Review:Blackheart Little Giant 5 112 amp

[terrapin]

I recently ordered this little amp and several people asked that I review it after I got to know it, so here it is...

In a word.............Impressive...........It is a 5-watt Single Ended Class A tube amp powered by a 12AX7 in the preamp and a EL84 in the power section. Mine is a combo with a specialy designed 12" Eminence speaker. They also make a head version.

Here is a link to the site for more technical info:

http://www.blackhearteng.com/bh5112.html

I am using it with an American Standard Hardtail Strat with a Fulltone Fulldrive 2 pedal in front..........

So simple to dial in GREAT tone immediately. Tone controls to 12'clock. Using it initially without the Fulltone it produced great sounds in both the Triode (5-watt) and pentode (3-watt) positions. The triode is definitely more aggressive, but both can roar as well as play nice gently overdriven clean sounds. I find it best to set the amp at about 1/2 volume and use the guitar volume to do the rest, but I am still experimenting.

With the Fulltone up front it becomes a BEAST!!! Rich, deep overdrive OR even more buttery slightly overdriven cleans depending on how I set the Fulltone.

I truely think this little amp could "hang" well with a band in a smaller room without being overpowered by drums... The ULTRA cool thing is the 4 speaker outs.1X16 OHMs, 2X8 OHMs and 2X4 OHMS. I have two friends who also own this amp and one of them uses it to power a Mesa Boogie 2X12 loaded with Celestion 30 Watt Greenbacks and he says it is 'Incredible".

I don't want to go on and on......so that is it in a nutshell. At some point I think I will trade out the tubes for Groove Tubes equivalents. Otherwise this is perhaps the best and financially painless amp purchase I have ever made.

PM me if you have questions.

[Glennwillow]

Thanks Russ for a great review! I'm going to have to look into that one of these days.

- Glenn