Sovtek Mig 50

Two Inputs: Input I-great for deep melodic chording and Input II-great for classic gain. 2 Volume knobs, treble, middle, bass and presence. Not too sure when the amp was made (probably 1995), I bought it on ebay. For the style of music that I play, this amp is perfect. I love that there are not a whole lot of "tricks" to this amp, you just plug in and play. This is a 50 watt all tube "monster"! No channel switching, effects loops or anything like that, but I don't need them since I use pedals and effects.

One word...LOUD!! I use an Ibanez AX-120 (w/stock humbuckers)and a Fender Squire Strat(w/single coils) and I run the amp through a new Marshall 1936 2X12 celestion cabinet. Like I said, this is perfect for my musical style which is a blend of alternative, classic rock and punk, but by no means heavy metal. However, in practices, I have noticed that this amp accomplishes that sound! As you increase the volume (past 5), you achieve a great lead overdrive on either input, and one necessarily may not need to use a pedal. However, there is some static when I adjust the knobs. There are no separate channels on this amp, just two different inputs, which is ok with me.

Looks pretty reliable, I heard Sovtek makes their equipment built like a heavy duty Russian tank!! If it were ever to break down, any technician could easily repair it. This is just one great and simple amp. Never gig without a backup...

Sovtek is out of business (now called Electr-Harmonix), but I heard that you may not need them since this amp is pretty tough. I guess the ending of the Cold War took care of that...

I have been playing for about 8 years now and I own 2 other amps: Peavey Rage and a Crate GX-65 (total crap). I currently use a Digitech RP-6 for effects and a Boss DS-1 for overdrive, since the RP-6 has such crappy distortion. Pretty soon I will get rid of the RP-6 and set up a loop of effects incorporating both inputs on the amp. If this amp were stolen, I would definitely be pissed because these are hard to find since there are no more being manufactured. I would search to find another one, because for the money, this amp can't be beat! My suggestion: if you hate the fact that everyone says that in order to get a great rig you must spend thousands of dollars, than this amp is for you. It emulates a classic Marshall and a Fender Bassman perfectly-for about a third of the cost! Think outside the box and be creative in your efforts when pursuing your perfect rig!!

See below

Sounds great especially at loud volume.

Seems very reliable.

Called tony bruno to ask what tubes he`d recomend. He charges $15 dollars for ten min of consoltation.I hung up but it probubly would have been $15 dollars well spent.

I saw this at a Music go round store for $135 so I bought it. This amp just wants to be cranked. Forget od pedals or effects just put on 8 and have at it. I`ve been using this with a old 70`s legend cab with 2 30 watt celestions and it sound pretty amazing.I bought a cheap Rolls pan vol pedal so I can use both channels at once or pan between the two.This is a very versitile option try it you`ll like it.I would definitly buy another one of these I have a seymor duncan convertible that I use with all my effects but this amp just wants to be left alone.

Why the vintage amp crowd have not taken to the mig 50 is beyond me, This amp is simply THE number ONE all tube amp value on the market, barr none. I see mig 50s selling for under $200 all the time, ARE YOU KIDDING ME. This thing sounds better then just about every amp Iv'e ever owned. i had a 63 bassman that sounded terrific,The bassman cost me $500 and I was happy to pay that but you can pay $150-$200 and have an amp the rivals ANY 50 watt non master tube amp on the market.You gotta be crazy not to buy one. The right tubes, bias and speakers will make an already great sounding amp into an amp that will compare with any amp on the planet. It's not hype. I have yet to hear a negative word about the mig 50 from poeple who own them.

Considering the unbelievable low price, I'll rate every catagory a 10 and even if these things sold for over $500 used, I would be giving out 8 and 9's.

The Sovtek MIG-50 is a wonderfully simple head with simple controls and more tone varieties than what many may think. The two inputs, CAEAAHO and POCCNN are really diverse (in case you don't get it, the input labels are in Russian). The first input is basically the 'Normal' input, while I find it chronically deep and resonant. The second, 'Bright' input is my main use. It has a beautiful balance between all frequencies, no matter what the three band equalizer is set at. Playing clean tones through input one is very mysterious and dark, which is perfect for subtle jazz or melodic chording. Input two is simultaneously sweet and sharp, perfect for playing any style into. The opposite of channel one, heavily distorted sounds (by Boss) on channel two are absolutely tight and compressed on the wound strings, but when your fingers glide up past the twelfth fret, the notes seem to be singing out as if you had flipped your proverbial compressor off. The equalizer is nicely executed in the usuable frequencies and provide a plethora of variable tones when using external boxes. The presence control is a wonderful little tool to help you range from rhythm to lead. The three output jacks are great because of their extreme high quality and ease of use (they're idiot proof). All in all, there are no lovely little features you might find on today's Marshalls, but for understated simplicity and versatility, this amp takes the cake.

Well, I got ahead of myself in the features section and began explaining the sounds that the Sov produces. So here are some more. I like to experiment with my music (kind of a progressive, melodic, yet modern blend of every type of pop music from jazz to death metal....look for the band Manifold) so I've found some sweet little features you can do to make the Sov sound awesome. What I do is go through my chain of pedals and when I hook them up in the right order, I get the sound I want and plug the terminal end of that chain into input two. Now here's the neat part...I take one of the pedals that has a separate Effect and Clean outs. Obviously the effect out continues in the chain, but I plug another cable into the clean out and pop that into input one. What this does is create a beautiful aura of balanced sound that can be modulated indefinitely with whatever pedals or imagination you have. Here's one example. I take my guitar's output and go into a Crybaby, which goes into a Digitech Whammy/Wah (this is where the output thing comes into play) and set that pedal to have a one octave lower harmony. The effected out goes into a Boss OS-2 Distortion and into input two. The clean out goes into input one. Now I turn the channel two volume low, and keep channel one volume slightly higher and play Led Zeppelin's Black Dog. It sounds so classic yet high tech and modern. hehehehehe.
If you learned to play guitar on a cheap solid state and grew attached to the sounds created by your stompboxes, take your floor setup and plug it into a Sovtek. The sound quality is through the roof and your tone will impress the most critical of crowds. Any style of music (more defense for the stomp box theory) sounds excellent depending on what you keep on the floor. I play a Nighthawk through it and into four Sheffield twelve inch speakers. Also, an SG with any old distortion box on high gain echoes of such classic tones as anything off of Weezer's Blue Album and when you flip off the fuzz, some old Who tones can be found. Even acoustics can sound great through input one or two (careful about feedback with that though) and basses sound soooooo sweet, but lack the low frequency thump of real bass amps. The amp is not noisy, but if you find it to be the opposite, it is the fault of your cables or pedals. You can find this out by taking the best cable you own and plug right right into the second input.

The amp has been very reliable except for one instance where it faded out as if someone was rolling back a volume pedal. I simply thumped the top with my fist and it rolled back up to full volume. Hmmm. Even after a few three foot drops, nothing is out of place.

Wouldn't know who to call.

I've practically summed what I feel is necessary information. For over a year, this amp has been a great companion in the basement and on the stage and Marshalls with their 'Tone Shift' and 'Virtual Power Reduction' garbage simply don't compare to the simple versatility and greatness of this Russian made wonder. I would search from Vladivostok to Leningrad to find a new Sovtek MIG-50 and pay four times as much. There are mainstream amps out there that everyone wants a piece of, but there are always a select few that are a cut above the rest. The Sovtek is one of those select few. There are better sounding amps out there...but if you have bills to pay and names like Soldano or Hiwatt are on your 'dream' list...the little Sovtek is a great buy.

45 watt all tube amp. im a tube man and i use tube amps. sovtek is very underrated. ive owned a mig 100 that i got for 250 and this amp which i bought for about 200. both very clean amps. especially the mig 100, taking its power into consideration. ive yet to try any of the sovtek amps that are said to be more "high gain" (such as the h models). has two 5881's (sovtek of course). it has seperate imputs for 4, 8 and 16 ohm cabs. two imputs, high and low, just like a bassman, which it is said to be modelled after. its a little smaller than the head though. i play quiet low fi indie rock to punk rock/ hardcore to grind metal stuff. this amp wont do the heavy stuff as well as it does well for the softer stuff i play, which it is perfect for. i like a clean amp and this breaks up about half way which is great since it is a perfect volume for what i play when "gigging." i havent tried, but im sure that under the low imput, bass would sound great. i know through the low imput on my sovtek mig 100 my bass sounded fantastic. give it a try. no seperate eq's for the channel but it sound good anyhow (in the rare case you were a-b'ing the chanells).a really basic amp. im a very simple guitar player, i wouldnt ask for anything else on this amp except maybe a naked woman or something.

i use a 72 gibson sg standard. great guitar. not a noisy amp. sometime i use the high channel, sometimes the low, depending on the weather. has a bluesy touch to it. sounds nice and fat and warm and great. very articulate. sounding, very TUBEY. no real distortion, talthough i use a boss blues driver and sometimes a boss overdrive pedal, and max out the gain and volume to get get roaring gain. basically this just pushes the tubes to obvilion. sounds really good but could use a compressor maybe? i wouldnt reccomend this amp to any metal players, maybe it could pull off punk rock but definately blues/ rock/ hard rock.

i bought it used and took it home, played on it for 10 minutes and blew a transformer. it kept blowing fuses immediately as i turned the amp on, as a result so i took it to get it ixed for 50 bucks or so. but it was worth it. this amp is very compact, and is very reliable. it must be those tough russian guys.

sovtek is very helpful. cheap parts, cheap amps, especially coming from russia.

ive been playing for about 5 years. i have a marshall valvestate can i use with this. im loading it with higher wattage celestions soon and building my own cab with some cheap eminence 12's. im also buying a marshall jcm 800 and a-b'ing from the sovtek to the marshall for clean clean to distortion distortion. sounds like alot of stuff but it will be relatively cheap and ill get the best of both worlds. to avoid the equipment overload, the only other amp id buy for both clean and distortion channels on my budget is a mesa boogie dc series amp, which supposedly goes from shimmering clean to roaring "rectifier-like" distortion. great amp. i reccomend! (on ebay of course!) any advice on an affordable way to acheieve a total distortion/ total clean sound would be great.

This amp is basically cloned from the 59' fender Bassman. Most people know they are made in Russia but do not know American boutique amp guru Tony Bruno (http://www.brunoamps.com/) did the circuit design. His custom amps regularly sell for $2000 and up from there.
The features and wattage are basically the same as the Bassman. This amp has none of that tone sucking crap like gain channels or god forbid master volume. Very similar to boutique amps that sell for 10 times the price of it. And that is no exaggeration. The design is also close to the original Marshall JCM-45 (No master volume or gain channel) which was Jim Marshall's Bassman rip-off/enhancement.

I play blues and hard core jazz fusion with a smattering of classic rock for old times sake and this amp covers of those styles well. Get's noisy above 5 on the volume pot but man does it have "the tone".
Not much clean head room with my Gibson, quite a bit more with my Strat. To repeat, the tone on this amp rivals most "boutique type" amps.

Does not appear to be the heaviest duty amp in the world but I have had no problem with it so far. I beat on it pretty hard from time to time. It uses two 5881 power tubes and I have not had to replace them yet.

Never needed to use it. Hope I don't ever have to call Russia! ;-)
The good news is that it is a very easy amp to repair for any decent amp tech.

I have been playing semi-professionally for 20 years. In other words I hold a steady day job. My main axes are a 1968 Reissue Fender Strat and a Gibson ES-135. I also have a Blues Jr. amp and a Marshall.

A "featureless", reverbless, loopless screamer. It has and sounds like 50 watts. Good power for "any" club.

I play Strats with SC pick-ups. The amp has good lows and a nice round sound. I play Blues (30 years). It get noisy above 5 but who cares, it just Blues. It is a good clean amp too, sounds a lot like a Bassman but a little louder. It screams at high volumes.

Haven't had it long but I'm sure it's simple enough to fix. Bob Dylan once sang,"you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows." I'd turn it over to a TV repairman with a heavy accent if it broke.

Know nothing about the company. They probably made land mines during the cold war.

Been playing a loooong time. I'd but it again but a Bassman would do as well. It doesn't really lack anything I need. I use it with a Peavey Rockmaster.

This Amp is bone simple. the way it was meant to be. No reverb, effects loop, or any garbage. Plug in and rock. I give it a ten not because its "Very versatile", but because its all you need to rock.

Friggin Marshall JCM 800 50 watt clone. So great.

I broke a damn jack the first practice. This is no good. But I took it in to the greatest guitar tech ever, BILLY ZOOM of X fame. www.billyzoom.com

When its fixed Ill play it without a backup.

For Sovtek? Yeah right...

A buddy of mine who SWEARS by Marshall 100 watt heads took one listen to this, looked at me and said, you paid HOW MUCH? Nuff said. I play punk/rock and roll with this bad boy and a Les Paul....rock and roll. Buy this amp.

The amp was made in Russia and it does many kinds of music it goes from country to metal it doesn't have channel switching but i don't care the only thingi wish it had was a deffonite gain or distortion knob butit does it when you turn 2 of the knobs up

I use a strat copy and i usually play Clapton and Pink Floyd there is a wide variety of sounds that can be made and i think otheres that think otherwise don't have much taste in good amps this beats out all fender and many marshall combos given that it isn't a combo it doesn't get a really high distortion but if you want it a DANELECTRO distortion pedal will do the trick

It is the most reliable amp i've seen never had anythng happen to it and i'm hard on my equiptment

i don't speak russian

I've been playig for 2 years and have had this amp for 5 months it is the equivalent and 5 times better then a fender bassma this amp is
biggest bang for the bucki would definantly buy this one again

Mine is an older Mig-50, with presence misspelled (presense!?) - same features as mentioned above - 2 channels, no master volume, treble, mid, bass, and the aforementioned "presense" control. Contrary to what some have said, you can use both channels at once for a really nice blending of the two - just hook an A-B box that allows both A and B at the same time, and start dialing. I love it's sound - really raw, but not in a shitty Stooges kind of way. Everyone who hears it comments that it is really distinctive. Power-wise, I think I play too loud anyway, so it's probably good that it doesn't have more. It's plenty powerful, really.

I use two G&L ASATs and a crappy strat copy with this amp - the ASATs sound great, really bright and full, not too twangy. The strat sounds okay, but I think that has more to do with the guitar than the amp. I'm into experimental-noise, improv-y stuff and more refined pop, and it does double-duty in two very different bands and works out great. I use a turbo rat and tubescreamer a lot, but I do notice that clean sounds do break up at high volumes - especially if you run both channels simultaneously.

I use it without a backup amp all the time - never had a problem at a gig. It's been repaired and/or modded three times - the repairs were due to neglect (didn't change the tubes) and stupidity (let some kid use it who had both channels cranked for a few hours - asshole!). Otherwise, super-reliable.

dunno - I've always had a local guy work on it. He says it's his favorite amp because it's so simple to mod and get great sounds.

I almost bought a second one when Musician's Friend was clearing out their stock. I don't know why I didn't - I'd love to have another. For the money and sound quality, and if you're looking for a more individual sound, it's a great buy.