amPlug Brian May Headphone Guitar Amplifier w/ Treble Booster, Stereo Tap-tempo Delay, Chorus, Phase, and Rhythms

Take a look at the ratings on this device... This unit has the highest, global, ratings of any other in this category. There's a good reason for that - it sounds incredible!! Unfortunately - Vox Amplification has discontinued this product. Insane, move! Why?!! Now, look at the current price. If you're complaining about this unit - you're not using it right! (IMHO) There's quite a lot of functionality, here. 6 (six), different effects: various, delays, reverb, echo, gain (truly, *awesome*). This, little, "virtual, 'M#rshall half-stack'" - sounds better than most full-sized amps I've used. I'd like to be able to get the electronics from this unit into my, present, practice amp (Line 6 Spider30w). However, I play directly through the clean channel on that amp, and, it even makes that sound fabulous! Interestingly, enough - I discovered that you can achieve various effects through more than just the "FX" button. The manual states that the FX button is simply an effects, "ON/OFF" switch. But, you acquire an additional three, settings, holding down the "POWER ON/OFF" switch, as well (at least, in my unit (AP2-MT), and, cycling through the effects, again, using the EFFECTS switch. As far as portability and construction go, it is built on the light, side, for sure, but it's not going to fall apart from a couple of drops to the floor, either. (Yes, I've tried it!). I also use a 1/4" female-male, elbow adapter, to employ, another, axis of freedom, should, it accidentally meet with a stronger force! - like - a wall! I did, accidentally, apply too much torque to the unit while it was plugged into my guitar, by stepping on a cable plugged into the headphone socket, and the plastic cover, around, the plug, separated. I Super-glued it, and wrapped a small strip of duct tape around it to prevent that from happening again. You might also consider, wrapping a couple of rubber bands around the unit (latitudinally, and, longitudinally), to ensure, some degree of shock absorption and rebound, after a drop. The construction is quite, poor, however. I opened the unit, to apply some friction on the wheels so that they turned more smoothly, by adding a couple of layers of masking tape on the side of the casing that comes up against the front of the wheels. The plug is connected to the circuit board by two, fragile, hook-up wires, which, were the thinnest possible wires they could have used (probably, 24-26 gauge). With just a little tension on those two wires -- they disconnected from the circuit board - like - they were just, dying, to be disconnected - and just, couldn't get to that state, fast, enough! Luckily, I have some (wanting), soldering skills, so I was able to solder them back into place, covering the solder points with a thermal glue (hot glue). THE INSTRUCTIONS: YES, they ARE there; they're packed inside (in-between) the folded, cardboard packaging! TAKE THEM OUT AND READ THEM. The instructions are clear, and, obviously not a Chinese interpretation (that, in itself, is a welcomed thing!), with clearly illustrated diagrams. If I had good enough reason - I'd buy another one! Or, maybe, I would buy the 'Classic Rock' version... UPDATE: I DID buy another one! This thing sounds so good I wanted to make sure I had a backup. Now, I do. I also bought the High Gain Amplug3. In comparison, the Amplug2 Metal - blows it away. It's too bad, that unit has a nice sound, as well, just not the same spirit. Now, back to this unit. You won't believe it - until you hear it for yourself. I mean that. It's got that, something, that just swells into your gut, and chest. Again, it's the best guitar amplifier I've ever heard. I have not heard a full-size Vox amp, or, full stack, so I can't compare it to that. I will be using this unit - plugged, through, the CLEAN channel - of any other amp that I use, from now on.... It's that good. HONESTLY.

Little thing is working so well. Im impressed with the sound this very portable plug in micro amp provides through head phones. I can take it with me and practice anywhere without annoying anyone. This is such a great thing. Its got some wieght to it. I dont know what i was expecting but it weighed more then I thought it would. This weight makes it feel solid and gives it that quality feel. Batteries don't last quite as long as i had hoped, but i have rechargable ones around and they've been working great in this. Plug and play. Not a lot of hoopla. But is so great to practice in peace !

I use it with a Epiphone Viola bass. Really nice, clear, deep tone on normal (i.e., "high gain") setting. I don't tend to use the other settings ("normal gain", "low gain") as much, as it is hard to compensate for the volume drop, and I can change tone in other ways on the bass itself. (Those setting choices may be more important for other basses though.) The many built-in rhythms aren't an essential feature but they can be fun to practice along with. The ability to pipe in music through the aux jack is great when I want to play along to songs, and the volume of the bass and the music can be changed independently. Based on the quality of the sound and the simplicity of the setup, I have found using this Bass AmPlug to be a nicer experience than the one I had using an iPhone, an iRig adapter, an instrument cable, and guitar apps like AmpliTube. (Those apps are great in their own right and have a crazy number of features, but despite all of the setting possibilities, I could never get my bass tone to sound as pleasing as it does with the AmPlug.) The simplicity of the setup -- bass, AmPlug, headphones -- has caused me to pick up the bass a lot more, as I can quickly "gear up", sit back on the couch, and hear myself play without offending others in the family who want things to be more quiet. The only thing that prevents me from giving it 5 stars is that the cost seems at least $10 too high for something so simple and lightweight.

Pretty amazing for the price. If you need a quiet way to practice, I would absolutely get one of these. It has the usual three control wheels on top for gain, tone, and volume. It has a button on the left hand side that you long press to turn on the unit, but if you then short press the button it will cycle through three separate gain settings. Basically it alternates from clean to a slightly higher gain sound, to actual overdrive. It was a really nice surprise... once I found it lol. It also has a button on the top that alternates between having no FX, to chorus, to a pretty spacious reverb, to a pretty short, slightly reverbed delay. Actual sound quality is going to be headphone dependent, but I walk around the house using the earbuds that came with an old Samsung Note 20 and have a blast.

Neat. Compact practice. Works well.

This thing does exactly what it promises: deliver the tone of a classic amp through your headphones. I needed something to let me play through headphones, since even my 5w tube amp was too lout for a lot of times at home. I'm something of a tube amp snob; I really like the tone and response of a good all-tube guitar amp. One thing that drew me to this amp is that it actually uses an analog circuit imitating the amp of choice instead of just a digital modeler as all the others do. And for a solid state circuit, the silver version of the amplug does a really good job at matching the tone of a vintage fender amp while also having response and dynamics very similar to what I'd expect out of a tube amp. The clean tones out of these things (at least through good headphones) are just amazing. It sounds and feels just like I'm playing through a Fender Twin. That clean Fender sound is the main reason I bought this amp. Rather than plugging directly into my guitar, I plug it into the last pedal in my chain and use an 8' cord to plug into my headphones. I was a little nervous about how well this thing would take pedals, and the answer is just like an amp (with one caveat below)! My eq pedal still perfectly shapes the tone, my distortion sounds just like it should, etc. It lets me effortlessly switch over from my amp to headphones when I need to be quiet. (If I wanted to be really slick, I could put an A/B switch at the end of my chain and just change between amp and phones with the tap of a foot. The built-in effects are pretty good too. I tooled around with the gain, and it's a good, realistic sound. That said, you only have one option, and I'm more partial to the crunch of my pedal, so I keep the amp clean. The other effects are nice too, and it's nice to be able to add a bit of reverb and stuff to your sound. Are the effects a match for a good pedal? No, and I wouldn't expect it to be for a cheap, tiny headphone amp. But they definitely aren't worse than a cheap pedal, and the fact that they come included is really just a bonus. CONS: Yes, it's flimsy, as many reviews state. It's made of cheap plastic, and I'm sure it would be easy to break. That's the tradeoff for the low price you pay. It doesn't feel like it's going to fall apart though. Don't yank it out of the plug or set the guitar down on it, and store it in a place where it won't get excessively banged around. The amp doesn't have a lot of headroom. A booster pedal can very easily push the amp to breakup, and unlike the gain channel on the amp, this distortion does not sound good (ie you can't push it like you would a tube amp). If you're using pedals, make sure to set the levels so that the input signal isn't too strong for the amp This is an amazing tool for playing electric guitar through headphones. It really is like playing through a good tube amp.

I purchased this for travel and didn’t have high expectations but wanted something analog cause I spend most of my time on a computer or phone. This thing is incredible, sounds great at the edge of breakup on the clean channel. Worth the money, just make sure you have decent headphones.

Great practice amp for beginners and apartment dwellers. Personally I find myself only using this when a special need arises. If I'm not out and about, I would much rather use a 40w+ practice amp with a headphone output. But this is amazing for practicing while traveling or being mobile in a space without expensive gear. The built in beats & metronome are very good for practicing timing. The onboard tone settings aren't for me, but I could see them being useful in niche cases. There's a lot of little hidden options and settings that let you do more with your amp but you need to decode them from online information. Battery life is shorter than expected at about 7 hours on two AAA alkaline batteries. That's about $1-3 a week in batteries which isn't the end of the world. I see some benefits of hot swappable & lightweight batteries compared to an onboard rechargeable lithium battery. But personally I'd rather have the onboard battery even if it adds weight. Sound quality was not as good as I expected. Reviewers were saying "sound quality is amazing" without qualifying that is "for a small mobile amp." Sound quality is like using a 15w practice amp. The max volume is a bit weak as well. You can definitely use this amp to practice getting timing and finger positions down. But you can't practicing for tone and emphasis. This is slightly awkward to use on bass guitars with the jack on the front instead of on the edge such as Fender Jazz, Fender Precision, Ibanez S series, or Epiphone Sheraton. With jacks on the front you can't adjust the amp's angle and the buttons are harder to find and use. Build quality feels cheap. I amp certain I'm going to destroy this thing in the next few years. I hope there's a better option by then.