Sovtek Tube Midget Mig 50-H Head

Features are adequate. It's a tube head, so there's not many surprises. Low gain and high gain inputs. Master, vol, TMB, presence. That's about it.

Got mine a few years ago, so this isn't a 'honeymoon' type review. Kind of a one-trick pony. I've laved/hated it. Right now I think I've coaxed a beautiful sound from it. I play a Heritage HCM-150, a part-o-caster with Fender custom shop '69 pickups and a mexican tele with a pearly gates HB in the neck and a Tele Little 59 pup in the bridge. I play it thru an avatar 2x12. Pedals are [tuner], MXR micro amp boost, fulltone deja-vibe [unvibe clone], crybaby wah. I play classic rock/blues-rock type stuff. Not a fan of the 'clean' input. Pretty dark, not sparkly at all-- hardly use it. I especially don't hear the supposed bassman sound that other reviewers have pointed out. The high gain input is better, but the bass is pretty overwhelming. I play the thing on vol 2-3 and master 4-5. That's about right for band situations for me. Tone controls are set to match guitars. To me, humbuckers sound best, but the bass has to rolled off quite a bit. In fact a lot, but the sound opens up quite a bit. Even with bass set at no more than 2, it may be too much bass for some. It'll sing with the LP and the tele, and if you roll off on the guitar's vol pot it cleans up nicely. Single coils sound muddy and harsh unless you're clean. To my ears, this thing gets farty bass and becomes undefined as you increase the gain. It may suit some people, but for my sound, there's only a few 'sweet spots' on this thing, and I feel it's taken me quite a while to finally get a sound I like from it. Oddly enough, I've always gotten compliments on the sound since I got it, partly due I think, to what I told them I paid for it. I think for the cash, it's a tremendous bang for buck, esp for a tube amp. [I also don't think it's all that quiet-- I get enough hum from it-- not like a class A orange amp, but enough]

I have to rely on it, I don't have a suitable backup. I haven't had any problems with it, except the stupid plastic jacks they installed on it, one of the rings is cracked. I will probably replace those some time in the future. It's a fairly solid little bugger altogether though.

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Overview:
-sings with humbuckers at the right settings
-not friendly especially to strats
-a few sweet spots for classic rock/blues sounds
-not a bad investment for the money

To no one's surprise, there's not much to the amp. A High Input, a Low Input. TMB tone stack, Master and Gain. 4/8/16 Ohm speaker out. A headphone out i've never used. But even without all the bells and whistles, this thing can be amazingly versatile.

The simplicity leads to one advantage, a pure tube tone. The low input produces a dark clean with a lot of body to it. I play with more defined mids, so you have unbelievably chunky sound. I've played it through humbuckers most of the time, so i can't really comment with singlecoils.

The High input produces a really, REALLY thick overdrive, useful for most any rock application, save for norwegian death metal. But you can get pedals for that.

I plug into the low input with a modded ds-1 to allow me to switch to clean and dirty sounds. I can't comment on how it takes other effects.

It's the purest signal tone you can get.

Can't really say much here. You carry it around, you plug it in, it works. Like gear's supposed to.

There is some cracking when adjusting the pots though.

I've only had to change out the tubes once over the last two years, and that was only to improve the tone. I dropped in some JJ's and this things sounds beastly.

It's built very tough, but if something goes wrong who am i supposed to call?

I don't know if new sensor will service the old amps, but it seems nobody's had trouble with them.

But when i opened mine up, it didn't look too hard to service,

I play through the amp with humbucker equipped guitars, producing a nice, thick, present sound. It'll cut through. I've loaned this amp to a friend a few times, and it sounds great from the stage. It produces a powerful sound.

All been covered. Two imputs, usual tone stack, master volume with a presence control. Three outs for 4,8 and 16 ohm speaker loads.

Low imput is a Bassman clone

High input circuit adds a gain stage and is loosly based on a JCM 800 circuit.

Amp sounds good with either single coils or humbuckers, depending what kind of sound you want.
The low input channel clean is really nice with good tubes. It is dark, so the tone stack usually sounds best dimed. I had a 69 bassman head that I traded in for this head. It does sound like a bassman. Would like to add a bright switch to get more of a fender vibe. Has tighter lows than a bassman IMHO.
The high input goes from blues to metal. Very modern sounding distortion. (5881 power tubes.)
This doesn NOT sound like a Marshall. (JCM800 or otherwise.) It sounds more like an early Mesa, without all the adjustments. This makes complete sense, since it does have 5881 power tubes.
The OD is thick and fuzzy, not upper mid crunchy.

Never had to mess with this amp. My marshall requires annaual pot and connection cleaning. Never had to touch this amp. It just works!

Upgraded tubes once. Helped alot.

WTF?

This amp would be killer if it had a bright switch. (mostly for the clean tones) and an effects loop. Since it has no reverb tank, running time based delays through the pre amp is always kind of crummy. You have to turn the fx levels way down for the distorted tones, then turn them back up for the clean tones. An FX loop would eliminate this.

I run it through a 16 ohm 1x12 marshall cab and an 8 ohm 2x12 marshall cab. Play strats, tele's and pauls.

Oveall, a killer all tube amp for not alot of money.

I have know idea when the amp was made, late 80's early 90's I would guess. No channel switching but the tonal versatility is astounding...clean to Modern Hi gain. No effects loop, no headphone no, does have a 1/4" line out, have not used it yet though. It has a low and high input, they seem to have different preamps / gain stages....low sounds like a fender bassman, high more like a JCM800. I would characterize the tone as very full and meaty. All tube 50 watts, three 12ax7 preamps with 2 5881(6L6) power tubes. Pretty straight forward controls, Volume (gain), Master, Bass, Middle, Treble, Presence. I heard that you could mod it so that both inputs worked via an ABY footswitch, if so that would be a cool feature. Very versatile considering only the one channel and limited controls.

As stated before, the tones of this amp pretty much run the gamut. The low input channel does get a little gritty when you crack it, like said think fender bassman. The distortion on the high channel is not as heavy as Mesa Rectifier, but you can get great lead tones just the same, more mids, think Soldano. I prefer to run it with gain just past 12 o'clock, for that great british overdrive tone. I use all sorts of guitars with it, Gibson SG, Epiphone Dot, Agile LP (P90's), Telecaster (sounds the best). It used to be noisy but I had in checked out and swapped the input jacks for Marshall style grounded inputs, no power buzz now, some noise with single coils, not too bad though.

Seems dependable. I bough the amp an Ebay about 3 months ago. If had a hand made limited edition Pine cabinet. Needless to say the USPS destroyed the cabinet in the mail and broke the high input jack off. I filed a claim and got most of the amps worth back from the USPS in a check. I was going to have a cabinet built, but decides to build my own from a solid Oak board, turned out great, very satisfying. Through all that the amp still work, just needed the high input jack replaced. The amps itself is built like a tank. They may call it Tube Midget, but that thing it heavy duty. I would bring a back set of tubes if I was gigging, cause you can never be too safe.

Sovtek amp division is out of business. Not sure you can get parts besides tubes anymore. These amps are built so well you should not need to call them anyway.

I have been playing 10 years. I mentioned the guitars I own above, I also own a line6 Flextone III Plus, and a Peavey Classic 30 head. As far as Overdrive goes I like the Sovtek the best out of the three. I have three cabinet 212 closed back with Cerwin Vega ER123s, a 212 open back with Cerwin Vega ER123s, and a Freda Mule 210 with Eminence Ramrod speakers. I would try to find another if it were lost or stolen. I love the full range of tones in such a simplistic form. Overall a great amp that offers more tone in a low price range than it's $1500 botique competitors.

Sounds better than any Marshall I have ever owned. And many.

Great vintage Marshall tone heard on any 70's to 80's rock recordings. Pure tone vintage rock. All the way up to Eddie!

Built like a Russian Sub!

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A long time. Many amps. Mostly all of them.

Well, I don't know the year, but it isn't any spring chicken! Its in great condition though. 50 Watts tube! It has a high and low inputs(its only a single channel) a 3-band EQ, volume(gain) and a master. Side note which I think is cool, the LED is sweet looking. Think terminator's red eye! I would rate this area, but there is no need for me it works great! Some people might want to have multiple channels, thats fine if so then this not the amp for you. I know I had to think about it, but I have not had an once of buyers remorse!

Well think Bassman, like the other reviews. The low input is my favorite by far. The high is distorted, high gain bassman sounds. Which sounds good to me, just not what i'm looking for. The clean on this amp is great! The amp is very articulate and responds well to picking dynamics. Stays clean at high volumes too! You can even play almost clean in the high input depending on how you pick.
My setup is a PRS Singlecut w/ a JB in the bridge, stock pickup in neck. I'm running it through an ampeg cabinet w/ 4 vintage 30's.
Before I go any further I must tell you I changed all the tubes out from the old sovteks. This amp uses 3-12ax7, 2-5881. I'm using Tung-Sol tubes now. Wow! They weren't cheap, but I see why. These made a huge difference. Granted, the others were old! The tubes warmed things right up and slightly rounded out the high end and a little more output. The amp has a great clean sound, crank up the gain to about 2 o'clock and it has a real nice warm break up perfect for blues. High input good for rocky stuff, just don't expect a marshall or mesa. Also good if your just looking for a different sound! You can just about get any sound out of it other then real high gain modern sounds. Also, in my opinion this amp sounds nothing like a jcm 800. What the hell are you people talking about!
I play mostly modern type sounds and this works great! just buy a pedal if you want more modern stuff!

I have only had it for about 3wks and It is rock solid! Only thing is the LED is a bit loose.

Well, this would probably be a little tricky. I know sovtek went out of business and I believe that Electro-Harmonics bought them so I guess you'd have to go through them.

I'm giving this amp a 10 because of its value, it is a lot of bang for your buck! 300 bucks dosen't get you close to getting tone in the rest of the amp world. I was about to shell out ten times that for a BOGNER! They make great amps just out of my price range....one day....
The only draw back I can see for people is the fact it has only one channel and that it is only 50 watts! To me this is fine, I don't play huge shows and I like the whole hearing thing and it sound better at low volume than a higher wattage amp. The channels would be nice, but it wouldn't sound this good!

This amp was made in the early 90`s. 4 8 and 16 ohm speaker outputs. It has line out also. It`s not point-to-point. It`s made on a PC board but when the PC board is made correctly like this one then there is no difference between point-to-point and pc board. This amp is very versatile. It covers sounds from clean to hi-gain. It has 2 channels. No channel switching no effects loop no headphone jack. It would be out of sight if it would have channel switching and seperate volumes.
I use it live and in studio. It is said that this amp is 50W but compared to my 50W 69` Bassman(blackfaced) and 50W 74`Vibrolux reverb(blackfaced) then it`s more like 70W. So it has enough clean headroom.
The most useful feature is the master volume. Because it`s so loud then I can use it in lower volumes thanks to master volume. Before I got this amp I was pretty critical about master volume amps because I was a blackface guy. This master volume doesn`t make the amp sound bad at all when used properly but it sounds the best when the master is at max. If it had channel switching and seperate volumes I would have given it a 10. I can get everything out of this little amp in the studio but live I can only use one channel.
When I took it out of the box it was shipped to me I started laughing cause it`s so small and cute =) When I plugged it in I heard a big fat vintage Marshall that had a tweed and blackface Fender(that he had just eaten) smell coming out of it`s mouth.

I use humbucker and single coils with it. Teles, strats, les paul and various hollowbodies. It sounds great with all of them. With single coil it doesn`t get thin and with humbucker it doen`t get muddy. When I switch guitars I just roll some bass down and off we go again. I love it from clean to hi gain. When I combine this with Fulltone OCD I get very nice thick rock lead sounds out of every guitar. This amp sounds good with every guitar I have played trough it.
The sound it produces is something between Marshall and Fender. Defenately more Marshall than Fender. A bit warmer than a plexi Marshall. That`s because of it`s output tubes(2x6L6). So if you want to sound vintage and different at the same time then this is for you.
My heart belongs to the blues although I`m forced to play everything. I prefer fenders for playing rockabilly, country and jazz. The heavyer the music style gets the more I prefer sovtek. When it comes to playing the blues I take a blackface fender and this little thing with me. It`s clean sounds are very good for pop, disco(70`s), funk or blues and everything else that lies in between. Crunch is ideal for blues and rock. Funkier blues, shuffle, Hendrix - you name it. Higher gain stuff is so good that I don`t use any distortion pedals in the studio. Live I'm forced to do so when I need a little boost. This is the first time I could play Zeppelins stuff(I never could find a decsent sound for playing it) It covers EVH sounds too at the High gain channel. I don`t know how well it does metal tones because I don`t have the right speakers nor guitars to do so. If you have played the blues through BF fenders and are looking for a one more really good sound then buy this amp. If you are looking for a classic rock sound(Marshall plexi) then buy this. I have tried the 50W Marshall Bluesbreaker RI and my sovtek puts the it totally into shame. I have also tried the Marshall JCM800 RI and I didn`t get any good sounds out of it at all.
This amp works fantastical with my Roger Mayer classic fuzz. The way I use it is very simple - turn both knobs(volume and drive) to almost max and control everything from the guitar. Feedback notes are very easy to get. When I roll the volume down it goes clearer and less distorted until it`s totally clean. The sounds between totally clean and totally fuzz are not at all fuzzy. They are very clear and bright. These sounds I like the best but if want a lot of noise and feedback I turn the guitar volume to max. If I want I can get the best of Hendrix sounds.
Every effect I use with this amp sounds good including RAT 2 and Crybaby wah but I like especially Fulltone OCD and Roger Mayer classic fuzz.
I like it with the slide also very much. When I take a tele that`s tuned to a open G and has very thick strings on it(14-60) and play all the strings it doesn`t get muddy even in the high gain channel when cranked.
It isn`t noisy at all.
I play the amp through a Peavey 4x10 cab fitted with Reverend alltone speakers. It sounds awesome but I`m planning to build a 2x12 cab fitted with one Tonetubby ceramic and one alnico. Maybe both alnicos. I have to try them more to make up my mind.

As far as I know it is stock except for one speaker output jack and of course the tubes. I got it this way. I have had it for a few weeks now. No problems yet but you never know...

Haven`t dealt with them.

I have been playing for about 8 years. I own a 70`s Peavey Classic 50W hybrid amp that I use as a cab. I have two blackfaced SF fenders(Bassman 68` and Vibrolux reverb 74`). I have a Guyatone Jazz Reverb all-tube amp(about 8 watts) that has the best vibrato I have ever heard(think Ry Cooder) and is fitted with a Weber alnico 12`inch speaker(don`t remeber what model). 2xEL84. This is the amp that I use for small gigs but it can be very loud and fill an avarage pub and have some headroom by doing it. Custom made 7 watt all tube class a amp with 8`inch Jensen speaker. A custom made 2 watt triod head that can be switched to 1 watt.
I have an original Ibanez TS9 that isn`t in my posession all the time. I have Fulltone OCD, RAT2, Crybaby wah-wah, BOSS DD-3, Roger Mayer Classic fuzz.
I have a stock 96` MIJ 54`RI Fender Stratocaster, 78` 68`RI Ibanez Stratocaster, 78`Fender Telecaster, A custom made Fender Telecaster copy(tuned to open G), 80`Greco Super Real Les Paul standard copy(Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates on bridge that I don`t like :P), Vintage ES-335 copy(with 82`Greco Les Paul custom pups), Electro Lap Steel tuned to open D, Washburn prototype hollowbody with bigsby tremolo, 74`Framus Akkerman model and a 70`s Ibanez J-200 copy(piece of junk).
As you can see I buy only things that are cheap and good at the same time with some exceptions(sometimes eBay isn`t that good). Life in eastern europe isn`t so Sovtek is very cheap and very good at the same time. If you want to have a vintage Marshall sounding amp for times cheaper then buy this thing and you wont regret it.

I picked one of these baby?s up from eBay some time ago. From the looks of it I'd say it?s from the mid 90's. This is a two channel amp with a high gain & low gain inputs, a volume, main, bass, mid, treble and presence knobs is all that you get, and more then you need. The lo gain side is a great copy of a classic Bassman, and the high sounds like a hotroded Marshall jcm 800. A smokin combination! The only drawback is that there is no channel switching. And if you try to plug two cords in to the high and low gain jacks at the same time to use a A/B box as a external switch, the low gain channel cancels out the high side. But I downloaded the schematic for the amp and figured out a mod so that a A/B switch box will work. It is a extremely simple mod any one with a soldering iron can do in minutes. If any one is interested email me at: robmeyer.1@netzero.net. I did it to my amp and it works great!
Because the amp came without that feature I had to give it a 8.

I moastly play a hand built peice with two pairs of lace sensors. (two hot golds, one red and a silver).

My style ranges from jazz to art rock and altrnitive,
The low gain channel is not real a clean channel. It ifs verry warm and open rainging from almost clean with just a touch of blue-ish warmth to a light crunch, a great alt rithem channel!
The hi gain side ranges from a heavy crunch all the way up to stratosepheric levels of harmonicly rich, saturated, soul squeseing, paint peeling high gain glory. This is real useable gain too! Not muddy Nu-Metal malarky!

I'm with the rest of the rest of the worlsd on this one. Built like a tank, but was a little disapointed with the plastic jacks. ( they look a bit like sovtek used all the left-over jacks from making Big Muff's)

Sovtek nolonger makes these amps (sigh!), but the origanal exporters
New Sensor corp. is as helpfull as they can be, and will get you scheumatics if you need them.

Go get one while they are still cheep, they won?t be for long!
If it was stolen I would replace it a.s.a.p., this has become my main amp of choice. I also own a Sunn model T, a Vox AC 30 and a Orange 120. Someone once said ?Simple pictures are best " That is why I love this amp. It is simple and intuitive to use, and sounds great (it is hard to make it sound bad other than sucking as a guitarist).

Well i guess on that everything was said, there is just two channels and two inputs feeding them.
Channel Swithing i sadly lacking, but can be built in by any decent "amp guy"
Still i like it the way it is, since I'm a rather "no frills"-musician

Use this with an Epiphone Joe Perry Signature (with Gibson Burstbuckers...).
The only effect i ever use is my Dunlop CryBaby (clearly enough modded for true bypass...). Otherwise it's just guitar -> cable -> amp -> cab.

I've read that this am is useless to use with humbuckers, i don't quite share that oppinion. I recently switched the stock tubes (veeery old Sovtek ones) with shiny new SV6l6GC made by Svetlana. The best 6L6 tubes, so I am told.
Well with those tubes all the bottom mud is gone, all that stays is some relly glorious tone to die for.
There is still by far enough bottom end to even make a Telecaster sound overly fat, but you can really talk about a tight bottom. The mids sparkle, the hihgs are dripping off your ears... It rocks.

-> Removing the tube retainers from the preamp tubes might help, if you have problems with microphonic tubes. These things do more harm than good...

Built like frigging brick. You would relly have to mistreat it on purpose to break it. No problems with the plastic inputs so far.

No customer support, stopped making any amps... Sadly

Frigging cool amp. I guess I'll get myself a second one.

Put in an aggressive tube in V1 and only the best ones you can get a hand on as power tubes, this amp will scream.
And, there is enough gain to use it as a full blown metal amp!!

Another nice thing is, that this amp has "understatement" written all over it. Everyone will laugh at it, but just 'til the very moment you turn it on 2/3 open... :)

This particular amp's previous owner was a Luthier, and apparently worked on amps too, as the low input no longer exists. it has been modified and is now a pot for a pre. it has plenty of crunch, and being a novice player playing down tuned sludge,is more than adequate for my needs. i was looking into an early 1970's SunnO)))Model-T 100w head,but found this to be more of what i wanted in the sound deptartment,and at half the price($250 as opposed to $699)and it is plent loud. i suppose you could always mic it with a knowledgeable sound man at the helm too... que no? the one thing odd about mine is the head is completely woodgrain... no black toltex or B&W name plate.. even the name plate is wood grain and instead of being centered, is set off center in the upper left corner. another thing is that the control panel is brown instead of black... anyone have some info on this?

there is basically no real clean tones, save for at lower volumes, but i only got this 4 days ago, and i am not one for the clean tone (at least not now anyway) the guitars i am using are a '69 Tele Thinline re-issue (which i have yet to try out on it),a Yamaha SBG200, and a '76 Gretsch Corvette Deluxe. the distortion is great. no need for an OD here, just a RE-201 for some reverb and delay (if at all needed)

haven't played with it long enough to say... but from what i have read, they supposedly indestructible