Pignose Portable Combo

Pay no attention to those who rated it low for lack of knobs, switches, etc. With this thing, the simplicity of it is the best feature about it. Turn it on and it sounds good.

That said, there are a few hidden treasures to it.

First of all, if you don't have the guitar cable plugged in to it... It's not on. A handy thing to have in a battery-powered amp, especially if you are like me and you forget to switch things off sometimes.

Secondly, even with the AC adapter coiled inside, it has just enough space in the cabinet for you to toss in a couple picks and a glass slide bar. Throw a couple of straps into your gig bag (one for the guitar, one for the amp), and you're ready to hit the road.

It's perfect for what it is. If it had twin speakers with stereo chorus, reverb, and a tube pre-amp... I wouldn't want it.

Turn it up half-way and you get a lovely, musical delta-blues sound. Crank it up and doesn't get any louder, but you get a dirty, ugly, ballsy, crinkly bleed-through-the-eyes distortion. Both sounds have their place, depending on your style.

People (including the makers) like to point out that you can get different sounds out of it by opening the case while you use it. This is true. The sound it different. It is not, however, better. Leave the case shut.

I play with three axes on this thing: A fat strat clone (the Peavey Preadator Plus), and Ibanez hollow body, and a 3-string cigar-box guitar. For blues riffs, the pignose brings the best out of all of them.

Some people talk about using it as a pre-amp, because of the output jack. Don't bother. The puny speaker is part of the magic spell with this thing. Bypass it, and you get nothing worth hearing. If you MUST have the "Legendary" Pignose sound on stage, mic it. If for no other reason, the hilarity of making your sound tech lower a boom stand down in front of this tiny box should be more than enough motivation to do so.

Most of it is made of nice thick chip-board and metal hardware with a pigskin leather covering. More than strong enough for this small lightweight box. You could probably stand on it.

However, mine was once knocked off another amp stack when I was running it off AC power, and the power adapter plug punched right through the thin metal "plate" on the back, jack and all.

A simple washer from the scrap drawer of my workbench repaired it perfectly. All I had to do was rout out a wider hole with a drill so I could sort-of countersink the washer into the body of the case, and the nut secured the jack right back into place. An annoying weakness, but a very easy one to fix. All the electronics survived the fall without a hitch, in spite of the fact that the case popped open and batteries flew everywhere.

Never dealt with them, as I was pretty sure it was out of warranty when I dropped it, and who would expect something like that to be covered anyway?

For $60, you can be the only electric guitarist in a marching band parade, or the loudest jackass at an outdoor jam session in the park, or the most well-equipped panhandler on a downtown street.

I love taking this thing to open-mic nights at coffee houses. Nobody else at the club sounds like me when I bust out my slide-blues freakshow.

You can keep your modern portable amps, with digital modeling of Marshal stack distortion. (Really, who wants to hear LOW VOLUME tube overdrive!?) This thing is THE classic down-and-out blues sounding amp. I've yet to find an amp for even five times the money that provides half the joy that this thing provides.

Pignose-shaped On/Off-Switch/Volume Control. Actually the fact that it can be opened (and closed) while playing, should be discribed as a soundshaping feature, which it is. "Natural Wah Wah" they call it in the brochure, which is a little misleading. But changin the angle of the lid actually has an amazingly versatile effect on the tone. It should be noted that the thing is kinda cool looking in a cheesy sort of way.

Well. It's not a lovely tube amp. But it's not a sqeaky transistor box or silly toy like those mini Marshalls or Fenders. It has a lot of balls. It distorts in a pleasing way. And you can put it in the bathroom for recording. Open it slightly, put a good microphone in the opened lid, and you'll almost faint at the killer results! This little bugger can sound throaty and rich, and with a decent guitar, it's absolutely astonishing. Also, it sounds like nothing else. The tone as truly unique!

Looks and feels solid. Mine doesn't open easily --- yet! I suppose that is going to change. I intend to use this thing on stage as well. I want to use it to have a little "stereo" setup, piping the second output of my reverb unit to the pignose and miking it seperately.

Haven't dealt with the company.

I've been playing for 25 years, I own some wonderful equipment, still this little fucker has already a special place in my heart. The value for money is amazing. I payed 79$! It's a great birthday gift for any guitar afficionado, and, again: It actually does something special and unique, unlike so many other gadgets in its price range!

This thing's best feature is size -- about same as a kiddie shoebox, with brown vinyl and chrome corners for a vintage radio look. It's very light and runs on wall wart or batteries. One volume button that also boosts overdrive and an output jack that lets you use it as a preamp, a great idea. For its announced purpose -- enabling an electric player to be as mobile as an acoustic player -- it's excellent. A great party amp.

The Pignose can sound great or like shit, regardless of the guitar. I've used it with humbucker and single coil (P90) axes, and I've learned two things: Roll off some of the volume and treble on your axe, and don't turn up the Pignose like a Marshall stack. When you do that you get a sweet, creamy, slightly overdriven sound. Forget about clean -- this is what "clean" sounded like before the modern era, when distortion was taken for granted. If you want a Muddy Waters Delta slide sound, wth surprisingly good bass definition and fabulous midrange bark on open tuning type chords, you got it. It also has great 60s jangle, a kind of glassy, brassy sound. But again, you gotta keep the volume down if you don't want an unpleasant, grating, blatting effect. The exception to this rule is Frank Zappa, who used a maxed Pignose in the studio. But Zappa was among the kings of loud, and I am not. Only thing it's missing is variety, especially compared to a Microcube.

I've used this box for 15 years with no problems. The knob is a little loose now but everything still works great. This thing is indestructible.

Never dealt with them.

I've been playing 40 years and own Reverend, Washburn, Supro and Curlee guitars, Digitech effects, Fender and Roland amps. I would not play the Pignose night after night, especially now that the Roland Microcube is out there. I'd just get tired of the same sound. But when I travel, it's a great companion. Last night I took it to a party and played my modded Washburn SS80 through it, and was reminded of what a great device Pignose made here. It just seems fun and friendly to people, it sounds like the blues, and it is SO easy to move around. If you're buying ONE party or practice amp, get the Microcube. But if blues is your mainstay you will be glad to own and keep a Pignose. It's vintage in your pocket.

not too many features here ,and thats what gives it character i guess.thats why i wanted it anyway.even though i have a smallish amp(blues cube 30)i saw this in a pawn shop for 50 and had to have it.my main reason for purchase was to have something i could stick in a suitcase if visiting my parents for a week or so,yet it turned out to be useful in many other situations that made my playing better and better.

using a tele nashville deluxe(texas specials and a strat middle)i can hardly get a sound i dont enjoy in some way.if youre a 4 tracker like me this thing is useful for dubbing leads or noisy parts (come to think of it i havent tried using it for noisy vocals).for fat natural compression,leave it closed,for brighter ,biting sound open it up,if a friend is handy, have him do it back and forth for wah effect.almost forgot,if your dist. pedal is dead on batteries this thing creates a GREAT distortion all its own when dimed out,a plus being that you can dime it with a slimmer chance of neighbor or roomate hassle than a bigger amp(like a blues cube 30).

i havent beat it around too much ,so i dont think i can offer too much feedback about this.the batteries do tend to slip out of place though and another poster mentioned a good remedy for this,a metal strip holding them in.if youre a big stoner ,try not to leave it on every time you use it.bad habit ,ive wasted a lot of batteries that way.

havent dealt with.

like i said earlier ,i bought this to stuff in a suitcase if i knew i would be traveling (and fighting boredom)and it proved even more useful.if you have roommates and hate not being able to mike up an amp late at night ,this thing rules.with the volume down so low that i honestly couldnt hear anything from the speaker ,i placed an sm57 pressed up to the grill,cranked up the mic input and voila,i got a much better sound than the sound you get plugging straight in 'cause you dont want to wake anybody.heres another good one ,my bedroom stereo is simply a boombox,so when my roomies were out i would simply tote this thing into the living room where our communal hi fi was located and i could play along with any piece of vinyl in the house,this caused my playing to skyrocket.if youve ever been in a rut,throwing on a record youve never played with before much less even heard might help,it has for me,and this little amp can easily handle rock ,jazz or country,i guess because its sound is so simple it seems to fit with everything.and even though keeping it simple is nice ,running my TS9 into it has made my ears do a little dance.i jam along with everything from thin lizzy(fighting) to coltrane(kulu se mama).seriously,lower the volume and ease off the tone knob and my tele gets a good jazz tone with the pignose.i havent tried it in an actual performance situation, i should note ,but lets say you were going to backup a solo acoustic musician,say in a coffee house/low volume/duo setting ,i bet this would work great ,blending electric and acoustic timbres(electric players always seem to spice up boring open mic nights ive noticed). or if youre playing slide on acoustic the natural grit of this amp might be a likeable tone,and youre onboard controls(acoustic or electric)along with this amp being right at your feet or on a chair would make tweaking easy(and keep the sound man happy).hope these comments have been helpful,if you see a pignose for under 70 bucks grab it.try to talk down a little of course,peace.

One knob (power / volume). Wired just like your guitar's volume.
Portable, can strap it on one shoulder, and the guitar on another. Fun to be the guy on electric in a backyard acoustic jam. External power supply in and line out.

Like others, I must say it sounds best with single coils. I play a James Burton Signature Tele, a Squire Affinity with Texas Specials and the old bridge in a newly routed center position wired for 7 pup combos, and an Epiphone Dot. The best sound is with the Tele bridge pup's and volume at about 70%. The Dot overdrives it too much.

Gig with it? You'er kidding - no way. But for practice / recording / low volume jamming, OK. Mine is about 14 years old. The volume pot is so noisey I need to replace it. Batteries kept falling out, so I made a sheet metal bracket to hold them in (always was a problem). The jacks on the back are held on with aluminum foil and used 1/8" standard plug instead of barrel power adapter - I changed to the latter. Overall I got it for portablity, and its one cool sound.

I lost the trademark pig snout volume knob, they sent me another free. Thanks Pignose!

I own a Trace Eliot TA 60 acoustic amp, a SWR Workingmans 60 bass amp, a Fender Bassman 50 head w/ one 12" Celestion in a home made combo, and a Fender Blues Jr. First of all I paid too much in my youthful ignorance. I think this thing is probably worth 30 to 40 bucks new. If you can find a used one that is not messed up for cheap and need something like this, maybe. If you don't mind all the little problems with the thing, it has its place. I have had fun with it. It looks pretty cool hanging from a strap, has a unique sound, and can be handy when the power goes out. I would not run out and buy another. There is lots of competition out there.

I purchased this little piggy at the NAMM show in 2001 and I kinda take it for granted because it sounds so good every time I plug it in. But, I was just now using it to rehearse songs for a really cool upcoming gig, and it sounded so damn good I had to make the effort to do a review. You can get ANY tone from this amp! Seems wierd because it only has a volume knob, maybe less is more?,

my main axes are strats and teles but i own several gibsons as well. Sounds better with single coil, but thats no suprise because all the great amps I've ever owned sounded better with single coil pickups. But it's nice and juicy with humbuckers. Great for recording slide guitar, possibly the BEST amp for this.

Oh my God, are you serious? This thang looks looks like it could be stomped on by elephants, bombed by terrorists, bad mouthed by Oprah, analylized by Dr. Phil and still come out unscathed. I apologize for the raving review, but I REALLY cant find a thing wrong with this amp, its as close to PERFECT for what it does as it gets!

No need to comment here. It's almost disposable.

This amp is absoluteley confounding because if some one could make a 50 watt amp sou nd this good, it would have been done, but, luckily we guitarist still have the PIG for low volume practice! I own a storage room full of old Fender, Marshalls and Gibsons and none of them give me the instant satisfaction I get from my little PIG. If it was lost or stolen I'd take my penny jar down to the grocery store and get the cash to buy another one.

This is an updated review of the pignose portable amp that I have owned for 4 years. I have got to know the amp better so I have submited a new review on the amp.

I see lots of famous guitarists like Clapton and Page have used the older pignose amps made in the USA. I can't imagine any good guitarist using these Chinese made amps because they sound awful. Maybe the circutry has changed in the amp. My amps tone is good for single coils but all my humbucker guitars overdrive this little amp making it almost useless unless you like trashy sounding unmusical distortion . Some say you can get get a clean tone by lowering your guitars volume knob but you should NOT have to do this. The amp just fails in this area.

These look reliable

don't know and don't care really

I have been playing for 18 years. This amp is really a bad choice unless you are in desperate need of a portable amp. Newer small amps like the 60 dollar Behringer GM 108 make this amp look like a total joke. This amp is way overpriced and is no longer worth the money they are asking for it. All amps have come down a lot in price..everyone except pignose that is. Most guitarists have a soft spot in their heart for the pignose portable for the sole reason that it's been around for so long but this amp is dated and needs to be retired. Just compare this to the new Roland Microcube portable amp and you will understand where I'm coming from.

A basic design that's been around since 1973 with 'nary a change.

If you only count onboard effects, channel switch etc. as features then you'd give this a low rating.

Myself, I consider the portability and ease of use to be the main deatures of this amp and in this respect it has everything you need.

As a bonus, you get pre-amp out which means you can run it straight though the PA.

Battery life is also good. I've busked for 3-4 hour stretches without needing to change batteries. The optional AC-Adaptor is useful for playing around the home.

Perhaps the best feature is the ease with which you can get a good sound. I hate messing around with dials on amps trying to get a tone that makes me smile. Every sound that comes out of this thing is useable.

Using this with a basic strat copy, mostly playing slide in open G/A and it sounds awesome. This thing catches early '70s blues-rock perfectly. Distorts amazingly well for a solid-state amp.

You can get a surprising range of tones from this thing. Turn the dial to around 5 o'clock to get a lightly distoted '50s Chicago blues type tone. Crank to around 8 or 9 Keith Richards circa 1972 and just turn it all the way up for wicked punk-blues that would put Fat Possum records to shame. This amp is also very sensitive to your guitars volume and tone controls, so if you're still not happy with the tone, play around with these for a bit. When jamming with a band I can turn the guitars volume down a few clicks for regular rhythm playing, then turn it up all the way for a lead tone. You can also open up the cab to get a more treble based tone.

This thing also works as an absolutely smoking harmonica amp. Because of the low power rating you can run most kinds of mike through it without feedback and you can get tones ranging from Little Walter-like horn sounds to wickedly distorted punky-blues that wouldn't sound out of place on a White Stripes album.

Considering the great tone that comes from such a little thing, I'm tempted to give it a 10. The only drawback is that you can't really get a decent clean sound from it at all. Minus one point, but still a very impressive 9.

I've had it for close to a year and I carry it around with me a lot, so it's had it's share of knocks and is still going strong. Don't think there's that much that can really go wrong with it. If it can survive busking, it can survive anything.

It has a warranty, six months I think, but I never needed it.

This is an absolutly wonderful little amp. Perfect for late night practise sessions, but more versatile then you'd think. I actually use it on stage at local jam sessions, close micing it with an SM-57. As long as the guy at the mixing desk knows his stuff, this is more then enough to cut it with a full band. If you're a beginner this would make a perfect first amp because it because unlike other beginners amps the tone will still be satisfying as your playing improves and it will always be useful, even if only as a traveling or busking amp. Really, every guitarist can find a use for one of these. Go on, you know you want one. If you don't think you can afford it, play on the streets for a couple of days and it will pay for itself.

I really should not rate the features, or lack thereof. It is a 5 watt solid state amp made primarily for bedroom volume practice. But who cares about features when it sounds so cool. It is just an on/off volume, and a cabinet that opens up to change the tone. This rating has no bearing on the overall score.

I am one of the biggest advocates of pure tube tone, but this thing rips; no wonder some guitarists use this amp as a pre-amp.

I've had this for about 18 months and no problems. Take good care of it and it will take good care of you.
There are no tubes to blow. It is battery operated.

Obviously this is the all time solid state bedroom practice amp (the Fender Champ is the all time tube bedroom practice amp). Every, and I repeat, every guitarist should own his amp.

Has one imput, one preamp output, a volume/gain knob and a ac adapter hole. Brown fake leather cover with chrome corner covers, Guitar strap pegs so you can walk around with it. 6" speaker is well protected by a cloth and a heavier mesh. Amp opens up so you can store the ac adapter, guitar cable and maybe even a effects pedal. It really does and doesn't have a bunch of features.

I am using this with a Strat for playing a little blues and country stuff. Granted this amp does not fill my main type of music which is mainly metal and classic rock. I have only had this thing for a few days but it is the coolest sounding amp. It sounds pretty clean at a lower volume and gets dirty as the volume increases. My Strat, and I'm sure any other guitar, can be played clean with the amp volume cranked and the guitar volume turned down a little. With the amp closed it has more bass response, open it and you get more treble. While it's not what you would call versital compared to a half stack for what this is it's in a class by itself. Great blues sound.

I haven't had this thing long enough to know how durable it is. I would imagine it would blow if you dropped it because it's a heavy little unit. There seems there is not a lot that can go wrong with this thing. I may use this thing in a impromtu at some little local bar where we have a cabin and if it broke while playing I don't think anyone would care. They would be more impressed with the sound that the Pignose makes than the fact it broke. It seems to be built well but time will tell.

Seventy bucks? Who cares.

Amp, shipping, tax and a ac adapter for $88.98. This is the amp for a someone that travels, doesn't have power or is a novice. I have been playing for 22 years ( I'm no novice but I'm not Steve Vai either. ) and I love this thing. I have played every amp under the sun, to include Sunn and there is nothing like this thing. If you don't have a acoustic and want to play some songs at the beach or any other place that you want this is a great choice. Way too many rookie players go out and buy all this mega gear and spend so much time adjusting parameters and crap they try to let the equipment play for them when what they need is to learn how to play the damn guitar.