Electro-Harmonix MIG-50 50-Watt Tube Head Reviews

What an amazing quite versatile amp head this is. And they should have a picture of this beside the term LOUD. Hard to tame this thing. Takes pedals great!! Goes perfect with my Marshall 2x12.

Just a great amp! Very powerful with a sound that blossoms perfectly. Excellent pedal platform and built like a tank. Thanks Kevin.

It may say EHX, it may come from Soviet Tech/Sovtek heritage, it may even be all black and white in its vintage handsome looks, but it sure acts and sounds like a 50 watt Plexi head! The most wonderful 50 watt amp head, I have ever had.

From channel II, I am running it into a Two Notes reactive load, and Friedman Mic No Mo, and thru my audio interface and laptop, I crank this little bad boy to 9 and boost it up front with a trusty Boss Sd1, and Marshall bliss is attained. No crazy volumes and screaming cab necessary. I use a reverb and delay for effects thru my GarageBand, so I don't care about the head having no effects loop. Actually, the circuit is pretty simple and plexi'ish, so adding an aftermarket effects loop is totally feasible.

If you want a classic british plexi 50 watter, try this first.

This amp is great , had a 66 bassman, and this is it old school somplicity natyral tone no pedal needed, much creamery than plexi, .
And get you a Y patch so can plug guitar into both channels at once blend tone wuth volune pots.

I bought this amp to add one more tube amp that could easily get over a drummer with headroom to spare. The other amp I run is a Fender ML Hot Rod Deville. I do like my Fender more but this MIG 50 sounds great and I actually prefer this over the Sovtek and the Fender Bass Breaker. Great cleans and once cranked up has great tube break up. Would recommend as long as you have a nice cabinet to play it. Only one drawback is that there is no effects loop. Also you might need to hook up an attenuator between the speaker and the amp, 50 tube watts is REALLY LOUD.

This is a great head, it won't disappoint you. If you are into the doom this head will defiantly do what you want it to do. It's a pedal lover's dream.

One of the best amps ever, period (not just for the money), and these newer EHX ones are even better than the original.

I'm old enough to have had one of the original Sovtek's in the 90's, and while they sounded incredible, some aspects of their build quality wasn't great. Many of them (mine included) needed new pots and jacks before they were bombproof enough to tour with. But, they had the sound, no help was needed there. The newer EHX versions are built much better for sure, and in the case of the newer MK2 (2022 and on), they may even sound a little bit better than the originals too.

I've been lucky enough to have owned and/or played through pretty much all of the seminal tube amps... Marshall 1959/1987's, JMP's, JCM800's, old Mesa Dual Rec's, Soldano's, Fender Twin's, Bassman's, etc, and the Mig 50 belongs in the conversation with all those others for sure.

Rock?, Country?, Pop?, Jazz?, Metal?... yes.

Do yourself a favor and buy a Y-cable to jump the inputs... and an attenuator... so you can enjoy the non-master-volume Plexi-like goodness without harming yourself (or anyone else nearby).

I totally agree with the other reviews. From O to 12 you get a clean tone but after that is starts breaking up and it's Very Loud!!! So if you want to drive the Power Section get an Attenuator which sounds incredible. Remember these are supposed to be Fender Baseman\ Plexi type of an amp. So front loading with pedals is the way to go. Like the other reviewer I play a Boss Gt-1000 into the front of the amp but what I do differently is use a 2 male 1/4" mono to 1/4" mono female adapter into both inputs on the MIG 50. I'm really surprised that I haven't read of anyone else doing that. Blend the 2 channels and there isn't any tone you can't get. I've got Shenker to Brian May to Country on this thing. I will never use anything else ever again, this is crazy awesome tone!

I own many boutique amps that are well over $2000 each. Then I found this baby. Best deal in town. I use a boss gt1000
Straight into this clean pedal platform. Killer sounds. Inexpensive amp to take on the road and save the wear on your top gear.


Check out my Nashville recordings using this amp on all the guitar parts. (With a few pedals) You will most definitely want to buy this guy.

On Spotify or pandora.

I wanted a clean tube amp with a lot of headroom for a pedal platform, but didn't want to spend $2k. I owned a Fender Bassman for several years that was superb, but was stolen and way too expensive to replace. I know the old SovTec mig-50 was built with nearly identical architecture to the Bassman design, and when I heard the Electro-Harmonix mig-50 was a direct copy I figured it would be my best bet.
This Mig-50 has tons of power and headroom for a pedal platform, and sounds superb. Channel 2 is the brighter channel and works well with all types of pick-ups. On volume level 3 it easily reaches over 90 DB and didn't show any breakup past level 5 which is crazy loud through my 4x12 Marshall cab. I keep it on 3 for home use and use the volume on the guitar to adjust from there.
I mainly wanted a good tube amp for better overdrive and distortion in a wet-dry-wet set-up to go with a pair of Katana 100 MkII's. The Katana's work really well for everything except overdrive & distortion, so the Mig-50 ended up being the perfect choice.
The Mig-50 does not have any reverb or tremolo which isn't an issue when you have pedals. The ONLY thing the Mig-50 is missing that would really make it better would be an effects loop for delays and other time-based effects. Having such clean power and so much headroom it really isn't an issue in my rig.
It is a superb amp at a very fair price that willabsolutely blow you away with how much clean power and raw volume it can put out. Basically imho it is a SovTec or Bassman for under $.

I've been waiting for this amp almost as long as for Fender to put a gain knob on a Bassman 50. My Marshall Origin 50 head blew after 7 months, and "may I add" is underwhelming) and I needed something quick for a huge live show in my living room, so I was lucky this came in stock.
I ordered the "Mig" (perfect name) Sunday night online and it was here in Tx., Wed at noon. I let it sit for the 24 hrs to open it, and it was perfect! Simple, excellent instructions that even describe how to bias the tubes with the screw on the back. I set everything to noon (except the volume) on the front and it's a really nice sounding amp. It has a good range in the eq knobs and they actually do something. (Origin 50 reference) The volume knob is real edgy down low and this thing is LOUD. Who knew it would be a perfect pedal amp? I run it through an old 4x12 Marshall cab and it loves it. Plenty of bottom and a really sweet clean sound. The knobs/pots feel good and the switches are smooth, on the front panel, and don't make any "pop" through the speaker. A gain knob would be nice, but who needs it?
Nice, simple, valve amp. Let's hope it lasts...