Epiphone Firefly 30 DSP Combo

Ok this is my 3rd (and final!) review of this amp - after being forced to use it out of necessity i have found one way in which it can sound usable - dare i say even quite decent:
bridge single coil > clean channel(with stompbox of choice)

that's it. if you're thinking of using humbuckers or the distortion channel you can forget it.

so, based purely on setting it up that way, i will give that sound a 5

Nice features on this amp, i got it about 8-9 months ago now and hasn't disappointed me. The only problem for me is, the weight of it seems much heavier than it should be.

Playing this through my Line 6 Floor Pod with my telecaster sounds great. The sound is very powerful and always delivers full potential.

This amp has never failed on me. Played two gigs with it and has always been great.

I think it's a nice amp, but more for clean sounds maybe acoustic or some eric clapton sounds. For distortion not really, but for powerfulness through a pedal its great to use.

2 Channels, effects, reverb, aux in, ext speaker jack, headphone jack, 30 watts, 10 in speaker.

The effects are fairly useless, except for playing around with. the reverb is not the best. The higher you set it, the worse it sounds. Channel switching not needed - will explain later in the review.

Here;'s the deal - If you play a strat with single coils the clean channel sounds spectacular. Les Paul or SG or crappy shredder guitar with humbuckers, forget it!

Whoever says this amp is noisy is just wrong - unless they are playing single coils, have the gain cranked to 10 with crappy cables. then it's probably noisy as hell on the gain channel. Here's the solution - Don't use the crappy gain channel!

The gain channel is garbage. It sounds like someone poked holes in a bad speaker with a pencil and called it overdrive.

The clean channel is where it's at. Turned up to about 7 it's perfectly clean. As you approach 10 it starts to break up, and all the way up it has a driven tube amp sound. Very full and rich sound - with single coils.

Here's what I am doing. I have a digitech RP155 running into the amp on the clean channel. For SRV sounds I set the RP155 to the Bassman amp with the TS-9 pedal model. It actually sounds really sweet.

No problems to report. Built like a tank.

No idea.

I have been playing for 30 years. I have played through all types/makes of amps. This amp has great cleans, and plays well with the Digitech pedal on the clean channel. It's a heavy amp, but to mean that means durability, and probably contributes to the full sound.

Would I buy it agian? It depends. If I found a killer deal on a Fender tube combo, I might go in that direction on my next amp.

If you find one for under $100 used, it might be for you. If you play hard rock/metal, look elsewhere. If you want an amp to do it all, ook elsewhere.

i believe mine is a 2007. plenty of features. most i never use. i use this amp inmy studio and for gigs. solid state, tube sound.plenty of power.

i own 17 guitars. of course this amp sounds better with some than others. that happens with all amps. but whoever claims this amp is noisy must of got a lemon. mine is quiet. the clean channel on this thing is where it shines. one of the best clean sounds of any amp i have ever played and that includes fender, vox, crate,gibson, marshall and a host of others. at times, depending on which guitar i use [mainly single coils] you cannot tell this isn't tube. effects are so-so and high gain distortion is muddy and poor on most guitars. but i got to give this thing a 9 just for the excellent clean channel.

i gig with this at times depending on the situation. i have never had a problem with this amp. but it is a heavy amp. hard on the back. i have a 30 watt vox that i actually use more for gigs as it weighs half of what this beast weighs....

never dealt with them.........

i have been playing off and on for over 30 years. i am actually a fine artist[ painter and sculptor] with an art noise band. we play sort of a no wave punk blues art noise jazz kinda thing. abstract music. right now i have 2 vox amps. one 15 watt tube and one a 30 watt valvetronix. a crate and this epiphone. lots of guitars.danos, supros, airlines, kays, harmonys, etc. [ total of 17]all vintage and mainly single coils. i use a 80's korg analog pme 40x board with a number of different effects on it. i love this amp for its great clean channel with and without my effects board. i dont use it for much else. oh yeah, it's also very cool looking. artists are visual and this things got it. if it were lost or stolen not sure what i would do. there is so much out there to choose from and so little time.

Mine is a 2006. I mainly use it for home as it's got a nice tone for that use, quick to fire up. It has two channels, though I mainly use the clean. The effects are crappy to be honest. The reverb OD are very poor at best. I do wish it had a good reverb, effects loop jack and 12" speaker and a 15/30 switch. The amp is BEAUTIFUL to look at period, and that was the main drawn when I saw it a West LA Music in Santa Monica, although I actually bought it through EBAY for the price. I couldn't afford the tube version at the time. Wish I could have though. It has enough power for what I do with it.

It works best with my Fender American Deluxe Tele and not bad with my Fender Eric Clapton and Eric Johnson and Taylor T5-C1 and Taylor 314ce. Sounds HORRIBLE with my Epiphone Sheraton II, too dark muffled. Again the reverb and and effects this amp is suppose to have are LOUSY. For the Epiphone company, I believe if Mr. Epi were still alive he would never have allowed this to go through on the quality control it did. Perhaps they already fired the design engineer(s)for embarrassing the company as I would have. I love the Epiphone line, having also a Casino, Dot and looking to buy a big box jazz model.

SO far so good, and it is built heavy and solid. Never had to open it up so well keep our fingers crossed it a durable model.

Haven't need their service as of yet. Hope never to need to either though I hope they respond in a positive manner if I ever do.

Sorry Epiphone / Gibson, but if I lost it and found out who stole it, I would tell the police not to prosecute for possession of stolen property as it wouldn't kill me to loose this particular amp, beautiful as it is. I'd love to see Epiphone redesign the guts and electronics and keep the cabinet as is, then perhaps they would have a killer amp for all ages. The 3 is for overall rating although if it were for looks alone it would be a whopping 10+. I did buy a foot switch later through Sweetwater for $20 bucks which considering now I only use clean, it isn't needed

The features are nice. Pretty much as has been described already. I'd emphasize that it's one of the best-looking amps I've ever come across. That's what sold me . . . unfortunately, as it turned out.
It is big. Bigger than it ever looks in photos. And even on top of that, it's heavy for its size.

I generally played a variety of humbuckers & single coils through this. Only single coils have a chance of sounding okay. The amp is noisy. The clean channel can actually be rather tasty though it's missing a top end. There are certain situations where it's exactly the sound you need. For me, though, that's rather rare as I can't get over the missing top end.
Let me join in the crows by saying the hi-gain channel is just unbelievably bad. I can't imagine an amp has ever been made, at any price point, with a worse-sounding channel. Back in the days when I used to use this amp, I got all my distortion by using pedals on the clean channel.
The effects are pretty useless since they're all on one knob, but they don't sound all that bad.

Well, it appears to be built like a tank. My guess is these things will still be around collecting dust for a very long time.

I've been playing guitar for nearly four decades. I've at various times owned (inexpensive) Marshalls, Fenders, Crates, and now a Line 6 Spider. This is to me, by far the most beautiful amp I've ever played. But that's where it ends. I find the sound pretty useless so right now it's in the corner of my studio serving the role of eye candy.
I suppose if I were gigging and needed nothing more than that exact sound I get from the clean channel, it could serve a purpose.

I bought this **** for 170 and can't begin to figure out where the break is. The tone quality was always muddy and distorted ranged. A chord sounded like separated pitches. They said it's discontinued and I wish I knew how to trouble shoot the solid state from speaking to qualified techs.

To the first time I used this the clean channel sounded alright but got harder in the short time it was in action. I never thought this was to be a 10" speaker without a solid head until I tried additional amps like the Line 6 spider III and the BC30 combo. I was hearing all kinds of radio stations in the background. Redoing the configuration of this crap is too time consuming.

This thing is built like a tank and weighs a ton. It won't fall apart except for the electrical circuitry that doesn't pan out with the ride. If you take time out to analyze the fault it may just be easier to fix another way that's faster.

I have bought Epiphone equipment years ago in the 70's from an acoustic to electric and find the quality has made Gibson noted the the Gibson SG standard and Les Paul to be the fore runners of this pruduct and precision captive instruments to this date. If I were to say, this balance of fusion the sound will be a better quality
between guitar and amp.

I was professional at 16 and I'm in my 50's. I don't know what I would do if it were stolen. I think twice about doing things like fixing this amp and I just may get lucky. It probably was engineered in another garage that that used to be riddled with users who didn't find the time to think at all. Or, they might have gotten sharp and the system failure had gotten to me electrically. In any case, I need input on how this **** operates.

this is a follow-up review

unusable distortion channel. worst i've ever heard, bar none

clean channel - muddy and dark with humbuckers. i'd go as far as to say unusable with most typically-voiced humbuckers. can sound nice with single-coils. strangely noisy for a clean channel, there is a subtle background fizz to it.

dsp fx rendered a bit useless by all being on one dial.
odd fake-sounding (seems gated) reverb which i actually quite liked

i've had a chance to use it in every situation now and its just plain crap. its also unbelievably heavy (and quite large) for an amp with just one 10" speaker. and no there's nothing wrong with it, it's just bad... at any price! i'm selling it ASAP and from what i've read the behringer gmx210 sounds like an excellent replacement... then again i bought this amp only from what i'd read (no shops in my area had it to test)... seems like all the bad reviews came in after i bought it. people, please do not buy his amp, there are MUCH better amps out there for the price

this is a follow-up review

unusable distortion channel. worst i've ever heard, bar none

clean channel - muddy and dark with humbuckers. i'd go as far as to say unusable with most typically-voiced humbuckers. can sound nice with single-coils. strangely noisy for a clean channel, there is a subtle background fizz to it.

dsp fx rendered a bit useless by all being on one dial.
odd fake-sounding (seems gated) reverb which i actually quite liked

i've had a chance to use it in every situation now and its just plain crap. its also unbelievably heavy (and quite large) for an amp with just one 10" speaker. and no there's nothing wrong with it, it's just bad... at any price! i'm selling it ASAP and from what i've read the behringer gmx210 sounds like an excellent replacement... then again i bought this amp only from what i'd read (no shops in my area had it to test)... seems like all the bad reviews came in after i bought it. people, please do not buy his amp, there are MUCH better amps out there for the price

It has a decent set of features for such an inexpensive amp: clean channel, dirty channel, 3eq, reverb and some DSP effects. I never really used the DSP... it's not very convenient to stop playing and try to mess with a little single dial. Plus, there are 9(?) settings total. No customization. That's what pedals are for.

The clean channel is quite beautiful. Crystal clear, picks up notes, good full sound.

The dirty channel is absolute garbage. It sounds like running a lawn mower over some sticks. Never use it.

The DSP effects are pretty useless. They are a bit cheesy sounding and you can't really customize the effect. Use pedals instead.

Never had an issue.

Never had an issue.

I like solid state for acoustic, not so much electric. I'm a tube kind of guy. However, if you're in the market for a really inexpensive clean channel, this may be for you. Don't buy it for its overdrive or effects... all of that is complete junk.

Also, this thing is a beast. I'm guessing it weighs between 40 and 50 lbs, but more importantly, it's just incredibly awkward and large. Not a good gigging amp.

There are plenty of better amps out there for about the same price as a secondhand one of these. I actually sold this shortly after buying it. I made the mistake of buying before I heard it. I wouldn't recommend it to my friends. But hey, maybe it's for you. Just play through it first.

Bought new in 2007 from American Musical Supply.
I think the others pretty much hit on the amp, save for one thing: this sucker weighs a ton. I wanted a smaller, lighter amp to replace my marshall mfx(?) 50w, 12" combo. This thing weighs more and is more awkward to carry. But I like the sound so much its a keeper. Im gonna trade the marshall for something lighter. Which will probably turn the Firefly into a closet queen. Sigh.
Rating is due to weight. Otherwise a 8.5

Very nice. Clear and clean. I dont like the gain, but have never heard gain I liked in an amp. DSP beats the Marshall, tho I dont know if that means much. Reverb doesnt get too deep, but has a richness I havent heard since the Fender Super Reverb I owned ages ago.

Too new to have an opinion.

Too new to have an opinion.

Great little amp if you dont plan to move it much.

There are a few onboard effects, a fairly nice reverb, 2 foot switchabe channels and an 8ohm jack for an extension cab (very nice option for such a cheap amp)

OK so the DSP effects are crap useless and horrable, so is channel 1 (the over drive channel) it is hands down the worst sounding crud I have ever heard. I have a Rogue 15 watt amp somewhere that sounds like an AC30 compared to this shit. I can't figure what is going on here it just sounds awfull.

Then there is the "clean" channel out of left field. I was speachless at first when I first heard a strat using only the britge pickup through this thing. It is so warm and chean picking up every note with amazing clairity. There is no faking trying to play throught this channel It's amamzing how easy it is to tell mid song when I start to go out of tune.
I don't really play humbuckers, I have a gibson 137 that I screw around on that has hotrod 57's in it and it sounds a little "muddy" throught this thing but truthfully it sounds "muddy" through any amp, but my fenders and 72 melody maker sound amazing.

It's a solid state it should last for ever!

I tend fix my own shit so I have no idea

I paid 69.99 for this thing off of EBAY with free shipping and shit for that price there is no way you can go wrong. I was screwing around at Guitar center one day with one of these and almost baught it there for $225, but I ended up finding it on ebay for $150 cheaper. If stolen I probably wouldn't buy another only because I have 10 other amps at the moment, but even at $200 the clean channel is hard to beat.

Features are cool but more of a novelty. The DSP is no better that any cheap pedal. Delay is pretty good though. I use quite a bit during my solos.

Wow... I'm not an equipment freak. I like to do more playing than shopping, but I've tried many high end tube amps including Fender Deluxe and Blues and this one is very, very close to the same sound. In fact when I gigged with this amp I had several people ask me if this is a tube amp. Great sound on clean. OK on dirty. Pro sound amp without the price. I use a Frankencaster with humbucker bridge and single coil neck PU and run an OD pedal like Bad Monkey. I play funk and a lot of blues. Been playing for ever (25 years or so) and still learning. I use this amp now instead of my Fender Princeton.

Just got it, but so far so good.

Save yourself the big bucks you would shell out for a tube amp and go with this one. Loud enough to gig with in small places. Sounds great through pa also. Have fun.

It is a quality amplifier for the cost. I paid $150.00 from Cintiolli's.. and it is worth every dollar. Undoubtedly, it has some drawbacks compaired to many other amplifiers, however, for the price it simply cannot be beat.

By adding a 15" extension speaker, the amp opens up with much more personality, greater, and better sound.

The amp is better in a clean channel setting. The gain channel is not very manageable.

The clean responsiveness is fast.. clean, and very precise. The incorporation of the DSP effects are nicely done and present a great sound.

The only enhancement would be to link multiple dsp effects into the sound - you are stuck with either/or one effect and reverb.

Incidentally, the reverb is very good for this series and class of amplifier

It is solid and reliable.

no problems... not even worried about the warranty.

I've had this amp for about 6 mos.

I'll probally get the combo head or a tube amp in the future (I'm a tube head).

THIS REVIEW IS TO EXPRESS MY INITIAL FINDINGS AFTER PLAYING THE AMP AT HOME FOR A WEEK. I WILL POST AN UPDATE AFTER USING AT BAND REHEARSAL, AND THEN AT A GIG.
clean channel and distortion channel with separate eq's. reverb. dsp fx (chorus/flange/delay). speaker out for cabinet.

clean channel - very muffled, treble needs to be on max regardless of guitar. first guitar i used with this was an epiphone SG with dead strings and a muddy neck pickup and it didnt sound good, but i had better results with other guitars... i advise running something relatively bright through this amp. the amp is noisy, and oddly the noise is accentuated as you play.. i thought it was some room reverberations or something but no its the amp. as for the tone, its fine - i fail to see anything tube-like about it, but i dont care about that i just want it to sound "Good". it is a dark channel. its still boomy with the bass on 0. in fact, the tone controls don't have much affect at all. even with the treble on maximum, i have to reconfigure my stompboxes for more high-end through this amp.

distortion channel - this is some of the worst and most un-useable fuzz i have ever heard. no sustain. same amount of gain from 9 o' clock to max. i have a hard time putting into words how bad the distortion channel sounds. toneless harsh tinny buzz. simply, do not buy this amp with the intention of using the distortion channel

dsp fx - all the flanger sounds are awful. there are 1 or 2 ok chorus sounds. delays are all useable, but come nowhere near the depth and quality of a boss delay i once had.

reverb - fake sounding. and has an odd gated effect at the end. but i actually quite like it like this.

my ratings for each element (out of ten) are:
clean channel - 5
distortion channel - 1
dsp fx - 3
reverb - 5

not good

as its solid state, it should last
construction seems solid
no rattles or anything

i must say, im kicking myself for not buying the Orange Crush 30R which is better and cheaper. i'm disappointed and quite annoyed at the amount of glowing reviews this amp has got - its not even worth what i paid for it. then again, its relatively cheap, so i might as well just get the orange crush too. i cant see how the sound of this amp is possibly going to cut through the mix of my band. i've heard that its discontinued so perhaps i'll be able to sell it to someone else who's been duped by the inexperienced rave reviews - what the hell is wrong with all you people!? and as for the people who actually LIKED the distortion.. there is no hope for you. there were no shops stocking this amp in my area so i had to buy online.. oops...
one thing - it looks very cool. but thats about it.

Sorry, nothing is a perfect 10. Always room for improvements!

2 channel, with Reverb and Master volume. Relatively basic setup. It does have a headphone jack too. Awesome styling for this price range amp. Gotta love it!

Very good sound with single coils. A bit darker with humbuckers.
clean channel is very nice, not noisy. Overdrive is just as good! Can go from bluesy Keith Richards to Angus Young by adjusting the gain.

Currently I have a 2006 Gibson Les Paul Studio worn cherry finish and a 2006 Squire telecaster-the butterscotch finish one. This amp is sweet with either guitar.

I also have a 1981 Dean Elite which totally blows either of the above guitars oot of the water.

I have the footswitch which is a must for the variety of sounds this amp offers.

Seems solid and is a tad heavy.

No need for repairs yet. Waranty is for 5 years!

Been playing for 30+ years. I have an original Fender 1964 Princeton Reverb, and a 2006 Fender Blues Jr.

Lost or stolen - probably would look for a decent 50Watt hybrid.

Do not like the weight, or the original speaker with humbuckers. Original speaker is fine with single coils.

Follow-up of my previous review: the digital effects still have some issues such as delay when the knob is set to chorus and the flange still has that weird hesitation once in a while. I find the tone stack to be better than I previously alluded to and has a wide range, though tone will vary depending on guitar. Distortion has good crunch up to about 7 then just scrambles the tone out. For me, I like it anywhere between 2 and 5. But that is me.

I bought this amp for the clean channel and to put it straight: the clean channel alone is worth the $150-$200 this my or may not cost. Since my previous review, I have had a handful of tone-freaks play on this amp and the opinion is that this amp sounds just plain great, especially the clean (for an amp that costs less than $200). This is not a amp for metal but your go-to pedal on the clean channel is where it's at. The always-on tube emulation does an outstanding job.

N/A

N/A

I bought this amp defective and slightly damaged to fix and re-sell. After fixing it, I realized I had stumbled on an amp that I like and only cost me $100. Me thinks it a keeper.
For the price, this amp can't be outdone. If you know of one that can, please share that info with me. I have never been a big fan of solid state amps and my last ss amp was the Marshall MG100DFX (made by KORG) which I actually like at the time (sold it long ago) and this Epiphone sounds better to me. But that's just me.

Features are okay. It has what it needs to have to justify the price. DSP is not too charming, but most people have pedals for delay, chorus, and flanger anyway.

The drive channel is useless, except as a possible effect (I'm thinking Cardigans guitar solo). The clean channel is warm and dynamic, albeit not quite as bright as I would like it.

Seems like it will last a long time. It is built very solid.

The bottom line is, for $200 you will not find anything even remotely close to this amp. It's worth that price for the clean channel alone.

Why is it that delay/flange/chorus are on the same dial? I understand the financial logistics of keeping an amp affordable, but one day, I may want some chorus AND a bit of delay but the way things are in the world of one-dial digital effects, this will only be realised with an extra pedal. They also used a ribbed ceramic 10" speaker yet I am a big fan of Weber speakers so I can only wonder what vast improvement may lay ahead. Heck, I replace the speakers in all of my amps with Weber speakers and have breathed new life into some very BLAH amps. When playing with flange, there seems to be a slight hesitation, but this doesn't happen often, so I wonder if the responsible capacitors discharge too fast, so when one hits the next note, it has that millisecond delay until the capacitor is recharged again. I can only speculate. You'll never notice it playing in a band or even just chording out some tune. Headphone jack is an enormous plus, just don't expect the amp to sound good with the headphones on.
As sharp as this amp looks and as inexpensive it is, I think that this amp is loaded.

The tone controls are obviously designed to keep this amp from sounding like anything that could be construed as "tinny". But the clean channel has just enough brightness with the treble up and the guitar brightend to sound just great with none of the nerve-grating ear-bleeding. Well done. Personally, I really like the tone of this amp. I have a hot-rodded Fender Champ with a 10" replacement speaker (Weber, of course) and this Firefly can really keep up in the tonal range and does sound "tubey". Not brittle or tinny, mostly because of the tone stack and, my guess, the way the engineers have emulated how the power amp stage interacts with the speaker, which has a very thick membrane. I do not believe that this amp was designed with Metal in mind, yet it can deliver up to a certain point. Also, most amps sound better when played loud and sound even better once the speaker is broken in. I use a Carvin SC90T and the strings are 10s.

Seems well built. The cab is completely enclosed, so you'll never have any birds building a nest in your speaker.

Never needed them but the squeaky wheel gets the oil.

Been playing On/Off forever. I like this amp for the price/tone. It even looks good, so it blends in well even in Grandma's living room if need be. It is not a Carvin MTS812 fullstack but it only costs 10% of that. Keep that in mind and you will never put expectations on a $150 amp that it cannot deliver. Let's face it: this amp actually sounds good to some and sounds "blah" to others. Tone is very personal. Don't take MY word for it just because I think this amp to be a friggen steal!

Blaah...

- Tone-controls dont work at all, same both channels
- Very Noisy
- Lack of "middle vocals" in tone

Dont know

20 years with all tube amps, 30+ axes today
Firefly works only with low power bridge singles with strat

The thing I wanted most in this amp is the tube sound with footswitchable clean/overdrive channels. I didn't really care about effects because I have a multi-effects unit to handle those needs. I don't expect an amp to do everything. Most don't do both well in my opinion...if you want a good amp sound get it, if you want a good effects selection...get an effects pedal board or a processor. That being said, the effects are really pretty cheesy sounding with very little room to dial in what you want from the delay, chorus, and flanger. The reverb sounds pretty good and I like that it has its own separate control.

I own a 1963 Gibson Falcon GA-19 RVT, but it isn't the most reliable to gig with(better for recording)...kinda tempermental and quirky but I am hesitant to put the money into it that it really needs. So I wanted something to come similar in sound without having to pay a full "tube" price...
This seemed like the perfect fit for me at this point...a solid state reliable amp with tube tone...but I had never heard one before. No one in my area sells these in store, so I had to make the purchase blind...or rather...deaf.
I was absolutely astonished by this amp. The clean is very, very good. The overdrive is also good, better than the effects module I have anyway. It has the warmth I was looking for and the large cabinet gives it a really full...no BIG sound. I am using an epiphone les paul through it right now and the bridge pickup is great for clean strumming and picking while the neck is fat...VERY FAT...with tone for leads. I couldn't be more impressed with an amp at this price with this tone.
When I plugged it in at practice for the first time our bassist made the comment, "is that tube?" I just smiled because I knew I had a winner. When I told him it was solid state, 30W with only a 10" speaker he was floored.
I was also impressed with the volume sensitivity to the intensity of playing. Much like a tube amp, it seems to have great ability to scream if you want it to and come down very quietly without having to change gain/volume settings. Between this and the tone itself I think they have absolutely nailed the tube feel and sound.
The only one negative I have is that the EQ leaves a little to be desired. I have all of the lows rolled off and the highs cranked and it still seems a bit low heavy for my taste. I may have to do some additional EQing with my effects module, otherwise it is nearly perfect.

I've only used it for a few full band practices at this point and a little bit of practice on my own, so I can't really answer this one. But from the looks of the construction, they did NOT go flimsy on the cabinet by any stretch of the imagination, so I can't imagine it being anything other than rock solid for gigging...we'll see...

I've never had to deal with the company

I've been playing on and off for about 17 years now and this is by far the best "new" amp I've every owned. The 1963 Gibson may never be beat, but this epiphone has come pretty close at this point.
Whatever epiphone did you capture the tube sound via solid state electronics worked in my opinion. If it were stolen I would most definately buy another. I ordered a footswitch for it, but I couldn't find an epiphone footswitch with dual control for both the channel and the effects switching...oh well...they could just charge an extra $20 and include it with the amp...it would be well worth it.
If there is something out there better than this for the price...let me know because I haven't seen or heard it.

What can I say. The bargain of the millenium. Grab one before the price goes up to where it should be, around 2X or 3X it's current price. Feature-wise, it may be perceived as limited with ''only'' 16 adjustements. They are however very efficient at what they do. I feel this amp should be regarded as a straight sound box with the extra effects being just that - extras. The fact that it comes with a very nice ''vintage'' pedal switch, on top of aux input with adjustable volume controls, two channels, and headphone jack is just icing on the cake. Add to this the incredibly cool vintage red ''leather'' wrap, fully enclosed back with metal grill (nice E for epiphone on the speaker, nice touch), vintage knobs and cream white metal plate (almost identical - maybe they are the same - as on expensive Gibsons), very heavy construction (around 50 pounds), and you may wonder if they make any money on this one. I tried the 60 watter before purchasing - same sound , but the 30 watts sound huge so I went for it. It is a GREAT looking amplifier, with the retro styling and all, and does not look like all the other black/grey boxes out there.

I bought mine for the incredible vintage tone this baby is able to provide. It has a ''clean'' tone that is VERY much like tubes. For me, an amp without a clean tone is not an amp. I can always add a Line 6 pod to simulate sounds if I want to - and you will need a clean sound for that anyways. The overdrive knob o the Firefly is pretty efficient as it comes on softly at first, but can crunch like mad fairly quickly. If you go all the way to the max with the overdrive, you are in metal zone with a bullet. Sustain, by the way, is endless, as good as some megabuck amps and better than many. Who designed this thing?

Again, I feel that this amp shines mainly for its vintage clean, but can do a great blues tone and even a decent ''George Benson'' jazz guitar sound if you use a hollow body guitar.

The choice of a 10 inch speaker is a wise one, as it does provide the right bloom and rich sound one needs for vintage tones. This amp NEVER sounds thin or bright.

It just sounds as good as it looks, unlike the flimsy 10 pound ear-bleeder you usually get in this price range.

My rating for the sound of this amp - and especially at this ridiculous price, should be an 11 !!

No much reliability issues to report on, as I only owned the amp for two months. I had a 10 year on and off ''gigging career'' with various bands but no longer active . I did take the Firefly for a ''one shot'' special gig at a closed party, and all my musician friends were in awe at this red box - first for the looks, (hey, what's this red amp about? Epiphone? ) then of course the sound. So far so good for reliability. Since this amp seems to be massively built, I don't expect much trouble.

No history to report on.

If stolen, I would replace it for sure. I own 2 other amps (Fender and Johnson, and a Fishman accoustic). Sometimes, when products look really good (no, make that stunning) such as this one I tend to think that all of the money went into just making an ordinary product on the INSIDE. Adding to this a ridiculous price, and the biggest irony is that this amp will probably not be taken seriously. Do yourself a favor, check one out, but not without cash as you will go back home with it for sure.

It says it has 30 watts. Seems like more to me. 16 Digital sounds. Flanger, Delay, and a great sounding Chorus. 2 Channels. With 3 channel EQ for each. Auxillary input with seperate volume control. Extension speaker output. Headphone output. Foostswitch hookup.

How does it sound? One word. Incredable. I can't believe this amp has only a 10" speaker. Nice full tone and deep bass. Effects are great. 2 Channels. And the overdrive is great. Great tone. I just can't get over this amp. Can't believe they can sell an amp this good at this price. More on this later.

Don't know. Just got it. Seems solid. Time will tell.

Don't know. But it comes with a 5 year warrenty.

This amp is absulutely incredable. I just can't get over how nice it looks and sounds. And that they sell it for $150 is just mind bogeling to me. It just makes me want to play. I can't recommend this enough. They offer a 60 watt for $225. I bet it is great as well. But the 30 is loud. Plenty loud for me. What more can I say? Great looks, great features, and incredable sound.