I keep running across mention of the Pignose 7-100 portable guitar amp. It runs off of six AA batteries or a power adapter cord. It It;s a 5 watt amp with a 5" speaker.
Does anyone have any experience with this amp? What do you think? The price is reasonable, but is it a good amp?
Thanks
Tom T
Replies
I always enjoy videos from beetle juice. However, it does bring up a weakness in the pig nose. In order to get that sound you have to employ bathroom reverb. And.........to get some gain you have to turn it way up. Much easier when you have gain and reverb settings on the amp itself settings.
That said, I do like the pig nose. I like it a lot. I just like the Roland Micro Cube GX more.
Agree. The Pig is fun, and bathrooms, subways and cathedrals can supply much needed reverb. Cranking it to get the crunch can annoy the neighbors or wife.
So, short of moving or trading in spouses, the Micro Cube is a relatively cheap alternative with lots to recommend it.
It IS THE BEST AMP for cigar box guitar
Check out some of the videos I have done with one visit radio-guitar-amps.com
Pignose 7-100 is a good amp but a one trick pony. It has "clean" sound, and if you turn it up a lot you get "distortion". I like this amp, but it is limited. A much better choice at twice the price is Roland Micro Cube GX. It has lots of various controls and has onboard "modeling". Battery lasts much longer in the GX than in the Pignose. Sweetwater.com currently has the Roland Micro Cube GX for $150.00 delivered. I have a white one and it looks and sounds impressive.
Depends on what your definition of a good amp is. The Pignose is fine, but it's an old design, and a modern battery powered amp such as the Roland MicroCube will knock it clean out of the water. The Pignose has the advantage of being smaller and lighter than the Roland, and looks cool, but after that the Roland outscores it on every count. The Pignose has one sound but the MicroCube has 6 different voicings (plus a mic setting), effects, tone control, line out, aux in...and it runs on mains power or 6 x AA batteries.
There are other modern battery amps from people like Vox and Line6, but the MicroCube is so much easier to use and get an acceptable sound out of. I also have a Pignose 20, which I loved...until I got the MicroCube. I really isn't in the same league as the modern stuff, sad to say.
Thanks for taking the time to provide so much infor, John. If it's the same Roland that made my piano, then I'm sure it is a quality piece.
I'll check out the MicroCube.
Yeah, the Pignose is a good amp. It's also a great pre-amp, since it can be connected to an external speaker cabinet, or a mixing board for studio recording. Plus, it has that super cool pig nose volume knob. If you can get one for a decent price, jump on it. There's one listed on Ebay right now, current bid is $31 USD...which is much better than the $100-150+ prices they often go for.
Keep in mind that the term "good amp" is relative to the listener's ears and preferences. What sounds good to one person with one type of guitar may and often will sound different to another person with another guitar. Imho, a good idea is to visit a local music shop and try out a few amps with your own guitar in hand, to see what get's you groovin".
Thanks Scott.
I figure a 5" speaker is likely to sound pretty raw which isn't necessarily a bad thing with a CBG.A Piezo should put plenty of power into the amp. Wouldn't take much to over-drive the amp and get into some distortion.
I've seen them down around $75 from Sweetwater and will check out the ebay listing. But your suggestion to try one out makes a lot of sense.