like a vintage-style Marshall 4x12 . Other features include a power switch on the back , a stomp switch on the front for activating or deactivating standby mode , and a panel of controls that includes knobs for gain , bass , middle , treble , and master . The Master knob can be pulled up to engage a 20-decibel pad , letting the player tame the Minnie ’ s substantial volume for higher gain sounds at less frightening output levels . The front panel has a single guitar input and , dig on this , a nine-volt DC output jack for powering pedals . Booyah ! All of this is housed in a weapons-grade rectangular chassis with a little cage on top where one can observe the duet of preamp tubes hard at work .
I think most pedal people probably find the idea of a pedalboard-mounted amplifier really exciting . I mean , it sort of completes our mania , right ? Short of mounting yourself on a pedalboard , it ’ s about as far as one can take the concept . At the same time , most guitarists will probably be rather suspicious of how good a small tube-solid-state hybrid amp like this could possibly sound . I ’ m pleased to assuage these fears and report that The Mighty Minnie sounds genuinely great ( check out some videos of Sonny Landreth playing through one if you don ’ t believe me ). The tones are rich , muscular , and very dynamic . The Bassmanstyle preamp offers up fat , round clean tones with a gentle glassy sheen , and the wide range of drive sounds is quite impressive . As you turn the gain knob up varying shades of tweedy grit and grime are revealed , while British-style chunk can easily be dialed in with a little tweaking and a big , closedback cab hooked up . And let me tell you , this thing was made for pedals ! The Minnie ’ s clear , warm personality and massive headroom make it an ideal foundation for effects of all kinds , and it gobbled up the gnarliest overdrive , fuzz , and distortion boxes without a hiccup .
Demeter ’ s Mighty Minnie is going to be a dream machine for a lot of pedalboard jockeys . There are a handful of other amplifiers around now that are designed for pedalboard mounting , and most of them are excellent , but Demeter ’ s has a big leg up on the competition in the sonics department . It sounds as good or better than many full-sized all-tube designs , and through my 2x12 cab loaded with Celestion V-type speakers it produced way more than enough volume . The features are pretty basic but offer all the options for tone sculpting that anyone should need , and the nine-volt output jack and stomp switch standby are really clever additions .
At $ 949 , the Demeter Mighty Minnie is the most expensive of the pedalboard amps that we have seen , but then it is also the best sounding , so the extra cash layout does yield tangible benefits . Also , the cage on top makes it a little bulkier than some of its purely solid-state class-D competition . It ’ s still plenty compact , but if you have a small board and space is truly at a premium , then there are smaller , sleeker options .
like a vintage-style Marshall 4x12 . Other features include a power switch on the back , a stomp switch on the front for activating or deactivating standby mode , and a panel of controls that includes knobs for gain , bass , middle , treble , and master . The Master knob can be pulled up to engage a 20-decibel pad , letting the player tame the Minnie ’ s substantial volume for higher gain sounds at less frightening output levels . The front panel has a single guitar input and , dig on this , a nine-volt DC output jack for powering pedals . Booyah ! All of this is housed in a weapons-grade rectangular chassis with a little cage on top where one can observe the duet of preamp tubes hard at work .
I think most pedal people probably find the idea of a pedalboard-mounted amplifier really exciting . I mean , it sort of completes our mania , right ? Short of mounting yourself on a pedalboard , it ’ s about as far as one can take the concept . At the same time , most guitarists will probably be rather suspicious of how good a small tube-solid-state hybrid amp like this could possibly sound . I ’ m pleased to assuage these fears and report that The Mighty Minnie sounds genuinely great ( check out some videos of Sonny Landreth playing through one if you don ’ t believe me ). The tones are rich , muscular , and very dynamic . The Bassmanstyle preamp offers up fat , round clean tones with a gentle glassy sheen , and the wide range of drive sounds is quite impressive . As you turn the gain knob up varying shades of tweedy grit and grime are revealed , while British-style chunk can easily be dialed in with a little tweaking and a big , closedback cab hooked up . And let me tell you , this thing was made for pedals ! The Minnie ’ s clear , warm personality and massive headroom make it an ideal foundation for effects of all kinds , and it gobbled up the gnarliest overdrive , fuzz , and distortion boxes without a hiccup .
WHAT WE LIKE
Demeter ’ s Mighty Minnie is going to be a dream machine for a lot of pedalboard jockeys . There are a handful of other amplifiers around now that are designed for pedalboard mounting , and most of them are excellent , but Demeter ’ s has a big leg up on the competition in the sonics department . It sounds as good or better than many full-sized all-tube designs , and through my 2x12 cab loaded with Celestion V-type speakers it produced way more than enough volume . The features are pretty basic but offer all the options for tone sculpting that anyone should need , and the nine-volt output jack and stomp switch standby are really clever additions .
CONCERNS
At $ 949 , the Demeter Mighty Minnie is the most expensive of the pedalboard amps that we have seen , but then it is also the best sounding , so the extra cash layout does yield tangible benefits . Also , the cage on top makes it a little bulkier than some of its purely solid-state class-D competition . It ’ s still plenty compact , but if you have a small board and space is truly at a premium , then there are smaller , sleeker options .