Pretty good! But I think there's better.
"Back when Joyo first released the BanTamp series, I immediately ordered a Blue Jay and wound up sorely disappointed; I got a dud that would only push a signal out of the headphone jack and it sounded horrible, to the point it didn't even have any musicality.
I ordered this VIVO as well as the Jackman, and remembered my experience with the Blue Jay AFTER I made the order on Amazon..... I contemplated cancelling it but decided to give these BanTamps another chance. I'm happy to say both amps work fine. But I digress here, on to my impressions of the VIVO.
This amp is supposed to emulate the "brown sound" of Peavey's old 5150. While I've never played that exact amp, I have played through a 40 watt 6505. This amp shares a few characteristics with the 6505, but it doesn't nail the 6505's tone.
The main part of the tone missing here is the VIVO lacks the full tube warmth of the 6505. The VIVO sounds very crisp, with a noticeable punch in the upper mids and raised lows. I find this works great for recording rhythm guitar work, since it eliminates a bit of EQ work. For as little as this head costs, I didn't expect it to cop a tone of ANY amp, but it does sound good.
One thing I like about both BanTamps I have is their overdrive sounds fairly rich given their hybrid nature. I once bought and promptly returned a Orange Micro Terror because after a while, it just sounded plasticky and sterile in tone. I'm happy to say neither the VIVO or the Jackman suffer from this. The clean channel surprised me, I figured it would be easily overdriven, but you actually have to turn up the gain and volume if you want overdrive out of the clean channel! I personally don't care for the sound of this set up, but when you set this amp clean, it truly is a wonderful blank canvas for hooking up and dialing in your stompboxes. And honestly, I feel Joyo did a good job dialing in the clean channel. It really stays clean, and it's well rounded in tone. There's no heavy boosts or cuts at frequencies in the clean channel, which is a base reason why it's such a good candidate for stompboxes.
So, for $160 (at the time of writing), this is a solid little head, especially if you'd love to have the roaring tone of a 6505 but don't want to spring for the real deal. As said this amp doesn't sound exactly like it but it's close and still sounds great on it's own. I just hope no one else gets a dud head like I did with the Blue Jay!
Finally, a BanTamp fan may have read my title and thought: "What could be better than this head?"
The Valeton Tar20G guitar amp head.
Yes, it's a tiny solid state amp head, yes, it's only a single channel head, no it's not tube driven. Despite all that, I personally enjoy the Valeton much more than both of these Joyos. You have to dial it in, but if you take the time to do that, you can literally get any tone you want out of that little head, and it has just as much dynamic range as a tube amp. I also feel that the Valeton literally is more harmonically rich than the BanTamps. I realize those are fightin' words for some amp fanatics, but that's what I hear and that's what I feel. Finally, the Valeton costs less than the BanTamps! This VIVO, or one of the other higher gain BanTamps will produce more gain for metal tones, but if you don't need that much gain, I strongly encourage you to check out the Valeton Tar20G amp. It's an underpriced gem! Should you require "authentic tube tone" or high gain, you'll still be fine with any of these BanTamps though!"
This amp is so small, but kicks some major **s !
"This amp is so small, but kicks some major **s ! I have had several amps that cost two to three times more, with more wattage, and this amp sounds much BETTER...not to mention that you can just pick this up and carry it anywhere ! Now, because this is a high gain amp and does come with some hiss noise at higher volumes, be sure to grab a simple noise gate to cure this. I recommend the Donner Noise Killer as a simple inexpensive option for this "
