Lil' toy amps:

[glauber]

I was just sorely tempted to pick up one of those little battery-powered amps from pignose. Are those any good? Is there something better on that same vein (little battery-powered toy amp)?

[John Flynn]

The basic Pignose is a strange animal. It is really not a toy, but it isn't really a serious amp either. It is very well made and sounds pretty good considering, but it is of limited utility. It is a great practice amp to use with a solid-body and it is powerful enough to give an acoustic a bit of an added boost in a jam that would allow it, but that's about it. I am intrigued by some of the larger Pignose amps, but I have no experience with them.

[glauber]

it is powerful enough to give an acoustic a bit of an added boost in a jam that would allow it
That's what's tempting me to buy one. That and wanting to be cool like Ralph Maccio in Crossroads. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Ted Eschliman]

This one really rocks:
http://rolandus.com/images/products/instrument_amplifiers/microcube_md.gif

Street price UNDER $100...
Roland Microcube (http://rolandus.com/products/details.asp?CatID=7&SubCatID=32&ProdID=Micro%20Cube). Check out their online demo!
*Ultra-compact portable DSP guitar amp with 5-inch speaker
Runs on battery or AC power (adapter supplied) and includes carry strap
*7 COSM guitar amp models including JC-120 and a special mic preamp model
*6 DSP effects: chorus, flanger, phaser, tremolo and separate Delay/Reverb
*New Digital Tuning Fork with support for flat tunings up to 2 semitones
*Recording/Headphones output and stereo Auxiliary input for CD players, etc.

[delsbrother]

That's what's tempting me to buy one. That and wanting to be cool like Ralph Maccio in Crossroads. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
Yeah, but can you cut Steve Vai's head in Hell?

[Mandobar]

ted,

everyone is selling these for $125 (the roland). who's selling it for less?

[glauber]

Dammit, Ted, now i need one! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

The specs are very impressive; have you played one?

There are a couple on eBay for $99 "buy-it-now" price. Most places indeed seem to have it for $125.

I'm seeing more and more of these DSP-based things.

g

[Mandobar]

i've been playing my mandoblaster through a tech21 10 watt amp........you still
need to plug it in, but wow, what tone.

[bjc]

Just my 2 cents as a Pignose owner for years...For electric guitar it is cool as all get out...don't think I'd use it as a main rig, but it's neat..you can open the back of the cab up for some cool tones and if you have a friend (tee hee) you can get them to open and close the back for a cool wah sound...but for mando (non-eletric) go with the Roland...

[glauber]

That's what's tempting me to buy one. That and wanting to be cool like Ralph Maccio in Crossroads. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
Yeah, but can you cut Steve Vai's head in Hell?
Ah, that was a great movie, wasn't it? My first introduction to the blues, Robert Johnson and Ry Cooder. It pretty much guaranteed i'd love the blues till the end of my life.

[glauber]

but for mando (non-eletric) go with the Roland...
Agreed. Now we're just waiting to see how much Ted's selling them for.
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[siren_20]

Heh. Reminds me of a setup I saw at a jam once: Guy was playing a b@njo, had a suction-cup tuner pickup on the head of the banjo, that went to a volume/tone control box clipped to his belt. A patch cord went across to the other side of his belt, where he had a miniature 9V powered Fender Twin Mini amp.
I'll let you imagine how it sounded cranked to 11. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Ted Eschliman]

Not good protocol for me to talk price and do public commerce on the Discussion Board...
Let's just say I take good care of my friends, and anyone interested, email me about the Microcube offline.

[wah]

I got my Micro-cube for about $109. I'm way happy. It makes my Mandoblaster sound great all by itself. I haven't used it with batteries yet but It's supposed to last quite a while on 6 AA's (20 hours?). If Ted can get it for you under a hundred go for it.

Wayne

[Ted Eschliman]

I thought I'd better personally check the amp out myself before I say too much more. I took 20 minutes to test it this morning with my Rigel G5, new Jonathan Mann electric 5-string (review coming soon), and an Ovation Celebrity (not my MM68) off the wall...
Keep in mind the Microcube is only 2 watts, so when I ran the G5, the acoustic volume level was not much more than the instrument itself. Plus, there's only one acoustic amp setting (vs 6 electric amp models), so I wouldn't run to the store to get this for your acoustic ax.
The Ovation fared better, higher output ratio gives it more boost, but I had to crank to 10 (doesn't go to 11, though). Again, if a pure acoustic sound is what you're going for, save your money and by a bigger pick. (I don't know, but I suspect a pre-amp would only distort.)
Now on the e-Manndo, my suspicions were confirmed. This is a great add-on, at a price far less than a good effects pedal. Plus you get some decent multi-effects. Not a great "stage" amp, but if you want something for practice or street busking, I can't recommend anything better.

[mrbook]

I have a Pignose Hog 20 that I've used with a MacIntyre pickup on the mandolin. I like it, but I used the outfit at a "practice" with a band for a show, and it was lost behind the "small" amps everyone else brought. Their wives and girlfriends thought it was "cute."

[steve in tampa]

I have a Hog 20 for use with my lap steel. It's great with a pedal or two to drive the input signal. Get about 5 hours on a charge. The Rolands look real nice. I like the rechargable battery on the Pignose.

[mandroid]

I've seen those microcube Yamaha battery things going for about 50 bux, 2 speakers stereo 5 + 5 w stated, 1/4-20 [camera tripod] screw socket on the bottom too.

[glauber]

http://media.samedaymusic.com/media/fit,325by400/quality,85/brand,sameday/AA5amp-8402c620426ca98f4a152e9085ab4af9.jpg

This one? (http://www.samedaymusic.com/product--YAMAA5) Interesting...

If you believe the reviews on that page, the speakers are the weak link. Some dude said:

The usable volume is almost the same as the unamplified guitar due to the fact that if cranked to maximum, the little 4" speakers sound like they are about to explode! At lower volumes the sound is decent enough.

[mandroid]

Hey It aint a 2x12. there are some pretty high power capacity 4" speakers out there to work on that sow's ear type project, wonder if its the amp going squarewave [clipping], or the speaker being overdriven.
headphone test anyone?

[Ted Eschliman]

I owned one of the Yamaha's pictured above.
For about two hours...
As reported, it just wasn't loud enough. These are designed for the Silent Guitars, which are just that, "Silent" without any amplification. It suits that purpose well. They kind of work as ambient headphones.
Matter of fact, if you bought two of them and a six inch strap, you could wear them both around your head as an oversized pair of heaphones...
http://members.aol.com/teesch/images/Msmiley.gif

[mandroid]

Plan B : something like a Fender Amp Can perhaps? rechargable rather than flashlight batterys. shading out of the toy zone a bit,back into the crate taxi/limo direction.
[previous thread]

Former owner of an Electro Harmonix Maxy Mouse. [swapped it for a friends whole LP collection] (He left it and an Applause guitar, On Kosarae Isl.)

[jim simpson]

Has anyone tried the little "cigarette pack" battery powered amps! They have a tiny speaker and I thought I read where you could run a cord out to a speaker cabinet for a big sound. I bought one of those Danelectro pedals that had the speaker in it. What a dissapointment - no volume. I was going to use the guts of it to repair a amp/speaker in guitar project.

[Bob A]

Had a Pignose. Enjoyed it for a few years, then it just quit working. I figure it'd cost more to repair than to buy a new one, but I'm mostly out of electric music now.

[Lee]

Do we like expensive toys? I have to give honorable mention and high accolades to the B1uesboy TVL5 amp. With just five watts and a couple of tubes, it's simplicity city. Just plug in and adjust its only knob for volume. Ya don't need no stinkin' tone controls! #The complete combo isn't tiny, unless you do what I did and buy just the amp chassis. #Mine sits on the bottom shelf of a coffee table, giving a retro-industrial look to the living room with the nice warm tubes glowing in the dark. Or the combo's finger-jointed tonque-oil finished wood cabinet would look swell in the living room too.

[steve in tampa]

I got one of those cigarette pack amps for 20.00 a few years back. they are cool, but have a lot of distortion.

This is a little off topic but one of my friends has a Pignose guitar. I never new they sold instruments. Anyway i played it and that didnt sound bad at all. We actually played for hours and i used it. I dont know about those amps though. I have glanced at them in catalogs before.

[glauber]

My 3-year-old daughter has a Pignose ukulele; it cost $19. It isn't terrible, but the frets are way too high (so much that when you press down on the strings, it changes the tuning). If they fixed that, it would be a useable toy instrument.

[HoosierGuy]

I bought one of those Roland Microcubes for my granson, as he is taking guitar lessons, I also gave him my old guitar. Anyway the Microcube does a good job as a practice amp for guitar not sure about a mandolin.


Not to get off topic, but for a good amp at a bargain price can't hardly beat the Behringer LX1-112 Vampire. Well worth it for the effects alone.

[mancmando]

I got a pignose hog 20 for busking on the guitar with a trumpet player and a conga player (both really loud acoustic instruments), and on the first afternoon I earned enough together with the gig that we got from the busking to pay for it.....

The sound isn't fantastic for acoustic instruments but it works and punches out a fair bit of volume. It has also been very reliable, but since then a friend of mine bought a similar one from CRATE which he reakons gives a better acoustic sound...

[gremlin]

pignose amps are cool, I have used one for years as a distortion device for my carvin full stack. i just use it between my guitar and #amp input. it heats up the sound really well kind of like a high powered stomp box. but be sure your amp imput can handle it. for my mando and other accoustic instruments I use a line 6 spyder. they can be picked up for 299. and can go from clean to nasty with touch of a button. and they model so you can have almost every amp ever made with a little tone tweaking. for my mando i use the #first clean tone with a touch of chorus and slapback delay(built in to the amp):blues:
as for steve Vai he used the same model carvin amp that I use it is way wicked from crystal clean to the sounds of demons from the abyss at the flick of a switch.

[gremlin]

a lot of legendary rock guitarists have used a battery powered pignose in the studio, on tape they can sound like a room full of marshalls if mic'ed up right. Brian May of Queen said he used on in the studio before and tommy shaw as well. here is a list of pro pignose users i found on their site.
America · The Band · The Beach Boys · Jeff Beck· Stephen Bishop · Jackson Browne · Cheech and Chong · Chicago · David Clayton Thomas · The Eagles · Faces · Peter Frampton · J. Geils Band · Elton John · Doug Kershaw · Led Zeppelin · John Lennon · Kenny Loggins · Paul McCartney · John McLaughlin . Madura · Dave Mason · Jim Messina · Nitty Gritty Dirt Band · Poco · The Pretenders · The Rolling Stones · Leon Russell · Santana · Seals and Crofts . Steely Dan · Steven Stills · Jimmy Stewart · Sly Stone · James Tayior · Ike Turner · Joe Walsh · War · The Who · Edgar Winter · Johnny Winter · Bobby Womack · Stevie Wonder · Ron Wood · Frank Zappa.