A Low-Cost Gamma for the Gigging Guitarist

I’ve tried different micro-amps. Since my electric life is low volume (mostly jazz or Latin music, with occasional klezmer thrown in), 50 watts is fine by me. If you live roadie-free as I always have (my painfully brief stint with NRBQ notwithstanding), the braggadocio about tone gives way to “fits in the car,” “isn’t hard to lift,” and—this is huge—“doesn’t break.”

There are two schools of thought about amps: The first is that the amp completes the sound of your guitar, which is a Marshall aesthetic. The second is that your amp should sound like whatever you plug into it, maybe with a little reverb for dimension, and that’s Fender thinking. I am definitely a Fender thinker.

My effects rack is minimal—reverb, tremolo, and analog delay (for rockabilly slapback). And the Muzizy EQ.

In my formative years, the amps around my neighborhood were battered Supros, Silvertones, and Univoxes. The guitars were mostly Penco, Morris, Hondo II, Harmony, Silvertone, and unbranded Strat copies. It was how you made do until you could afford something decent.