Danelectro Dirty-Thirty

This amp is light on the features. One channel, 3 knobs: Distortion, Level (volume), and tone. As the name implies, its RMS is rated at 30 watts. It also has a headphone jack. The amp is real retro-slick looking, if you're looking for that vibe.

This amp has a gritty, nasty, gnarly distortion. A+++ for punk-rock. I use a Gibson SG Standard, and I love the bridge pick-up sound with the distortion pumped up. Thats about all the amp is good for tho, Its not too versatile. Clearly a one-trick pony.

It has survived my dorm room =)

Never had to deal with them.

This amp is great if you're looking for a combo with gritty, great sounding distortion. The amp is also pretty loud, as far as practice amps go. For 79$, its a great little amp.

Actually you can now everything about its feautures from the previous reviews.

I'm using it with my noiseless Yamaha SG 200 (No single pick-ups)
Sounds really cool with Zoom 505
Just a bit of punky noise, but I like it this way. Try playuing AC/DC on it.
The most exciting thing 'bout it -- unlike Frontman it soung clear and not blurry with really soft volume. Cool distortion!

It's hardly used. Looks like a tank, but who knows...

One disadvantage: when you turn distortion up, the volume turns up and vice versa.

Very simplistic - Dirty/Sweet (gain) control, Level (volume) control, headphone jack. All you need for a practice amp...

I'm using two HEAVILY modified Yamaha Pacifica 112's with this amp. Both guitars use EMG SAV-SAV-89 pickup sets, with EMG-SPC active mid-boost controls. I also use the amp in conjunction with a Dano Daddy-O distortion pedal. I love the way this amp sounds, especially at lower gain settings. I basically bought the amp on a whim (Green Tag Sale at the local Guitar Center), but I may end up keeping it for quite a while! The amp gets pretty nasty sounding when both gain and volume are cranked, but hey, you can't expect that great cranked-tube from a non-tube amp (unless you have a Line 6 AX2-212 - that's my other amp).

I'll never use it at a gig, and yes, I'll practice without a backup... :)

It hasn't broken down since I bought it several weeks ago, and it feels fairly solid, but I can't make a reasonably qualified judgment in this area...

Never dealt with Dano...

Cool-sounding - awesome-looking - great value. If you're looking for the be-all, end-all, ultimate touring amp, go buy a Boogie. If you're looking for a kick-ass, tiny, beautiful amp to practice with at 2:00 AM, this is it!

I bought it in 1999, and if you want to play it in your bedroom it is really cool. It is a good little practice amp don't take it on stage. Good sound for a tranny but they should make a valve version.

Quite versatile sound, good for most styles but preferably not for your most advanced extrem styles. When it cranked up it is not to hot, but what do you expect from a tranny. Should be a valve amp it would sound way better man.

Well, what can we say about this little trusty sidekick of mine? When i was playing at the Big Day Out in '99 it lasted the whole show just great. Nah, just kidding. THis amp is totally wicked... doesn't play up much, especially when you only paid like 200 Bucks!!!!!!!! And it looks cool too!!!

???????????????????this amp is reliable............................................remmber.....................oh no??????????????

I actually like the dirty thirty for a small amp. It is very loud and delivers good distortion, but when you play it clean it isn't great.

Watch out for the input places they will strip in no time if you are not extra careful.

Overall I think this amp is good for beginners, and practice, but i wouldn't try to take this out on a world tour.

My regular guitar amp is a Fender Champ 12 (valve) so I'm comfortable with simple amps. This one has volume, tone, distortion ("dirty sweet"), 6" speaker and headphones jack. Features is hardly the point here.

I recently mail ordered 2 of these on a super special to sell to my students, but with half an idea to keep one myself. I was torn between 2 preconceptions about what this amp might offer. On one hand I have read all the glowing reports about the Danelectro Nifty Fifty's "valve-like tone", but on the other hand knew that this one was just a cheap little tranny. Not daring to compare it to my Champ, I tried it out against a 10watt Samick tranny, and found it did not offer much that the Samick didn't, though there is quite a rich midrange sound on offer at low volume. The speaker is it's downfall. As it is quite incapable of handling even a moderate output from the amp, the suggested settings in the manual are quite fanciful. It is difficult to produce very musical distorted sounds, as there is the choice between either that nasty crackle which many amps have at very low volume, or the sound of the speaker being almost torn apart. Plugging it into a closed back 12" cabinet I began to hear more like the nice sounds I might have expected. But then the Samick's sound naturally also showed a dramatic improvement played through this cabinet. It does make a very groovy harmonica amp though! I'd give it a 7 if that's what it was marketed as.

I won't return these as I have the option to do - they are still cheaper for my skinflint students than a secondhand Samick, which many have. This amp produces pleasant clean sounds at low volume, but like other small amps, could be dramatically improved by using it through a larger speaker/cabinet. (I would have liked an external speaker jack, but the speaker cables have spade lug connections, making it easy to attatch these to a jack socket.) An old stereo speaker with the tweeter removed has been a reasonable solution for some of my students. Maybe I'll keep a Dirty Thirty just to look at......