(see rating details)

I've had this amp for almost a year now and still love it. If you are looking for a small/ medium tube amp for a great price, give this one a try. There are definitely some pluses and minuses to this guy and I'll tell you what my experience has been: The clean channel is great on this and it's overall characteristic is kind of dark and punchy. It's not a scooped out mid sound like some of the Fender amps I've played. I typically play single coil pickups (Strat and Tele) relatively clean or with a blues style overdrive and this amp sounds great and will cut through a mix very well in live situations. With my band, I'm typically using the 'low power' setting and the watts control at 3:00 with the volume at 12:00 and it's enough volume to hear over a live drummer and perfect for being miked at a gig. The effects loop is very nice to run delay and reverb pedals through and the 9v power out on the back is a stroke of genius. This amp takes overdrive pedals very well and I use a TS10 tube screamer, Boss Overdrive, and EH level booster on my pedalboard for various clean boost and overdrive tones. I use the 'watts' knob as a headroom setting and then set the volume with the volume control. The amp will break up very predictably with increased signal from the OD pedals and gives a very nice, organic overdrive. The tone and depth controls are useful and the amp has a solid, well built feel to it. A few things I don't like...the preamp 'boost' which is accessed by pulling out the volume knob isn't my cup of tea, it's too much of a volume jump to be useful in a live/ band situation and the gain level is somewhere in between that bluesy crunch and real high gain/ metal tone...it's not useful for what I do but may be ok for someone else. The volume knob feels kind of flimsy in it's rotation compared to the others and I emailed VHT about it (mine was also crackling as I turned the pot) and they got right back to me, answered my questions, and offered to look further into the volume pot noise but I just sprayed some pot cleaner in it and it was fine. They said that the feel of the volume pot was due to the design of the push pull pot. I was very satisfied with their quick response and honest answers so great customer service there. This amp has been very reliable so far and I haven't had any issues with it. It's still got the original tubes in it as I haven't seen a need to change them yet. I also have the original Special 6 combo and that one is very similar and a keeper as well. If you need a nice, hardwired tube amp for clean/ low to medium gain tones,like to use pedals, and don't want to break the bank, I wholeheartedly recommend this one and it's little brother the Special 6. If you want to play high gain/ metal...this is not your amp.

Musical Background:

Musical Style: