Despite the crapulence of my recent attempt to buy a small guitar to leave at work so I can practice occasionally I've just taken care of the other half of the bargain with this.
Last time I left a guitar at work I had a Zoom 9000, which I never liked. It did loads and I even bought the optional footswitch controller but it just somehow never suited despite being an ubergadget at the time.
Nowadays digital modellers have moved on, getting better and cheaper but they're still generally a large lump and perhaps too pricey to leave kicking about in a gig bag at work. Even a 'Pocket Pod Express' which is about as small and cheap as you can go is something as large as an effects pedal that takes four batteries and needs a lead to connect it to the guitar, plus headphones with a long enough lead to go off to wherever you've perched it.
What I really wanted was a 'headphone amp' and this fit the bill. It's all analogue (with a proper hard off switch so the batteries won't go flat), has simple controls and simply plugs straight into the guitar. It only does one tone, which is METAL but then it does say that on the front. It does a good approximation of my usual tone choice of 'late 80s thrash' just great and the lack of anything much to fiddle with is a plus in my book. I've already got a couple of things that you can create a bazillion presets on.
There's tons of gain, it's not tinny like you'd expect if anything it's bass heavy and you can get decent articulation depending on how you play. Despite the plastic case, huge gain and lack of noise gate it doesn't suffer from loads of hiss/EMI. The only thing it's missing is a tuner but then I have a spare.
On paper the 'Pocket Pod Express' is far superior and not that much more expensive new but this really is a 'slip into a pocket' zero frills device.
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