Pignose7-300 HOG-30 Amplifier

The Pignose Hog 30 is a battery powered amplifier for electric guitar, electric bass, keyboards, microphone, and just about anything else that, according to the owner's manual "works at 20 watts, with 35 watts of peak power." In reality, the 20 watts is probably the more accurate number, as I have a fairly inexpensive Washburn 30 watt bass amp that provides more sound at about "4" than the Pignose does turned all the way up (and with the funk bass switch activated, to boot). This amplifier seems, though, to hold a charge nicely and would therefore seem to be the ideal amplifier to take along to any al fresco situation. My 4 star review is bassed (spelling intentional) on the fact that it has a "5" tone for clean-tone electric guitar, but is more of a "3" for electric bass. Mine seems to have an inherent buzz on F (10th fret, G string, electric bass). The speaker looks fine, the screws are all tight, but there's a buzz. I have tried three different basses and the buzz is most annoying on a short-scale bass, but it is noticeable on all three. Cutting the treble and mid-range and boosting the bass on the amplifier helps quite a bit, but still this amplifier clearly emphasizes the upper harmonics. At some point, it might be interesting to see what a larger speaker would do, although several non-Amazon reviews that I've read suggest that the relatively small (for a bass amp) speaker might not entirely be the culprit. I would recommend the Pignose Hog 30 without question for guitarists (the buzz is not really noticeable on guitar, so it does seem to be connected somehow to the harmonic series (overtones) of the bass. It is a crisp guitar amp and with effects pedals will do just about anything you'd need for practicing or for a small outdoor gig. With a classical acoustic/electric, it is also quite nice, especially for the price. On bass, it's just more fussy. I did connect through an emulator pedal that changes the overtones and the tone was better; however, ideally an amplifier should not require the use of an effects pedal. It is not a bad bass amp, provided that the music you are playing avoids the resonating frequency and the notes adjacent to it. Since I play both bass and guitar, I am happy with the amp, and will use it for both. If I only played bass, however, I might be looking for another battery powered amp.

I'm a bass player. I had my doubts, but bought this based purely on other people's reviews.Is this a 4x10 200W Marshall stack? No, come on now...But it IS a bass amp that sounds like, well, a bass amp... and it plays on batteries! 30 Watts in the park? In the back yard? At the beach? During a blackout party? YES!It actually does a great job indoors and like any amp outdoors, it does the best it can... which is pretty decent. This is a GREAT amp for busking, and you can make it pretty easy to swap or supplement the batteries while busking if you play that long. In most busking situations, you can't play that loud, anyway, so the batteries will last a good long while (hours).It has a bit of growl, it has that slightly soft sound that Pignose are known for, and it has a "make it Funky" switch which is better than no distortion/fuzz, but... use your own stompbox. Has a Pre out, Headphone out for clandestine practicing and is just tall enough to sit on (stool height), and strong enough for the burliest bass player to sit on it.Metal hardwarde, groovy (stealable) Pignose volume knob and look-of-football vinyl wrap make it just a little different... and inexpensive for what you get compared to any other battery bass amp (in terms of power, size, simplicity or price). Not too heavy, a girl can lug this and it will strap to a folding luggage cart (busking 101 tip) with room to spare.Great practic amp, busking amp, handles growly high output pickups or a kb and plays loud enough for what it is. Get one. It's pretty awesome, even if it's your only amp. Not too big, not too small, mikeable, etc.

I bought this amp to reinforce the sound of my acoustic bass, which isn't quite loud enough by itself to keep up with a couple of acoustic guitars. It has plenty of power for that, but I wouldn't try to use it with a live drummer. I don't really care for the "Funk Bass" feature, which seems mostly to just add a lot of treble response, so I leave that turned off. It comes with a "smart charger" that has a light on it to show when it's charging and stops charging when the batteries are full.At first, I thought it might be either defective or just under-powered, because I was getting all kinds of buzz, even at fairly low volumes. I soon realized that it was happening more on some notes than others, so I figured it must be something loose inside. Opened it up, and discovered that both batteries were able to move enough to rattle about. A couple strategic dabs with the hot glue gun, and the buzz is gone. The amp seems solidly built, aside from the rattling batteries.Yesterday, I played on battery for about 5 hours at acoustic guitar levels and it showed no signs of running down at all.All in all, I'm quite satisfied with this amp, and if it were lost or stolen, I'd want another one just like it.