7-100 Legendary portable amplifier

This is a neat little amp. It's small, but solidly built. It's definitely NOT a toy. I got this amp with the idea that I could use it as a 'man-portable' sound system for my harmonicas. That way, I wouldn't be tied to a wall socket. I use it with a Shure Green Bullet microphone as an amp for my harmonicas. The sound is really nice. I was looking for sort of a "Chicago Blues Harp" kind of sound, and this really delivers. For me, the sound is very good, but I'm not sure how much a guitar/bass player or a vocalist might like it. There's some distortion, but I knew that before I bought it.It's VERY simple to run. There's only one control (an on/off/volume knob on the front, just below the speaker.) On the back, there's a spot for the ac adapter (YOU NEED TO BUY ONE) and a jack for a headset plug.You need to buy the AC adapter. I got the Pignose PA7 Power Supply. They come 'bundled together' on Amazon. This amp runs on 6 AA batteries, and it tends to use them pretty quickly. I AM VERY HAPPY THAT I BOUGHT THE AC ADAPTER.It has a handle on the top, and the handle is well-attached to the body. The amp has knobs on the sides for a guitar strap. GET A GUITAR STRAP specifically for this unit. It seems like there's no other practical way to carry it around when you're using it.The body opens up like a briefcase to put the batteries in. There is no storage space inside it so don't think about storing the AC adapter or anything like that inside it. It may have a 'big' sound, but this is a small amp.I use a small electricians' tool case to carry my gear (Harps, mic, etc) in, and the Pignose fits in there quite easily.All in all, this is a really nice little unit - well worth the money.

I play harmonica and have a couple different mics. When I play at church I generally use a Fireball, which has an XLR connector so I hook straight into the sound system. I've also got a green bullet (shure) that has a 1/4" line. I've been playing it over a line 6 amp but lugging that to church doesn't work for me. The Line 6 has a lot of different settings so it's fun to play with effects but it's not portable.This pig nose is fun to play and it's very portable. I've got a small inline gate so I can prevent feedback even if I push the volume up on the amp and mic. This gives me a lot of different effects I can apply depending on the volume controls.At church I use a guitar strap to hold the amp to my chair then I use the fireball mic with a boom as the pickup for this amp. That gives me 3 different volume controls for the mix before it hits the house. I also have a couple effect channels but I find the sound off this amp and the different effects I can generate with the volume control to be sufficient.The sound isn't correct for a lot of the songs in a church worship service, so often I play directly into the Fireball still, but we do play a lot of songs that have more of a blues/rock sound so this makes the perfect sound.When I push the volume on both the mic and amp then play hard with a strong mic cup I can get that dark and dirty natural overdrive that is signature to the blues.My only complaint is it doesn't come with the power supply. I know a lot of pedal accessories don't but I feel like an amp really should. The instructions even assume you've got the power supply. It suggests that identifying when to replace the batteries requires the power supply. The recommendation is to play a sustained note then turn off the power supply. If the note changes in volume the batteries need to be replaced.

I was thinking about this amp when I woke up this morning. This is how central the product has been to the three decades I've been playing guitar. I've got a forty year-old Fender Twin somewhere in storage in California, along with a Fender Blues Junior. I've owned orange colored Roland Cube amps and Ampegs, played through a Rockman headset, and used many Marshall stacks in my day. But I've also lived between coasts, and inhabited apartments, traveling and shipping belongings from place to place and having neighbors above, below and on either side of me. It's always the Pignose that I come back to and the other amps remain sitting unused somewhere else. I've owned at least three of them .. none broke down, one is on the other coast and the third packed away in a moving box somewhere.I've read complaints that the amp won't give you a 'clean' sound, and it's true that you can't get the same bright, glass-cutting clear tone that a Fender Twin will produce. But try putting the Twin in your backpack or using it in any reasonable fashion with a neighbor next door. The Pignose has a great and unique sound and produces a mellow, over-driven effect particularly as the batteries get low. You can buy an optional AC adapter if you don't want to worry about the batteries. You can get a reasonable variety of tones just by adjusting the volume or switching between pickup combinations on your guitar.Obviously it's a practice-sized amp with only one volume control, so you won't get the range of tones or sound that you do with a full size amp. But in a sense this also makes you a better guitar player because you aren't forever messing with the controls, adjusting the mix between that master volume and volume knobs, or trying to adjust for the perfect balance of bass, treble, reverb, 'speed', 'brightness', or whatever the manufacture is calling it. You see these amps everywhere; on stages, strapped to street musicians on the sidewalk or in the subway station, used as microphone amplification etc. They've been around for 35 years and haven't changed much in price or construction. (As a side note, I've owned one of their other amplifiers besides the 7-100 and wasn't as big a fan.) The most recent one I bought is about the same amp as the first I ever owned. Nobody talks about a 'pre-CBS Pignose' or the era when they built them right. And you can get one for under a hundred bucks.If you're a musician who's been around a while and still enjoy playing the electric guitar but find that it no longer fits your lifestyle, pick your favorite axe and keep it under the bed or in a closet along with the Pignose, a reliable cord, and fresh AA batteries. It's a great amp and a hell of lot more convenient than dragging the Twin up from the basement.