Artec Tino MA3T Combo

Three knobs only. Volume, a drive selector and an expander. It comes with a built in chromatic tuner. There is a jack to plug in your headphones and a another jack for a boss type supply. Do note however, that although this can be powered from a 9v battery, the required power supply is 12v and 300 milliamps (not 200). I really like the Bubinga wood casing, looks and feels nice. What I would have liked to see is a mic jack so I could plug in an ipod. I'll take a point off for this and the odd power supply requirements.

Okay, although not perfect, an amp this size has no justifiable business being this cool and I am really happy it. The drive knob has 4 selections. Clean, hot tube, over driver and high gain. Jazz players will not like the clean as to my ears it is quite country sounding. The hot tube adds some gain without too much decay on the notes. The over driver is similar but adding more decay. A previous reviewer did not like the high gain, I LOVE IT. I am a sucker for fuzz pedals and this setting is a fuzz pedal away from home. Actually inspires me.

The expander is a sort of tone knob, although for me it is more like a frequency shifter for the mids, putting emphasis on either the high mids or the low mids.

All up, this thing is awesome. Check this. I can grab a guitar, a single lead, this amp and go outside on my deck in the sun, play guitar and drink beers. There is a lot to be said for that.

I have only had this for a short time so too soon to tell yet. The casing is very solid, the knobs maybe turn a bit freely and the LEDS for the tuner don't seem massively rugged. My only real concern is that the plastic battery cover buldges a little too much when you have a battery in it and might not last too long.

Artec has answered my questions directly but they didnt greatly impress me. Who did impress me though was the guy who sold it to me on ebay. I can highly recommend hazedconfused as a seller. He answers questions quickly and more importantly, properly. He makes a genuine effort to get things right and to me that makes a big difference. He gets a 10, Artec gets maybe a 6.5.

I have been playing some 20 years. Whether you are working on some latenight jams or drinking beers and playing riffs on the porch, this is a totally fun and valid piece of kit and very good value for money. If it died or dissappeared I would get another in a heartbeat.

See first review. All the features you need to practise on your guitar, a digital reverb would have been great, but the price would be higher of course (and it probably consume the 9V battery much faster)

I give it a 9! Considering it's tiny size and very small speaker, the sound is very good. Of course no overwhelming bass-response, but truly a real electric guitar sound but on a much lower volume (on maximum level, the clean voulume is just about that of an acoustic unamplified. Perpect for practise purposes or any situation where you would use an unamplified acoustic. I find the overdriven sounds also very good and usable, exept for the high-gain distortion, that's just too fuzzy. The overdriven sounds are even somewhat louder.

It gives a very reliable impression: solid wod cabinet, the knobs feel sturdy. Thumbs up!

No experience.

(See my other reviews). Have been playing for over 20 years. You might call me a semi-pro (earned and do still earn some money with making music, but couldn't give up the daytime job...).
I bought this amp as a handy travell-amp to go along with my Aria Sinsonido Silent steelstring-acoustic (because headphones never sound the same as a real amp) and it's perfect for the job! There are a lot of other mini-amps on the market, but this one easily beats the plastic competition (have tried the mini-Marshall stack), for less money! So what more do you want?

Made and bought in Korea 2004. 5W solid state on 9V battery. On board chromatic tuner. 850g. 8cm*16cm*14cm. Solid walnut enclosure.
Guitar input (no aux). Power switch. Master volume. 4 amp emulation modes (clean/tube/overdriven tube/high gain) . tone "Expander" knob (seems to alter middle and high frequencies). AC adaptor in. Headphone/external speaker out.
Eternal build quality and design is good. Lack of aux input regrettable.

Given 5W and bettery the amp is clearly for hotel rooms and other travelling/practice situation. I am using it with a Swing guitar (the high end but cheap independant brand from Korea which Korean musicians prefer to the mass market OEM manufacturers) in a H S H configuration.
I ended up using mainly the "tube" simulation setting as clean is a bit too dry. For the price (around 50 usd) sound is fairly musical. The company main business line is pick ups and equalizers for electric and acoustic guitars so I guess their engineeers have decent ears...
The "overdriven tube " simulation gives you a decent blues tone. The "high gain" gives you precisely that although I wonder who needs 5W of high gain simulated distortion amp...
In all cases, sound is better than same size plastic alternatives. Rating is in relation with size and price.

The construction looks pretty robust and external components are of decent quality so it should be OK but, given the price, a trip to servicing if needed will probably not make economic sense. I bought 2 just in case.

NA

I have been playing for too long and never made any money so I probably qualify as amateur for ever who should stick to his day job...Normal rig is Heritage 535 into TS808 into JC 120...This little amp goes nicely into my suitcase. Sound/playing comfort is better than pocket pre amps+headphones and better than most of the competition in battery powered tiny amps ( and I have a (large) number of them). Size is significantly smaller than the Roland micro cube but the micro cube has an aux input.
website artecsound.com