It's been a while since I've seen any posts about these amps.
I'm wondering if a preference has been established at this point. I have a VHT Special Six. which I like a lot, but it does not have a line out. I've tried micing the amp, but I'm never too happy with the results. Perhaps I,m not doing it correctly.
Quite a bit of difference in specifications between those two amps. You could always fit a line out to the VHT. It's pretty easy to do and works well. I'm pretty sure there's a description of how to do it on Jim Rossens VHT mod page
"Thoughts on an amp for smaller venues?"
My personal choice for small, medium and large gigs is a Fender '65 Blackface Princeton Reverb Reissue. I just mic it up for bigger gigs.
Hey John, I am biased because I've owned a Memphis Mini for 8 months. I can tell you the line out from the Mini is super as the tone stays the same while it passes to the PA. In the meantime, I can listen to my Mini as a monitor so I can hear what I'm playing.
To mic your VHT amp, it has been highly recommended by Adam Gussow himself that you use a Sennheiser Evolution e906 dynamic guitar amp mic. See the story by pressing the Harmonicas for sale tab & click on amps.
The only comparison comment I read was from Nicolas Fouquet in France:
“In this amp category, the Memphis Mini is the best. It is far above the others.
I have finally been able to compare it to the Lone Wolf amp I have read and heard so much about from my recent customers.
The two amps do not compare to each other. Really nothing! Their sound and their tone are very different.
Lone Wolf has a less toned sound, more plain.
With respect to power and volume, the MM would tend (and I mark my words to not offend anyone) to overwhelm the Harp Train.
The MM is worth every penny, and the Lone Wolf is way too expensive for what it does. You can get better, more powerful amps for the same money or less.
The MM is very seducing and I can see why people like it. It makes you feel as if you are on Beale Street in the 40's. The tone is wonderful! And it makes average players sound good and good players sound great. It is very powerful as well. More power and much more guts than the Harp Train.”
(Nicolas Fouquet is a French-born harp player from Limoges. He is the son of a famous French guitar maker, Claude Fouquet, grandson of a Jazz Musette soprano sax player, and great grandson of a Spanish flamenco guitar player. He is a respected harp tech and well known for his expertise on harmonica playing, amps, and mics.)
Mm..I have no idea from personal experience but I do have a mate with a lone wolf amp and his assessment of it is quite unlike Nic's remarks in the Owen's post above. MM I understood to be a 5 watt, champ-like unit...with an 8" speaker...and the HT is rated at higher power with a bigger speaker...and Nic claims the MM would overwhelm the HT in terms of power and volume...that's hard for me to imagine
I am not the expert in this as I did not make the comparison. I listen to a 59 Bassman LTD darn near every week so I know what a loud amp is capable of. My MM does not do this as 45 vs. 6 watts plus 4 x 10' vs. 1 x 8 inch, is night & day. But, line out through a PA channel, & I think it loses very little.
Here's a story by Rick of MM told in his blog when everyone assumed a 10" speaker with 8 watts was an MM beater hands down. Give it a read, it's edifying.
It would be great if someone else out there on the internet would post a comparison. I myself would be looking at purchasing either one of these amps in the near future. Now that the Canadian dollar is so weak I can't justify spending the money on the HarpGear HG2 but if the MM is almost as good it's a steal at half the price. Are there any other amps I should consider in the MM/HT10 price range? I'm looking for something small and loud for practice at home that could also line out to a PA.
I can't say which amp is better, but lately a lot of the LW amps have come up for sale. Not saying it means anything, but some of these buyers have owned them for only a week or two.
My guess is the players selling these amps don't have good tone and their blaming the amp. I know I did that early on.
Well i have had the Harptrain for a couple of months now. Mmmmm...at first i was very disappointed with it to be honest.It sounded pretty much like my cheap no name chinese 5 watter and for a harp amp quite prone to feedback as well. It didn't help that it cost me 850$ to land in NZ. Anyways after a lot of playing through all the various settings possible with the gain/volume i ended up pretty happy with it. But here is the real irony.. it sounds best when i use a L/W harpbreak into it.;-) My playing ability lacking? Maybe, and because i have never played through any other dedicated Harp amp i have nothing to compare it to. One thing i'd say is that the speaker really needs a good break in time.I played my stereo through it for around 20 hours at a reasonable/loud volume and could definitely hear the change in it afterwards. But yeah a few months down the track i'm reasonably happy with it but if someone local offered me say 700$ (NZ) for it i'd sell it and put the money towards a Princeton reissue like i shoulda done 10 years ago. YMMV
All I can say to this discussion is my personnel experience with the MM. I have played my mates MM 4-5 times now from new. Cost him around $1050 to land in NZ when the Kiwi dollar was strong about 7-8months ago. Each time I played it , it just got better and better as the speaker wore in. I personally would have no hesitation ( If had the cash)in buying an MM. I cannot comment on the Harp Train amp.
I don't have a MM, I have a Harptrain. I love it. The line out works fabulously, and its perfect power for pratice. Great tone. The price is also more attractive. I did have the large Mission amp and was terribly disappointed. I sold it after a month.
Yeah, it's tough to decide on an amp that you can't walk into a store and try it out, unless it's a big brand name like the Princeton that Kingley mentions. Leaves one to listening to available video clips or reading testimonials. Both the MM and Lone Wolf websites have plenty of those. Johnny Sansone does A/B the LW10 with vintage amps on the LW site. Just found a nice HT10 clip by Helge Tallqvist, who is a great player from Finland, at https://soundcloud.com/helge-tallqvist/soundtest-lone-wolf-harp-train-10-waltercottonmp3 I post this because I have a HT10 and searched out video examples myself.
Most of what you'll get here will be the opinion from folks who own either the MM or the HT10 and very few who have played both, except for Nicolas Fouquet, and I'd love see, or hear, examples of the differences he points out.
That said, here's my 2 cents. The OP mentions an amp for small venues. I agree with Kingley about installing a line-out, particularly if you like the VHT that well. Much cheaper than the MM at $500, the HT10 at $350 or the Princeton Reissue at $1,000 (Kingley grabbed a used one at considerably less). I've used the HT10 several times at a small venue and have run the volume just above 3 unmic'ed, but my trio is just acoustic guitar, electric guitar and me. Played with the same folks at an outdoor gig mic'ed with volume on 4. Kept the 'Balls', or boost, at 3 in both situations and with a LW delay. The amp gives me exactly what I want.
Like most new amps, the speaker does need a break in period, as Indigo mentioned. He also mentioned feedback with the HT10 and that is the only negative comment I've read from owners. With mine, feedback does creep in around 5 with 'Balls' on 3. It is quite loud at that point. I've got four vintage amps that I've modified extensively for harp and can only get one above 5 before feedback. As one who modifies such things, I've always been a tube swapper. The HT10 hasn't been immune from this habit.
I stick a JJ 6L6 into the amp. It puts the wattage closer to 12 vs the 8 watts advertised. Tone stayed about the same. The amp comes with a 12ax7 preamp tube. I tried a 12ay7 in that slot and it raised the feedback zone closer to 8 on the dial. Certainly louder and it changed the tone a bit. With most small amps, especially those that you can crank, speaker distortion increases. May or may not be ones cup of tea. Some just like the aggressive gnarly sound of a 12ax7. Different strokes.
Same thing with the power tubes. Some like these some like those. Some may prefer the sound of a 6V6, which the MM has along with mucho many small amps, over the sound of a 6L6. I like my HT10. My favorite small amp has always been my Kalamazoo 1. The HT10 replaces that with more bottom, more beef and more wattage. I've chained them both together for they do whomp.
---------- Ricky B http://www.bushdogblues.blogspot.com RIVER BOTTOM BLUES--crime novel for blues fans available at Amazon/B&N, iTunes, iBook THE DEVIL'S BLUES--ditto HOWLING MOUNTAIN BLUES--Ditto too, now available
Can' t speak to the Memphis Mini though i picked up a HT-10 a couple of weeks ago in person from Peter Blyth ..tremendous fella...he'd just taken delivery of a batch of the second issue ... understand it's had a couple if tweaks and now comes with a sturdier plywood body and neat dust cover....that stack of amps was a sight to behold!
To my ears the HT-10 has a real gritty edgy sound that kicks ... nice dirty break - up ... guess this'll have something to do with the AX tube with a bit higher gain as well as the "Balls" circuit & hits some truly filthy territory. I also have a Marble Max which is a great little amp with a very big sound....though I would say smoother & warmer in the delivery - possibly in part down to the slightly lower gain AY tube?
Could i choose between them?..both are cracking amps though very different in their own very special ways ...What sounds good and works with all your other pieces of kit is horses for courses... though I highly recommend the HT-10 (& of course the M. Max) and irrespective of the 40% price tag compared to the Max, as soon as I blew through it I was blown away.
Being in the UK, avoiding the hefty individual import duty and carrier release fee is also quite a bonus.
I must say how incredibly lucky we are to have the likes of RL, AJ and all the other guys putting out these super pieces of kit for us to enjoy! We are truly blessed!
I have the Memphis mini and it is hands down the best small amp I have owned. I would Highly recommend it! The break up and dynamic range are superb! Also used it for large gigs with the line out and it sounds fantastic. I previously owned theVHT which was good but not great. Has a slightly tinny tone for me. I have heard the and used the HT in person and it seems more prone to feedback, and for me the sound sounds saturated and muddy. But each to their own. Hope this helps. G
Last Edited by CapitalG on Oct 12, 2015 6:14 AM
Feedback was an issue with HT10 in a loud jam session using a hot JT 30 mic. Swapped out 12ax7 for a 12ay7. Issue gone. I'll follow up after next loud session using amp w/o line out.
I was happy to find this thread in a forum search because I am wondering about this exact question. I thought I'd bump the conversation to see if any new thoughts on the topic have developed in the past couple years.
One of my friends has both a hg2 and a ht10. He says he rarely uses the hg2 these days. I've not heard them but just reporting his remarks about the relative usefulness. Seems pertinent in this thread given the mm/hg2 comparisons.
I have a 5f1 clone, high quality build with American 'classic tone' transformers and a Weber speaker. It's a nice enough amp but I think loses its charm when pushed too hard. The smallest amp I take out of drums are involved is a Princeton Reverb, but I know quite a few advocates for the champ size amps and if they can do it it is obviously doable
The Memphis Mini is a damn good amp. I recently tried one out. It has great tone and pushes a surprising amount of air. I don't know if I'd gig with it, with a full band, but it would be great for a duo gig, a band practice. Probably good for recording, too.
Sure it's a lovely sound, when played over the gentle volume of a backing track! If only there were a gain control for live musicians...a 5W amp would be great! :)
