Sovtek Mig 100H

no effects loop

needs a boost to get really heavy - an sd-1 does the trick just fine - this head likes v30's
it hates g12t75's it sounds like cold harsh muddy ice picks with those speakers even in an x pattern w/ v30's- g12t75"s suck with this head period. - with v 30's it sounds awesome- so guitar + sd-1 or any overdrive/boost you like + mig100h + v30's = awesome metal tone throw in an eq after the overdrive and you can get sick death metal tones- some guys say they use a metal zone in the low input but that is a waste imo this thing boosted kills any distortion pedal they all suck- find a good tube amp and get an overdrive and a eq you will destroy

so far so good seems well built

i'm looking for another one such an awesome tone-the price is going up people are finding out about these things

Made in '94 I believe (at least the serial number starts with 94, so it's a reasonable guess). A friend of mine bought it NOS in '98 or thereabouts and sold it to me about two years ago. I love the fact that it DOESN'T have multi-channels, FX loops, reverb, internal DSP effects or any of that other shite that I don't need or want. The only luxury it has is a master volume & that's enough for me. Here we go again: Bass, Treble, Mid, Presence, Master (power amp)& Volume (preamp gain really). That's all Marshalls had back in the long gone 2203/2204 days when they were good! Works for me (as Hunter used to say).
Unlike the Mig50, it's not possible to blend both channels with a Y cable. If you try to do this it goes by default to the low input channel. It MAY be possible to switch between them with an A/B box (never tried) but I think it would be fairly pointless as there's a MAJOR volume discrepancy between the two inputs. The High input sounds about 15 or 20 dB louder. Ok, the lack of blendability costs it a point, but apart from that it lacks nothing I want and has nothing I don't want. And as for the sound...

In a word, great. The best sounding, most consistent and reliable amp I've ever owned. I play rock'n'roll. The low input is round, fat & warm like an old Superbass I used to have, but better. Sounds incredible with single coil or P-90 guitars and a good OD pedal. The high gain input is the one that gets it compared to the JCM 800 but it's slightly darker & less brittle, which I attribute to the 6L6/5881s. Packs more bass too. The high input is especially suited to humbuckers or P-90s & will start growling with the volume at 10 o'clock. Probably sooner if you use hot pickups. As others have said, this amp is LOUD. I don't think I've ever had the Master past 10 o'clock & that's enough to intimidate the Peavy Triple X kids in the Avril Lavigne baggypants & drive stressed-out soundmen to tears. Turning the regular volume past 1 o'clock just increases the distortion which becomes increasingly preamp-y & buzzy but still cool in it's way. I usually keep it no higher than 10-11 o'clock on the high gain input & use a Boss OD-1 or OD-3 as a boost. It's very pedal friendly too. I've used this amp through an old Marshall 2x12 w/ Vintage 30s & currently through a Matamp 4x12 w/ G12-65s. Hard to get a bad sound & there's not many amps at any price of which that can be said. It's all in here: classic rock, blues, punk, metal, wank-rock, hardcore, grunge, indie, surf, noise even country or rockabilly. It's just up to you to pull it out of it. I have Svetlana 6L6GCs in there at the moment and they're a great match for this amp (w/out biasing!).

Mine has metal switches, but the input jacks and two of the three speaker-out jacks are plastic. I think my friend who owned it before me changed the 16 ohm jack to a metal one. The 8 ohm one is loose but still works. My mate says this is due to the amp taking a dive to the floor during a rowdier than usual gig with the godawful noisecore band he used to play in. Otherwise, not a single scratch on her. I take my hat off.

New Sensor are still ticking away, but Sovtek amps are sadly no longer with us.

I first played through a Sovtek in '98 when the crusty-punk band that my band at the time was sharing a bill with had already set up & let us use their backline for convenience's sake. I saw this strange Russian-made amp (my memory's hazy, but I believe it was a non-H Mig 100) with plastic switches & jacks & cyrillic writing on the front panel and wondered what the hell I was getting into. We weren't mic'ed so I reckoned I'd just crank it & hope for the best. To my amazement, the best was exactly what I got! Later that same year we toured with another band whose guitar player used a regular Mig100 next to which the borrowed JCM900 I was using sounded anaemic. I stopped playing for a few years & forgot all about them until my friend offered to sell me his Mig100H & I jumped at it.
They're so often dismissed as a Marshall clone, but they have their own thing going on too. For all their "limited" features they're a lot more versatile than people give them credit for. I've played on features-laden modern amps & you're lucky if you can get one useable sound out of them (notice I said "useable", not necessarily "good").
I've used or owned numerous Marshalls of various vintages & even the best ones have been erratic & unreliable. My Migs have ALWAYS delivered. If either were lost or stolen I'd replace ASAP. They can still be had for reasonable wedge, though they are going up. The only thing I've seen on today's market with the same 'no-frills' approach would be the Soldano Avenger/Hotrod series, but they'll cost you 3 to 4 times as much, as will a JCM 800 in any condition. So a used Mig is still a good deal as far as I'm concerned. I also have a Mig50 (which is a very different animal) & I'd quite like to get a Mig60 someday (before they crack the 1K barrier).

Very Basic features....Very easy to modify....

Ther is no such thing as a "Clean Channel" here....this amp peels wall paper at levels below "5"!!!....By far one of THE BEST sound hard rock/heavey metal/punk sound you could ever get....I truely mean this....I have played around with Marshalls, Mesa's, Line 6's....etc...adding varities of stomp box's just to find that perfect Metal sound...I Love the guitar tones of the 80's....and there are some of you who know exactly the sound I'm talking about......The Mig's have it....no accessories needed!!

Drop it from your roof...your walkway/driveway will give before the amp!!

Out of business

Can't get enough of this amp....will sell my other 8 amps but never my Migs's

Very good hard rock 100 watt tube amp. Not for blues/country/roots rockers. No effects loop. No reverb. One can get very drastic tonal vibes depending upon which input you choose. I have used this in the studio and on the road. It has stood up strong through both situations. Very loud through one 4x12 for live work.

I use a lefty 75 Fender Strat with original stock pick-ups through the the high input. Sometimes I use a tubescreamer or a treble boost in my live set-up. The amp is a little noisy but I can deal with it. I play hard rock in the vein of early Judas Priest, Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy.... The amp stands up well for what I ask of it. Nice crunch and has a slightly dark singing tone when I go for a lead. The head is run through a 4x12 load with Weber Blue Dogs (30watts) and gives me the the early british metal crunch I love. When the master goes past 3 0'clock things get a little too distorted (sizzling bacon) and the crunch suffers. My set up works well matched with the other guitarist in my band who uses a marshall 800 with a Dean.

Positives: It has a very industrial-like cage as a back
plate. The head has sen a lot of touring and has not let me down. Graet live rig. It can kill on any size stage. Negatives: Rather cheap plastic rings to cover inputs (I replaced the ring for the speaker input.) Knobs are also plastic and little cheap.

I bought the amp on e-bay. No warranty. I have my own amp repair/tech guy who I trust.

I have been rock'in hard for 15 years. Before owning this amp I was primarly playing through fenders(Bassmans , twins)through 4x12. I had a long fetish with the early Ted Nugent wall of Fender sound. The Sovtek is a bit of a departure as it is tighter, more compressed in an early Scorpians way. This is serving me well. I have started running a twin along side with the Mig 100 onstage and have been getting a nice blend.

late model (closer to when they went out of business) because it has a unique block lettering that I've never seen in my interweb travels. I play hardcore/metal/thrash that is very noisy and this amp provides all the raw I need. low and high input although I mostly use the high for it's distortion. I play live in all sized venues and the mig100H works well everywhere. Through a marshall 1960A, it is warm and full sounding (a little bit on the high side) and a good contrast to the other guitarist in my band's mesa dual/mesa cab. The tubes glow and the plastic inputs have had to be replaced.

I play a gordon smith sg copy with kerry king's emg signature pickups (81 bridge, 85 neck, w/pa-2 gain boost). it's quiet in most settings (every room has it's own noise properties), but sometimes feeds back when it shouldn't. This is usually fixed with a few knob turns. The distortion is loud and full, like a tube amp should be. This amp sounds tough.

The previous owner of this head bought it new, played it for six months and then let it sit for 7 years. When I bought it, I took it to a tech who replaced a burnt fuse, capacitor, and re-tubed it. These seem to have been all it needed and it hasn't faltered in a year and a half. No need for a backup. At a show, someone knocked my head off the cabinet and broke the 16 ohm output and the high input. I ended up plugging into the 8 ohm and low input and played the set out with as much distortion as I could muster. It wasn't much, but the fact that the head fell that hard and still worked was impressive. I got the pots replaced (they would only put plastic back on the input because of the ground or something) and it was as good as new. By the way, it weighs a LOT! The transformer is big and heavy.

Apparently, sovtek went out of business. They may still use the name on tubes, but no mas on the amps.

I've been playing for 15 years and also own a epi sg and 5150 block letter head. I would buy another one off e-bay if it were stolen/lost although I've not seen the same lettering in a year of ebay searches. I love the price for sound value of this amp. I love that they are not being made and hard to get a hold of. I love the work horse no bullshit qualities that this amp is overflowing with. I hate that I only have one.

I believe my MIG 100H was produced in '95, because the serial number starts with 95xxx....? This is a very bare-bones amp, but as such, it is one of the most versatile "one trick pony" amps I've ever played--and I have played all the Marshall JCM 800 and 900 series amps. This amp has no channel switching. It has a low and high input. It has the exact same features as a JCM 800 model 2203 100 watt master lead amp. Besides the 2 inputs it features presence, low, mid and high, master and volume(the same as preamp volume). I would like to mention that it is a hand wired amp. 2 of my techs have had opinions about them. The Sovtek amps do have some cheaper elements to them. More about that later.

Like other reviewers before me, I would like to echo the sentiment that if you are looking for a versatile, channel-switching, modeling, technological marvel of an amp that can sound like anything under the sun other than ITSELF, then DON'T BUY THIS AMP. That isn't the point. Go somewhere else, play your barband gigs and play all the cover tunes and market all the hitmaker's songs for free.

But if you are looking for the sublime in tube tone, and you realize that this ciruitry, similar to the Mrashall 2203, is an exercise in simplicity and beauty, you can get real close with this amp--WITHOUT BREAKING THE BANK!

I am playing a CHARVETTE guitar, really a pretty cheap one at that, but it has good passive pickups, SSH, and this amp sounds GREAT with it. I am playing alternative, classic and my own version of Phaser-oriented space rock. This amp is so easy to dial in, the only problem you'll have is settling on one sound. It is a good recording and gigging amp! The volume can be cranked and you get a great preamp distortion and turning the master up gives you the Marshall sound, only BETTER! This is the sound that comes from a modified Marshall. It is that good. Man, only your ears may suffer because this amp has a huge power transformer and it can put out VOLUME to spare. HEADROOM!

It is not noisy at all. If you want a clean sound you can leave the volume down around 9 oclock and crank the master up all the way, and you get a great POWER TUBE distortion and it is cleaner than a Marshall. (I'm sorry, but I have to be honest here, that is easy to do, cleaner than the Marshalls, but the distortion sound is sweeter, so, what's not to like here?)The distortion sound can be anywhere in the area from simply bluesy all the way up to saturated and ready for Metal. This amp stays that way, too. It is strong, and authoritative.

You can depend on this amp to work as long as you aren't being an idiot or drunken stupid and yanking cords out of jacks or tossing it around. As a matter of fact, Marshall, for a while, during the 80's, used the same plastic jacks on their amps! So if you feel that you may end up having problems with that, then you need to change out the plastic jacks ahead of time with metal ones. But if you're careful and responsible with your gear, you should expect NO PROBLEMS! This amp has only played reliably and strongly as long as I've had it.

One note about some of Sovtek's earlier 50 and 60 watt heads I've seen, they have Plastic Switches! This one has metal switches and that is an important quality! Switches will break eventually and they should be metal or wider plastic ones like on the later Marshalls. But this Mig 100H has metal switches.

Well Mike Matthews of Electro-Harmonix is responsible for bringing these amps to USA. He is probably deserving for a "Guitar Hall Of Fame" award simply because from day one, he's been involved with inventing and bringing innovative effects, economically-priced tubes, and now amps to the neighborhood guitarists of the world, at the lowest possible price! I think he deserves a small commission every time a vintage EH pedal is sold for more than it cost new! I have not dealt with them personally but I'll give them a ten because I know they are reachable.

I've been playing guitar, bass, drums and piano for over 20 years. It has been a struggle to remain somewhat proficient but I still find time every now and then to blow out the cobwebs and play. I own some other efx pedals such as a Prophecysound Infinitphase, a Morley Pro Phaser, an Ibanez analog delay and some other stuff, like a Fender Rhodes suitcase piano. I have an Ibanez and a Charvette electric guitar, and some older Ludwig Drums in Mod Orange.

Most boutique items or highly-collectible items would be difficult to replace if stolen. This is a no-brainer. IT is an incredible value, new or used! I would replace it especially if I wanted a workhorse half-stack or full-stack Marshall-type(but make no mistake you can dial this amp in easier) amp.

Marshalls, in my opinion, are the benchmark for a good loud excellent-sounding tube head. Sovteks stack up favorably to the Marshalls, but they are LESS EXPENSIVE. If money matters you should check these out. Also please note: Sovteks are more like an old Marshall pre-1973 because they are hand-wired. They may not have the same quality components and the circuit design may be slightly different. But a hand wired amp is easier to fix, by a technician, and I think they somehow always seem to SOUND BETTER, than their comparable circuit-board-mounted-input-jacks competition!

THIS AMP DOESNT NEED SPECIAL FEATURES. THIS THINGS AMAZING! YOU CAN USE PEDALS AND GET ANY SOUND YOU WANT OUT OF THIS BEAST.

THESE SOVTEK PEOPLE KNOW THEIR SH#t! PEOPLE SAY THIS SOUNDS JUST LIKE A JCM 800....ITS BETTER. MARSHALL TUBE AMPS ALWAYS HAVE A SLIGHT CHANGE OF SOUND WITH UM. IVE PLAYED 3 SOVTEKS AND THEY ALL SOUND DIVINE.

THIS THING IS BUILT LIKE A TANK, EXCEPT WHEN IT COMES TO THE INPUTS. I WAS BEING AN IDIOT AND HAD A SPEAKER CABLE STILL PLUGED INTO THE HEAD AND MY CAB WHEN I PICKED UP MY AMP(DONT DO THIS AT HOME....PERIOD) THE 16ohm INPUT JACK BROKE, BUT THAT ONLY COST ME A COUPLE BUCKS. OTHER THAN ME BEING AN IDIOT THIS AMP IS UNDESTRUCTABLE.

I ACTUALLY WAS TRYING TO FIND A SOVTEK AMP WEBSITE WHEN I STUBBLED UPON THIS PLACE. FOR ANYONE WHO WANTED TO KNOW I WAS GOING TO BY ANOTHER ONE FOR MY OTHER GUITARIST...HE PLAYS A CRAPY CRATE.

YOU CANT FIND BETTER THAN THIS, IF YOU DO WRITE ME, IF ITS A MARSHALL YOUR CLOOSE BUT STILL WRONG.

Although this amp is single channel and sports a very simple 6 knob configuration, this amp is the best i have ever owned. As stated earlier by other users, if you are looking to do some lame channel switching for your cover band that plays everything from ska to the latest P-Diddy single, go buy a crappy crate or someother garbage. This amp is just meant for straight-up warm rock tone.

I use Gibson Les Paul standards exclusively, however i have tried some teles and a 335 Dot through this amp. All guitars produce a different tone, but none of them are anything less than great. The Les Paul is my weapon of choice and with this amp has never done me wrong.

This thing is built like a tank! Those Russians were never very successful at building tanks to roll over American troops, so i guess they used the old parts on building some solid amps.

No customer support.... Sovtek amps are no-more.

Overall, i bougth this thing for $200 and it was the best money ever spent. A fraction of the cost of many lousy amps on the market today. Find one of these on ebaY and you will not be dissappointed.

I give this amp a 9 because... QUIT SOBBING PEOPLE! This amp was built to mimic a jcm 800. Thats all the Russians did. Build Kodak camera replicas and guitar amp replicas.. and many more. No bull. Just volume, basic tone settings and go. If you want to switch between channels, go buy a marshall mg-pos. I use a volume pedal and i can play clean AND get many different sounds JUST WITH THE VOLUME PEDAL. Its weird when you actually know how to play an instrument huh?

what guitar do i use? Gibson SG standard and a teisco spectrum 4. Sometimes borrow my other guitar players Tele. Let me tell you that it sounds very different with each guitar. It works perfect for rock music because its tone is incredible. My band is experimental hardcore, perhaps grindcore and people are crapping themselves to ask me about my amp. It definitely can make a sound of its own, or you can junk the settings and make it sound like an 800 or a jcm 900.

People argue that the mig 100's are built better. Ive played a regular 100 and it broke down after a full checkup. Im sure it was fluke and they are built better. The 100 H that i have now has been great to me for over 2 years. I think its just the luck of the draw. But if you get a good one. Its priceless. Ive never burnt out a tube or shot sparks or anything. Works every night.

You can't deal with the company. No longer in business. This was ebayed.

Ive been playing for about 5 years. Ive gone through every model of the Migs except for the mig 50 which a friend had and i didnt like it as much. Ive played through jcm 900s 800s 2000s and mesa boogie rectifiers. This one most resembles the jcm 800, but really has its own incredible tone. Id buy this amp again in a heartbeat. People who hate it are either 13 and dont know how to maintain or use an amp and should then be directed to the Crate section, or they just really wanted to fulfill their dream of sounding just like underoath and every other late night M2 band.

Its a single channel master volume amp. Its all listed below. Its got everything it needs.

I also have a Mig100U which is a better built but sound quality they are about the same. This one has more gain, but it's still not a "Metal" sound like it can be made out to be. With high output humbuckers or a clear boost in front of it, you can crank it to 3 O clock plus and get some old school thrash.

Very quiet, very warm clean. Is a fantastic amp to run pedals into. Since it is so warm it makes those transistors in front of it come alive.

Anyone who has every played a Sovtek will tell you it is an amazing sounding amp. That is unless they will down on anything other than their thing.

Built like the proverbial brick sh*t house. Here is where two points get knocked.

My Mig100U on the inside is worthy of art. It truly is amazing. Built like a $3000 boutique amp. Looks alot like the first few years of HiWatt. All the wires are tied in the most amazing way, they all run straight and make 90 degree bends. It truly is beautiful.

The H model built a few years later is not the same at all. Its a rats nest compared. Of course if it doesn't affect the sound, it really doesn't do much to the reliablity. I took away a point, because with their older techniques the wires had he extra support of the others.

The second point comes from the plastic jacks. The nuts always seem to get loose and fall off. Replace them. If they were all metal, I would probaly bump it up to a ten.

Sovtek is New Sensor, and they are a great company. Be nice and you will get more than you want. I talk to them alot about mods and parts.

Overall a ten, fantastic amps.