Lately I’ve found myself looking at amplifiers that are getting bigger and bigger. That’s understandable. It’s easy to look at an amplifier, see a bigger and louder one nearby and think “Ooh! But look at that one!” Before you know it you’re ready to buy your own arena sized amplifier stack. But this week it’s time to remind myself of a few things. Things such as my guitar skill level. It’s not high. So I don’t need a huge amplifier. Why expand the area that is likely to hear my guitar playing beyond the room I’m in? I also need to remind myself that size isn’t everything. It’s what you do with it (so I’m told). More importantly, I’m after an awesome sounding amplifier. Something with monster tone in a practice volume level package. Conveniently, Mooer makes the Little Monster BM head.
I’m back on track.
The Little Monster BM claims to deliver a Fender Bassman (hence the BM I imagine) tone in a tiny 5 watt package. That’s a good tone to offer. And that’s an appropriate wattage for me. More importantly (to my wallet at least) is the price range. Locally I can buy this head for just under $300. Nice.
So, what’s in this tiny package? Enough for one regular sized feature list!
- 5 watts
- Normal/Bright channel selection
- Gain and Volume controls
- Thin/Mellow tone control
- 8 and 16 ohm speaker output options
- Preamp Tube: ECC83(12AX7) x 1, ECC81(12AT7) x 1
- Power Tube: 6V6GT x 1
It’s a basic amplifier, but it’s all metal and it’s all tube. Seems perfect for my needs. But of course, there’s that small question of sound. If this video by Rob Chapman and the Anderton’s crew is anything to go by, it’s a very decent amplifier for the price. There’s also this pretty good video demonstration of the Mooer Little Monster BM as well as the Little Monster AC (I’ve linked directly to the beginning of the BM component of the video). That last video isn’t in English (just so you know). But the language of music is universal. Well as far as I know it is. I love a good assumption!
Speaking of assumptions, I’ll end this article with my default statement. Which is there purely as a disclaimer. I am not an expert on this amplifier. But perhaps at the end of the year I’ll become one. I’m seriously considering this amplifier head now.
Disclaimer: I’ve not played through this head. I have not experienced the sound or tone of this head other than through video. That doesn’t matter. It looks awesome, it’s obviously played by winners and I want one.
I have several boutique expensive low Watt heads. This Amp has top shelf sound. Put NOS tubes in and it’s a BEAST. DEEP and BALLSY. Not extremely loud, though. Sometimes you get LOUD for the $. But it’s LOUD enough for me. I’d rather have top notch quality sound than just LOUD.
Thanks for the comment Michael. I think you summed it up perfectly when you said this …