A month or so back, just before I managed to secure a new job, I saw that many stores on AliExpress were having sales, yes it was xmas, but the prices were so low that I suspect it is because no one in the world was buying anything especially from overseas, from China.
Lots of ads came up and then I noticed one for the Nano Legacy Amplifier Heads by HOTONE (HOT - TONE is apparently how one pronounces it). It was the SONICAKE Official Store: https://sonicake.aliexpress.com/store/g ... 5738BrMwyJ
And the prices were really low.
I have a ZVEX NAN HEAD amp that uses mini valves (from about 10 or 15 years back) and I have used it for some over driven stuff, but in reality given the lack of tonal pallet I do not use it that much. But I looked at some of the online reviews of these heads that can fit into the palm of your hand and they got pretty high marks. They can handle 4 - 16 ohm cabs, are 5 watt and (seriously) could be used in a small room gig. There is the facility for FX loop to be added, headphone/line out and line in. On paper not fucking bad !
So I looked at the range of amp heads that is in the Nano Legacy and straight away (while the reviews say it is awesome) I ignored the Tweed style amp) and there were lots of high powered sounding amps and stuff for Kraut Rock, but one did catch my eye. The Hotone Nano Legacy British Invasion head. So it is a VOX AC15/30 style amp.
Now I dislike VOX amps, always have, yes a lot of the great music that I listen to has been recorded with VOX amps but that still doesn't change the fact that to my ears they sound two dimensional and flat.
But I do know that in the right place a VOX amp used well in a studio recording and can add something.
So I thought ... well given the price is about US$60 - 70 (the prices .. the sales discounts seem to change every now and then) which isn't a lot in the scheme of things and retail they have been US$150 or more so I could always flip it later if I didn't like it.
A week or so back it arrived and straight out of the box the sounds it made are superb.
The unit is very well made, solid with a sense of thought that has been put into the design. In short I cannot fault the construction or layout. I plugged the unit into one of my 2x8" cabs that uses 60s Jensens and was blow away by the sound. The VOX sound that it creates is spot on. When my guitarist played it (he had a 15 and a 30 in the 70s) he said it sounded better than the original VOXs he played back in the day.
There is almost no noise at all (something I can't say about the ZVEX NANA HEAD). It is dead quiet.
We used a guitar with TV JONES filtertrons and have continually been amazed at what this amp head can do.
When the gain is turned to 8-10 it starts to get a marshall-esque tinge to the sound as well.
If you want a VOX sounding small practice or recording amp head and you have a US$65 burning a hole in your pocket then I can highly recommend this unit.
I have subsequently ordered the Hotone Siva Boogie Clean Tone Guitar Amp Head. This one is meant to replicate the Bogner Shiva and is probably the only other sound/amp that I would have use for, but the others are still worth looking at.
