Pignose G40V

This one is a 2004. It's a pretty basic amp that borrows heavily from the Fender tradition, but with the famous Pignose Nogahyde covering. It's a standard two 6L6 amp, bass, mid, treble and presence. It really cries for a reverb, but that's not to be.

I play mostly Jam Band, Southern Rock Blues, and this amp's wide open tube sound fits the bill perfectly through my SGs. It's really fairly quiet for a tube amp, and does an excellent job at my style of music. I don't channel switch, but use the guitar pickup switch like a foot switch, and this amp does a great job at breaking up gradually as volume is increased. It has a little extra gain, more like a Boogey or a cascaded Fender.

It needs modification to be reliable. First off, the 12AX7s in the second stage shorted after only 6 months of practice use. It seems like a mechanical issue inside the tube because the short (a real one, from plate to cathode, not just the common term for something broken)was sensitive to vibration. All of the tubes were some odd brand I hadn't heard of and were probably made by political prisoners in China.

Upon repairing I found that the transformers had no shields, and the circuit board was only secured by two plastic clips, thus allowing it to rock back and forth and short (a real one) 400VDC to the chassis. This was not the cause of the failure, but it was darn alarming. To remove the chasis you had to remove two wooden cleats that were nailed to the case, so get your claw hammer ready. I didn't see a UL approval on this thing and after looking at the construction and conductor clearances, I don't think it'd pass.

Remember, UL doesn't care if the amp doesn't work at your next gig, they only care if the amp bursts into flames or electrocutes you. So the way I figure it, the amp will die, you'll hit it with your fist which will cause it to burst into flames, and then you'll get electocuted when you try to put out the fire.

Somewhere in China?

Don't get me wrong, I love the Pignose name and even use a Legendary for recording:

http://music.download.com/railridersband

The amp sounds great, has a good design, but is just not built well.

I've had to beef up amps before, and this would be one of them. Mount the wooden chassis support cleats with screws, and add additional mounting spacers to the circuit board.

This is a small, all tube amp, with a circuit reminiscent of my beloved 1963 Silvertone Twin Twelve. I bought it new in 2005. It has a volume, master volume, bass, treble, mid and presence controls. The preamp circuit uses 3 12AX7s and the power amp has a pair of 6L6s; one channel, no effects loop, no reverb, no tremelo, no headphone or preamp out, only one input jack. The back of the chassis has an 8-ohm and a 4-ohm jack. It weighs 24 lb, but mine is a little heavier now, as I will explain. It is covered in an attractive brown vinyl that resembles the original Pignose battery-powered amp skin. It has a typical amp strap handle in the center of the top, and 4 solid feet.

I bought it because I'm getting older, and I'm not going to haul around my tube monsters any more. This, coupled with the venues I play (cafes, coffee houses) and my Toyota Matrix wagon (replacing an Aerostar) made it necessary for me to downsize. It has plenty of power for me, and for everybody who's not into the theatrics of a Marshall stack. Free tip: lose the big amps, mic up the little one through the PA, and your hearing will last years longer.

As far as useability, I would love to have a reverb, but I'll probably end up with a pedal. I plan to use it to play harp, and ya gotta have 'verb for that! Built-in 'verb would raise the price, and complicate things: the strength of this amp is that Pignose kept it simple and toneful instead of complicated, fussy and toneless (are you out there, Peavey?). Another nit to pick is the tone controls. As noted by others, if the mid is turned up over about 2, it overpowers the treble & bass. The solution is to not turn the mid up over about 2, obviously. The presence control I keep all the way off, and I wouldn't miss it if it were gone. The volume/master volume seem to work the opposite from the usual way, with the master controlling preamp level and the volume, overall level. I'll get used to it. I'll give it an 8 for features, since it has what it needs for what it is, without any bells or whistles (reverb would have made it a 9).

It's a one-trick pony, but it's a great trick. Pure, smooth bluesy tube tone...if you put a little effort into it. As noted below by others, it's no Brown Sound or Texas Tone clone. It is very similar, again, to my Twin Twelve, which, to me, is the gold standard for non-processed, pure tone. I play bottleneck slide, using a Les Paul Deluxe with Seymour Duncan mini-humbucker pickups, and the amp suits me fine. I play rock, folk, contemporary songwriter and blues material. I have found over the years that slide playing is very much dependent on a good amp for tone, and this one does the job...after a couple of modifications, which I'll describe in a minute.

Stock out of the box, it was quiet, not hissy (as long as the presence isn't turned up), and had immediate speaker rattles due to the cheapo 10" it came with. Having been forewarned, this was not a problem, and I unpacked the Eminence Patriot Ragin' Cajun I had ordered with the Pignose. Four screws hold the front baffle in; remove those, pull off the speaker wires, and push forward. The baffle and speaker will pop out. Remove the nuts and washers from the studs holding the speaker, remove it, put the new one in its place, replace the washers and nuts and button everything up, and you have just turned your Yugo into a...well, a Honda, at least. With this simple mod, the amp lost its rattles and gained a bunch of bass. And a few more pounds, since the Eminence has a 30-oz magnet. The original speaker went to the landfill, since I didn't have a Ford Pinto that needed one. I wouldn't own one of these without replacing the speaker.

The distortion is buttery, very useable, not heavy or raspy; almost what I was looking for. To complete the tone, I replaced the middle preamp tube with a 12AT7, and that was that. Lovely, smokin' sound. (This mod, and a number of others, can be found at GuitarNuts and The Blue Guitar, by the way.)

This is another 8, since, again, it's a one-trick pony.

I haven't had it out in the big wide world yet, but I won't carry a backup. I've gigged for 30 years with tube amps and, so far, so good. I don't crank 'em till the speakers smoke, or abuse 'em, and I have had good luck so far. No breakdowns so far. If it does, I will take it to the local tube tech who has worked on all my other tube amps, and tell him to fix it. Another 8, unless it suddenly leaves a smoking hole in the studio floor where it used to be.

No experience, and I have already violated the warranty terms. Oh well.

Note that the price was the amp only: the speaker and the 12AT7 bumped it up to $300, and, in my opinion, this is the minimum that you should do for this amp. Still very, very inexpensive.

This amp takes its place with the Silvertone, a 1963 Ampeg B15N, an early '70's MusicMan HD130 Reverb, an '82 Carvin XV-100 with a Torres Tone Kit, and a 2000 Ampeg B100R. As you can see, all tube except for the last one. I play the Les Paul, a 1963 (what IS it about that year?) Gretsch Chet Atkins Country Gent, an early '60's Ventura copy of the CG, and a single-neck pedal steel guitar. I occasionally gig, but spend much more time in my recording studio. I play Dobro, harp, electric slide, and bass. I started all this nonsense back in 1971.

I bought the Pignose after reading about it here and at GuitarNuts, and as noted above, I was in the market for a small amp. This one did not disappoint. I'd want something else for other styles, if I played other styles, or acoustic/electric, but that's not the point.

f it disappeared I'd have to get another, and go through the mods again. It's a great small amp. If it had a spring reverb it would become my all-time favorite at once. I am looking now at adding a reverb pedal, or, if I get desperate, a Pignose G60VR (but it's bigger and more expensive and heavier and more complicated and...). If you're into retro tube tone, this is the real deal.

The perfect understatement! It was small, it was funny, so I bought it. 40 Watts all tube, with everything one really needs: Volume, master, trebble, mid, bass, presence, less than 10 kg "heavy". Now I played it for about two month and I like it every day more I use it. Is it versatile? For the things I want him to do YES. It suits to generate Blues and Mainstream Rock tones. And, if You keep the stock tubes, nice Rockabilly and Country sounds. The G40V would be the perfect amp if it had thwo-channel-system. But it would make that little amp more expensive. So it's okay.

If You like blues or Rock - it's Your thing! For more You have a 4x12-Box (Fender to me is the best). With the original tube-setting (Golden Dragon I suppose) it was too clean to me, so I changed complete - Sovtek 12AX7LPS, Sovtek 12AX7WA, TubeTown 12AX7 in the pre-section, two JJ 6L6GC in the power-ap-section. So You got Fenderish tones up to 9 o' clock (I needn't more, because for very clean tones I own a 70s Twin Reverb with 135 W), than (up to 11 'o clock) fender- and bluesbreaker-crunch, after that nice Marshall-like sounds with increasing gain. Some say, they miss "Bass". If they would use a bigger bo, they easily could hear, that this little amp has more bottom than many Marshalls (I prefer a Fender 4x12 cabinett). The built in 10 " speaker is more for bedroom-use than stage.

It's built in China, but no reason why it shouldt not run for years whithout any problem.

No need to use it.

I'm thinking to buy annother one. So, all is said.

I just got this amp, but wanted to let everyone in on my experience. It was made recently, either end of '04 or earlier this year. As far as versatility is concerned, I feel that it is a great building block for my sound. I am using it in conjunction with my 5150 and Fender's (signal splitter) to get a complex sound. I like the simplicity of the features on this amp. Simple amp, simple price, bright crunchy sound.

I use this with my les paul, wolfgang, and some custom pieces I have to change the sounds it allows. As a stock amp, it's not bad. However, it is limited in the bass range. I have definitely heard worse. There are some great mod's that can be done for those who know how, to really allow you to push this thing to its max. Lots of people talk about the 'bluesy' sound they get out of tube amps, and this leads me to believe that it gets a good crunchy overdrive, with warm overtones, and really picks up the brightness of a decent single coil pickup. I give it an 8 because it's better than most practice amps, offers a classic tube sound, but lacks in the lower ranges without modification (speaker upgrade essential!)

Reliability is something that we all want to know about constantly, and tube amps are something that we will constantly need to be careful with. I currently run two tube amps in my set up, plus my rhythm guitarist's tube amp, and they will all have their day. But this is a sound set up, and is put together well.

I haven't dealt directly with pignose, and really can't say how helpful they can be. Comes with a decent warranty though. American Musical Supply added an extra year to the warranty.

I have been playing for over 10 years. I have close to a dozen guitars, and a half dozen amps. If I lost this amp, I would replace it; absolutely. It's light, it's versatile, it's cheap. Most people can afford to buy two of these, keep one stock, and hot rod the other. Overall, this is in the top 90% of small tube amps, once you dialed in your sound and either cabbed out or replaced the speaker.

What features? Only 6 knobs - master, volume, treb, mid, bass, presence, the input, and the power switch.

That's it.

No reverb, no tremolo, no second channel or input, etc.

VERY basic.

If you're a less-is-more kind of player, this is great. If you prefer three seperate channels with tons of features, effects, etc., you might be dissatisfied.

Lovely, sweet sound from this amp. Very surprising. I turned it on expected cheap un attractive tone, like the tube Crates. Nope. Excellent tone from this. The treble mid and bass are voiced unusually, it takes some knob turning to get the sound you want.

With the stock 6L6s, turn the master down and the volume up and you will get a vintage Marshall-type crunch. In fact, it's VERY much like a vintage Marshall in this way, since chords are thick and rich but single notes sing out and don't sound ridiculously gainy. Lots of complex mids really help this amp out.

The clean sounds that come out are also great. The best thing about them is the precise articulation this amp delivers. Everything comes through

No problems so far, through hours of practice. Chinese tubes have held up - even though I have JJs on hand for when one of them goes.

It's a great amp. Try it yourself to be sure, like everything else. But it works great and delivers tons of tone.

Features?...We dont need no stinking Features!!!
My Pig-Noise as i lovingly refer to it has 6 knobs...1 hole...and one switch
I consider that pretty feature rich...

Sound...well lets see
I rebuilt the cab and replaced the stock 10" with a Peavey 12"
Replaced ALL the Tubes and now it sound great!

I go from my Mexi Strat into a Morley PSW Wah int an Ibanez PT5(overgrown tubescreamer)into Volume Pedal Into PIGNOISE...
It has a pretty kewl Marshall-esk sound especially when you crank it up and let all 40 watts run screaming through the room like a pack of hyenas. Or maybe it only sound like that when i am playing.?.?.?

I replaced ALL the tubes when one went out on me...
I have had to replace a fuse in it also when it shut down on me...and it wasnt the "external" fuse, I had to open it up and replace one on the
inside wich is very odd and leads me to believe it may be somewhat faulty.
But i have been playing it for a little over a year now and it is still holding up...

1 year warranty and your on your on...

If it were stolen i would hire a crack team of commando monkies with machine guns, riding on alligators backs with lazer beam helments and high on pot to hunt down the degenerate scoff-law and bring him before me so i can hit him on top of his head so hard he will have to unzip his pants to look around.
DIE PIGNOISE THIEF!!! DIE
I smell cookies....

See previous reviews. This amp has only one channel and no secrets. For me it will only be a home practice amp but that's what I bought it for. At this price and features, it would be an insult to the crowd to use such a limited amp publicly.

I agree with previous reviewers who complain that when using this amp alone you can't get any bass out of it. One recently said that the problem is not the tubes, but the speaker, which is an excellent point. An easy solution that has worked well for me is to simply run through an EQ pedal (mine is a 7 band DOD) anywhere in front of the amp. This allows me to make adjustments depending on which guitar I'm using, and I can get plenty of bass as well as more or less of whatever else I want.
I didn't find that replacing the Chinese power tubes with Svetlanas made much difference in tone, but switching out different preamp tubes does. The stock Chinese 12AX7s are too bright for me. I now have two different preamp setups depending on whether I want less or more distortion. Consider trying tubes other than 12AX7s for the warmer, less distorted sound, like AUs or ATs in various positions. Since the tube sockets are so well made and not on the circuit board, you can try lots of options without loosening anything.

Fine so far.

No experience with them.

Stock, I'd only give this amp a 4 or 5 rating overall and wouldn't really want it. With the above suggestions I've given (and perhaps with some more expensive ones), I'll give it an 8 considering how little I paid for it. I'd give it a higher rating if it was a two channel amp. I totally disagree with a previous reviewer who said there is always a sacrifice when you have two versus one channel in a tube amp. In my experience (16 years and many amps), the opposite is true.

2004 model of the Pignose G40V: 1x10 40 watt tube combo amp. The amp is surprisingly versatile- clean tones accentuate pick attack, and the overdrive is, well, gorgeous! I play mostly blues and classic rock. Single channel, full tone stack including presence control, and absolutely no frills except the option of using either a 4 or 8 ohm extension cab. I wish it had a standby, but it's not enough of a fault to make me want another amp. I use the Pignose at home and at club-sized gigs, and I have NO trouble with power or punch- 40 tube watts!

It may seem ridiculous to give such a simple amp a 9 for features, but after running through hoops and multi-amp setups from Fender, Marshall, Peavey, and Mesa, I have to give props where props are due. This amp is everything I need- nothing unnecessary. Minus one for the lack of standby. 9 out of 10.

I use Strats, Les Pauls, a Tele, and an acoustic/ electric guitar with my Pignose: single coil, humbucker, and piezo pickups. In all fairness, the amp is VERY trebly through the stock speaker, and I have to turn the tone on my acoustic guitar almost all the way down to avoid spikey tones on clean settings. With a solid body electric, though, the amp is a dream come true.

Clean tones are very clear, and I never miss the aid of reverb: the tone is too sweet. Blues absolutely come alive when this amp is overdriven. The volume acts as a gain control, and the master acts as... well... master volume :-) The mid control is a bit deceptive, and I usually have it no higher than 9 o'clock, with the treble and bass set to my taste. It's a very quiet amp, and I've had no trouble with hum or phantom radio sounds.

With an extension cabinet, and the power tubes pushed hard, forget about it. This amp is absolutely stellar. Distortion buries Fender and most Peavey amps, and is easily on par with Mesa and Marshall offerings. No joke. Distortion is very easy to manage and nowhere near harsh. 9 out of 10 overall for sounds. I'm tempted to give it a 10, but I have to admit that the Blues Box amps from Chicago are still the greatest tube amps I've ever heard. But this Pignose is a fraction of the price and very, very close.

Sure, reliability is a bit of a concern. The guts fit sorta tightly into the small cabinet, and the amp can get a little hot. The amp is designed well, though, even if it's made in China. The lack of a standby switch is also a small concern, but a lot of Dennis Kager's recent designs have omitted the standby switch. Many smaller Gibson and Fender tube combos are on/ off entities, too.

Design-wise, the Pignose layout is superb. Tubes are off of the circuit boards, each preamp tube is shielded, and the power amp tubes have metal supports. Having totally torched a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe circuit board at an outdoor gig in Texas, I am definitely appreciative of the simple, road worthy design. Did I mention the weight, too. Unbelievably light, but still solid. Awesome. 8 out of 10 overall. Minus one for manufacturing concerns, not design concerns, and minus one for the lack of standby switch.

Customer support is amazing. They actually respond to individual emails, and provide SUPPORT. Crazy, eh? Warranty is standard- 90 days for tubes and a year for the unit. 9 out of 10 overall. Fantastic job as far as service; they make you feel like part of a fraternity instead of stranded.

I've been playing for about 3 years, seriously. I recently started gigging for money. I used to own (not all at once) a Tweed Fender Blues Deluxe, a Blues Junior, a Marshall DSL 40 combo, a Mesa Subway, and a Crate Vintage Club 60. I have had many gigs where I'd have to switch between Fender clean and Marshall/ Mesa crunch. Heavy, cumbersome and annoying. Now I own 2 Pignose G40V's, and my life is so much simpler :-)

If it were lost, stolen, or if I torched it, I'd run and buy another for just $200 new. I don't even think about buying another amp anymore- not even the 60 watt big brother. I'm happy, and I'm not messing with my happiness, just yet. I love the clean tones, the overdriven tones, the light weight, and the amazing overall vibe this amp exudes! The standby lack is the only knock, but it kinda gives the amp more character.

I don't use effects. I get most of my tone from my fingers. I read about the reliability concerns of this amp, the crappy speaker, the crappy tubes, and the crappy tone. I have worked the devil out of this little amp in stock form, and have been absolutely blown away. This is the amp I was hoping my Blues Junior would be, cranked, and then some.

With an extension cabinet, you can do anything in the realm of blues and classic rock you want, with amazing spread. The stock speaker should get you through a small gig. I actually like the 8 ohm stock speaker, and it even sounds good with my 1/2 watt smokey practice amp :-) The tubes sound great.

Yes, I know the difference between good tube tone, and bad tube tone. I don't work for Pignose, and I don't mean to annoy anyone who's had a bad experience with this amp. All I'm saying is that, even with some shortcomings, this little amp is, indeed a giant killer. This is the best bang for the buck blues amp, maybe ever, and the design is pretty solid. If you got a bad unit, I'm sorry. At the very least, all the bad reviews of this amp will keep a few more on the market for me to buy. 10 out of 10 overall. Highly recommended.

I wanted a class A tube amp without any frills. Some people consider the lack of a dedicated overdrive channel, reverb, tremolo, effects loop, etc to be a detriment. Considering the fact that most (like me) will use pedals anyway, this amp's simple design will let you adjust a tone that will work with floor units. I don't want to have a floor unit effect sound great on one channel and craptacular on another and I don't want to have to switch channels and effects at the same time. For me, this amp is perfect. I gave it a "9" because there is no standby switch.

The sound is great for anything from blues and jazz to classic rock and most alternative. The EQ takes a little gettig used to as cutting the mids will seem to render the bass knob ineffective. At around 9 o'clock it allows the bass knob to be completely effective. The chinese made 6L6's and 12AX7's are actually smooth. I replaced them with SED's and JJ's (respectively) but didn't notice an audible difference.
The dialed down "clean" sound (low gain) is nice but the high gain sound is what makes it shine (if you can eq it to your liking). It's not a metal amp but could be with the right pedals (then again, couldn't any amp?) I base my rating on the sound without anything additional added. The speaker will handle the volume but it doesn't really do what a good set of speakers will for the amp. I ripped the chassis out of the 1/2" ply box with MDF speakerboard and shoved it into a custom box I built with a 10" Jenson ceramic and a 12" Jenson Alnico. I would now give it a 10.
My setup is an Epiphone SG special (gutted, with 250k gibson pots, a burstbucker at the bridge and a burstbucker pro at the neck and gotoh tuners) - DOD milkbox - DOD YJM308 - Pignose G40v - THD Hotplate - Jensen speakers.

I play the crap out of it. It's biased a hair cold (fixed bias) so there are generally no worries with the right tubes. You simply have to change them out once in a while to see if your current set (or one of your current set) is going (noticeably) bad. It's not always easy to hear it if you play every day. It's a reliable amp and the cost of manufacturing it was obviously put inside the chassis, not into the subpar cabinet, speaker or asthetics...so I have no fear gigging with it. I bring a backup but I would with any amp in any performance situation. I've heard of transformer problems in the past on the MF website but mine hasn't given me any problems whatsoever. It does run hot and the cabinet it comes in is super tight. I wouldn't be suprised if a heat related problem occured playing it in the original cabinet for more than a few long sets.

Never dealt with them, and considering I violated the warranty the minute I took out the chassis, I likely never will.

In my opinion, you are not going to get a tube amp that is 40 (more like 50+) watts that sounds this good for anywhere near $200. Yes, it needs a new cabinet and decent speakers to be stellar, but if you can cut a dovetail joint, use a compass and jigsaw and don't mind spending another $150 to $250 for the supplies, wood, tolex, grillecloth, and speakers, you will be happy with it. I bought it because I figured as long as it was all tube, I could adjust the sound with a floor EQ but was suprised to find out I didn't have to. My total cost was around $450 and 12 hours of enjoyable labor. My $450 would've gotten me a 15 watt fender tube amp and couldn't even get into tube territory with Marshall. As far as the printed circuit board vs hand wired boutique style...I say if PCB's are good enough for Mesa Boogie, they are good enough for me. All in all. it's a great amp for the money but is a "handyman's special" for those wanting to fully utilize it's capabilities.

Basic tube amp with no extras, mine was made in 2000.

I have had this amp for several years and I also have several other combo tube amps, (Mesa Rocket 44, and Carvin x100 ev) After I read the review posted just prior to this one I thought I would pass this information along. I also agree that this amp with the supplied speaker has no bottom end whatsoever. However the tubes are not the problem, the speaker is. If you read all the posts from people who have hooked this amp up to 4x12 or 2x12 cabinets you will notice that they all report that suddenly the bass on their amp works and the amp sounds much better. I also hooked this amp up to the 12" electro voice speaker in my carvin amp and the improvement was dramatic. However I did not want to run a seperate speaker cabinet so I set out to find a 10" replacement speaker that would handle the power of this amp, bolt into the exsiting cabinet and Improve the low end. After some reasearch I decided on a new model that eminence had just came out with this year. It is called the rajun cajun and is rated at 75watts (150 watts peak). It is much louder and articulate than the stock speaker. It has twice as big of a magnet as the stock speaker and the improvement in sound is DRAMATIC. The amp now has some balls. The speaker is available from zsounds or US Speaker over the internet for about 60.00 delivered. I have several other amps that also have 10" speakers in them and I tried using the pignose speaker I took out in these other amps and it sounded worse that the factory speaker in every amp I tried it in. The Bottom line is the pignose factory supplied speaked is a real pile of shit and you will never know how good this amp could sound untill try it through other speakers.

Bottom line is with a speaker change this amp kicks ass. With the factory supplied speaker you don't know what you are missing.