I love the smell of a fresh review in the morning. And this one is killer. It’s from a notable member of our Test Animal group, Doron Zor.

It covers the Little Giant Combo (BH5-112) from the musician’s perspective. Check out Doron’s site…one track will clue you in that he knows his stuff. His ability to blend into virtually any style says something about the versatility of this little combo. Without further ado…the writings of Doron Zor (the first bit reads like a haiku…awesome!):

The Little Giant.

By Doron Zor

One channel with a five-watt/three-watt selector.

Three-band EQ which allows easy manipulation of frequency.

The difference between the five and the three-watt feature makes all the difference in the world when you step into a studio situation.

Many players will agree with me on this. Who wouldn’t want to play an amp at bedroom volume and yet still get the same huge sound that you get when the amp is cranked? I had the pleasure of working with this amp in the studio the very same day I received it. I found that even at low volume i still had tons of “punch” to my sound. I used a Sennheiser e906 and Shure SM57. Very common and simple microphones.

(No EQ, compressors or any other modification was done to the sound).

Breakup Point

Due to the fact that the Little Giant is a Class-A amp. You can count on it to respond to your attack.  If you use humbuckers, most likely it will breakup faster than a guitar with single pickup configuration.

Sounds and Options

This amp has got to be the easiest plug-and-play amps I have ever used. Whether you play jazz, rock, funk, blues, smooth jazz or whatever you can come up with. You can just tweak the onboard EQ to suit your sound. Before I had the Little Giant I used pedals to get certain sounds. Now I find, I just need to move some buttons around and I can achieve a great tone.

Studio Situation

Recently I was hired for a smooth jazz project. The producer is a huge Lee Ritenour fan. You know…that big semi-hollow body sound with a slight overdrive. I had all my pedals ready to produce any sound that was required for the job, but never had a chance to use them. While firing the amp up and coming up with ideas for a solo. The producer turned to me and said, “That’s it! That’s the sound i am looking for”. Using an AKG 414 as the main mic, the amp delivered an amazing amount of response and feel.

Sounds

During the course of my first two weeks with the Little Giant, I wanted to put the amp to the test. Throwing all kinds of pedals in front of it and stacking different layers. Just wanted to see when the amp will choke up. I laid a drum track, recorded a rock bass riff and pushed the amp with a BB preamp by Xotic pedals. When I stepped on the pedal using the 5-watt position, I noticed the amp still had some air. By adding a compressor to the chain, I was hit with the richest rock tone I heard in the longest time.

Thinking to myself…how to flip the mood and go for the extreme opposite??? BB King-style blues sound should do it, trusting the BB Preamp to deliver due to its name (Blues Breaker). Mind you, I had to change from the 5 to the 3-watt stage. The 3-watt on half volume is warmer than the 5-watt at the same volume stage. Rolling the gain down from the BB with a slight treble tweak really did sound very similar to the tone of the blues king himself.

Thank you for reading,

Doron Zor

www.doronzor.com

Hi Pyotr,

I bought my Little Giant Combo about a year ago, maybe 6 months ago I bought a Handsome Devil head so I could play live with a little more clean headroom.  I've been entirely impressed with both amplifiers, as were the studio engineers I worked with a few weeks ago.  After tweaking some effects and trying to come up with a good distorted sound through my pedal board and the Giant, I said "f*ck it" and just rolled everything to 10.

I'm sure you've heard plenty of stories with the same result, but the three of us were blown away at the gain and tone of my Fender TC-90 through the Giant.  Attached is the song I recorded that day, "Screaming."  Both guitar tracks are TC-90 through the Little Giant Combo, one is just guitar and amplifier, one I used a Boss DS2 for a slightly different distorted sound.

Here is another track, "Cheated."  We just finished a small whirlwind of shows (playing locally at least 2-3 times a month since January) and we'll be working out a playlist and deciding what to record for our first real release.

Feel free to send these tracks around to anybody who might possibly want to (or need to) hear them.

Thanks again for your feedback and help!

Enjoy!

Ian Graham

Here's some background info on Ian's band, DeVille:

DeVille started with a visit to Craigslist. Guitarist Ian Graham wanted to play in a band again after a financially driven music hiatus (the Little Giant was his rescue). When he found GiGi Gordon looking for someone to play guitar and sing with, he took a chance. What came of their first meeting, originally meant to be a lesson/jam session, was the framework for two songs.

After a few weeks of writing, Ian and GiGi decided to take their songs and build a band around them. Another visit to Craigslist brought Trevor Thrift, a powerhouse drummer with a background in jazz and metal; further searching brought in Patrick "Patches" Mitchell, a punk/pop enthusiast, on bass.

The combination of Ian's blues and punk inspired guitar work, Trevor's hard-hitting drums, Pat's driving, melodic bass-playing and GiGi's soulful, personal vocals creates a powerpop sound that's simultaneously accessible and unique.

DeVille has been building its fanbase around the DC area and networking nationwide as they write and perform. They've recently released their debut single, "Screaming," and an EP is soon to follow.

Here's a video of DeVille playing "Cheated" live at the Rock n' Roll Hotel:

We recently received an email from one of our best supporters, the Rusty Wright Band out of Flint, Michigan. They recently purchased two “Little Giant” stacks (BH5H head & BH112 cabinet) and found out that Blackheart amps can go from “practice amp” to “recording rig” in no time at all.

Here’s what they had to say:

Just had to touch base and tell you how much we love, love LOVE the “Little Giants” my husband and I bought recently.  I ordered a pair of them thinking they'd be cool to keep at home so we wouldn't have to unload our heavy road racks for band rehearsals. I enjoy mine so much I insisted on using it at our next show. The audio tech mic'd it up and it sounded fabulous.  Rusty likes his so much he re-cut the main guitar track on one of the songs from our upcoming CD - replacing a track he originally recorded using his Vox AC30.

Also, last week when Rusty went down to do a guitar session for another artist he took his Little Giant with him, along with some of his other "high end" amps. They set the Little Giant at 3 watts, put some nice mics on it and dialed it to 10 and it sounded big as a house. Al [Hurschman] was so impressed with the tone they used the Little Giant for the entire session.

We're both a couple of gear hounds and as far as we're concerned, these Little Giants were the best purchase of the year!  Congrats on coming up with such a great product in such a small package! 

I've attached an MP3 (Lost Souls.mp3) of the song recorded with the Blackheart.  Hope you enjoy it. It’s called Lost Souls.

All the best from the cold Midwest,

Laurie LaCross-Wright (& Rusty Wright)
Rusty Wright Band
Flint, Michigan

www.rustywrightband.com
www.youtube.com/rustywrightband

Please check out the tune and hear for yourself why Blackheart amps are being used more and more every day by both touring and recording artists.