SONICAKE Mini Guitar Headphone Amp with Overdrive Reverb - US Classic

So silly me, I thought that because I was an adult that owned my own home and could play my guitar and bass through my regular amps whenever I wanted. Turns out that when the wife is cranky and I am working on the same riff for an hour straight I am in-fact not allowed to use my big amps. So since I have been really happy with the pedals I have purchased from Sonicake I decided to check out their headphone amp for use when the wife says no to the big amps. I have tested the headphone amp in a Peavey G-90, Predator, Patriot, and Generation EXP as well as a Peavey Fury Bass, and a Cort Curbow Retro 4 (active) Bass. This little amp worked out well in all of them. The reverb is nicely there, It is not overpowering, but not anemic sounding either. The volume gets loud enough through headphones, as well as plugged into a small set of non-powered headphone jack speakers. The gain gives you a little punch but stops short of distortion. The amp arrived with a full charge, and through several hours of testing the battery lights still have not moved from the 4 full bars. There is some slight hum, which I found was almost completely reduced by turning the amp up and then using the volume knob on the guitar instead. The hum was more noticeable with single coil pickups but that is to be expected. The construction is plastic, and the switches and knobs are small, but it's a $30 headphone amp, it's not a half stack. Be nice to your gear and don't come at it like Godzilla and it should be plenty durable. It will have a space in my gear for testing craigslist guitar purchases, for going camping, and for keeping the wife happy when she says I'm being too loud. :( There is only one negative that i found and that was that it would not fit into my wife's 2006 lefty MIM Strat. The angle of the jack plate in that guitar seemed to start putting upward pressure on the amp before it fully seated. There was however no problem using it in my 1994 Peavey Predator which is a strat type guitar. I do not have a another Fender Strat to test so I can not say if it is a Fender issue or if it is an issue only related to her particular guitar. In any case if you have been told to quiet down based on my experience I think this is a good option and I would buy it again.

I bought this headphone amp so I had something portable to play while my baby was asleep. Overall, it's perfect for what it is; for a $29.99 headphone amp, it has that classic Fender sound I was never able to get through headphones out of any other amp. I played a partscaster strat surf guitar and a filtertron equipped semi-hollow through it before writing this review. Being an amp small enough to fit into a pocket, it isn't exactly feature rich. The one tone knob doesn't have the same potential as a 3 band EQ, but provides a good range of usable tones. There isn't a useless setting on the dial. The volume goes from nothing to ear splitting, depending on your headphones. The gain goes from almost completely clean (although I think the clipping was coming through my headphones and not the amp with the gain at 0) to a medium gain. You won't get brutal, crushing metal tones, but this amp isn't meant for that. Again, like the tone knob, it provides an entirely usable range, with your guitar's tone and individual notes ringing out even when dimed. The FX switch is a reasonable approximation of a spring reverb. Considering most decent digital spring reverb pedals are in the $160-250 range, expecting a dripping Fender spring tank is a bit much out of a $29.99 headphone amp, but it sounds good enough, and drippy enough, to get some surf riffs going. The only issue I have with it is that I wish it were a knob that could be dialed in rather than an on/off switch, but that's still a pretty minor complaint. Overall, Sonicake did a great job bringing a lot of tone to a small, portable package. What impressed me most was that it really seems like they made sure that every possible combination of settings on the amp sounded good and useful for most of the stuff people would use a Fender amp for. I highly recommend it if you're looking for something small, portable, and that sounds good.

The Sonicake US classic pocket guitar amp gives me the impression that it's based on a classic US made tweed amplifier. It came packaged very nicely and I love the fact that it has a rechargeable battery. Once I had this out of the package and tried to plug it in the 1st thing I noticed was that it would not plug all the way in to the recessed jack on my telecaster. I switch to my SG and proceeded to do my evaluation. The unit seemed constructed very well even though it was made of plastic. The controls all worked very well controlling the sound of my SG, although with the gain off there was still a noticible distortion. It took me a little bit of time but I finally got a decent clean sound by fiddling with the controls on the unit and the controls on my guitar. When I switched on the effect there was a beautiful reverb/echo. It brought a whole new dimension to this unit My overall impression of the pocket amp is that it is a great practice amp for those who are unable to play through their regular amps.

TL;DR — Excellent pocket amp; very low noise; reverb is the icing on the cake In my line of work, I hear the term “ease of use” quite a bit. Not surprisingly, we very often like to choose the path of least resistance. I’ve found this applies to my “guitar time” as much as anything else: when I have a few minutes here and there to play, I can easily burn up time choosing pedals, futzing with settings, checking cables, etc. A pocket amp lets you cut to the chase. Plug and play — literally. I chose the US Classic based on favorable reviews — and it didn’t disappoint. The sound is respectably clear, both in terms of background noise and any undue coloring of your guitar. (There is some very soft white noise, but it’s very similar to tape hiss and I didn’t find it distracting or annoying.) Controls include Volume, Tone, Gain and FX (more on that later). I managed to dial in a very comfortable sound in 15 seconds. I then tried the FX switch. This provides a cavern-y reverb with a slight chorus blended in. Dialing the Tone wheel to almost all the way dark, setting the Gain to barely on, and the Volume to ~75%, I found myself on the High Plains in a Leone movie. Now, I love wall-of-sound shoegaze-y/drone-y/doom-y/sludge-y stuff all day long — but it’s equaled by my love of Morricone and the Spaghetti Western sound. If you dig that sound too, this little guy is a fun night in. Amazingly, the FX switch didn’t introduce any noise to the sound, and had just the right size and decay to make things dreamy without getting lost. Sure, you can turn off the FX and have a perfectly workable sound. But that switch is going to stay permanently set to On. It’s just too fun — and that’s why we’re playing these instruments, right? Now, since this is a virtually weightless pocket amp, the next step is play it while actually riding a horse…

Bought this in January. Today the jack came loose from the rest of the unit. I only use it two or three times a week. As others have said, the volume from this unit is not loud. Its good enough for at home practice, but I've been practicing with a band in a live setting and was never really able to hear myself. It was just enough volume to hear if I'd hit a wrong note. Just be aware of the type of environment you use it in.

Has an ancient charging cord. Seems like there getting rid of old stock. Other than that it works well. Just don’t loose the cord it’s pre micro usb

I really like the rechargeable battery feature-a big plus over my previous headphone amp. The LED: Lights blink L-R while charging. At full charge, plugged, in, lights remain on, solid. Unplugged, turned on; LEDs show remaining charge. The Gain control has a nice range; Full left; mild, mostly clean, just at the verge of natural amp breakup,. Back off either the amp or guitar volume, and you’ll have a clean on the edge of breakup sound that crosses into breakup when hitting the strings hard. Turn the gain up and the amp provides plenty of dirt, but with clarity, and warmth. The gain does not get into the metal “crunch” range, but that’s not what this amp is designed for. . The single Tone control provides a fair range without ever getting too muddy, or too brittle. The reverb/chorus effect is a welcome addition for a headphone amp. The back of the package says “chorus and reverb” but I did not really hear chorus in the mix. If I strum an open chord, I hear the very slightest, almost imperceptible swirl, so it’s quite subtle, which is good, because the “fx” are either on or off-there’s no adjustment for the reverb/chorus control. I think the chorus effect such as it is provides a slight thickening to the overall tone/ The reverb is nice! It’s usable, and actually sounds good-warm, not sterile or digital at all. Sounds to my ear like a Hall reverb, rather than a spring type reverb, or a blend of the two. The reverb adds nice depth and warmth to the sound. I like reverb, and the reverb is not too “wet”; nice touch by Sonicake! The Amp also comes with a headphone splitter (nice touch), and a 3.5 mm stereo auxiliary cable for the auxiliary in, allowing one to practice along with one’s Music player, laptop, or tablet. Fantastic buy for $29.99, and has the quality of other Sonicake products I’ve bought (I own the mini-Wah-volume and 5th Dimension Pedals-very happy with both of those as well). Packaging says 5-hour battery life; I'm into hour 2 so far, and the battery is going strong. Thanks Sonicake!

Build quality of this Sonicake headphone amp is solid. It’s molded plastic, but sturdy and slightly textured, not slippery. All the controls and jacks are solid, too. Feels like it can last a long time. I’m impressed by the overall sound of the US Classic, which is rich with great amp crunch. It’s responsive to the guitar’s volume control and can clean up nicely, when desired. I tested this with 2 very different headphone sets and plugged straight into the power amp/return jack on a 65w combo amp and plugged into a cd input on a practice amp. It’s a bit on the hissy side in headphones, but not unlike a real amp, really. It’s most quiet with the guitar turned up high and the amp volume turned lower. Hiss becomes a non-issue once you start playing, but it might be a bit too much for recording. There’s plenty of gain and saturation from the gain control and a fairly wide range of tone from the one tone control. Beside the basic control set, the pocket headphone amp is equipped with an auxiliary input for piping in sound to play along with and an intense spring/hall reverb, controlled by a single on/off switch. The reverb sound is quite realistic, if not a bit overboard. It would be nice to have a 3-way switch to include a high and low intensity setting adjustment (not meaning louder and softer, but more and less). The headphone amp comes packaged with a stereo 1/8” male to male cable, a molded stereo 1/8” y-adapter and a micro USB cable for charging. Very well thought out product packaging, I think. Rates 5 stars, especially for the price. Pros: Solid feel and build Good sound emulation Good choice of controls Added reverb effect Cons: Reverb could be less intense, or 2 modes offered The 4 bright blue leds is a bit much. They could be dimmed down.

Good clear sound with an affordable price ...will review after 5 months

Bello bello bello. Se avessi continuato a leggere le recensioni probabilmente non lo avrei comprato, invece approfittando del black Friday per sole 20€ mi sono aggiudicata ore e ore di vero divertimento. Ho suonato per due ore senza nemmeno accorgermene...nella sostanza fa le stesse cose che si possono fare con un multieffetto e un paio di cuffie ma senza cavi e cavetti. Alla fine si può suonare anche in piedi spostandosi per la stanza, con il cellulare in tasca e le cuffie sulle orecchie. Nel cellulare ti metti Spotify o YouTube con il tuo brano preferito e ci suoni sopra e ti arriva tutto in cuffia. Io ho preso l'US Classic che con la mia Telecaster suona come la chitarra del boss o come quella di John Mayer...certo, saperla suonare come loro è un'altra cosa ma almeno lo si fa più comodamente e quindi più volentieri. C'è chi si lamenta del fruscio...io sinceramente non sento niente di più di quello che sento normalmente con il mio Marshall MS2 e poi per 20 € non si può pretendere di avere alta fedeltà in cuffia.

Doesnt work at all complete garbage

Just received it, plugged it in, works beautifully. No, I wouldn't gig with it, but it's perfect as a headphone practice amp. Nice overdrive with reverb. Simple, discrete and tiny. It does have a little hum, but very acceptable. This kind of sound without the clutter of plugging into a real amp or a pedalboard is just great. The tone is pleasant and definitely good enough for practicing. Again, simple and just perfect for what it is designed to do.

Hola.......necesitaba algo para tocar en casa sin tener que molestar a nadie y algo simple para cuando viene la inspiración no tener que enchufar el ampli con el jack, los pedales y demás. He encontrado este mini ampli y la verdad que con los cascos puestos suena genial, muy realista. Además que lo puedes enchufar al ordenador y grabar tu sesión. Es fácil de manejar con sus controles de volumen, tono y saturación. Tiene un efecto de reverb bastante logrado, sobre todo en la envolvente. Viene con cable para cargar, otro por si quieres tocar por encima de alguna música desde tu móvil por ejemplo y con una clavija doble por si alguien quiere escuchar lo que tocas o, para enviar la señal para grabar. Da más calidad y mejor precio que otras marcas conocidas. Creo que todo el mundo debería tener uno de estos en casa para luego darle bien con el ampli. Saludos