pmcbrine

This 5 watt amp head is NOT all tube as you'd be lead to believe; There is a pair of OP -Amps directly after the input that are engaged when you select the drive mode. Even with this fact the Amp has a nice clean sound, a KILLER drive sound, is light and the included soft bag. It can be stubborn with some pedals as there is no effects loop or preout/powerin jacks. I have it paired with a H&K tubemeister 112 cab (Vintage 30 Speaker [the 5 doesn't have enough power to drive the spreaker to its fullest} ). I HAVE gigged this with my band ( punky alternative blues rock.) with a loud drummer and it did the job alright. To be heard over the drums It had to be turned all the way up and have the drive boost engaged. For the songs we were doing that night the sound of the cranked amp didnt sound to bad but in most settings this would NOT sound good: really harsh shrill top end and and a sort of slightly scooped mid. However if you were to mic this amp or even use a DI (such as the H&K REDBOX DI built on to the amp) you'd be fine, assuming you could have monitors as this won't keep up with stage volume. Spend sometime with the EQ. The treble control is controls both treble & prescence and the bass control controls both Bass & Resonance. I can see this amp being more of a studio amp, where you don't need a lot of loud clean headroom and want more crunchy tones. it is 5 watts. wattage does not equal volume. a 100 watt amp is only 3db Louder than a 50 watt amp. this is by no means an amp you can just crank in a bedroom. All in all it is a nice piece of gear but I wouldn't recommend the 5 watt vers. to others. The 18watter is MUCH nicer and doesn't cost THAT much more.