The beauty of the Little Monster (apart from its size) is that it’s all tube, giving it real legs in the sound stakes. The controls are laid out across the front face of the amp, with a quarter-inch jack input, Thin/Mellow switch, Normal/Top Boost switch, Gain, Volume and Power on/off switch with a red neon to remind you that you’re up and running. A quarter-inch jack output, Power Supply and an 8/16-ohm Speaker Out switch are lined up along the back. Plugging into a cab carrying a 12” Celestion speaker and with the controls set for Mellow and Normal and with the Gain at nine o’clock and the Volume at two o’clock we were amazed at the power this little devil will deliver – going beyond three o’clock all but blew our pants off! But what a great sound: clean, smooth and syrupy. Switching from Mellow to Thin took out most of the bass and middle, while still retaining a clean tone. Switching from Normal to Top Boost immediately gave us a punch of power, while at the same time adding significant depth and width to the overall sound. Adding Gain, as might be expected, drove the amp and dirtied up the sound – but nicely. Mooer claim that the general character of the sound produced by this Little Monster is remarkably similar to the legendary Vox AC30. There are some obvious sonic similarities, but the beauty of the separate head is that you can match it up with any speaker, be it 10, 12 or 15inch, and with any model – Celestion, Jensen or even Eminence. Each of course will give a subtly different colouration and response.
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