Re: Very small amp

["IronMan Mike Curtis" <ironman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have a Carvin Stagemate that does an excellent job, but it's hardly "very small".  It's 100 watts (w/
extension speaker - about 60 without), a 10" woofer, piezo tweeter, 4 channel mixer, and runs roughly 4 hours
(2 if you use an extension cab) on the 12 volt 7 AH gel cell built into it.  You can install a 2nd battery to
double operating time.

Crate has some good battery operated azmps, i.e. Taxi, Limo.

If the Honeytone has enough volume for your purposes, you might consider running it thru a larger speaker in a
bassier enclosure.  I believe the Honeytone is the small plastic "practice amp" powered by a 9 volt transistor
battery, and uses a smallish transistor radio type speaker in a rather small plastic box (I'm offline at the
moment and can't check).

If you do, make sure the speaker is efficient enough to cut it.  A lot of smaller speakers achieve good bass
response at the expense of efficiedncy.  Some are very inefficient, as low as .05%, i.e. acoustic suspension -
these have large magnets and very large cone excursions.  A 6-8" musical instrument type speaker would be a
better choice.  It's higher efficiency, and though less bassy, will have plenty of bass for harp.

 --mike


On Thursday, March 25, 2004 4:51 AM [GMT-7=PDT],Martin Oldsberg <martinoldsberg@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> If you go to jams etc, it´s handy to have a small sized amp to bring
>    along, preferably battery operated. I have unsuccessfully tried to
>    get a passable sound out of a Danelectro Honeytone and various
> other miniature gadgets, but with no acceptable results - even with
> modest expectations regarding "bottom"etc. (I settle for a clean
> sound w. warmth, instead of distortion.) Tall order, I know, but does
> anyone have any encouraging experiences whatsoever in this area?
>
>   Cheers,
>    Martin