Versatile, Great for any genre and any use case!

I've coveted this head for months and finally picked one up. Though there may be a couple caveats depending on what your needs are, this head mostly lives up to the hype. Although it falls slightly short on "tube sound", it basically nails the reactivity of a tube amp. The waters are a little muddy on this amp in terms of "what kind" of amplifier it is. It is NOT a modeling amplifier (per se). The input (preamp) stage is analog, with digital fx and tone stack and an analog class A/B power section. It is neither all digital nor all analog. Also, the 100W rating actually roughly translates to the loudness of a 100W all-tube amp. Can get up to around 110 dB if used with a 4x12!

PROS - INEXPENSIVE! Punches way above it's price point! - Versatile; With or without the Tone Studio, it can do any genre, and is good for any use (Beginner/practice, recording, gigging) - Rugged and portable, 20 lbs, seems pretty solidly built - Built in 5" speaker, while not the greatest (especially for low tunings) is probably the handiest feature; if you are a broke beginner you can get this head without a cab and use it as a practice amp. It will grow with you. - Power attenuation to achieve poweramp saturation at lower volumes - Kept simple with only 4 basic amp types, all of which sound great

CONS - Hums like a MOTHERF*CKER (This could just be my setup and there is a noise gate if you use BTS, but higher thresholds kill your pick attack. I find using a moderate gate setting in BTS in conjunction with Ggate in my DAW (Reaper) helps a lot. I think it could be the pickups on my guitar, though (See my review for the Epiphone Flying V Goth) - Footswitch costs additional $; Annoying when you consider that you can get a Bugera G5 for cheaper and it comes with a basic footswitch; basically the only big con in terms of the value of the unit - Top mounted controls are super frustrating. This is partially mitigated by the fact that BTS can control any knob / parameter except for Master Volume and the power attenuator. This could be a pro, though, if you place it on top of a 1x12 on the floor and sit on a chair. - Some of the effects seem to glitch out, but only if extreme parameters are used.

NEUTRAL - BRIGHT! I use a 24.75" scale with .068 - .013 strings and muddy pickups tuned to B standard / Drop A and am obsessed with keeping a tight low end. I still have to gouge the presence right out and generally keep the treble below noon. A dark, bassy cab, long cable runs, etc may mitigate this. - Volume (seperate from Master) is saved per tone setting. This gets really annoying / jarring when switching tones, but I imagine you could tweak it so that your br00tal high gain tones and completely clean tones are relatively even in volume, depending on other parameters. Just something to keep note of.

Overall, I regret my purchase not one bit and would recommend this head to almost anyone. If they charged around $1k, I'd only give it 3 Stars, but for $499 CAD, I don't think even a tube snob could go wrong with this amp. The extreme value is also why, despite it's flaws, I stand by my 5 star rating. Some people say that this amp dethrones a $3k+ Marshall / Mesa with over $1k in pedals - this is hyperbolic BS (unless you are talking about value, in which case it annihilates). But if solid state technology keeps progressing at this rate, it will be 10 years before this is reality.

One of the best

I was skeptical because it solid state, but I have been able to get so many different signature tones out of this. 80s, blues, high gain metal. Artists tones like Zeppelin, Van Halen, Joan Jett. You name the style or artists and you can replicate that sound with this amp. You can even playing in unplugged from a speaker. Though the built in speaker sounds like ass.

Great Head!

Great Head, can do anything from amazing cleans to metal