X12.valvetuber42

So far so good. A little hot with active pickups, def functionally. Appreciate the aux in to feed music or backing track while practicing and very portable. Worth the price.matta2z76

Had my reservations about buying this, a cheap headphone amp, as I have had others in the past and the o/d or distortion always sound awful. Don't get me wrong it isn't replacing my Marshall amp, but for a really portable and handy headphone amp it is great. I can use this, and move, whilst the kids are in bed, no more having to be 2 mtrs from my big amp….. As a practice and experimenting tool I love this!gastall1978

It's better than expected, though the design might not compatible with some guitar models. It requires an AAA battery. Works pretty well with any headphone. It also has an AUX port so that you can plug and play any songs you like and jam along. Thumbs up from me!wamin0

If you're expecting an amazing Marshall sound, you might want to invest in some of the bigger amps Marshall has to offer. If you think you can get a concert level sound out of this little guy, you will not be the happiest person. However, that level of "high" expectation would not be very reasonable or even realistic for such a little amp. This is a very cute, small amp that will help you plug your guitar so you can practice quietly in any room in your house without annoying your wife. It will distort if you crank the volume all the way out, and if you're used to the full sound of a bigger Marshall (like I do) it might make you feel like you're hearing your guitar over an old telephone (just my opinion). However, if you calibrate your instrument volume & tone you can find a happy medium. With that said, for the price it is a very nice solution to practice and if the sound seems too weak for you, you have the choice of putting headphones. I personally use it just for practice on the fly, it serves it purpose, but then again I was not expecting the best sound output. So I am happy with the purchase.BeeZee

It's basically a toy amp. I can see it being used as a portable amp for non-serious performance. Personally, I like it for a quick jam and for (relatively) quiet practice in my apartment setting. Won't disturb my neighbors but it does get noticeable at the highest volume. That and the overdrive knob are the two main controls. By default it just does a clean sound but overdrive lets you toggle in some gain for that distortion. It has a good look that definitely models after its bigger brothers.Rick

I don't know what some of you guys expect from this thing, but be realistic: it's an inexpensive 5 inch tall, 1 watt amp. It's not designed for anything but sitting in a chair and entertaining yourself or a couple of people. Within that context, I enjoy this thing and sometimes get it off the shelf and play around with it for awhile. Also, when I owed somebody a 1 minute long riff for his podcast and my main amp was getting some regular tech service, I plugged my American Standard Strat into this thing, mic'd the amp, used the OD channel with the volume and tone both on 10, played the part, then added tons of bass, reverb, and chorus to it in post, and it sounded great and nobody ever knew that I recorded the part using a 5 inch tall amp. It is what it is as long as you don't expect the world.Steve

This is a remarkable little amplifier. The positive reviews are all justified. Very diminutive, even senior management, who tends to frown when black boxes arrive, approves. And it produces a variety of great tones in remarkable amounts bearing in mind its small size. Perhaps not for the O2, but great in our lounge and enough muscle for a small venue before it gets a bit chesty. Very happy.biga268

I use it for practice. Although it has a bass setting you can program via the phone kit, the speaker is not as good as a basic bass amp like a fender rumble. The default presets sound the best, and if you need a different sound, it's probably best to use pedals on the clean setting. The effects aren't as good as I hoped for. The chorus effect is nice; but delay, reverb, and spring could be loads better. It gets the job done and I wasn't needing the other effects to be there at all so a good purchase for me, but if you need all the features to be awesome, look elsewhere.Waukegan

Purchased this along with the Squire Bullet Tele. Worked beautifully. All effects. Everything. Then nothing. No power. Nada. Probably why it's discounted $40 when you buy the Tele. Avoid.Joe

I bought this amp based on the good print reviews and the way it sounded in you Tube reviews. I did a lot of homework and finally placed my order. I was excited when it showed up at my house and plugged my Jay Turser Les Paul copy right in. Boy, is this thing dark! I turned all the tone controls to 10. I changed the strings. I removed the covers from my pickups- that just made it dark and tinny. After three days I decided that I had to either send it back or make some changes. I took the speaker from a Squier 15 amp and installed it in the Bugera. Right away there was more life and clarity to the sound, though it still sounded tinny (because it's a speaker from a Squier 15), but it was some progress. Next I pulled tubes from a circa 1959 Curtis-Mathes console stereo and swapped them into the Bugera. Now we were getting somewhere- the overtones, the reason we use tubes, were now present and accounted for. The same console is full of Oxford speakers, which are a Jensen knockoff and well respected. I took an 8" from that and installed it in the V5. OH YEAH! Now this is a great little amp. The clean tones are super sweet, clear, full and bell-like with tons of sustain. The overdrive has a huge range of grit, and the reverb is better than any other amp I've had. So after installing a set of +/- 60 year old tubes and speaker, it sounds great. But out-of-the-box stock, I would have sent it back, no question. If you have a too-bright guitar or are willing to make upgrades, this amp is a super value. My one complaint about build quality is that the wattage selector switch is extremely touchy- it goes from .1 to 5 watts and has to be fiddled with to get it to stay on the 1 watt setting.Farmhand

Perfect at home tube amp. I generally use 1 watt mode. Great tone whether clean or breakup. Loves my telecaster and Boss BD-2 into it, and takes pedals great in general. Couldn’t get over how nice it looked when I unboxed mine, either. Beautiful looking amp on top of sounding great. Really an incredible value. Can’t recommend this one enough if you’re looking for a home use valve amp.Grandaddy Jeff