Blue Tone PRO30M combo Reviews 5

I bought this direct from the company 3 weeks ago. I had been looking for a single channel combo for some time. My main criteria is tone. I had a friend who knew someone who raved about this amp, and as the company offers a 14 day money back deal I thought I'd try it out. I was very sceptical at first, for obvious reasons. I mean, where are the valves! I'm very glad I did, now. It cost me £525 including delivery, which seems a tad expensive until you plug in and play. Then it sounds like an expensive valve amp.

As I said, I heard about the amp on the grapevine, had a long look at the website www.bluetoneamps.com and made up my mind to try it. The sound files on the site need to be improved, though. The endorsements, Pete Townshend, John Jorgenson and Uli Jon Roth are very impressive and I assume they're legitimate! It's portable, sounds absolutely fantastic, very uncluttered, unfussy and easy to use. For small gigs I can't see what else you would need? It reacts so well with whatever style I'm playing. From very nice cleans to very creamy overdrive, and I can't get over how much bottom end it has for such a small amp.

Well, I've heard that some people don't like the fact that it doesn't have reverb. I don't use effects at all so this is of no importance to me, although I don't understand why it's not included. My friend's friend's Blue Tone had reverb added at the factory but I don't know how much it cost to do that. The jury's still out on the flashing lights on the front panel. Perhaps they offend my old fashioned ideas about what an amp should look like, but I can see that they might help when I'm playing live to see where I am with the set up.

It's a 30w single channel combo. The speaker is a Celestion Vintage 30, so that's great! It does not have any gimmicks really, other than the flashing lights which show if you're using boosted mid or extra boost for the overdrive. It seems to be built very well, very solid and reassuringly weighty.

Take this amp along to a rehearsal where your fellow guitarist plugs into a digital and watch his face when you cream that first chord. It's a beautiful sounding amp, great value for money if your main concern is tone. I really wouldn't waste £1,500 on a so called boutique valve amp when the Blue Tone sounds just as good at a fraction of the price.

Dom Halford rated this unit 5 on 2005-05-06.

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