Valeton Guitar Amplifier Head TAR-20G Amp Pedal Platform Studio Desktop with CAB SIM

I'm always wary of solid state amps. So often, they turn out to be modelling amps, which I usually don't care for (USUALLY. I actually own a Yamaha THR10 and like it). My gripe with modelling amps is their claims: "This setting sounds like a '59 Bassman mic'd up with two SM57's off center!" Really? From a eight inch speaker? I don't think so! But I digress. This little guy came on my radar months ago and I dismissed it. "Responds like a tube amp!" is what made me look away. That, and the ad video for this thing is just two guys jamming away, with a heavily distorted guitar tone. "Reviews" I searched up on YouTube only featured guys shredding on this amp with the gain dimed (or through pedals) or plucking some tunes with the amp on a clean setting. None of what I've seen on the 'net does justice to what this little amp can do. It's a serious tone monster IF you take time to dial it in! This amp will literally go from a very clean tone to rather heavily distorted. If you're into modern metal, this amp may be lacking in the gain department for you, but anyone else should be able to dial in tones they like on this thing. Returning to my rant earlier.... I'm happy to say this does not model itself after anything. It's single channel, and every single knob on this amp responds incredibly well to the slightest adjustment. I've ran a few of my guitars through this thing, and every time, I discover unique tones to each guitar. As someone that doesn't mind carefully dialing in a tone before playing, this amp has been a joy. There's ENOUGH control here. It's not littered with so many knobs you feel like you're dialing in a synthesizer, but aside from occasionally missing having a second channel, I never feel like this amp restricts me from tweaking my tone, be it going from a super clean tone to full distorted or sparkly overdrive, or adding/cutting just a teeny tiny bit of lows, mids or highs from the tone. Normally, I get bored of an amp's tonal variety after a few days and break out the pedalboard, but I haven't even bothered to do that with this amp yet, I'm still enjoying experimenting with it! To elaborate on my claim in the title, yes, this amp is shockingly tube like! No, it's not EXACTLY like a tube amp, but for something that doesn't utilize modellng tech, this little monster produces very pleasing volume dynamics. I've played through a few solid state amps that have good tube-like dynamics, but this is the best one I've heard to date, even better than Tech 21! (Sorry if I offend any fans, but hey, my ears hear what they hear) This little amp is one of those purchases where I think "Man, if I'd had this years ago, I wouldn't have bought and gone through so many amps!" Heck, I'm half-contemplating getting a second one to run in a stereo setup! Considering it's features, flexibility, and it's compact size, this little guy is staying in my collection. Even if I don't play it as much down the road, I can easily pop it into a drawer and take it out later when I want. I have one gripe about this amp: No direct line out. Yes, the headphone jack can be used as one, but it's weak signal (obviously, since it's meant for headphones) makes it undesirable for direct recording. Running this through my Scarlett 2i4 into Ableton Live, I have to max out the gain and volume on this amp and crank the gain on the 2i4 to get any recognizable guitar tone, and it's badly distorted from me turning everything up so much. A bummer, since my desk where I keep my recording gear is cluttered and having this as a recording amp would have freed up some space. Still, for the awesome tone I get, I may just cough up for a mic one day and try some mic'd recording with this little monster.

The Valeton Tar-20G Asphalt is a guitar amp perfect for travel. Whether you need a small desktop amp for recording, or an easy to move amp to take to a gig, this amp can do it. All of this in a size that can fit in your guitar case, or gig bag. Features at a Glance: Tiny Metal Design is Sturdy, and Light. Making it Extremely Portable FX Loop in the Back Allows for Versatile Tone Mixing with Any Pedals You Have Headphone Out Acts as a Cab Simulator for Plugging into Speakers/Headphones, or Recording Interfaces So You Get An Amazing Full Tone Line-in Allows You to Play Your Backing Tracks and Jam Along to Music for Fun or Learning 8 or 10ohm Speaker Output Allows You to Plug Into Guitar Speaker Cabinets or PA systems. Perfect for a Gigging Guitarist Built in Digital Spring Reverb 1-Channel with Gain Control Making Tone Control Simple Pros: Simple Controls Easy for Beginners To Dial in Their Tone Small Compact Design Making it Easy to Take Anywhere Cabinet Simulation/Headphone Out Allows for Quiet Practice Sessions. Cons: The built-in gain isn’t very heavy. If you’re interested in playing heavier music like metal you definitely want to look into getting a distortion or overdrive pedal to push it the extra amount. Which is great, because it being an old school solid-state circuit means it takes pedals very well. My Opinion: This Versatile Pocket Amp is amazing for someone looking for a small form factor, good sounding amp. The fact you can fit it in a backpack, or guitar case means you can gig and practice anywhere. If you have this and your guitar, you’re ready to go. So if you need a small guitar amp, this is the way to go. If you’re a beginner needing an amp that is simple and straight to the point, this is the way to go. The simple 3-band EQ, 1-Channel with Gain Control, and built-in digital spring reverb means you can get all your practice tones in the one amp. For someone a bit more advance and who maybe gigs, or plays some small shows it is still just as portable and versatile. With the FX loop on the back, and simple solid-state circuit this amp is a great pedal platform. You really can’t go wrong if you’re in the market for an affordable amp.

This is an amazing little amplifier! I can get nice pristine tones that sound as good or better than my Egnater Tweaker 15w head. You can also get some good overdrive tones with the amp's gain control. It's not perfect mind you. I doesn't sound like a 50's classic tweed amp, but it does what I needed it to do. Be a small portable amp I can take with me along with the 8" Randall cab, and have decent sound to practice and jam with. It would even be a nice backup unit at a gig if you blow a tube in your main amp. I also like the fact that I can run it directly into my CabZeus without the need to have a speaker load on it. This facilitates silent late night practice and recording. Update: I hadn't played this amp in a while when I wrote the review above. I just turned it on and plugged in today and I have to tell you, this thing sounds even better than I remembered it sounding! I just picked up a used Fender Blues Jr. Limited Tweed from 2010, which I thought would sound really good, and it does, but honestly, the Valeton sounds better! The cleans are crisp and the overdrive tone is much smoother and tighter than the Fender, which tends to get flubby with too much gain. So, again, GET ONE OF THESE! I'm not being paid to endorse it and I hardly ever shout the kind of praise for anything like I do now. Pair it with the 8" Randall cabinet and you have a magical combination. I'll try to put a video up soon. Video added. Bear with me. It's my first time doing a video on my phone with sound from my audio interface. It breaks up a little at the end.

Wanted a small head to use as a recording and pedal platform. This unit does produce an adequate amount of volume and tone. Seems pretty well made. If you want to drive a cabinet it will work for small ones.

This actually works quite well. I have used it thru a speaker box with an Eminence Tonker(it will run you out of the room, very loud and pronounced), an old Carvin British speaker and some cheap blue speaker. It isn't all that loud without turning up the preamp, but all the controls work very well and a very good reverb. I have used just the power section and reverb with a preamp it works great. IT does help that the sensitivity or the Eminence speaker is so high. I would recommend this for practice and small area gigs, Light and works very well

Not for professionals. Probably okay for a beginner on s budget

I have been playing guitar since 2005. I wanted a small portable head to my 1x12 guitar cab for easy light traveling set up to go to friends houses for some fun jam sessions. This little gem worked out great. The sound is clean and the reverb has a nice chime to it. The distortion is decent, workable, but the effects loop is awesome so I can add my own pedals for my own sounds anyways. Works great and sounds great. Just what I wanted and looking for. I own many name brand solid state and tube amp heads and wanted something smaller and much lighter to grab and go and this fit the bill nicely. I would highly recommend this to anyone who is looking for a nice sounding compact amp. The power is plenty for me as I am using this inside homes for living room and basement jamming, so I don't need 50 or 100 watts of sonic power! lol it is plenty loud for my purpose for this gem of an amp. It would actually work fine for gigs as long as you mic the cab. Final note, it has a similar sound profile to the solid state Fender Champ series to my ears.

Bought this amp because it was a solid state practice-amp sized "head unit" with a gain section and an FX loop. I wanted to use it as a pedal platform for bedroom practice volumes for use with my ToneX pedal while still being able to use a full 4x12 cab. My intention was to plug my pedal board into the FX Return section of the loop like you would on a traditional head unit to use the power-amp portion of the amplifier. This worked, but was only reasonably audible with volume and all knobs at 12 o'clock. My 15 watt practice amp drove the cabinet harder with the volume set on 2/10. Disappointed but not defeated, I plugged my guitar directly into the input jack to see if the unit just didn't work the way I expected. The pre-amp/gain stage of the amplifier sounded lovely, but again, was surpassed with my 15 watt practice amp set on 2/10. This might work well to drive a single speaker cabinet , but temper your performance expectations. It sounded better than "alright", but the power output left a lot to be desired. It also left me questioning how they measured the 20watt power rating. I did end up returning this item.

Absolutely fantastic and versatile micro-amp. Had an Orange 8" speaker going to waste so was looking for something to hook up to it. Ended up buying another one and using them with an AB Y box to play about. Great fun and would love to have something bigger to try with it like a 4 X12 cab? Hooked up pedals using the Send/Return inputs and it takes them well and with built in Reverb it really is all you need.

Petit mais costaud! Il pèse son poids et semble robuste. Je l'ai testé au casque avec guitare et basse . Le son est plus que correcte. Le seul petit bémol c'est le jack entrée qui un peu proche de la poignée de rack ce qui gêne un peu pour enficher mon transmetteur sans fil Boss.

Uno de los aspectos más favorables, para mí, que practico más con audífonos, es su tamaño, porque puedo llevarlo a cualquier parte. me hubiera gustado más su tuviera el enchufe de los audífonos en la parte frontal. Conecté un overdrive en el loop de efectos y no me gustó, perdió mucho cuerpo el pedal, pero si lo conecto enfrente del ampli, recupera su carácter. Aparentemente el loop sólo se lleva con algunos pedales. Pero para practicar es suficiente y bueno.

I can't say that it's necessarily loud enough to jam with a drummer, but I'm not sure. It's more than loud enough in my room and I have a Marshall 100W and VOX AC50 in my room. It seems to get as loud as those do when they're on 3 or 4 on the volume pot. I'm running it into an 8ohm cabinet with two 10" Jensen speakers. The best part about this unit is the sound. The bass, treble and mid knobs really shape the sound. I'm used to bass, treble and mid pots shaping a sound on an amp, but I feel like these actually make a huge difference. I owned a Roland JC120 for a decade and this unit, which I have running into some vintage Jensens, sounds like a Roland JC120. But the treble, bass and mid pots are actually more responsive, so if you want it too, it can sound a JC120 that had a baby with a Fender Deluxe Reverb. The nice thing is, it doesn't get in the way of your tone. Like the Roland JC120, it just feels like more of a faithful recreation of your tone. But, the mid pot actually makes a big difference, so if you want to scoop the mids, and pump up the bass, the knobs ACTUALLY FREAKIN' DO THAT. I was hoping for a flat response amp for my modeller and it IS that. But even without a preamp or a modeller shaping the tone, it's absolutely phenomenal. The gain sound is great. It's like a soft rounded drive, not a distortion. If you want anything gnarly or nasty, you'll have to add a DS-1 or a distortion pedal. The gain is more like an even-keeled OD-3 or bluesdriver tone, but maybe with even LESS frequency shaping which is kind of nice. The gain just beefs up the tone in a nice even way. So it's perfect for edge of breakup tones and gets you pretty far into rock territory before you start looking around for a distortion pedal. If you're into Indy Rock, New Wave and Early British Punk, there's more than enough on tap. The Reverb sounds perfect. There is nothing I would wish to improve on the Reverb sound. The only thing I wish they would improve (or perhaps I should say offer) is to make a 40-50W version, or a 100W stereo version. One with a gain channel switch. I'd pay $200-$250 for something like that having heard this version. Having heard this, I want more. I may split the Jensens and buy a second one, so I can power each speaker independently and make my own stereo rig. Oh, I should say, if you're jamming with a quiet drummer, or a drummer with electronic drums, then this is loud enough. The drummers I'm referencing were very loud rock drummers.

The clean channel is super clear. Pleasantly surprised. A great pedal platform. Not loud enough to jam with, but great for using with DAW and at home practice.