Sovtek Mig 100

I bought it just one month ago and the last owner didn't remember when he bought it but, i think it was made about 1993-1994. The tubes are new anyway so the amp is like new. The features, like you know are very simple, just like a Marshall JCM 800, but sounding very different. I don't need anymore. It's very versatile, i admit that it's perfect for grunge or punk with the gain (volume control) at 10. I play blues and classic rock and with the volume at 5-6 you can get perfect classic sounds, not buzzy and sounding clear but a little distorted.
Maybe it would be ok that it has a spring reverb but i don't need it anyway. And i wish that the distortion would be better for classic rock, cleaner i mean. The amp was made for perfect clean sounds but it fails at high gains sounds, you can use a pedal like tubescreamer in it and it'll go perpect.
Treble and presence at ten... will hurt your ears! It's the worst sound ever! But it sounds great with presence 7 and treble about 5-6. Great bass y middle.
It can be used anywhere, it has 100 w!! I think i will never pass the master at 3!

Maybe you must spend 30 minutes on front of the amp looking for your tone! But if you can find it you'll be satisfied. Controls are quite responsive but less than Fender i guess. I can make it sound so bluessy with my American Standard Stratocaster with the bass pickup, perfect for rythms and for soft solos too. High gain solos would be better with a pedal, sure. The volume at ten can be a little noisy, with a treble buzz on your back but i never play like that.
Low gain input is very very clean, with the volume at ten you can almost hear a soft saturation if you play hard on the strings but the high gain input since the volume at 4 it begins to get distorted so you can get a lot of different tons.
Maybe not a jazz amp, but perfect for blues, rythm and blues, grunge and punk, very versatile.

The amp i think has never broken down, is a rock. All controls work perfectly, tubes perfect and everything fine. I will use it in every gig, you can sound as loud as you wish, as bassy as you wish and as treble as you wish.

I have never dealt with the company, but sovtek didn't make this amp anymore.

I've owned it for a month, enough to know what you can do with this amp. I had a marshall but i wanted more bass sure... and my MIG 100 has tons of it. I think i will buy another one if it were stoles or lost, it's very cheap. But i don't think anyone would stole it... it's so heavy!

Standard controls, 3 different impedence outputs for cabs and a balanced 200 ohm output. No channel switching onboard.

I've tried several guitars through it. The clean tone is pretty tight and clean and somewhat "fender-y". Not quite as much top end sparkle or low end as you would get out of a fender bassman though but a good sound anyway. Beats any i've heard Marshall for dead-clean easily. The eq is fairly non-responsive, especially on the lower freqencies but more responsive than a marshall eq. When driven, the distortion is fat sounding, not alot of pick attack. It's a little muddy though. Probably the type of sound you would get out of a modded bassman. Like as bassman, a tubescreamer or similar pedal sounds good in front of it. It sends it a bit of a brighter signal cleaning up some of the mud and adding a little cripsness to the distortion. The tone is very responsive to volume. Sounds sterile at low volumes, sometimes very good at high volumes. I took out two of the power tubes and stuck a 7025 in the preamp section and it helped for the most part. I can keep it cranked and the 7025 took a little mudd out, however, the higher gain characteristic of the 7025 (compared to stock 12ax7's) results in a somewhat buzzy distortion. I may switch back to a 12ax7 eventually. I've also tried regular 6L6's in it but the 5881's (which it come stock with) sound a bit nicer. I'm curious what a Soldano GTO or a Bad Cat two tone would sound like in front of it being the the clean is pretty nice. The 200 ohm out, even with a speaker simulator is kind of sterile, like it sounds at low volumes. It probably bypasses the power section. Sounds are better than satisfactory. However, for the price I paid, it's probably the best amp around.

It broke down a few times. I later found out that I was running it at the wrong impedance. However, it's seen over a hundred shows, most of which were when it was running with an impedance mismatch. The transformer isn't as sturdy as fender's but apparently, not too cheap to run that long. It's been dropped off my 4x12 cab when loading and still ran afterwords. There's a good chance if it wasn't hand-wired, it wouldn't have survived.

I'm not sure but I think sovtek stopped making amps. Never dealt with them though.

It's not a perfect amp by any means, but very cool for the money.

This amp is great for anyone who doesn't care about a lot of bells and whistles. It's a very simple amp to use and I couldn't ask for anything more(except mabey some reverb).By now you already know all the features and dont need me to tell you again.

The amp sounds great for any type of music. I play alot of metal and this thing is loud as hell! I use a boss metal zone petal through the low gain and it kills most name brand amps anyday. It can get a little noisy when using the amps gain but still sounds great. IT sounds alot like a marshall.

Aside from the plastic input jacks and switches, this thing is most reliable and weighs a ton. I have yet to have any trouble with it.

never delt with them.

overall this is a fantastic amp to gig with. I have been playing for 6 years and the only other amp I've used is a fender performer 1000 combo amp. I would definetley buy this amp if it were ever stolen or lost. I just wish the imput jacks wern't plastic.

THIS AMP IS THE BEST I HAVE EVER PLAYED. IT DOESN'T HAVE MANY FEATURES THAT WOULD SUIT ALOT OF PEOPLE BUT TO ME IT'S PERFECT.
I USE MY SINGLE PEDAL EFFECTS THROUGH IT ON THE HIGH GAIN CHANNEL
WITH THE MASTER SET ON 9AND A HALF AND THE VOLUME SET ON ABOUT 2
WHICH IS VERY LOUD. THE TREBLE IS SET TO ABOUT 7 THE MID ABOUT 5 THE BASS ABOUT 9 AND THE PRESCENCE ON ABOUT 7.
THE PEDALS I USE THROUGH IT ARE A MORLEY POWER WAH, A BOSS MT2 METAL ZONE DISTORTION, A BOSS DS1 DISTORTION, AN OLD IBANEZ PHASER, A ARION STEREO FLANGER AND AN OLD TOKAI DELAY PEDAL AND THIS IS MY RIG FOR LIFE. I'M 18 AND HAVE ALWAYS TRIED TO FIND MY PERFECT SOUND AND THIS IS IT. I USE IT FOR PRACTICE AND GIGING WITH MY 1970'S ARBITER LES PAUL JUNIOR AND NOTHING ELSE

I USE IT THROUG MY ARBITER LES PAUL JUNIOR THEY WORK TOGETHER SO FINE ITS AS IF THEY WERE MADE FOR EACH OTHER.
ITS BY FAR THE LOUDEST AMPLIFIER IVE EVER USED.
I WONT USE ANYTHING ELSE!!!!!!!!!

IV'E JUST HAD IT FIXED AS THE INPUT SOCKETS BROKE AS THE LEAD WAS TRIPPED OVER AND BROKE THE SOCKET BY MY DRUMMER.
WHICH WAS TO COST ABOUT #2 BUT TO MY HORROR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WHEN PUT INTO THE SHOP TO GET FIXED I ASKED FOR A CHECKUP THEY FOUND A FAULTEY VALVE WHICH HAD MADE 3 RESISTORS BURN UP SO THE AMP HAD TO HAVE A WHOLE NEW SET OF VALVES SO THEY PUT IN A FULL SET OF HIGH GRADE VALVES TOTAL COST OF REPAIR: #164... BUT I SAY MONEY WELL SPENT
BUT OTHER FROM THAT ITS A TERRIFIC AMP FOR RELIABILITY. ITS VERY HEAVY BUT THIS MEANS QUALITY (AND BACK ACHE)

I GOT THIS AMP ABOUT 10TH HAND AS I HAD IT BEFORE IN THE FAMILY BUT IT WASN'T USED SO WE SOLD IT TO A MUSIC SHOP AND ABOUT 4 YEARS LATER I SWAPPED MY PREMIER DRUM KIT FOR IT AND EVEN THEN DID NOT USE IT BUT NOW ITS A DIFFERENT STORY I CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT IT

TOP MARQUES FOR THIS ONE

This is possible the simplest amp to use. Presence, Bass, Middle, Treble, Master and volume controls. It does not have channel switching, but that isn't a big deal. I would have liked reverb on it, but we can't have everything. For the price, it is a great amp. Heavy motherfucker, though....

I normally only use the low gain channel, which will distort slightly at extreme volumes. It gives a nice clean sound that is more powerful than the Fender Bassman 50 I've used before. The High gain channel can give a pretty crunchy distortion if you don't have the pre-amp volume up all the way, at which point it's just pretty loud messy distortion. Another very nice thing about these amps is that they can be used as bass amps as well (just be sure your cab can handle it). The pots on mine are noisy when you change settings, but that's not really an issue since you norrmally don't start fiddling with the knobs as you are playing.

I use either a Magnatone Typhoon or Vacarro X-Ray through various effects into the amp, which drives an Ampeg 4x12 cab. The only problem with the sound is that sometimes it can be a little too bassy, but I use heavy strings so that may be the problem.

I've had it for 8 months and have never had a problem with it. I'd gig without a backup - I have to since I don't have enough money for a second amp.

Never tried....Sovtek doesn't make many amps any more, so service could be a problem.

I've been playing for a few years now, and have heard a lot of amps....if this one were stolen or lost, I'd probably look around for something else, like an old Bassman 135 or marshall plexi.

for the money though, i couldn't have gotten anything better. it is very powerful and can rattle everything in your house if the bass is turned up too loud.

I bought my Sovtek MiG 100 in 1997 new at a guitar store in Antwerp Belgium. The Store Owner had it priced to go. I was in need of a new amp and I couldn't believe I would get a tube amp for that price.
At the time I bought it I was playing 2nd guitar at a Punk Rock band. This band evolved to a Hardcore band and then it died a silent death. Now I use the amp to play lead guitar in a Surf Band. It does fit every style of music perfectly. So far I only used the High Gain input, but I will defently try the Low Gain.
I got this amp Hooked up on a Marshall 4x12" cabinet and it blows everything else away. Such a power...

I used to play a Ibanez STT 440 with a Mesa V-twin on it. It sounded super. Now I use a Fender JAzzmaster with a Electro Harmonics Holy Grail and a Dinasour Digital Delay on it. So far I only used the High Gain input, but I will defenetely use the Low gain too.
This amp can go from a fat distortion sound to a very clean sound without a problem. I don't really like the High gains distortion since it sounds a bit to flat for me.

This amp is made from concrete. They don't make amps like that anymore, I tell ya!
I only had to have it fixed once in seven years. There was something wrong with one of the tubes and I had it replaced. It costed a fraction on repairs.

Well, since Sovtek is part of the Electro Harmonics corporation it's got a great custumor suport. A straight A!

I play guitar for 11 years now and went thru many different styles of music and the MiG 100 served them all.
I someone should steel it I would hunt him down for ever, even after I got it back. I it should explode or something I would defenetely replace it.
I wish it had a bit more contour to it's overall sound, but I like this amp a great lot.
If yuo are looking for a great amp, this is yours. My friends used to be very jalous about the MiG 100. It blew their Marshalls away like they were tiny kiddie amps. Pack your JCM 800, 900 and 2000 up, because here I am with my Sovtek MiG 100

I believe it was made sometime in the 90's. And its an spectacular amp. It has a clean channel and an awesome distortion high gain channel. I cant switch channels but thats ok, i can work around that. Channel switching is over rated, in real punk rock you dont need channel switching, you just play fast and heavy. It has a line out in the back which ive tried to record out of and its really buzzy. I just mic it up when i record, it sounds great like that. I use it how it is, people are too obsessed with marshall and mesa. Thse amps are overpriced and over rated. I use it for everything since my little peavey practice amp decided to die on me R.I.P. buddy. so i need to invest in a practice amp. I use the amp live, for recording, practice, and heck i could use it as a weapon if i wanted to. And 100 watts of tube power will crush any solid state amp anyday. It sounds round full and steril is a word that never comes to mind. Its got 4-5881's which are soon to be replaced with some Electro Harmonix 6L6 super tubes. And the pre-amp has 2-12ax7wa's and 1-12ax7wb. Very nice set up. Some people say it sounds like a marshall rip off, but lets face it... if you have a tube amp you can make it sound like a marshall, if you want marshall sound buy a marshall and sound like everyone else. I give it an 8 because its not perfect, it is limited to the amount of tones you can get but thats ok if you like the tones it can get.

Im playing a strat that i put an invader pickup in. It has huge gain and its just friggin amazing with this set up. I play punk rock but i like to mess around with hardcore stuff too. Its kinda buzzy but youre bound to have that every now and then. It has a decent amount of tones you can get. You can get warm punchy blues to hardcore crunch. If anyone who reads this is from the Erie Pa region who follows the hardcore scene, you can get shockwave tones and all that good stuff that we drool over. The clean channel which i dont use very much is pretty nice, very smooth, not piercing, if you crank it and hit a chord of course its gunna make your ears ring a bit but you know, it happens.

ive never directly dealt with the company, just new sensor and they are very helpful. As for the amp itself, everytime i ask a question about it they always go.."oh, you have one of those.. sorry cant help you" Its not like its a friggin endangered species, its pretty basic actually. I bought it used so i dont think i am covered under the warranty.

I've been playing 5 years now and thats not an extremely long time but it counts for something since im very into it. I own a few fender guitars, tele, strat, those are nice, but they are just guitars.. nothing to drool over. I have a yamaha hollowbody which is nice but doesnt crunch with this amp cuz the guitar is too warm sounding. I compared it to some Line 6 stuff, a couple crate halfstacks, some peavey stuff, and ive heard marshalls and junk but good luck finding one of those around here and when i started playing i hadnt heard of musicians friend, but im glad cuz if i did i'd be one of those other marshall freaks going hey ive got a marshall, yes they are great amps but they sound like everyone else. I was always told that tone is something you should try to find on your own, try equipment that not everyone else uses and you might be suprised. Its nice to be able to say hey, i sound unique.

my sovtek was made in id like to say 93'. i play punk/hardcore and this suits my style quite nicly. this is just a bare bones no frills head, its got all the features youll ever need(well reverb would nice). 1 channel that gets real dirty if you want it too. at 100 watts its more than enough for your average musician. Ive played alot of the tubed marshall amps and this ones right up there. the only thing i can really complain about is that it comes with plastic toggle switches and inputs (i bought mine used and most were already replaced)oh yeah and this thing is a beast to carry id say at least 50 lbs.

I play a gibson les paul studio with the sovtek running though a marshall 4x12 (one of the cheaper ones). For punk its a great head the distortion is very "clean" as in every note can be heard even with the gain at 10. the head has alot of sustain as well. Its pretty quite but as with all tube amplifiers if turned up very loudly can become a bit noisy but thats if you turn the knob past 7... playing live i have the volume at the 3-4 this amp is very loud. another thing is that this head sounds almost exactly like a marshall jcm800... i borrowed an 800 from a friend for about a month and this thing nails it. the 800's got a bit more bite but that could be because of the tubes (marshalls use el34's while the mig uses 6l6's) but if you hadnt seen the amp and just heard it you would have thought classic marshall tone all the way

its a beast and as with all beasts its tough to kill. Great workman ship and is very sturdy i have SEEN one fall off of a half stack and be perfectly fine (only a bit of the tolex was scratched). The only problem i would have with the reliability is the plastic inputs and toggle switches. buying the head used and having all the plastic parts except 1 toggle switch shows that the plastic isnt very reliable but as long as your carful with your inputs and your switches i dont see anyother problems. all though this could change because ive only had the head for a very short time... but i was so amazed with it i had to post a review now

i have no idea... i mean sovtek doesnt even make these things anymore and i dont even think sovtek is owned by the same company... not to mention this thing is made in russia. customer support sounds pretty iffy to me

over all for the money this amp is well worth it. if it were lost or stolen i would probably try to go find who stole it, if i couldnt find that person i would then begin to cry, and lastly i would find one as fast as possible and buy a new one. if your a simple guy who likes simple amps but also is a poor man who likes that marshall tone and cant afford it the sovtek is for you. you can go buy a brand new jcm 2000 ill keep my sovtek thank you very much and with a grin my tone will blast you out of the water. i mean in a perfect world this amp would have reverb but also in a perfect world it wouldnt need to be carried because it could float and it would be free so im not complaining. GO BUY SOVTEK RIGHT NOW. for the money its the best (not to mention its all tubes)

ill try to make this short and simple.
this amp is basically a marshall jcm 800. its a 100 watts, has low and hi imputs and standard controls (no reverb.
this is a one trick pony. you can coax some decent clean sounds out of it (compared to a marshall, which doesnt say much), but its a bare bones rock and roll amp. im a simple guy, i like my amps simple, so i cant ask for much more. maybe footswitchable reverb? i used this amp at practice a few times, loud levels, has plenty enough power.

im using a les paul standard with this. i play alot of indie rock/punk rock. my main amp is a marshall jcm 800 50 watt, but i had this sitting around and figured id tried it at practice level before i sold it. i was AMAZED at how it sounded. ive always read that the amp came really close to a marshall, but it sounded JUST AS GOOD. i put both of them next to each to really see how they sounded.
i put eqs on both amps at 12 o clock, volume at about 4 and master volume at about 8 or 9.
the sovtek had more pronounced highs and mids, and a really strong midrange. it seemed to cut a bit more than the marshall, and sounded a bit "grindier." what was definately noticeable was that the sovtek when i backed off the guitar volume knob had more headroom. it was a really strong sound, but still clean. the 100 watts probably accounts for this. the sovtek also seemed to have a tad bit more gain/sustain than the marshall.
i plugged in the marshall and i was right. the marshall had a bit more "balls" and didnt have the strong midrange and highs that the sovtek did. when playing with another guitarist, bassist and drummer, the marshall didnt cut QUITE as well, but with a tweek of the mids and highs, sounded a bit better. the marshall seemed to have a bit less gain. also, i have to admit, the marshall has older, unmatched power tubes which can easily change the tone a bit. the sovtek, rated at 100 watts, had a bit more volume and the marshall when the master was turned past 5 didnt get too much louder, but got more saturated. when i knocked off the volume on my guitar, the clean sound wasnt as strong as the sovtek. the sovtek has been used very little and marshall is another 10 years older, and hasnt been serviced much. still i was floored by the small difference in sounds. i would be quite happy with the sovtek over the marshall, especially considering it generally costs 150-200 dollars less.

sovtek is built TOUGH.

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ive been playing for a good 4 years or so, and have gone through many an amp. i definately reccomend this amp to anyone who wants the classic marshall sound. i might buy another one as a backup to my marshall or even replace the marshall and keep the cash! too bad they dont make them anymore.

Hi my name is ROn Dettwiler and I've been using a Sovetek Mig 100 for about 9 years and I also have a mig 50. I believe my mig 100 was made in the early 90's. I got in the used section of a music store for $125.00. Instantly I fell in love with this amp. A first I used the clean sound and ran my Rocktron rack gear through it. I never used the the Hi gain input tube distortion because it doesn't have channel switching and I didn't realize how good it sounded. It has; volume and master volume for overdriving the tubes, bass, mid, treble and presance for the EQ section. But best of all it has a pre amp out. Now I am a recording instructor/engineer at madison media institute technical collage and I use my mig 100 for everything.
I'll run bass, keys, guitar and even prevously recorded track through
my mig 100 using the pre amp out into a red box DI and rerecord it on a different track. It will worm up the sound of anything. I basicly use it as a tube pre amp. If you haven't tried this you've got to. If they put channel switching in this amp it would be a 10.

I used 100s of guitars through it but my 93 les paul studio light sounds the best. If it doesn't have enough distortion for you you can change the tubes. The tubes are rated with a number 1-9. the lower the number the quicker they start to distort and the higher the number the less distortion they will have. But be careful to much distortion will make a good recording sound like crap! So if you are looking for more distortion buy different tubes. As far as self noise it is one of the cleanest sounding amps I've ever heard. Even on the High gain input volume cranked there was almost no noise. I've never had to gate this amp. The low gain input doesn't distort at high volumes and has an incrediblely warm sounding clean sound. After using rack gear for years I switched to just a metal zone and the Mig 100. Then after I retubed my head and started overdriving the tubes using the hi gain input I never used the metal zone again. Since the low gain is so clean and the hi gain sound so good you could use an
A/B switcher to switch Between the low and Hi gain. All in all this is the best sounding amp you can buy for the price.

I did have one problem with the amp. One of the tubes was glowing brighter then the rest and it smelled like it was burnning up. so iI took it to the local shop and they replaced the tubes and he said he changed three resistors and said it will never happen again. so the amp has been modified. The clean sounds the same but the distortion sounded much better. I contributed this to the new tubes but maybe it was the resistors he added. I've never had a problem sence.

I've been playing guitar for 17 years and owned a recording studio for about 4 year. Most of the bands I get in my studio end up using my mig 100 instead of their own amp after the hear it. I love this amp so much that I will have it tell the day I die and maybe I'll have it barried with me along with my less paul!