Pignose 7-100

Portability, flexibility. I am thinking of buying two and plugging them into my little "stereo" Korg AX1G. The thought of being able to take them easily anywhere in the world without hassles or sacraficing tone, cash or room in my already crowded duffle bag is appealing.

I was recently temporary duty in Las Vegas and listened to one played at the Excaliber. A wandering minstel had a violin pluged into it. Amid the casino noise and accompanied by a little band it seemed to have both good volume and sound.

I will let you know. I was thinking of spending spending $500.00 on an amp that I would not be able to take with me = zero sound. Must try this first.

I have an Ibanez AS200 that is vintage burst. I have had a Samick, Stat, Hamer and a different Ibanez. I dig anything if its good. Mostly blues and rock.

Features? What Features? It's basic, a small portable, battery powered amp with one input, and a volume knob shaped like a pigs nose.
A 5" speaker, the amp is 9" high, 4" deep, and 6" wide, weights in at about two lbs. Sold by Pignose industrys of Gardena, CA, and made in Hong Kong. The amp has a handle on top, and a latch to close the back, to give it open speaker or closed cabinet sound.

Gets fairly loud for a small amp, good and clean up to about half volume then it starts to distort. Fully cranked up it has a nice runchy phat cut sound which is great for rock n' roll strat guitar.
I use it with an Epiphone Chet Atkins Nylon string electric which give it great tone for acoustic mylon string. For it's size and cost the sound is really good. Vary the tone by opening or closing the cabinet.

The amp takes six AA batterys which seem to last a very long time. If it doesn't work just check the batterys one of them may have fallin out. Never had a real problem with the amp it always work fine. All solid state, no tubes, simple is good.

Heard good things about the company but I really don't know.
Never needed any service, no problems.

My 7-100 pignose is the 25 th anniversary model with all gold tone hardware. I've always wanted one of these since I saw a guy play a bar gig with one in 1985, I was amazed to hear it cut through over a five piece rock band. I've had mine almost two years and it's well worth every dime I spent for it. The combination of small size & weight, portable battery power (No plug), low price (under $100), and
fairly loud good quality sound is hard to beat. I'd recomend it highly.

New Amp. Just bought it a week ago.

I mostly play any style that I know of, just for practicing, but for actual live playing, I rely on my blues.

And I have to say to those of you looking for a versatile practice amp: the Pignose is not your thing!

It has one switched input jack (if you pull the chord out, the amp turns off), one output jack at the back (you can actually hook it up to a 4x12 box) and one (1!) channel. It has a natural distortion. That means that if you turn the volume up, the distortion will intensify (and vice versa).

I wish it had just a little spring reverb or so, just because it would even sound cooler than it does (see below). But for my needs, it's perfect.

I use the Pignose as a small carry-on practice amp, as a very good effect for blues recordings/sessions and as the amp I can take to the lake, to the beach or wherever I wanna go.

The amp is solid state (see below), and it has a 3W (don't let it fool you, go and hear for yourself) power output through a 5W speaker (so you shouldn't be able to blow the speaker).

The cool thing, however is, that you can run it off a AC/9 volt converter out of a power plug, or through six 1 1/2 volt size AA batteries!!!

It even has knobs on the side, so if you take an extra guitar strap, you can carry it around!

The tone settings are pretty much limited to another feature: the amp opens up, and this creates a more treble tone (see below). Good thing though is, that you can store the converter and your picks and stuff inside the Pig. So you might not even need a extra bag.

It comes with a 6 month warranty and an instructions manual (totally senseless for the amp but funny looking).

I give the Pig a 5 because although I love it, it is very, very very limited!!

I'm playing a Mexico Fat Strat through it.

Here comes the big thing to say: The Pig is blues! No other thing to mention. This thing sounds so much like the authentic thing (the old blues records with the slightly distorted guitars) that you will find yourself singing (or at least playing) the blues immediately.

So, for all kinds of blues-related music, buy it (hey, it's priced like a toy, and it's better than most blues pedals which go for the same price)!



But other than blues and rock, I wouldn't even try to get this little guy to do it. I normally play a Fender amp, and you cannot get a superclean sund out of the Pig. No way!



You can play AC/DC, NeilYoung, any distorted blues, some Clapton stuff and so on.

You can even kinda work your way to a sort-of-grunge-sound (although not a very good one).

By opening the thing up, you can get from the mushy, swamp sound to a more biting, dry sound. But I prefer my Fender for clean and biting sound.

The amp does hum if exposed to any strong magnetc field. But if you can't move this one, then you are not capable of carrying a dictionary, it's almost the same wheight.

By fumbling with my tone and pickup settings, I can change the Pig's sound into a variety of blues sounds, which should suit every blues occasion. But don't expect a very brutal screaming metal distortion. The distortion is pretty close to a blues pedal, and it even sounds better.

The only drawback is, that, if you want to do some serious recording with it, either you put it into a cabinet and get the sound from there, or you have to work a bit to get all the rattling inside the amp to shut up.

Also you might want to consider using reverb pedals, because this should make the Pig sound even better! Just as the real thing!



And if you don't believe me - just check out this user list:

* America * The Band * The Beach Boys

* Jeff Beck * Stephen Bishop * Jackson Browne * Cheech and Chong

* Chicago (who originally produced the Pig) * David Clayton Thomas

* The Eagles *Eric Clapton * Faces * Peter Frampton

* J. Geils Band * Elton John * Doug Kershaw * Led Zeppelin

* John Lennon * Kenny Loggins * Paul McCartney

* John McLaughlin * Madura * Dave Mason

* Jim Messina *Metallica * Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

* Poco * The Pretenders * The Rolling Stones

* Leon Russell * Santana * Seals and Crofts

* Steely Dan * Steven Stills * Jimmy Stewart

* Sly Stone * James Tayior * Ike Turner

* Joe Walsh * War * The Who * Hank Williams Jr.

* Edgar Winter * Johnny Winter * Bobby Womack

* Stevie Wonder * Ron Wood * Frank Zappa



Everyone has one. Why not you?

I have no idea. Just bought it a week ago. But it seems decent enough. And even if something breaks-you just take your break then. The Pig has nothin that an soldering Iron and Duct Tape can't fix!

Bought it at Guitar Center. So I think you shouldn't have any problems with finding a dealer.

I've been playing for 7 years now, and own a buch of guitars and some amps. I have never seen such a decent offer before: Pay as much as 75$ (which included the 9v converter), and get a good little amp, which will sound just like a blues pedal with the advantage of taking the thing and going out on the lawn and play it. Put it into your car, whatever you want to do, do it. And if the neighbours complain, it's even light enough to pick it up and run from the cops.

If it were stolen or lost, I'd buy another one, for sure. I originally looked for a small practice amp. But they are either too expensive for a little amp which is not soo great (Park...) or they sound sooo crappy (no name amps...). So this is the best thing I have seen, and I did quite a lot of research. Plus it is so much more than just a practice amp.

I love the blues sound. I hate that (even though it has "only" 3 W) I can't turn it up all the way without eventually getting complaints from the other people in my house.

The only thing I also thought to buy beside the Pig is the Vox Pathfinder, but this is a totally different price range and size problem (you can't carry that along all the time).

The next bigger thing would be the Crate Taxi Amp or the CanAmp by Fender. But again, different price range!

I wish it had a reverb...but that's a question of taste, so I don't complain. And after all, what else do you want for 75 Bucks? A full stack???

I'm only annoyed that they stopped using real pigskin as a covering. That would be even cooler!



So, all in all:

If you're into blues, then go down to the next GC and buy one. Stop by a gas station and get batteries, go to the beach and have a mellow day. It's sooooo cool to relax in the sun. And for a change with your electric guitar!

Check out the Pignose website: http://www.pignose.com/

This is really value for money!

This is the little original Pignose Portable. One channel, input and pre-amp. Turned up LOUD the distortion will curl your hair. At half volume still a pretty loud, but fairly clean mix. In the 25 years I've owned it, I have yet to run it on batteries, so I can't say about that feature, as to their life expectancy, etc. It gets loud, period. A very cool sound with the slide.

There really isn't a lot to say besides what I've said already. Did I mention LOUD. Did I mention DISTORTION. 'Nuff said.

A few momths ago I noticed a tear in the speaker. It could have been there since day one, as I couldn't really hear any difference. Did I mention DISTORTION.

Here's where the Pignose company outdid anyone else. As I have mentioned, there was a tear in the speaker. So I contact the company to see if I could buy a new one, as they still make basically the exact same amp after all this time. I get an email from HChatt at Pignose saying he will send me a NEW speaker FREE of charge. After 25 years!!! These guys are UNBELIEVABLE!!!

If this thing were lost, I'd cry. Kind of like losing a little toe. You don't know how much you use it til it's gone. I've since graduated to bigger, pricier amps, but this thing remains plugged in as my dedicated harmonica amp. If you get points for longevity (and in the end, that's ALL you should get points for) this thing is TOPS!!