Low-watt amps have become quite popular over the past few years as people have tried to find great tone at lower volumes. Low-watt amps are not new, though. Fender introduced the 5-watt Champ amp in 1948, and many other manufacturers have offered low-watt amps since. However, it seems that more companies are offering low-watt amps than ever before. Blackheart Engineering is a company that I started hearing about a year or so ago that is making a line of popular low-watt amps. They make a 1-watt amp (Little Ant), a 5-watt amp (Little Giant), and a 15-watt amp (Handsome Devil). Additionally, if you’re looking for a 100-watt head, Blackheart makes one of those too, called the Hothead.

I have the 5-watt Little Giant Combo*, which includes a 12-inch Eminence speaker. The Little Giant combo is a single-ended, class A amp that uses one EL84 tube and one 12Ax7 preamp tube. The amp includes a volume control and three tone controls: Treble, Middle, and Bass. Also included is a Pentode/Triode switch that switches the amp from 5 watts of output to 3 watts. The street price for the Little Giant combo is about $350. The Little Giant is available as a head for about $200. Blackheart amps are distributed by Crate.

First Impressions

After opening the box, I was impressed with the quality of the construction of the amp. Truth be told, I wasn’t expecting much from a $350 amp, but I was pleasantly surprised. The amp is well put together and seems to be well designed. The cabinet seems solid and there aren’t any tears in the covering.

Max Headroom

Many complaints about low-wattage amps center around the fact that many of them don’t have much clean headroom. In other words, the amp begins distorting earlier than desired. However, the Little Giant has much more clean headroom than I expected. In fact, I was actually hoping for a little more distortion at lower volumes! I can’t get natural tube distortion at volumes low enough to be played for long within my home. That being said, when you can turn it up loud enough to get natural distortion, the distortion is very smooth and warm sounding; a very satisfying tone.

Tone

The amp is very warm sounding. I have a Fender Blues Jr. amp, and the Little Giant seems a little darker and warmer than the Blues Jr. However, it’s a very pleasing sound. A Strat sounds very clean through the amp, but not quite as bright as when played through the Blues Jr. The 3 tone controls are fairly responsive on the amp, so it’s easy to adjust the tone to suit your tastes. I prefer a bit of midrange from my amps, and the Little Giant sounds very good with a bit of midrange. One of my favorite settings so far is putting the Treble on 5, the Midrange on 6, and the Bass on 4. This setting works well with my Strat and my PRS SE Singlecut, although I tend to roll off the tone on my Strat a little.

Pentode/Triode Switch

While I like the option of being able to switch the amp down to 3 watts, doing so cuts out some of the top end from the amp. That is, there is a noticeable difference in tone between the 5-watt setting and the 3-watt setting. Other amps that utilize the Pentode/Triode switch combination also suffer from this cut in frequency. There is also an audible pop when switching the wattage. Because the amp is a warmer-sounding amp to begin with, I tend to use the 5 watt setting more than the 3 watt setting. But, if you want to get to the distortion sooner, the 3 watt option helps you get there earlier than the 5 watt setting.

Conclusion

If you’re in the market for a low-watt tube amp, there are a lot of options available to you. However, I think at $350 the Blackheart Engineering Little Giant combo amp provides a good value with a solid construction, well thought-out engineering, and, most importantly, good tone. However, even though it’s only five watts, it’s a loud five watts, so you might need pedals if you want good distorted tones at low volumes. The three watt switch can be used to get to the distorted tones a little faster, but you do lose a little top-end by switching to the three watt setting.

Here’s a video demo of the Little Giant head and cabinet. You can get a feel for the clean and the distorted tones, which are quite pleasing:

* Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a Little Giant combo amp review unit for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Kevin Frazier from Grid1 recently let me know about his company’s new product: a 60 watt lithium battery-powered tube amp called the G1 BPT212. The amp was launched at the Winter NAMM show in Anaheim about a week ago. It features 2 12″ speakers, a lithium rechargeable battery, two footswitchable channels, and your choice of wood cabinet. The company claims to get 4-6 hours per charge. Frazier recently demoed the amp for Guitar Player magazine. The G1 is expected to ship in February.

CP Thornton Guitars has posted the Tone Quest Report magazine from August 2007 (PDF), which features a dissection of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s ‘64 Vibroverb amp. SRV’s amp tech Cesar Diaz had done quite a few modifications to the amp, including changing the caps, adding a larger transformer as well as many other mods. It’s interesting to read how the amp was modified to help give SRV his massive tone.

(via TGP)

Below are a couple of videos of Eric Johnson discussing his amp setup. In the videos, he explains the types of amps he’s running and how he uses them. He also discusses the effects he’s using with the amps.

Here’s part 1:

And, here’s part 2:

The other day I was watching an episode of the Discovery Channel’s How It’s Made series, and one of the features in the episode was about how guitar amplifiers are made. Traynor Amps was the featured manufacturer, and it was really interesting to watch the process they use to make their amps. Of course, the video was on YouTube, so I’ve embedded it below.

Fender has recently posted a video to YouTube of Eric Johnson playing the G-DEC practice amp. EJ apparently uses the G-DEC to warm up before a show. I have a G-DEC, too, but I think I got a defective one. When I play mine, it doesn’t sound as good as Eric’s.

Watch Eric Johnson demo the G-DEC:

I was recently in the market for a practice amp to play around the house. My main purpose for the amp is to have something to play around with that won’t bother my wife or my neighbors too much. Thus, my search involved checking out amps in the 5, 15, and 30 watt ranges. Also, I wanted something that would offer a little extra fun for practicing. Many of the modern practice amps have quite a bit to offer. For example, the Vox Valvetronix amps come with quite a few effects built into the amp, and they also provide amp modeling for quite a few types of amps. As a result, the Vox amps were among my top choices for a practice amp.

However, during my search, I tried out the Fender G-DEC amps and came away very impressed. Like the Valvetronix amps, the G-DEC offers many different tonal varieties through amp modeling and a lot of built-in effects. The thing that sets the G-DEC series apart from most other practice amps is that the G-DEC includes a series of bass and drum loops that you can play along with. This was intriguing to me because I rarely get a chance to play with other players, especially drummers. You can even change the pitch of the bass backing track to match whatever key you want to play in.

In addition to the backing tracks, there are 50 preset sounds to choose from covering all styles of music, from jazz to reggae to metal. In total, the Fender G-DEC provides 17 amp types, 29 effects, 10 reverbs, a built-in tuner, as well as the ability to pick and choose to create your own unique sounds. There’s even a phrase sampler that you can use to create your own guitar loops to play along with.

After considering all of the options, as you’ve probably guess by now, I ultimately decided to get the G-DEC based on its myriad capabilities, and I couldn’t be happier with my choice. I purchased the 15-watt version, but a 30-watt model is also available for those with the need for more power. Furthermore, there’s a Fender G-DEC Junior model that is 15 watts and provides a simpler user interface, albeit at the cost of some functionality.

All in all, I’m very pleased with my decision to purchase the G-DEC. I’ve had the amp for about a month now, and it is every bit as versatile and fun to play as I hoped it would be. If you’re in the market for a practice amp, you can’t go wrong with the Fender G-DEC.