Danelectro HoneyTone Mini Amp

pretty simple little amp volume tone gain with a headphone out and a 2 inch speaker. battery powered or can use a wallwart.
not a whole lot to say about the features i gave it a 9 because it has every thing a amp this size needs.

wow this is a hard one to answer if you use it as a head phone amp its great. if you play through the 2 inch speaker turned down playing clean ok when turned up it goes to crap. i installed a 1/4 jack and hooked it to a 1 10 cab i had laying around sounds great through that. (i highly recomend trying that)

now all that being said we are talking about a 20 dollar amp its not gonna hold up next to the cheapest tube amp but i do like it a lot better than say a fender frontman 15. great for practice.

no problems yet.

never delt with them

if you want a good little practics amp like me and you dont need a lot of effects or bs its great but like i said the internal speaker leaves room for improvement.

I just got one of these brand new (2009) after borrowing one from my mom (who uses it clean to amplify a harmonica), and playing it for awhile. It has a great classic rock/blues tone, with distortion adjustable via a small knob. It has the basic volume/power knob and a tone knob. Just take it easy on the volume level for playing clean, otherwise it WILL distort.

I've been playing my hot-rodded MIM Strat (outfitted with Lace Sensor Hot Golds) through this thing and the combination of that guitar and this amp sounds great. Once upon a time, as a teenager starting out playing, I once loved to play with the distortion up on max, but now in my 20's I find myself not using nearly that amount of distortion or just playing clean altogether, and this little amp suits me well for my current playing habits. Like I said before though, when playing clean, just watch the volume level because it WILL distort if too high. I compensate for this by having the amp volume (clean) up to max, but having the guitar's volume up midway, so when you want distortion, just max out the guitar's volume knob and BAM! A little trick for alternating between clean and dirty without a pedal or turning the distortion knob on the amp.

I wouldn't use this amp for gigs (maybe for solo sidewalk busking) or playing in a band since it's a small, low-powered amp, but for playing around the house, excellent. I currently find myself using this amp more than my "land-line" Fender amp (aka one you plug into an electrical outlet).

Haven't had to deal with customer support, so can't say.

If this amp were lost, stolen or broken, I would easily be compelled to replace it (about $20 at Guitar Center you can't really go wrong). I find it a great amp for a compact, 9v powered machine. Just be sure to watch your volume levels or find a way to compensate to avoid clean channel distortion, and it's very solid.

Simple 1W solid state amp, with only 2 inch speaker as its main feature. It has volume, tone and overdrive knobs, headphone out, 9V battery PP3 and 9V centre negative AC to DC adaptor connectors. It has retro styled plastic chassis, metal belt clip, and tiny leather handle. Available in aqua, burgundy or yellow colour, but it seems aqua is the most popular one. Overall its rather light, but there are no loose parts, and whole amp feels solid. 1W of power is just right for practicing at home, perfect for people who live in flats. Despite small speaker sound character limitations a separate overdrive knob actualy adds a bit versatility when compared to other portable amps. It is definitly made for blues and old rock, so when you are moving around those styles, it seems like best option in its range.

Im using it with single coil pickups only, primarily for blues and old rock. 2 inch speaker construction allows it for a very boxy and noisy sound. Normaly you wouldnt like that, but this amp makes it his trademark for those who search for it. It sounds like an old tape or radio recording, which make even clean settings charactericaly distorted. Suprisingly playing with knobs gives a lot of interesing sounds, but keep in mind it will always be a noisy box. It also adds some kind of echo, which makes it even more characteristic. Perfect for playing with slide. Headphone out has no speaker emulation, but since we talk about already distorted sound it isnt much of issue. The only problem I found is actualy powering it with adaptor. Since its made for usage with standard 9V effect adaptors it lack grounding, and so when used that way it produces typical hum which disappears when strings or some metal parts of guitar are touched. Overall its very hard to rate sound quality of this thing as either 1 or 10 would be true. Its designed to reproduce a certain poor quality sounds, and it does it well. If you are looking for them, its 10.

Cant say anything about it. Feels solid, but still its just a molded plastic. Dont throw it around, and it should be fine.

Havent dealt with them. I like their image, but their website could be better.

Normaly Im practicing on 5W tube Peavey NanoValve amp, but its way too lound for using it in flat, so 1W solid state does the job. Not that it was the main reason I obtained it for. It is for that very characteristic, full of noises sound. There is nothing like it, and I must say of all the gear I owned or used, this small thing gave me the most fun. If something would happen to it I will definitly get another one. And its cheap too.

I don't know anything about this amp. BUT! I bought this as a birthday present for the singer/guitarist in my band.. When she saw it she absolutley adored it.. My girlfriend saw it, and she said that it looks so cute she wishes she had one. So, I guess chicks dig the design of this amp. So, if you got a lady guitarist in your life, get this.. It DOES look "cute", and it looks alot better than the clear non-descript Dean Markley amp and the cigarette box amp, and a hell of alot cheaper then those Marshall and Fender mini-amps, and does the same job..

What do you really want in an amp like this? To be able to play in a band with it? Hell, no.. But if you were in your bedroom or watching TV it sure beats using electricty noodling around, or coming up with new song ideas..

For the $20 price tag, how could you go wrong? if it dies, just buy another one.. If you can't afford to, then get a better job or don't buy a few six packs...

Who knows.. I have never had, or known of Dano equipment to stop working unless you mistreat it, which it is on you, buddy..

nice price for a neat present or just to noodle around on.

Probably this year. It is extremely versatile in the styles I play. I play mostly a mix of classic metal(Deep Purple, etc.) and black metal and it can sound from prestine clean to crunch to near screech with the tweak of the volume and gain knobs. the features i wish it had would be echo/reverb thats featured on the headphone amp but other than that it does its job well.

The distortion is pretty brutal for a small practice amp. the guitar I am using is the Dean Vendetta Xm( the cheapo model everyone talks bad about)and pretty soon a Titan guitar. As far as being noisy it produces alot of feedback on high volume and gain settings but it does not bother me too much.

I can highly depend on this amp for to go playing situations and for practice, as opposed to the Dean Markley mini amp that broke down two weeks after I bought it.

Never dealt with them but seems to be very reliable nevertheless.

if stolen, I would buy another one in a heartbeat. It shines in comparison to the Dean markley and johnson mini amps i have had in the past year or so. i have owned 2 dean markleys, a johnson mini amp and a marshall ms 4(the double mini stack) and only the marshall can compare in value and reliability to the dano mini amp. A fantastic deal.

For a mini amp the fact there is any echo is pretty cool, the distortion has a gain adjustment (seperate from the volume control), which is nice at this price! There is also a dedicated Line out, so you can use it as a preamp to a bigger system if you like the tone that much, or you could plug it into your hifi/computer speakers like I have been...

Oh, can't forget my favourite thing: I got a branded 'Danelectro' battery and headphones included in the price! I haven't found an electrical item with the 'batteries included' sticker EVER! Not counting things including posh rechargeables like mobiles...

Personally I love it! Considering I paid just shy of ??20 for it I ain't complaining. You get a lovely vintage distortion, which sounds great banging out White Stripes and Led Zeppelin, and if you stick the tone control(s) down and switch to the neck pick-up then Kyuss sounds as good as you're gonna get without overdriving a decent quality (??200+) Bass amp!

However, if you play mostly Offspring/ACDC kinda sounds then don't come near, I like to have a bit of a punky fun session every now and then, so I'm planning on buying a mini Marshall, as that's your best option for that kinda sound.

The echo is a nice touch, and if you're like me and get the urge to sound like you're playing in a big, empty barn once in a while it's just what you've been looking for! The clean channel is cool too, tho I'd save the battery and turn it off for that!

Well I've only had it 3 weeks or so, but so far it seems fairly sturdy, obviously it is only made of plastic and so kicking it would be bad... having said that, kicking ??2000 worth of amp ain't gonna domuch good either! (specially if you kick the speaker...). As it's only meant to be a practice amp, no I wouldn't gig with it, unless I couldn'tget the sound I wanted any other way, in which case I reckon it would do the job fine.

N/A

I've been playing for 5 years or so now, my last amp I purchased was an epiphone valve juinor, which got a pathetic amount of play before I had to move to the land of no electricity :'( Can't wait to get to Uni and a power socket! I've been playing my Ibanez JS100 through the honeytone, and it's making me fall back in love with it...

I'm giving it a 10/10 because for what you're paying you get a whole lotta amp! ??20 gets you a perfectly use-able practice amp, which goes to reasonable volume levels (full volume made my ears hurt a bit), and good battery life (haven't played for extended periods of time yet, still getting used to the electric after nearly 6 months enforced acoustic only!)

If it vanished from my life I would go straight back to the eBay shop I got it from and get another! Although like I said above I do intend to get a mini Marshall so I can play a wider variety of sounds.

Simply put: If you want a vintage distortion sound for under ??20 buy this amp now!

Everything you'd reasonably expect in a micro-amp- On-off/volume, tone and drive. Frankly, if you're expecting much more from a product that is just a cheap cheerful travel companion then you've probably forgotten to take the medication again eh?

It'll take a 9 volt battery (buy rechargeables) has a "big" in jack for your guitar lead and a "little" out jack for your headphones. I've taken it abroad with my home-made travel guitar and regularly sit on the sofa and plug my Washburn W165 into it for a bit of tv watching noodling. Perfect. It's a 9 easily because it has everything its competitors have yet I can't quite get excited enough about a micro-amp in order to stretch to a 10.

The sound I completely love. I'm surprised to see some of the comments here but I suppose, like design, colour etc, sound is a subjective thing and there is no single "right" sound out there. Suffice to say I play this thing cleanly about 25% of the time and with varying amounts of overdrive the rest. The overdrive is where it really shines for me. My fave setting twinned with my Seymour Duncan humbuckers on my Washburn Idol is about half volume, tone backed off to about 75% and overdrive hovering around halfway. This delivers superb Black Keys/ Wolfmother style warm dirty blues tones. If you're unsure how this wounds then check out the Black Keys on youtube. The sound has warmth, strength and some interesting break up to the tone as well as being responsive to the hard/softness of your play. Love it. With my self-made mahogany single coil guitar I need to work things harder with more volume and close-to-maximum overdrive to get back into dirty blues land. At maximum volume it can rattle a bit- they all can. If it ever annoys me enough then I'll put some dabs of glue on various parts to solve it.

The previous owner managed (somehow) to snap the "E" off of the Honeytone label. The thing has had a hard life and, being plastic is quite scratched up. Short of making it out of metal or kryptonite I consider that all par for the course.
My one big gripe with the thing is the 9 volt battery compartment. It seems too large for the UK batteries I'm putting into it. Consequently the thing rattles around and generally makes poor contact with the + and - contact points. I've been wedging some card behind the base of the 9 volt to remedy this but recently took the thing apart and pulled forward the contact points for a more permanent fix. It's fine now but this small annoyance loses my "Honeyton" a few points.

Never dealt with them, therefore unfair to comment.

I grabbed an ebay bargain of a Marshall MS2 micro amp recently which I'm going to pull apart and mount inside my travel guitar for an all in one solution. As you can probably guess, I prefer the Danelectro offering to the Marshall and so the little MS2 is the one going under the knife. As I said before, these things are subjective, but I personally love the overdriven sound of the honeytone, particularly with humbuckers. Clean it's, well, clean and will do for such a small little thing. If you want to do any sort of public playing then you need to get yourself a bigger practice amp starting at about 15 watts. Considering the Honeyton(e) is A. not designed for gigging and B. a tiny fraction of that wattage then I think it's a real little champ and does all you could ask of it

Pretty simple amp, sounds pretty wimpy as is.
But, I took the back cover off, drilled a 3/8" hole in the lower side of the amp, installed a 1/4" speaker jack (with internal speaker defeat, so that the internal speaker is 'unhooked' when an external speaker is plugged in). Now it's got a REAL feature (that it should have come with originally), I can plug it into any 8ohm guitar cabinet! The jack-part is about $5 at radio shack, I soldered the existing speaker wires to the new speaker jack, and added two 3" wires from the speaker jack to the existing speaker, -easy-easy mod.

Pretty good clean tones, takes pedals well. Not so good distortion. Volume is adequate for practice, and pretty loud for a battery powered amp. Running this through a V30 in a closed back cab makes all the difference.

I haven't had if very long, so I can't really speak about it's reliability.

n/a

I've been playing about 20 years, I own about 5 tube amps (a couple real neat-o vintage amps), and 15 guitars. I typically go for a clean to slightly warm Fender type tone, and then add a distortion pedal, and often a delay, -no other effects.
I highly recommend this easy mod, it sounds like a real amp now! All you need is a soldering iron (plus flux and solder), a phillips screwdriver, and a 3/8" drill bit.

Bought this amp broken in a pawn shop for $2. Took it home and replaced the 9V battery clips with a nice snap connector, and after some Dremel tool work it went easily back together.

I play harp, and this thing has some very nice tone and distortion control for my old Shure bullet mic. Really loud for the 2W or so it puts out. It has Volume, Tone, and ODrive knobs that give a surprising amount of variation in the tone.

I've just started breaking the surface with this thing.. I haven't found preferred settings yet, but have found several nice combinations. LOUD for its size.

Well, i bought it broken. Based on what I saw, I think a lot of the "broken" examples of this amp are not the electronics, but a really poorly executed battery compartment.

I've been playing harp for a couple years, and play through a variety of amps old and new. I read some reviews of this thing and happened to see it for $20 at the pawn shop, and when it tested bad, offered them $2. For the $35 or so it would take to get a new one, I would replace it, I think.

To be honest. I was shocked at how reliable this amp was. Yeah its a little scratchy but so are some of the more expensive models out there so I won't complain. The overdrive option is really cool because it actually sounds like one. Plus I connected a pedal or two to it and it took it with no problem. For a mini amp it sure took its share of beating. I went from alternative to metal then blues to hardcore and it took it all. Danelectro you guys got my vote on this one.

I used my epiphone les paul jr and it was an awesome combination. It can really throw down the rock especially if you hook it up with pedals. And it was surprisingly less noisy than some acutal amps. It was very versatile. And it worked well at maximum volume with excellent quality. And the overdrive really blended well with the range of tone.

It was definetly something I could rely on. I would take it to a gig if my amp blew out. And to this day it hasn't broken down.

I've been playing guitar for twelve years now. Guitarwise I own-
epiphone les paul jr
carlo robelli semi-hollow

pedals-FAB-flange/metal-the original crybaby wah-Danelectro-frenchtoast

Amp-crate

Features are typical of a battery powered "toy" travel amp. Included are On/Volume, Tone, and O.Drive controls. I have a "mini amp fetich" so I had to buy it. The box stated that it is "louder than other battery amps," and it is. The choice of the engineers to place the 1/4" input on the top of the unit was foolish. The amp tends to fall over all too often. I think I will mod this and make the present input jack a "speaker out" jack and add a new input jack on the back toward the bottom of the unit.

This little amp sounds like a little plastic amp. Frankly, you can't be too critical, after all it is basically a toy or novelty.
The available clean volume is quite good compared to other 9 volt circuits. The overdrive is pretty awful and I avoid it. I play blues, soul, funk, and twang...so that nasty transistor distortion is pure evil.
The case or its contents tend to vibrate at certain frequencies. I suggest opening up the case and hot gluing the pc board and battery leads to avoid noise.

This thing is build pretty well but I wish it were made of more substantial materials. Maybe MDF or pressboard would improve it overall, but likely increase the cost. I have owned several portable battery amps including the $50. Fender Mini Twin which sounded awful....but looked great. It would be nice to take this circuit and put it in the Fender....Then you might have something!

No comment. Never dealt with them.

I would rate this pretty high considering what it is and what it is intended for. It's a great thing to have in your gig back or case...especially when traveling. If you need something on the road to get your "guit" fix, it is perfect. The volume is exceptional compared to other mini amps. If you are able, I suggest adding a speaker out jack. I hooked up a 8" Jensen Vintage and the amp sounded suprisingly robust. I also copied the circuit and I am planning to duplicate it on a breadboard, play with some mods, and build a custom version. (I know what you're thinking...."get a life") Hey, we all need a hobbie.

For what I want it for, it is sufficient.

For what I want it for it is sufficient.

I have found the Honeytone amp extremely unreliable.. and Danelectro also very unreliable. I have purchased two of these little amps and within two weeks both have stopped working. I have tried in vane to get anyone connected with Danelectro to commumicate with me about them and I got no responses what so ever... The few humans that I did talk to kept telling me to contact other people... and I never got any satisfaction what so ever. I am highly suspicious of the Danelectro company now. The amp was great for the price, the sound quality, and the size, but if it only works a few hours, it is not worth buying. I might change my opinion of them if Danelectro would send me one that works... and keeps working. I have know others who have had them work for them for years.. and have had other friends who said that they have had the same experience as I... with the Honeytone and with Danelectro. What gives with this company?

Danelectro is impossible to deal with, if you have a problem with one of their products... at least, I have tried unsuccessfully for quite a while to get some one in the company to stand behind the little Honeytone amp that I bought from them ...that stopped working within two weeks. The few humans that I did speak with shuttled me off to other humans... and no one could give me any real information. The outfit must be full of mentally challenged people.

If the Honeytone amp worked... I would give it a 10 for what it is and what it can do... but since in my experience they are extremely unreliable and the company is extremely unwilling to stand behind the product... I would give it a zero.

I really don't know when the amp was made, but I am guessing that it was manufactured in the mid-nineties. Anyway I like to play blues and some modern rock, and this amp seems okay with me. Its made of plastic, but I really dont mind because I know that I will never have an impulse to damage it. It has 3 nobs: tone, overdrive and of course the volume control. It doesn't have any built-in effects other than overdrive, but I have never known any other mini amps with other effects.It comes with a battery compartment (battery power supply), and an AC adapter. It also has a belt clip at the back. Very versatile indeed!

I have a silvertone guitar with normal pickups (the ones with the coiled pickups). It suits my type of music pretty well (which is blues and rock and Jazz ect.). I almost always use my headphones with the amp because I hate to diminish the battery power. I remember the first time I played my guitar through this amp and I remember being suprised at how loud this amp could go. On the box it says louder than most mini amps, well it is.

The tone works pretty well, it has a wide range.

The only thing bad about the amp is the distortion. Im not talking about how much distortion, Im talking about the quality of it.

When you have the gain up high and the volume down low, you have a very buzzy and rough sound. But if you turn the volume up, you will hear a more mettalic sound. In addition,it can distort esily

The amp still sounds great as it is, but I can't give it a 10.

I really wouldn't use it in a perfromance, because its just not loud enough for one, and it distorts too easily. I would use it for private purposes, or for travelling. I bought this so that I could travel with it.

I got a one year warranty. Not bad.

I am an advanced guitar player and I have been playing for 3 years.
I also own a Pearl River Classical guitar,a silevertone elctrical guitar, SmartIIIs Silvertone amp, and an Ibanez DE7 (delay echo pedal).

If this gadget were stolen or lost, I would definetly buy another one because of the low price and I need an amp for travelling.

What I like about the amp:

1 It is cheap and has a high enough quality.
2 It is loud and has plenty of distortion (quantity wise)
3 It has two different power supplies
4 It has a belt clip.
5 It has never broken down
6 It is perfect for travelling

What I dislike about it:
The overdrive and the fact that it buzzes at low volume levels.

I compared this to marshall mini amps. I bought this one because of the cost. (Its a lot cheaper than the Marshall amp).

I cant really wish it had more or better feature, but I would wish it had better distortion.

IF YOU NOTICE THAT THE AMP SOUNDS MORE FUZZY OVERTIME, ITS LIKELY BECUASE OF THE POWER SUPPLY. Not all amps sound exactly the same, some sound better than others.

Get the amp, its worth it!

Not sure when it was made, but I've had it for several years. I guess I'd be classified as a classic rock or maybe folk-rock kinda guy, and the HoneyTone is okay for that. I think it would work for "My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)." It might even fly for "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)" if nobody had paid big money to hear you play it. Fuzzzzzzzzz.
Its best feature might be its portability. Mine (in its original box) shares space in a small nylon bag with a metronome, Rocktek Flanger, 10' cable, Rogue toolkit, and a bunch of miscellaneous small stuff.
It has enough power for around the house (haven't tried it with headphones yet), probably enough to scare the dog and/or cat, but not enough to annoy our nearest neighbor, even with the windows open.

Okay for its size and price. I use it when I want something a little louder and/or grittier than the usual sound of my old Yamaha FG-230 twelve-string. (The Yamaha came with a DeArmond pickup across the sound hole.) I've also tried it with a Johnson JS-050-? "Mini Strat."
When cranked up, yeah, it does kinda sound "like a bee in a tin," but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I've run the flanger through it, which was kinda fun. The Munchkins go to Woodstock. 8-D
Next scheduled experiment: PAiA Hot Lyx Sustain and the HoneyTone.

I don't think I'd gig with it. (I wouldn't want to have to try and make money as a busker, but it might work for that.) It's great for wearing around the house on the belt clip, though.
No electrical/mechanical problems noted, even though I let my younger stepson use it a couple of years ago. (He and his brother think all volume knobs should be set at pain threshold.)
I think it's still on the same battery I installed after the supplied one croaked.

Not needed yet, but then again, my inquiry to Danelectro about a Nifty Fifty amp on 02/28/05 received a "canned" reply that said "Currently our exciting product line up no longer includes guitars, amps or accessories at this time" and "We can't answer email questions at this time."
Alrighty, then.

I've had that Yamaha for close to thirty years now, and never had an amp until the Honeytone. I'm now getting into guitar (and bass) more and more, but don't think of myself as an "active musician" (yet). I did try a few open mic nights 12-15 years ago, and might do that again some day.

"Anything else you'd like to share?"
Thanks, Ham, for the tip on the line-out circuit. In rummaging through the parts drawer at RadShack, I noticed they had two types of switched ?" jacks. I went for the normally-open one, their 274-312B. I hope I guessed right. If it ends up sounding like a Howler monkey being beaten with a clown's *right* shoe (or more likely, like one that's asleep), I'll know I got it wrong.
Yeah, I'd probably get another if this one were lost or stolen.

mini practice amp, volume, tone gain control, headphone jack, that's it. what do i want for ? 29,-?
i use it at home.

i play fender mex telecaster, fat mex strat (stock pickups), ibanez pf 200 (old les paul copy) with gibson 498t in bridge and dimarzio the fred in neck position, ibanez artcore 75t semiaccoustic with (nice) "duncan designed" pickups.
i play a lot of styles. this thing has a lot of sounds from twangy clean to overdrive, surprisingly versatile.
considering size and prize the possibilities are amazing, therefore the 10

i have another mini amp from the eighties - it's CRAP. you just have to look at it sharply to make it fall to the floor and break
this one is much tighter. i wouldn't drop it though - it's plastic.

gigging with this thing? well, maybe for busking - it would certainly do the job but you'd need some replacement batteries!

no idea about danelectro

it's new, so no repair was necessary so far.

i have a warranty - but the ebay shop i bought it from is so chaotic i wouldn't want to deal with them again

i play for 32 years
my electric axes are listed above. i also have a classic yamaha, a hohner arbor precicion bass, a fender mandolin and a noname banjo.
i have a old accoustic 50w amp which is stored under my desk. i only play at home with my vox pathfinder.
other gear i use: pod II, behringer bass-vamp, boss 1180cd digi studio, boss dr.rhythm 676

if it were lost i'd buy this thing again, i love it! it has nice warm sounds, no 12" sound of course!
what should i hate about a 29 euro thingy that sounds sweet???! it's not a marshall but then it doesn't get me thrown out of my flat!

i can compare it to a crap mini amp by a company named "guide". it's like day and night though the guide was double the price of the honeytone ten years ago!
top buy, nice for playing a few licks now and then.
i'm happy with it as it is

sounds pretty buzzy if played trough the little speaker at too high a volume, but plugged through a bigger speaker with a discman to car cassette adapter plugged in the headphone outlet and played in a normal stereo system tape deck , or plain headphones, i was really impressed... especially for a thing this inexpensive...
but who cares... i dont think it was made to be all out on the sound with that little speaker anyways... and you can still get pretty good tone out of it also so....

didnt own it long it long enough... 3 weeks...

it seems to be a little fragile though... i wouldnt throw down the stairs it or drop it too often

BATTERY POWER: 9.6V REFILLABLE



this thing drains out 9V batteries within about 3 hours so if you dont want to spend a fortune on these and are not the type to play with it through the AC adapter, i suggest getting rechargeable 9.6V batteries that work just as regular duracells...
why 9.6V? cause regular rechargeable 9V only have 8.4V or somn` but the 9.6 works at 9, 9.1 ...

Features? Hah. Actually, what's there is very useful. Vol, Tone, Gain. Lacked an ext speaker output which I added. That would have been worth paying for. Uses up 9v batteries quick, works great on an ac adapter. I don't use it for a headphone amp but it's serviceable.

If you don't add an external speaker jack you won't know what sound this thing makes. It's raunchy as hell with the little 3" factory speaker buzzing away in that plastic case. I added an external speaker jack (cheap part at Radio Shack). I've driven PA cabs with this and it sounds amazingly good. I also have small speaker I made with a heavy duty fullrange car speaker and that's great for jams with your acoustic friends. Another suggestion - try this with your Tube Screamer... you will find a whole extra range of tones by backing the gain/dist down on the Honeytone and playing with the TS. With the stock speaker, this is a 4 or 5 (hate that tinny buzzing) but with an external speaker you can get 7 or 8.

Not a brick house. Occasionally used since 1998. the battery power connection stopped working, but should be easy to fix. Don't drop them, they're not made to take the shock. The battery compartment has a cheapy foam shim to hold the battery against the terminals... this is pretty poor design. But hey, for $30, whaddaya expect?

Who knows?

If you need a battery powered amp and don't need something crankin' like a Crate Taxi, this is surprisingly loud and satisfying through a decent speaker. Definitely add the external speaker jack. If anyone has a schematic that they'd like to share, email me.

Volume, tone, and overdrive. It's not like they're going to fit treble, bass, and midrange controls on an amp this size! The overdrive control is a nice touch not usually found on this size amps, and is useful for switching between clean and distorted sounds.

It varies a bit, but most of the time I get a really nice raw but warm distortion out of it. Sometimes it sounds cheap and spitty, but usually not. You're not going to get jazz tones, and the distortion's probably not intense enough for metal, but I play punk, blues/R&B-based stuff, and psychedelia, so it's just right for that.
I mainly use it with a Gibson SG or '62 Melody Maker, but also have a Tele and a Danelectro DC-59 reissue. A little bit of reverb or slapback echo does wonders.
I also play baritone guitar through it, but it can't really reproduce the lowest bass notes. It doesn't fry out with them, though. For baritone, it sounds a lot better with a cleaner sound.
I use it for practicing in my apartment, especially in the wee hours, and travel.

I've had a couple of these that died, either mysteriously or after being dropped a couple times. Amps in this class generally don't have much longevity.

N/A

I've owned several battery "baby amps" (Marshall, Fender, Rok-Bug) and this one is definitely the best. I'm on my third one now.

OK, this is really a follow up to Chippy the Monkey who gave some bad advice to that Victor guy. Sure you could just get a 1/8" to 1/4" adapter, however this would just create a bigger headphone socket and NOT a line out. If you want a line out, buy a $1 mono Sw Jack from Rat Shack, (they look like the normal mono jacks but have 3 solder tabs and a switch touching the tip) then do the following:
1.) Open the back of the amp, and solder a 2" wire from the black wire's (-ve) tab on the speaker to the sleeve tab on the jack. (leave the black wire connected)
2.) Unsolder the red wire (+ve) from the speaker and connect it to the tip's tab on the jack.
3.) Solder a 2" wire from the Switch's tab on the jack to the red wire's tab on the speaker
4.) Drill a hole (around 10mm) straight through the back of the amp where it says made in China CE, push the jack through and screw on the nut/washer.

Then you will have a proper 8 Ohm line out, capable of driving a 4x12 cabinet to volumes louder than a Howler monkey being beaten by a clown's left shoe.

It is a $30 excellent practice amp. You can get some fantastic tones from this baby, some are worth recording.

For $30, fuck me!

With the line out mod, well you have a much louder practice amp with some good tones, none really worth recording, but $30, fuck me!

Seems tough enough

>a?

I recommend every one do the line out mod, it is easy, doesn't alter the looks of the amp and gives it a bit more versitility.

This is the best $30 amp Ive seen.

Just a quick followup on my review below. My Honeytone had (apparently) blown out after a few years and a couple of falls. Last night I opened it up and saw a point where the circuit board trace was cracked, right next to the connector for external 9V DC power input. (I think it was left hanging from the external power supply once after a fall.) A touch of solder and it's back in operation! Looking at the circuit and knowing a little about these IC power amp chips, I think it should be hard to actually blow out.

Seriously, this is a really nice mini practice amp. Only one channel and no bass control, but why would you want one with a 2" (3"?) speaker? The best thing about it is the overdrive. Turn it up a little and it subtly brightens your sound, turn it up more and you get a real nice blazing distortion.

The clean sound is limited -- you can't get any kind of bass out of such a tiny speaker. Sounds ok on the bridge humbucker, but don't expect to get a full acoustic sound out of it. Like said above, the overdrive is very effective and goes from subtle to a nice distortion tone. Only thing is be careful not to overdrive the input or you get a hashy clipping sound: turn your guitar's vol knob down if you have humbuckers and turn the amp's vol knob up to compensate. Also, I prefer using a 9V wall adapter with it.

I had to stick a shim in the battery compartment to make sure the battery touched the contacts. More reliable to use a wall adapter. Amp finally stopped working after 4 years and a few drops. But for $30 bucks you can replace it instead of servicing it. I ended up buying a Guitar Research/Mega VL-10 from Sam Ash instead, for $10 more. The VL10 has actual bass and goes a lot louder. It's decent clean, but the overdrive on the Honeytone was much much better.

I've been playing about 5 years and used it with various single-coil and humbucker guitars and was always happy with it. I wish Danelectro made a wall-powered version with a 5" speaker and maybe 5 watts power. But if you want a tiny, battery-powered practice amp, this is as good as it gets.

I've been playing for 30 years. I've played through Bogner, Dr. Z, Blackface, Matchless, Marshall, Mesa, etc... NOTHING touches the tone of this amp. It's so versatile that you can spend weeks dialing in a different tones and never hear the same sound twice. One watt gives you miles of clean headroom(think polytone), but once you turn up the gain, it's over! It screams like a banshee in the dead of winter. If I were dying alone on a cold mountain, this would be the amp I used to serenade myself to deaths door. I use it in the studio, live, and as a friend for my guitar to confide in. If Jesus were alive, he would use this amp.

If it were stolen or lost, I would die. If there was a way I could legally marry this amp, I would. There are things I'd like to share about this amp, but they're too personal, so I won't mention them here.

OLD BLUES! Actually, I'm just writing this in response to that Victor guy who posted one saying he wants to find a way to use it line out. Go to Radioshack, buy an adaptor which changes any 1/8 inch to a quarter inch, plug 1/8 inch into headphone jack and then run that into a patch cord and into the PA. Unless of course you don't want to spend a whole $4 on the adaptor.

I have a PRS Santana SE, one of the fantastic originals, not the new, sucky version, and I get a tone kind of like Brian May's when he used that little half watt Deacy. It's goin on my next record, somehow.

Unless a fat guy sits on it and it goes up his butt (something that's never been said about an amp before), it should be fine.

I DON"T KNOW, leave me alone

I play and it sounds like a bat eating a rat. Marshall Valvestate, PRS, and I record through a toaster that I wired with plutonium. My duck is named Norman.

Features? For this price? Tone and gain controls are a bonus already. Headphone line out comes in pretty handy but can be quite a mess with all the cables esp if you're using a 9V adaptor. I use it in my congested campus hostel accomodation where noise pollution is a serious issue and even then sometimes my neighbours get to groove along with me.

All the nu-metal/punk/emo/rapcore/craprock/metalheadz out there are not going to like this amp at all because it sounds like crap for anything other than real downhome blues. Think Muddy Waters / Elmore James / Hound Dog Taylor slide with lots of cheapo transistor crunch, recording hiss and compression. No creamy tube distortion ala SRV or sweet singing tone like BB King, just some damned grouchy sounding "Woke up this morning still stuck in the cotton fields" kinda growl. It's gonna take some serious mojo to get a decent sound out of this guy but once you nail it it's there. I play a Gibson BluesHawk and with tone all up, just a few degrees on the gain and volume as the surroundings permit. Ahhhh...slide heaven.
Yeah yeah I know playing a Gibson guitar through a SGD$50 amp yadda yadda blah blah blah...at least I know how to get the tone I want while the rest of the gearheads go through their mesa-boogies and marshalls.

I'm seriously considering bringing this to my next jam session and miking it up and if it goes well who knows? It could see some real gigging action...but all that's a huge if. Had to spray the pots once but apart from that this guy's pretty tough. Been dropped a couple of times with no scratches to show for it. I sure wouldn't do that with a tube 2x12 combo.

zilch

Been playing blues for 6-7 yrs using a Gibson BluesHawk and a Cort ES335 copy as my blues axes. Amp-wise I'm stuck on a tweed Pro Junior which does an excellent job for blues (can get some good biting slide tone too but not as primitive as described above). I love the fact that this little thing is so simple and yet can still churn out decent (to my ears) tone. The Marshall mini-stacks seemed to be less value for money vibe and dollar wise. One thing I wish it had was a line out so I can hook it up to a larger speaker or something. Probably the folks down at Danelectro never expected anyone to find gig-able tone out of this little bugger. Maybe I'll get down to it once I obtain the knowhow.

If your lifelong ambition is to play like Steve Vai or Malmsteen or Satch and your dream axe is a flourescent glow-in-the-dark Ibanez with a Floyd Rose then you'd do best to pass on this one. And good luck on your next tapping solo extravaganza.

For those of you who play some serious metal(slide) on metal(strings) stuff you'd want to give this guy a go. You might just be surprised...shocked even.

Just 3 knobs w/ a mini headphone out that I think can be also used as a line out if you use a mini to 1/4" adaptor. Great for outdoor playing in the park, street begging etc. Plenty of punch w/ Radio Shack 9v adaptor.

Been using it w/ my Aguave blue "tequilacaster" loaded w/ graphtech nut & saddles, SD Hotrails w/ push/pull to split the rails. I mostly play old Led Zepp, ZZ Top, Classic Rock styles & it really gives me exactly what the Dr ordered. Can actually get that controlled feedback thing going nicely. Been playing since 1970's and have been through Twin Reverbs, Boogies, SF Champs. Never had such fun for so little $$$

Have not taken it to gig but I'm certain it would not really cut it even if miked to the PA. Only had it for a few days but I'm certain it will last longer than $30 bucks in my pocket would otherwise.

Haven't had any experience w/ the Danelectro folks so I really can't comment here.

Been playing for 26 yrs I also have a Line 6 Spyder 112 & a SF Champ that needs to be worked on. If the Honeytone was lost or stolen I'd get my lazy ass back down to Guitar Center & get another one quick. Real no brainer!!