Danelectro HoneyTone Mini Amp

This is a $30 amp, you can't expect too much. I spent all my money on my guitar(Dano U2) so I needed a dirt cheap amp for starters. Of all the worthless little amps this is the best I've heard, that is after some extensive modifications. After replacing the crappy speaker it will get really loud without breaking up too much. I clip it on my belt and walk around the house and yard playing. I do wish it had a pre-amp out. I was surprised how nice it is when I started working on it. The front grill is held on with screws instead of glue. Even though its made out of yellow plastic they painted it yellow to get a better looking finish.

I play my Dano U2 through it. I play surf music so this amp isn't ideal cause it doesn't have a reverb. I like most people didn't like the speaker so I replaced it. Now it has good low end and I can turn it up and still have a clean tone if I want. For more details check out http://www.teleport.com/~mrriggs/guitars/pocket/ . With the overdrive all the way down I can turn the volume all the way up and have no distortion at all. I can crank up the overdrive and it stays musical if the cords are kept simple. For the price it sounds great.

Gig, are you kidding? With the AC adapter or auxiliary battery I built I can exceed the recommended 300mA. If your not carefull it could blow out the circuit. I ran it through an ammeter and it gets obnoxious before it pulls more than 300mA. Be carefull if you like it obnoxious. I haven't broken it yet.

Check out my web page http://www.teleport.com/~mrriggs/guitars/pocket , you'll see I have definitely voided the warranty.

For a $30 dollar amp it is great. I bought it just to have something until I got a good amp. I now have a good amp so I don't use it much any more. I got a 1970 Sano tube amp with reverb and tremolo. Obviously the honeytone doesn't sound a hundredth as good as a tube amp but it only cost me $34.52. I don't think I would get another one if I lost it. I would probably get a Dano estudio because it has a pre-amp out and echo effect.

I don't know what year this was made in. It's a fairly worthless little amp, all hype and no substance. There is no "cool vintage tone" anywhere in this amp. Sorry. Single channel, volume tone and drive controls. No power at all. Maybe if you tried to drive a bigger cabinet you'd get something useful, but even into headphones it sounds like junk.

Tried it out with a Peavey Ractor and my PRSs. Yech.

No. Nope. Are you kidding?

No reason to work with 'em on this. What could they do?

Playing for thirty years now. Save some money and buy a Pignose or a Rockman.

Basic mini amp with a volume, tone, and overdrive knobs. It has an input, ac adaptor, and headphone jacks. It is a really hip looking aqua colored cabinet with a 2 or so inch speaker. few nice extras like a belt clip and a useless but neat authentic leather handle.

I play a Carvin H2. I am a college student who does some practicing on campus. Unfortunately, each room has a piano in it and usually there is a pianist on each side of me. An unamplified electric is not going to cut it. As much as i wish for a TUBE amp small enough for my backpack (thats also loaded with books...)it has not materialized yet. So i was seeking an amp that will allow me to play CLEANLY (I'm a jazz guitar performance major...No metal distortion please!) that would also meet the size requirement and be just loud enough for me to be able to hear myself. This is the most versatile mini amp that I've ever seen! It cleans up nicely and alows me to play at a reasonable volume. Try this with a mini marshall, fender, etc! Danelectro tried to make that overdrive KNOB do something. The tone knob is not the most amazing eq I've heard, but for $28.00 it changes my sound appreciably. I'd like to hear this amp through a better quality, slightly larger speaker! The headphone out sounds pretty good!

I've had it three weeks. It has lived in my backpack. No sweat so far, but buy an AC adaptor: batteries go quick! Having taken a peek inside, i noticed that the pots and jacks are all mounted to the circuit board...Not the best quality construction...But for the price I'll buy another if it breaks and or use my warranty!

Sent them an e-mail asking for a schematic because I build small amps as a hobbie. They e-mailed within 24 hours with an address to send the amp to in case of failure. No schematic but I was just curious anyway. I was impressed with how responsive they were to my inquiry.

I take this piece of gear seriously because it has made my life much easier. Compared to the other products in it's price range, the Honeytone is a great bargain. It still distorts a little too easily (manufacturers seem to think that EVERYONE is interested in distortion! I cannot trust most reviews of amplifiers because most people reviewing them spend so little time rating the clean tone. Soon i'll have to build something that is just like it that WILL NOT DISTORT! This reveiw is for freeks like me who are interested in playing clean only!) But I have found it serviceable for my needs. For what it is, it is top notch. It also looks really cool.

These things are so cheap that by now everyone must have one sitting under the coffee table, gathering dust. Got mine in '99. Reddish color like the seats of a cheap rental car. Played it for a day and finally got the joke: this thing is a cheapo toy, not an instrument, but fun. Features are adequate for its purpose, which is to have fun.

I play horribly and have for 30 years. this toy is worse than me, screechy and tinny. but it's a toy, right? Not an instrument. Just have fun with it.

If it fails me, I'll never notice since I don't care enough about it to know where I left it last.

Who cares?

I own a cute Crate VC508 that is a nice little tube amp for $150. I run the Crate through a decent Marshall practice amp called ValveState 15-R. Together, they have a very, very nice sound (though I've played guitar and bass for 30 years, I am a terrible player. I am more of an audiophile than a musician. I know good sound, whether live or audio/hifi. the baby Crate/baby marshall combo is excellent sound in a $325 package, even better than a Fender Blues/Pro jr. This Danelectro toy cannot be compared favorably or unfavorably with any other product. It's a nice toy.Go get one, but don't feel obliged to put another battery in it when the stock battery wears out.

Hey, for a mini battery powered amp it's the best one around! Three knobs volume, tone, and gain help to change the sound. It comes in "cool" retro colors!

I'm not a guitarist but a drummer. I bought the honey tone amp to have something in my home whenever a guitarist came over! If you like the semi-clean sound for guitar ala "surf", "rockabilly" or "country blues" this works great! If you are looking to blast lots of distortation you're fooling yourself & you're gonna destroy this thing.

Depend on this! I've had this over a year with no problem whatsoever.

It comes with a warranty but I never had to use it.

I've been playing for over 30 years and have heard the standard for guitar sounds come and go. This is the sound of Danelectro! Great for apartment level volume. Comes in great looking retro-design packaging with a matching instruction booklet! Also a Danelectro battery included. What more could you want for the price?

There are three shiny little knobs on this thing; volume, tone, and gain, though possibly not in that order. There is a 1/8 headphone out, which I realize is the size that most headphones are now, but I still prefer the old 1/4's. The best feature is the sick green color.

My main guitar is a tele with EMG lace-sensor type pickups. I also play a lot of harp through this thing, which is actually what I got it for. I play Hohner Special 20's (the only ones they still hand-make, #%$*&!) with a Shure mike.
I admit it; I love trashy sounds, and this thing provides plenty of them. My only complaint in this area is that if you crank it all the way, especially when using a battery (versus ac adapter) it cuts out when you play hard.

OK, this is where things get nasty. I bought one of these on a Sunday. It wasn't working by Tuesday. I took it back by the store and exchanged it. This one has lasted longer (about 5 months) but it busted yesterday. It doesn't work with battery or ac power now. The little power light doesn't even come on. It's probably fixable, but should I have to put up with this kind of stuff from a solid-state amp? Some of you are thinking "Oh, he just abuses his gear." My friends, I have several other amps and an ancient tube organ, and I have had no problems whatsoever with any of these, at least not that I couldn't fix easily. This could be part of a string of luck I've had lately, though, which inlcuded the totaling of my car and getting framed by the cops (I got off with a security tape), but I doubt it.

Kudos to Musicians Friend for replacing this piece o' shite with no questions. I doubt Danelectro would be so helpful. The rating is for MF.

I have been playing for about five years or so now. In the way of amps, I own a Epiphone Pathfinder (great amp), and some misc. Peavey bass amp, which I use as a slave. I'm a lefty, and poor, so I've been limited to Fender's Mexican offerings. And a bunch of other recording and harp shite, but do you really want to hear about that?
If I had it to do over again, I would have spent a little more money and gotten a pignose. I assume that they're more reliable, because I see some ancient ones in pawn shops occasionaly. On the other hand, I probably got my thirty bucks out of it.
I apalergizz fer my atrousush spelin 'n gramer.

This is a 9 volt powered practice amp. It is pretty versatile considering the $30 price tag. I only use it for practice, and I find it very suitable for stashing under my car seat and running out during lunch breaks and practicing on.

I use a variety of guitars with this tiny practice amp. It works well with single coil and humbucking pickups. You can approximate many different tones with this toy/tool, but I would never use it for anything other than personal practice or very casual band practices.

I've dropped it many times, takes a lickin' & keeps on tickin"! Gotta keep a fresh battery in it though!

No idea.

This little mini amp is best suited for personal practice, especially in situations that demand portabilitiy. It is certainly no "holy grail" of tone, but I've seen no equal for the price and size (about as big as a walkman).

Three knobbies, if I remember correctly: volume, gain [i think], and tone. Turning up the gain is the only way to get much sound out, but it also adds terrible distortion that one just can't ignore. My stepmum bought this thing for me so I wouldn't have to lug my practice amp on the bus to visit her. I wish it had at least a minimal amount of clean tone.

I use this amp with my crap [Yamaha] guitar that I travel with. I suppose it works all right at really low volume, but anything audible is pretty distorted, tinny, and terrible. The only fun thing to do is wrap the cord around yourself, loop the amp onto your butt pocket, and stroll around the house, playing broken Led Zeppelin...

This thing broke the 2nd time I used it... and I freaked out. I eventually realized that the metal plates that touch the battery were skewed, and armed with needlenose pliers, I fixed it. This thing also eats batteries, and I do recommend a power supply adapter you can plug into an outlet.

huh.... I hate dealing with companies, I fix it myself! grr!

I've been playing 2 years with a crappy travel Yamaha I keep in the car and a wonderful Strat I use for gigs, band practice, and such. I also use a ZOOM GFX-707 processor, which kicks ass, but sounds terrible with the mini amp. I suppose this amp is suitable for a mini amp if you want to run around the back yard, but I wouldn't recommend it for even a practice amp... its worth it to go out and spend $100. for a useable 15W amp... You will thank me.

This was a new out of the box 98 model. Canary yellow with volume tone and OD. Simple and tiny. Even had a belt clip. It was powered by an AC adapter or the 9Volt retro battery (very cool)

I couldn't believe it! How can this much sound come out of such a little box and SOUND THIS GOOD??? I was chunk-chunkin some ZZTop in no time. The sound was clean too, until you turned the knob a lil too far (hey, even chipmunks get a sore throat if pushed too far, right?) No apparent distortion on the clean channel.

Boo, hiss!! One hour after I started plinking with this thing, it sputted, crackled, and died. Knock knock...no answer. I knew this was too good to be true! So, anyway, I took it back, got the bucks back and opted for a real amp. end of story.

Didn't even go there...

Only been playing for about four months now, but I know what I like when it comes to tone. This little monster sounded great, but it was fragile and broke quick....sad, because I was enjoying getting those SOUNDS! A magic little box...too bad mine died.

I bought this amp when I bought my new guitar (a Yamaha AEX502 semi-hollowbody.) I got it primarily so I wouldn't have to lug the big amps around... I figured I could throw it in the gig bag and take it to the beach or anywhere else I felt like bringing the electric. It's a pretty basic setup -- On/off/volume; tone; gain. It runs off a 9V battery or AC adapter, and has a headphone jack. Considering it's only got a 2-inch speaker, it's got plenty of power and a wide range of sounds. I was pleasantly surprised when I first plugged in and gave it a run-through. Keeping in mind it's a tiny speaker and runs off batteries, it serves its intended purpose perfectly. It's convenient, super easy to take with you, and it looks fantastic. Everyone I show it to falls in love with those Danelectro retro looks.

I'm running a Yamaha AEX502 with two P90s through it. I play anything from blues to straight-up rock, to classical fingerpicking. The HoneyTone isn't ideally set up for the fingerpicking, but if you back off a bit it doesn't sound laughable. Other than that, however, it's capable of giving a great dirty blues sound. The booklet that comes with the amp isn't all that useful, but with a little experimentation you can figure out how to get any number of sounds on your own. It is possible to get a somewhat clean sound, but it seems to be at its best when it's got some growl. And let's face it -- you can't expect thundering bottom end from a 2-inch speaker. Over all though it sounds better than I expected. I've seen other mini-amps, and they sounded terrible. This is the best of that bunch I've seen so far.

I don't know how reliable it is -- I haven't thrown it across the room. Yet. Would I gig with it? Be reasonable. No.

You want support for a $29 amp with a 2-inch speaker? If it breaks just go get another one.

I'm a bass player who recently decided to put more time into guitar. I've been messing around for about 10 years, and the Yamaha AEX502 I got is the first serious guitar I've owned. The HoneyTone was just sort of an accessory I threw in at the time, and I couldn't be happier with it. You can't exactly crank it up to 11 and flail away on it, but if you back off a bit and use a little common sense, it more than holds its own. Plus it just looks realy cool.