MXR Micro Amp

An on / off switch and one knob...if life was this easy. But wait, to screw it up MXR has again used the male pin adapter if you're running it from your pedalboard or adapter v. battery. Like you can find one of these at the hardware store. I guess you can pick-up a special MXR adapter for about the price of the pedal itself. Thanks alot MXR, sure, why use a female plug like everyone else in the world.

Well it's simply great and you want this pedal. I'd say it's like a loudness button on your stereo or boombox, except it's a little more. It will add a nice saturation to your gain. Particularly nice on a Fender clean side. If your amp doesn't saturate easily this will get it there for you. Back off, and it's a clean gain. I haven't used it on solid state.

Other than dead batteries I suspect it will outlast me.

I use this with a modern AB tube amp, SG to the dirty side, Strat to the clean side, up in front of my Dyna Comp and in front of various pedals. Trying it in the loop is a good idea too. It's an essential pedal and cheap. Has a very predictable and useable gain pick-up and improves the sound of every pdeal in the chain.

It?s the most crude simple box you can find in commercial existence, just one knob (gain) a led and a foot switch, that?s all. Plug in and you?re ready.

It is an extraordinary pedal. I bought at first to recreate the kind of sound created somehow by some ancient treble boosters, such as the Dallas Rangemaster, Screaming Bird and many others. At this point I used it first to overload the tube section of my amp (Marshall Valvestate 100R) by turning the unit?s gain knob at 10 and it gave a kind of bluesy crystal vintage sound to my guitar (Squire Silver Series) the overdriven sound decreases beautifully and naturally to a clean sound by turning the guitar?s volume down, pretty nice. The only problem with this setting is that you are forced to use your other effects through the FX loop, otherwise you get a messy overloaded sound.

After a while I started using it to push my guitar signal into my pedal chain (Boss OS-2, Boss GE-7, Boss CE-5, Boss HR-2, Boss DD-3 and Boss RV-3) by simply setting the gain knob at 45 or 50%. It adds a lot of presence and gain through the effects, i.e. it gives you a nice hard distortion with the OS-2 drive knob at about 45% with a nice large sustain that can easily get delicately mixed, if you like, with feedback to give the impression of an endless sustain effect and this can be achieved at low levels, so it is not an annoying thing to do. It also enhances the sound of the CE-5 and the repeats of the DD-2 are clearer than ever. It adds a little almost unnoticeable noise, but not greater that the one a distortion or overdrive unit could produce. In the end it gives you pristine crystal clear highs and thunderbolt bass that in my case, can be shaped through the GE-7. I also use a passive volume pedal (Boss FV50H) that I place in the chain after the Micro amp because I consider this little box practically as part of my guitar.

It is a 100% reliable. It is a heavy duty metal box that can take any punishment or reasonable pressure for a stomp box. A little hard to change the battery because you have to remove the four screws in the back, nevertheless this unit most consume about 5mA so you can forget about the battery for months. Never tried it with and AC adapter which I presume could add a little noise.

I think there are no customer support where I live (Mexico City), nevertheless I could be wrong. On the other hand, the circuit is so simple that I?m sure that anyone with basic knowledge on electronics can deal with this box and besides, Jim Dunlop sales all spare parts for the unit, including the printed circuit board, etc. So if a problem arrives it could be easily fixed.

The highest qualification for this one. I can live without underwear but not without this pedal, a jewel that I will never sell and will treasure as long as electric guitar and rock music are popular. I?m into Pink Floyd and specially Queen, guitar sounds with a lot of presence and sustain and god, this unit can give you that. Of course the sound is close and by no means accurate but, ? have you tried to crank up just a single Vox AC-30 with a treble booster to emulate Brian May?s sound without death threats on behalf of your neighbours?

One gain control nob and a footswitch. All pedal should be this simple. What sux is that he battery compartment is very user not friendly. U have to unscrew 4 screws on the bottom of the pedal to replace batteries and the circuit board is completely exposed. I bought an AC adapter but MXR can do better than this.

Someone said this boosts the midrange. I used to own an Ibanez PH-7 and that pedal boosts the midrange. This pedal doesn't or I'm not hearing it. Another great thing about this pedal (along the same lines) is that it doesn't affect the tone of your sound nor does it add noise. It just makes the signal strong via gain. This pedal is actually really cool. I have a 5150 and it sounds exceptionally bassy when the main volume is at its lowest. Put a compressor in the effects loop and u get this nice bassy/fat sound. But this sound is permanently stuck at a very low volume. In comes the MicroAmp. I use the MicroAmp to increase the volume of this particular setting. Truth is I should get a Marshall JCM but I'm short the additional $500. I can't comment much on how this handles clean channels cuz the 5150 doesn't have a clean channel.

It is very solid and I would say it is the best design for a pedal after Boss (except for the battery compartment). I am clueless as to the electrical integrity of this pedal.

Don't know.

I play metal and this along w/ my CS-2 are indespensable. My dream sound would be that of the Smashing Pumpkins in "Siamese Dream" where they overdubbed guitars. This gain pedal along w/ the CS-2 gets me very close to that type of sound (without overdubbing). I believe all that is left for me to do is replace my 5150 with a JCM. This pedal is kinda like a chorus but it strengthens your sound instead of fattening your sound. I own a Japanese made CE-2 (the third cool but not indespensable pedal). Someone said that they use this pedal to push their tubes harder and that is a really good way of describing this pedal.

No brainer

One of the best clean boosts. Does not color your signal unlike the other boost pedals I know.

I use this thru my amps' FX loops, and the Micro Amp surely makes my leads heard.

I also try to use this to push the preamp tubes harder when I use this in front of my amp (as opposed to in the FX loop) which adds more output to my signal, but not really to make a Strat sound like a LP. Its main duty is to maintain the clarity of the signal... only louder. Think like adding 11-13 in your guitar's volume control.

Built like a Tank.

I would go for a ZVex Super Hard On if I had the cash, but the Micro Amp is a great alternative. It has the best Price-Performance ratio.

one knob,one switch,cant get any easier to use

if you have an amp that the gain or distortion is pale or light sounding put this gem in front of your amp it will change the distortion to incredible tones and gain,but what i use it for is a lead boost threw my amps effects loop,i dont run a lot of effects thre any of my amps but this gem is a great lead boost,just set the vol on how lound you want your solos and threw the effects loop it will not change your tone at all..

i have 6 of them not as backups because i never want to be without one,i have two original ones no led in there boxes with warenty cards,two original ones i gig with and two newer ones at the practice hall

never needed it so dont know

i play all types of music from willie nelson to van halen to god smack to goerge benson,i have many differnt amps,marshall,fender,ampeg,silvertone,many different guitars,fender,ibanez,national,guild,sho bud,gibson,martin,stella and lost count on the pedals but mainly run a boss chorus,wha and my micro amp for lead boost,trust me there is no better lead boost than the micro amp in the effects loop and i have tried alot,like i said never want to be with out,been playing for 32 years and this is one pedal i have to keep...

Easy to use. One in, one out, one knob for gain, one footswitch to kick it on and off, a power jack or unscrew bottom and chuck a battery in.

sound quality is what this thing is about. Clean gain. Drive a tube amp to shreds, or drive a long chain of effects. Whatever you do, this thing adds snap and pushes the signal a little harder. Sounds great into my marshalls, laneys, or driving my pedal board. WIth it on, the sustain increases, high end returns to a signal driven thru long cables, and the amps breath boosted fire. THru the effects, just a little dollop o gain and the effects all perform better.
However, use to much gain into the fx and you can generate the bad kind of overdrive, or is ther even such a thing, nah.
I give a 7 which is very good in my book. Nothing earns a 10 unless it is 2 plexis daisy chained together being pushed by a fuzz and an upside down strat. GET IT!

yep, dependable.
Yep, no need for a backup.

overall it is great at what it is supposed to do. It drives the crap out of an amp, or it drives a long effects chain while preventing high end signal loss. OF course it depends on your amps, guitars, etc...
I use a marshall 4103 and a Laney AOR 50. All good tube amps with great driving characteristics of their own. The micro gives em a little more clean drive causing the amp to drive , compress, and sing more. Its loverly. WOuld i blast it into a solid state, no.
If you are driving a long effects chain, it makes the effects after it sound clearer, no high end signal loss, which in turn allows more tone shaping with yer amp.
ALso good in fx loop to boost for solo or at end of fx chain for same purpose. A good peice of inexpensie gear that does as it should, it is micro sized and amplifies yer signal.

This pedal is very basic and anyone can use. I had no problems.

I have an Epiphone G-400 (SG style) and a Fender Princeton 65 amp. The MXR sounded just fine when the amp wasn't distorted until the gain was put all the way up to 10, which is pretty load compared to the amp volume. I primarily purchased the pedal for playing at a gig where I need a boost for a solo. I found when using it with my Dano Fab Tone it didn't boost the signal much but I found it worked a lot better when the Micro Amp came after the Fab Tone. This effect sounds great with all of my other effects including my wah, echo, flanger, chorus, phaser(MXR), as well as the MXR distortion plus. When engaging the pedal I can total overpower the rest of the band if I want.

This pedal I can depend on as well as the MXR name. I own two other MXR pedals and I plan to buy another one. These pedals are small and compact as well as heavy and durable.

From the time I owned my MXR distortion+ to the time I purchased my Crybaby 95Q I have had no problems. One thing dunlop should do is
re-issue some of the other pedals that they produced

I've been playing Heavy Metal as well as Classic Rock and this pedal provides the volume I need to stand out when playing a lead with a band. I've been playing about 4 and a half years and about 2 and a half with the band. I own, an Epi SG, a Fender Princeton 65, a pedal board that contains: a Crybaby 95Q, Danoelectro Fab Tone, Danelectro Cool Cat, Dan-Echo, MXR distortion+, MXR phaser, MXR micro amp, and a
BOSS flanger(soon to be replaced by the MXR flanger). If the micro amp were stolen I would buy a new one for sure. I liked the price definitely since the salesman tried to sell me a boost for double the price that I had paid.

It's got one knob, couldn't be easier.

Sounds good to me!

I throw it around in my gig bag, no sweat.

Never needed to.

I play basic guitar/indie pop kind of music. When we recorded recently we had an SG that was in the studio and my silver face deluxe reverb. We turned the DR to 10, and it sounded nice and overdriven, but when we also plugged in the micro amp and turned it up to 10 as well - it rocked!

ignore the fact that there are actually no numbers on it:

Think of it as being able to go one louder...<G>

Theres on knob for the gain and an on-off footswitch. Pretty damn simple. I bought mine new and it didnt come with any manual but you dont need one really.

I use a Marshall Valvestate half stack (which I hate)and a Fender squire. The pedal is extremely quiet. The purpose of it is to give you a midrange boost and yes it does do that and it sounds great. With the gain dial all the way up you get this beautiful gritty sound (think of Bonedriven by Bush)on the clean channel. But beware this thing gets extremely loud! You need the volume way down if you want to keep that gritty sound. I love Nirvana and Bush so its good for some of the Bush things but Nirvana used chorus on most of their clean riffs. I have a Boss DS-1 I use too and with the gain dial on the MXR at about 12o'clock the two of them sound beautiful together.

Hell yeah you can depend on it! Its made of cast iron or something. Even the knob is a really heavy plastic. I wouldnt know but you might want to keep some extra 9volts around. Id take it on tour without a backup or even enough money to buy another one.

I havent dealt with them but you need to talk to Dunlop if anything goes wrong. They make the reissues and Im not even sure if they still make the reissue Micro Amp. Its almost impossible to find a store that sells them.

I play grunge or punk or rock or whatever the hell you want to call it. This pedal of course wouldnt be used for Smells Like Teen Spirit, but every music style has its softer songs. I would definitely buy another if sone dickhead swiped it or broke it. I think it sounds awsome. I didnt even try it out. I went to Dunlop's homepage and listened to the sound sample of it and I almost creamed my pants, so did a friend of mine when he heard it. So yeah its definitely worth the 80 bucks if you want something in between a normal clean channel and distortion.

It only has one knob for setting Gain and a footswitch.I didn't get a manual with mine but you don't need it anyways.

I'm using a Gibson LesPaul Standard through a Fender Hot Rod DeVille 410.It's clean until you reach the last 25 % on the Gain knob.At first I was a little disapointed with this pedal and I was thinking of returning it to the store I bought it from because it was thinning out my tone when I would kick it in.But this was because I placed the Micro-Amp first in the signal chain before going through my Tube Screamer,Tech 21 XXL,Big Muff then off to the amp.I believe this might be where most people recommend placing it but I found it too bright and I was looking for something more transparent,just a simple volume boost for lead solos.But when I tried placing the Micro-Amp last in the signal path before the amp I got much better results,no apparent change in tone,although I didn't seem to get any noticeable boost when I'd kick in my overdrive chanel on my Hot Rod DeVille amp I solved this problem completely by placing the Micro-Amp in the FX loop of my amp.What a difference it made,now I get the same amount of boost out of all three chanels of my amp and the tone isn't affected in the process.I didn't want to use the FX loop on my amp at first because it engages the solid state buffers in the amp therefore the signal path in the amp isn't tube exclusively,but that's kind of a dumb concern because I'm using all of these solid state pedals anyways.I'm very sattisfied with this pedal.

MXR pedals are just about the toughest pedals out there.It's very heavy for its size and it just seems to scream out Quality! I would count on it 100%.

I just bought this pedal so I've had no reason to deal with them,I can't foresee any problems with this pedal in the futur.

I play Rock and try to play some Blues and this pedal is very handy in any situation.I've been playing for over 20 years and I would highly recommend this pedal to anyone.I realize the Klon Centaur or other "Boutique"pedals would probably out perform this but I think this gets the job done at a reasonable price. I'd replace it if stolen or lost.You have to unscrew the backplate to get at the battery.I could have bought the DOD FX10 FET/Bi-Amp instead of the MXR at half the price but the MXR seems to be higher quality.