Hayden Amplifiers Mofo

Hand made in the UK in early to mid 2009 by Dave Green (ex matamp and orange amp maker). Hayden is a now a sister company and shed from Ashdown which is one of the biggest names in Bass Amps. Hayden have several guitar amps out, but today we talking about the hayden Mofo.

Now the mofo is a single channel amp that has a footswitchable boost with its own threshold knob on the amp. It can still get very dirty enough for new metal but you have to change the setting you can not switch from clean to dirty by pressing a button or footswitch. It is a real 30 watts of class A tube circuitry and it has a stealth mode switch on the bottom which apparently drops it down to around 2 watts so you can get a nice cranked sound out of it without getting cranky neighbours! This is a great feature!

It has an Fx loop though just one port not 1 for send and 1 for return. I still dont know how this works but i will end up using it. Seperate inputs for both UK and US voicing. There is not a lot of difference between the 2 but it is noticable. The US input is a bit fatter with a tiny bit more ballsy gain where as the UK is a bit brighter and the gain seems more a little more crunchier than ballsy.

Here are the features I found online:

30-Watts power.
4 x EL84 valves.
Class-A all-valve circuitry.
8 and 16 ohm speaker outputs.
4 Cascaded gain stages.
Bass, Middle, Treble and Presence EQ controls.
Single channel.
Separate US and UK voiced guitar inputs.
Series effects loop.
Stealth switch reduces output volume for practice.
Rugged steel chassis.
Ships with padded gigbag with shoulder strap and FREE footswitch

For more info go to: http://haydenamps.com/amps-mofo.php

Featues it lacks include only single channel - Can not be changed from clean to dirty via footswitch as stated above. It does not have a stand by switch. It does not have a headphones jack. Other than that I have no complaints at all!

I bought the Hayden Mofo based on looks alone and had reasonably high expectations of the sound but this thing just exceeded and blew my expectations away soon as i plugged it in! I have been searching for the ultimate mini lower wattage tube amp head and now i have found it!

I own no. 72 out of the first 100 that were hand made by Dave Green (ex matamp and orange amp maker) Here is a list of other mini tube amp or lower wattage heads i have owned:

Vox Night Train
Orange Tiny Terror
Egnater Rebel 20
Bogner Alchemhist
Mesa Express
Krank Rev Jr
Matamp Minimat

Not only does it smoke all these for metal but believe it or not it smokes them all for clean tone as well. The only mini tube head and only amp under 50 watts that would probably smoke the Hayden Mofo for metal would be the Koch Studiotone but it is over twice the price and certainly does not look as sexy as this little beast!

I have used it with both passive and active pickups. It sounds best with EMG's to me but that is just what i prefer. I play mostly prog metal and brutal metal. Im into mostly new metal such as Nevermore, Killswitch Engage, Lamb of God but also old metal such as Megadeth, Slayer Metallica etc. This amp does most of the heavy stuff i need straight of the bat beleive it or not it comes close to being brutal! It can easily do the Mesa Boogie Metallica and the Marshall Megadeth heavy and comes close to the Peavey 5150 Killswitch Engage heavy.

The amp I would say it sounds most like would honestly be the ENGL Ritchie Blackmore as it has that same Hifi sound that is very tight and clear with the right amount of crunch. This thing can also really handle 7 strings and drop tunings really well... Im yet to try my 8 strings on it though :-)

I dont tend to play clean often at all usually never but this is just one of those amps you get stuck on the clean tone even if your a full on metal head! I have ownded Fenders, Mesa, Rivera, Vox, Hughes and Kettner etc and this smokes them for clean in my opinion! The only amp i would say i liked the clean tone of more would be the Jo Satriani model Peavey JSX as it was a bit more sparkly and rounder though still not as tight as the Mofo.

I currently have my Mofo running through a mesa 2x12 vertical cab with vintage 30's in it and it sounds killer! Heavy enough for new metal almost gets into the brutal sound a little! I love the mofo so much I have ordered the matching Hayden 1x12 cab to use with it cause this amp is definitely going to be a keeper for me which is a big call considering how fast i usually go through amps! I will try many speakers in the cab and may even follow up on this review to let you know what speakers it works best with.

This thing smokes many 50 and 100 watt tube amps i have owned including the Egnater TOL 100, every Marshall and Randall I have owned, the Krank Rev (yes i have owned the 100watt head as well as the 20 watt Rev Jr) the Crate Blue Voodoo, the Peavey Valve King and many more! Obviously it does not have the same volume but tone is way more important than head room! Remember your rig is miced up at most gigs anyway...

I have not had any issues with mine what so ever though i have only owned it for a few weeks and have never gigged with it. I have heard cases of people having a few issues with them which is very strange considering they are hand made in the UK. Perhaps they were just unlucky or something simply rattled loose in transit. Eventhough i have not had any issues either mechanically or physically with mine im only giving an 8 cause i have not owned it that long and other people have had a few small issues.

I have not had to deal with the company at all but i as mentioned i have not owned it that long... Hopefully more people post reviews who can answer these questions that i can not... I am not sure of warranty either. I never concern myself with these things as nothing has ever broke on me bar my xbox 360 but that is a given LOL

I have been playing for just over 9 years now and i have owned too much gear to list! Especially amps! So i will just mention the smaller tube amps i have owned as stated above i either currently own or have owned the following

Vox Night Train
Orange Tiny Terror
Egnater Rebel 20
Bogner Alchemhist
Mesa Express
Krank Rev Jr
Matamp Minimat

I was only mentioning head units before though so in combos i have also own the Marshall DSL401. The hayden smokes all amps listed for clean and distortion but if you want something very brutal i would recommend you get an ENGL - Any of their current models produced (bar the ENGL thunder) will be perfect for the brootals! But to be honest the Mofo has a better clean tone than any engl i have heard which is all bar the ENGL SE.

If it were lost or stolen i would definitely replace it in half of a heart beat! I only hope i could get another one from the first 100 handmade batch...

As mentioned somewhere above i wish it had 2 footswitchable channels rather than just the boost. A stanby switch and a headphones socket.
I would just like to add that i do not work for Hayden amps at all i know the review may seem biassed but this is the happiest i have been with a purchase of any kind for a long time! If you get the chance to buy one do it! Purple Turtle music still have some on ebay and in their online store... Get one of the first 100 handmade versions while you can!!

Thank you for reading my review, if you have any questions regarding this amp or any others i have owned feel free to email me at joseph_shreds@yahoo.com

Made in 2009. Hand wired by Dave Green!

The amp has; master volume, presence, bass, mid, treble, gain and MOFO (more on that in a minute).

It is 30 watts class A (4 x EL84 valves) with a "stealth" switch on the bottom that reduces power down to about 2 - 3 watts. Be warned though, that's a loud 2 - 3 watts! When I have gain on full I can only push the volume to about 4 before I worry about angry neighbors.

There are 8 and 16 Ohm speaker outputs ,a series FX loop (Y / splitter input on the front) and a foot pedal to engage he Mofo mode. The Mofo mode adds another level of gain / volume set by the Mofo dial.

I can get a huge range of tones I love out so although it's not hugely versatile, witht the MOFO switch and FX loop it's very usable.

Comes with Hayden Footswitch and nice padded bag.

I play an ES-335 with 57 humbuckers. I put it through a 1936 212 but have had it through a blackstar 412 and the Hayden 112.

I started with the Hayden 112 and thought it was bloody awesome but wanted more headroom and it felt like it was struggling for lowend. So I plugged it through the blackstar 412 and it knocked my socks off!

This amp really have beautiful ringing boutique cleans but when I hit the Mofo switch I was hit with amazing distortion. It does GNR / ACDC really well but has a thickness and fullness that never hurts your ears no matter how silly you get. When you crank the volume the tone is just amazing. Knock the Mofo off and roll back he guitar volume a bit and you find yourself in Hendrix land.

Awesome.

Not had it long, but feels very solid.

It's a very new model but hell, mine was handwired by David Green...

Emailed Hayden before I bought the amp. They got back to me within 24 hours with answers....so far, so good.

I have owned several tube amps (Engl, Marshalls, Laney) but this one really does have a tone a character that puts the rest to shame... and it costs a bloody sight less too!

Simon Neil from Biffy Clyro has just bought one. Slash has just bought the Hayden Lead 80.

I was told they make a loss on each Mofo. OF Course they do! Handwired 30 watt head from a boutique company for ??429, check them out!