ilovefuzz.com

I just picked up a practically new one from a friend of a friend for $150.

I took it home and managed to rig it up through the speakers in my Hotrod Deville (4x10) and a bunch of pedals. After turning it on, letting it warm up, and screwing with the EQ for, oh, three seconds, my jaw hit the floor. What an amazing sound for a $150 Chinese made, 5 watt amp!!!

I was able to get a considerable amount of low end, clarity, and clean headroom at generous volume levels on the 5w setting, and switching to the 3w setting lowered the total output (duh) and put me in a cool gritty place. It sort of sounds like a Fender pushed pretty hard. Not bad at all!! Very usable sound. It's not "Coils of the Serpent" or anything like that, but closer to Funk 49 or something.

Back to 5w; the Little Giant + Marshall Shredmaster clone + Nova Delay + Strat = David Gilmour. I'm totally serious. I know you guys aren't into that kind of thing here at ILF, but I really think you would all agree it sounds pretty good if you heard it first hand. Oh, it ROARS being pushed by the Shoegazer into power tube distortion.

I know a lot of you guys have Fender style amps, many of which allow you to unplug you speaker(s) from you amp (and use them with something else!!). You wouldn't even need a cabinet. If you find a Blackheart BH5H Little Giant for a good price (even at the GC or whatever price, it's worth it) check it out. It's way cheaper than a Klon Centaur.

Oh, and I'm in no way affiliated with Crate or Blackheart. Just a tone lover on a budget.

Cheers, Fuckers.

-Brettski

P.S.- Some people on the interwebs say the logo is homosexual ("dude, that's GAY"). I need this to be substantiated by the experts...Interiorleague? I didn't feel like any part of this amp was grabbing for my junk in any way.

Nice score. I've actually heard a lot of positive things about the blackhearts.
I've got a crate v50 as a backup amp and I love the cleans on it. Fender fanboys be damned.

damned...

i'm totally with you brettski! i've had the little giant for almost 2 years now, i was lucky enough to score one when they first came out. to this day, it still hasn't let me down. the amp really does take well to some new tubes too. (i'm using JJs)

plus the company totally hooked me up with a case of free jones soda!

iamthesnow wrote:i'm totally with you brettski! i've had the little giant for almost 2 years now, i was lucky enough to score one when they first came out. to this day, it still hasn't let me down. the amp really does take well to some new tubes too. (i'm using JJs)

plus the company totally hooked me up with a case of free jones soda!

NOICE!!! I'm gonna swap out them tubes too. I have JJs in my Deville and they sound great. I can get EHX tubes for real cheap. Any thoughts on them?

Good to hear this little guy's treated you well!

To my ears the JJs give me a bit more high end clarity (i love them sparkly tonez) than the EHX but they're both a good bet and sound well rounded with the amp. I use the EHX in my epi valve jr instead. although I must say the stock el84 works just fine, I only replaced it 'cause I'm picky.

I also tried a groove tube's gold and silver series aswell... gold had a lot of gain but seemed to lose definition especially with the highs, and silver didn't have as much gain but was rather dull sounding.

I've got a NOS 5751 on the way so i'll let you know how that goes in a few days.

Yeah, def keep me posted. I don't wanna pay groove tube prices. EHX Ruby and JJ are more my speed. I'm gonna give the EHX a try. I hear changing the tubes makes the Lil Giant pretty awesome.