Harley Benton has rolled out a pair of super-affordable and travel-friendly desktop amps with Bluetooth that are cheaper than a Blu-ray box-set.
Seriously, amps do not get any cheaper than the JAMster series, and whether you go for the bass version or the guitar amp, either way you are getting plenty of change from 50 bucks in the deal.
What does that money buy you? Well, in short, a compact practice amp that could work just nicely as a lunchtime office option, or one you could throw in the car or in a rucksack when you’re going away from the weekend. Both share a compact plastic design housing a single 5” speaker and way just 0.95kg.
Now, no one is headlining Madison Square Garden with the JAMster Guitar. But that’s not to say these lack features. As is the case with Harley Benton guitars, we have a very reasonable spec for the money.
There are Clean and Overdrive modes, selectable via a push-button on the control panel – effectively making these a two-channel design that shares a single Tone knob for handling all your EQing needs.
There is a knob for Volume, another for Gain. Another push button activates Bluetooth, so you can pair the amplifier with your smartphone or laptop and stream audio to it.
Alternatively, there is a mini-jack aux in for hooking up external sources of audio. You can use these amps as portable speakers. Last but not least, there is a headphones output, so late-night silent practice – or, again, lunchtime in the office – is on the menu.
Both amps ship with a 9V DC power adapter but you do have the option of loading these up with half a dozen AA batteries and taking it to the beach, park, supermarket, wherever.
You will get a maximum playing time of four-and-a-half hours. That's more than respectable for a runaround amp.
It will be interesting to hear how these actually sound. They are not constructed of marine grade birch ply, nor are those 10-watts driving a Celestion speaker.
But the JAMster series is about affordable portability, retailing at just £33/$42.75. through a good set of guitar amp headphones, who knows, they might even sound pretty darn respectable.
For more details, head over to Harley Benton. The JAMster series is available now via Thomann.
