Selmer Little Giant Combo

1 input, 1 tone control, 1 volume control. but that's enough as far as I'm concerned.

I'm using this with a LP & a LP Junior (with P90s). I have to say that this amp sounds excellent and does exactly what I bought it for. Driving the valves to get a real rough chunky distortion. The only thing that I dont like is that it has a bit of a hum to it. So perhaps I'd use it more for recording than playing live.

But having said that I did use it at a gig once (miked up of course) and it was soooo good the following band asked if they could use the set up, pedals and all (Ibanez GE7 -> Banzai Fireball [OD set to 9 o'clock to give it a little kick]).

I wouldnt take it to a gig without a backup but I had to once and it went through 2 sets fine. When I got it it wasnt working, but that was because it had been left in an attic for 20 years.

In the old if this amp were stolen thing, I would definitely think about getting another one if the price was right but I might go for something a little louder. 4watts is good for what it is, but my needs extend to 10w.

As an update to my last post in which i forgot to rate some of the catagorys... Just the other day i was playing through it and thinking how nice it sounded when it started making a weird sort of overdrive when it was being played even at low volumes it sounded horrable and like somthing might need replacing :(

Made between 1963 and 1965 in the "crocodile period" when all of selmers bizarre amplifiers were trimmed in fake crocodile skin (check out www.vintagehofner.co.uk/gallery/gallery3/selm.html for loads of information on the different models)
A mighty 4 watts through 1)EZ80 1)ECC83 one is pre-amp and one a rectifying valve(i think) and 1)EL84 for the power amp (sorry if thats wrong as the valve details face away from the back pannel and i can not be botherd to take them out to check) i am not sure of the speaker dimentions but its an ELAC "made in england" which i assume is the original but i have never heard of that make before. 1 channel, no overdrive just 2 knobs, volume and tone.
The little giant is not realy suited to any music that requires a high gain sounds. I would say it is more suited to blues/rock but still a limmited variation in sound for these styles. I mainly play Radiohead/Jimi hendrix stuff like that so i dont require any metal sounds and as long as you dont want to sound like people on record it is useable for these styles (although apparently a famous guitarist did actualy record an album with this amplifier but i cant remeber who... might have been a dream).
Well you can not expect a 4watt amp made in the 60's to have many features like a line out, this is about as basic as a guitar amp can get. no channel switching (it only has one channel anyway) no effects loop no headphone jack no line out. I realy do which it had a headphone jack although we cant expect it to. This would make it super as a practice amp, it would probably improve the sound quite alot as i dont think the speaker does this amp any favours but most importantly a small silent bedroom guitar amplifier actualy uses valves.
4watts is definately enough power for bedroom practice.

Im giving it a 2 rather than 1 cos at least its got a volume and tone control!

I use this amp with a jap 52 RI telecaster with 2 single coils and it sounds ok however it is majorly flawed. with volume turned up about quater of the way round the dial and tone on maximum it has some nice chunky tones and is in quite thick natural overdrive however this only realy works with chords, single notes sound quite thin and lack in the overdrive the chords have. This amp might well be useable as a serious practice amp if it didnt vibrate and rattle at moderate volumes... might need to screw stuff up a bit tighter. I would like to point out that this thing is stupidly loud for a 4watt amplifier. I have not realy turned it up much past half, at which point it rattles so much and completely ruines the nice sound it is capable of. when the volume gets past about 10-11 o'clock it dose not sound so nice it becomes very saturated, soggy and dull and seems to lose its impressive punchyness. The bass is very poor, (i think this could be blamed on the speaker) it is lose, wolly and completely out of controll. The mid's are O.K but a bit dull, they dont seem to stand out at all. On the posative side the high's are quite impressive, they have a nice defining edge but retains warmth and have an impressive punch. The background noise is quite high however i have replaced the original EL84 with an old sovtek one and i dont remeber the backgound noise being so high with the original valve but i hope i don't have to replace filter caps etc.

Im giving it a 5 because it has some wonderfull valve tones that can not be compared to transistor amps but settings and speaker on this amp let it down. If i were to conect this up to a small cabinate to cut out the vibration and replaced the speaker with somthing much better and used an EQ pedal into the amp i dare say this amp could sound realy very nice. (i have tryed using an eq which was part of a multi effects unit however this did not seem to work very well) I could imagine the bass being tight and defined and nice bold mids with the great highs...
oh yeah another thing it does not seem to give notes a nice bit of sustain like some valve amps do.

Well i never take this thing out of the house so i do not realy depend on it for much and i dont play it very regualy anyway but i would not be supprised if anything broke on it. When i started using it had one tube blown so my cousin who was using it at the time baught another amp and this and it sat around for about a year. It is my dads amplifier and he has had for about 35 years, it has been dormant for quite alot of that time i think. We replaced the original brimar valve with a NOS mullard valve and it worked fine. I took the original brimar EL84 out of it to put it in another amplifier and i lost it somewhere and then i stood on it a few days later, HOW ANOYING IS THAT!!! (thats why its got a sovtek el84 now)
But im sure its not had the easyest life and other things might need doing to it. But due to its incredable simplicity there realy is not much to worry about it and i would not have any reason not to rely on it if it had a good service. The construction seems a bit flimsy and the whole thing is generaly very very light but i do not see this to be anything that is going to cause problems. I belive it to be a common fault that the chip board back pannel does not fit properly, probably due to it changeing in shape and size over the years.

I have been playing for about 4-5 years my other amps are a kustom KGR16r (which realy good) and an electronic gem venus G20 amplifier which i have never heard of and i can not find any information about, it seems to have a switchable transistor or valve power amp, made in 1973 i think, my example dose not work, anyone with any information on these amplifiers PLEASE PLEASE e-mail me, i found it in a skip and im not sure if its worth repairing it (currently being used as a t.v stand). An aswell as my telecaster i have an epiphone sg.
I love this amp becuase it was my dads from when he started playing guitar so it has alot of sentimental value. when compared to my KRG16r it can produce some much sweeter sounds (despite all the faults) but the krg has much more defined precise sound and is pretty versatile and has a pleaseing tone despite its non have feel and warmth.