There’s nothing more satisfying than playing your favorite licks and riffs through a 100-watt stack, cranked to the max. The trouble is — unless you’re playing a stadium or own a mansion in the middle of nowhere — the resulting volume is a no-no. The majority of soundmen in bars and clubs will insist you turn down, and your neighbors will probably call the cops! And the same is true for recording at home or in a budget studio too. Even a 50-watt Marshall half stack turned up to a Spinal Tap–approved “11” is just too darned loud.
Yes sir, indignant cries of “turn that darned thing down” have been a thorn in the side of guitar players ever since the very first guitar amp was made. As a result, smart amp makers have addressed this age-old problem by coming up with low-wattage heads that deliver the tone and feel you desire at both stage-worthy and also bedroom-friendly volumes. And, compared to their bruiser big brothers, they’re space-savingly small and back-savingly light!
To help you get a better handle on the features and benefits of these tiny titans, we persuaded our Sweetwater Sales Engineers to submit their picks for the 12 best mini heads that Sweetwater offers. Here are the resulting favorites — including a few “not-head” surprises — and some of the many things our experts love about them.
IMPORTANT NOTE: They are in no specific order!
12 Best Mini Heads
- Mesa/Boogie Mini Rectifier
- Marshall SC20H Studio Classic
- EVH 5150III LBXII
- ENGL Ironball SE
- Revv G20
- Blackstar HT20RH MKII
- Marshall 2525H Mini Silver Jubilee
- Friedman BE-Mini
- BOSS Katana-Head MkII
- Bogner Ecstasy Mini
- Quilter Labs InterBlock 45
- Orange Pedal Baby 100
Mesa/Boogie Mini Rectifier
Mesa Rectifier amps have been a staple of hard rock for the best part of three decades. Weighing in at a mere 12 lbs., please welcome the Mesa/Boogie Mini Rectifier to the stage. This tichy tube head is built like a tank, has two independent channels, and a buffered effects loop. Each channel can be set to a gig-worthy 25 watts or be dialed down to 10 watts via a switch.
Marshall SC20H Studio Classic
The Marshall SC20H tube head is the baby brother of the famous Marshall JCM800 2203 — the amp that dominated metal in the ’80s. The eye-catching SC20H is a no-nonsense, 1-channel, Master Volume brute that delivers 20 watts of gutsy power. It can be dropped to a bedroom-friendly five watts too. The SC20H also has an effects loop and a DI output for live or recording use.
EVH 5150III LBXII
The legendary name of Edward Van Halen is synonymous with great tone, so it will come as no surprise that the diminutive dervish that is the EVH 5150III LBXII head is a tonal monster. Armed with both a clean and a delightfully dirty crunch channel, this tiny tube amp’s 15 watts are perfect for most gigs. And at home, its 1/4 power switch gives you 3.5 watts of great low-volume rock. It also has an effects loop and a rear-panel Resonance control for added low-end girth, should you need it.
ENGL Ironball Special Edition
According to the fine folk over at ENGL, the Ironball SE was conceived and then designed as “the missing link between the analog and digital worlds.” They also make it crystal-clear that, despite all its digital features, the Ironball SE remains an all-tube head with no semiconductors in its all-important signal path. This 20-watt, German-made, “lunch box”–style head has two footswitchable channels — Clean and Lead — spiced up with a myriad of modern features including a built-in noise gate, digital reverb, digital delay, a tube-buffered series effects loop, onboard IRs, power reduction, MIDI switching, and more. This all said, the Ironball SE is easy to use, so don’t let its seemingly complex feature set intimidate you!
Revv G20
The Sweetwater-exclusive purple Revv G20 — also available in black.
If the Revv D20 head turned your head, then the G20 will drop your jaw! The mini delivers the molten tube tones of Revv’s much-acclaimed Purple Channel with a whole bunch of cool features that add to its flexibility and user-friendliness. These include a Wide switch, three Aggression levels, a buffered series effects loop, power-reduction circuitry, and — if all that’s not enough — it houses Two Notes’ Torpedo technology, so no cabinet is necessary! And, as further icing on this already tasty cake, the stunning purple finish shown above is a Sweetwater exclusive! Nice . . .
Blackstar HT20RH MKII
The Blackstar HT20RH MKII 20-watt tube head is a 2-channel affair that includes built-in digital reverb. The channels each have voicing switches, and the company’s unique Infinite Shape Feature (ISF) control adds further to the amp’s tonal possibilities. It can go down to two watts with a mere button push and includes speaker-emulated output options too. An MP3/Line input allows you to jam along to your favorite songs, and there’s a USB output for recording too.
Marshall 2525H Mini Silver Jubilee
The original Marshall Jubilee 100-watt head was released in 1987 to celebrate the company’s 25th anniversary. It is now the stuff of legend, thanks to famous users such as a top-hat-wearing guitarist known as Slash. The twin-channel, tube-driven Marshall 2525H Mini Silver Jubilee offers the same look and tone of the original but in a much smaller 20-watt head. This British-built brute also has an effects loop plus a low-output switch that knocks it down to a mere 5 watts — welcome to the jungle, indeed!
And now for something completely different . . .
Sorry, couldn’t resist quoting that classic Monty Python line as it’s pretty apt in this case. The seven beauties we’ve looked at so far have all been tube heads around 20 watts. The final five in our list are all a little different — in a good way!
Friedman BE-Mini
Dave Friedman has a deservedly stellar reputation for designing and delivering high-gain all-tube amps, and the 100-watt BE-100 is used by many leading rock artists. As his stellar “amp in a box” BE-OD pedal has also proven, Dave is no slouch when it comes to capturing that all-tube tone and feel in a compact stompbox with not a single tube in sight. Said solid-state sonic mastery is also found in the Friedman BE-Mini — a stunning-looking and stunning-sounding 30-watt head that is the BE-100’s “mini me” both aurally and visually. This compact brute is housed in a wooden headbox and sounds every bit as good as it looks. It also boasts a series effects loop, and — by the way — it can get nice and loud, too!
BOSS Katana-Head MkII
“Hold on a second,” do I hear you correctly? “In addition to not being tube, this sucker is 100 watts!” While you are 100% correct, the BOSS Katana-Head MkII does qualify for this list. Why? Firstly, while not the smallest of the bunch, it’s not the heaviest either; thus, it ticks the “portable” box. Secondly, while having a 100-watt setting, it also has a 0.5-watt setting, so it ticks the “bedroom” box. It has a lot of features, including 10 possible voices, a bunch of built-in BOSS effects, and a recording/headphone out.
Bogner Ecstasy Mini
When the 100-watt, all-tube Bogner Ecstasy head made its debut in the early ’90s, it was an instant hit with hard rockers all over the world, and it still is to this very day. Its Blue and Red channels have muscled their way onto many hit albums over the years, and deservedly so. After much experimentation with discrete circuitry, Reinhold found a way to successfully emulate both the sound and feel of this legendary head in a tube stompbox. The same is true of the Bogner Ecstasy Mini — a tubeless 30-watt head that looks, sounds, and feels so good, it’s truly worthy of sharing the name of its much bigger, all-tube brother. Armed with a quartet of tone-sculpting switches — Pre EQ, Mid Frequency, Gain, and Variac — the Ecstasy Mini is incredibly versatile and can go from subtle to stun (and all points in between) with consummate ease. Its striking look and wooden headbox add further to its appeal.
Quilter Labs InterBlock 45
Next up on our “something completely different” list is the Quilter Labs InterBlock 45 45-watt head. This bad boy is so small that it can literally fit on a pedalboard while having enough Class D juice to drive a 4 x 12″ cab. This 5″ x 4″ x 1.75″ device (told you it was tiny!) houses control knobs for Gain, High, Mid, Low, and Master; an EQ Voice switch (Vintage or OD); a series effects loop; plus two outputs (Speaker and a Balanced Line Out, which also doubles as a headphone output). It also has a built-in cabinet simulator. Can you say “pocket sized”?
Orange Pedal Baby 100
Last — certainly not least, but very different — we end this revealing roundup with the Orange Pedal Baby 100: a 100-watt Class AB power amplifier. “Why?” Do I hear you ask? Because, thanks to great-sounding “amp in a box” pedals, many players’ portable rigs consist largely of a pedalboard or a modeler that delivers the bulk of their tone, that’s why! Enter the compact and lightweight Orange Pedal Baby — a 100-watt power amp that emulates the Class AB, air-moving “oomph” of an Orange power stage. Add to this the fact that the Pedal Baby is tonally transparent when its two tone controls are set to 12 o’clock, and you’re set to go with whatever you’re running into it. Not shabby . . .
Conclusion
The impressive list our Sales Engineers brewed up is definitely food for thought, especially if you’ve never considered getting a lower-wattage, relatively light and portable head before. We’ve only touched on a few of the many features all of these offerings have, so what are you waiting for? Dig in deeper!
VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: You’re obviously going to need a cabinet too . . . duh!
