The Pignose 7-100 Portable Guitar Amp has been a valuable tool for musicians since 1972. This compact, portable amp packs a huge punch. This practice amp has graced green rooms, studios, and stages thanks to its sturdy build, simplicity, and unique tone.
From the outside, we’re presented with its legendary ‘stash box’ design, allowing users to hide all kinds of things inside, as well as access the battery (6xAA) compartment. The amp can also be powered by a 9V adapter. The stash box design is not only for convenience—it also allows users to shape the tone in various ways. By simply opening up the amp, you can go from a closed-back to open-back speaker cab sound. Closed-back gives a more direct, cutting sound, while opening the back up at varying degrees allows for a more open sound, with shifting mid-range frequencies.
There is one simple control below the 5-inch Pignose speaker: a single volume knob. At lower volumes, you get a sparkly, responsive clean sound that works fantastically with your fingers and your guitar’s volume/tone controls. Turn up the volume, and not only do you get a surprisingly loud and dynamic tone, but you also start to bring in a unique kind of breakup/overdrive that has made this amp so legendary. If this isn’t loud enough for you, you can take a pre-amp out from the back of the amp to feed into a power amp or speaker of your preference.
The amp is meant to be versatile—the classic instructions encourage users to also plug in microphones, tape recorders, and record players! I’d add to this that it works very well with pedals. I’ve borrowed a Pignose amp for an outdoor session in the past, used it with a few BOSS pedals, and it was fantastic! Even though this is a transistor amp, it really has a lot of dynamic range and headroom available. It feels great to play through, and it’s also very honest, making it a worthy practice amp that will tell you when you’re “on it” or not paying attention!
Retailing at around £110, you could say this is either an affordable guitar amp or a mid-range practice amp with not many features. But I feel this is the real deal if you’re serious about core tone and quality. It may be that this is as close to a “real” practice amp as we can get. It gives us our core tone from the guitar. It’s not pretending to be anything else except a solid practice amp. You can use it in many ways—with your pedals, you can mic it up with different mics and angles and get great tones. It can be used as a preamp, or even as a portable PA. I think we’re getting “the real” here. While other practice amps may give us lots of amp models, Bluetooth connectivity, and “studio tone” at low volumes, the Pignose is unapologetic and gives us the real thing. It’s a fantastic little amp. Suitable for anyone—give one a try and find out for yourself!
