Downsizing is a hard pill to swallow. Nobody wants to be told to make do with less. We’re often taught that bigger is better, and this sentiment is echoed repeatedly in the music world, with bass rigs pushing thousands of watts through refrigerator-sized cabs.
Reversing course, Phil Jones Pure Sound has been moving things in a smaller, more scientific direction with the revolutionary 5" Piranha bass driver, the soul of the company’s micro bass amp line. Jones has been making bassists do double-takes with creations that produce big, faithful bass tone from cabinets housing as many as 21 of his wee speakers. Blazing yet another trail, Jones recently introduced the 70-watt Double Four BG-75, a breadbox-sized micro combo that delivers—and delivers well.
Fours?
When I unpacked the Double Four, I held the tiny amp in my hand and gazed back into the box, as if I’d see something I missed. Nope. It was all in my hand—all (almost) 9 pounds of it. The amp is roughly the size of two stacked shoeboxes. I was more than intrigued.
The Double Four is a simple, straightforward combo amp with clean lines and a solid feel. The textured covering looks sprayed-on, like a pickup truck bed liner, which I like because there’s no outer material to peel away over time. The rugged chassis houses simple controls suitable for practicing and small gigs, plus some helpful extras. A mute/low/high mini-switch toggles between low-gain input and a high-gain stage that brings the 70 watts to their full potential. A clip indicator light, a level control, 3-band EQ, and master volume round out the controls. There’s also an 1/8" aux input jack with level control, an 1/8" headphone jack, and a 1/4" line out.
The Mighty Roar.
So how good can an amp this small sound? Is it for real? And should you consider spending $450 bucks on a practice amp?
Plugging in a Sandberg California TT passive, I was happy to hear, well, bass—and lots of it. The 4" speakers sounded full and rich. The tone was authentic and free from coloration. The Double Four had plenty of volume for its size. It handled everything I threw at it, from fingerstyle to slap to pick. It was punchy, tight, accurate, and above all, simple.
Ratings
Pros:
Authentic, uncolored tone from a deliriously small amp.
Cons:
Won’t make it past a drummer on its own.
Tones:
Playability/Ease of Use:
Build/Design:
Value:
Street:
$449
Phil Jones Pure Sound Double Four BG-75
philjonespuresound.com
So how exactly does the Double Fourdo what it does? Phil Jones had already mastered delivering low end via small neo speakers, and then he notched things up with the Rectangular Auxiliary Low Frequency Radiator (RALFR) in the Double Four. It’s a fancy name for a radiator that augments speaker output in 30-to-150 Hz range by redirecting air. Additionally, each speaker is powered by its own amplifier for greater efficiency. It’s difficult to believe the bass response of these 4" speakers.
I field-tested the Double Four at an acoustic rehearsal with a piano player, two acoustic guitarists, and a drummer on cajón. I placed it on the floor for natural resonance and found that positioning it on its side was most convenient for EQ adjustments. Everyone was amazed by how great the amp sounded. The Double Four blazed through rehearsal with no problems, always sounding far bigger than its size.
I didn’t test the amp through a P.A., but the line out has you covered for situations where the Double Four might not be quite powerful enough—a larger coffee house gig, for example. But for a small gig, rehearsal, or songwriting situation, this amp is all you need.
The Verdict.
Playing (and transporting) the Double Four is a joy. No, it won’t replace your high-output stage gear, but that’s not its intent. It elevates the bedroom-sized amp to the upper echelons of tone and portability, so you don’t have to sacrifice tone when rehearsing. It can make acoustic and other low-volume gigs a breeze. It could also be handy backstage, on the bus, or as a personal monitor. And did I mention you can fit it in a backpack? All this makes the Double Four very much worth a test run.
Reverend Vernon Reid Totem Series Electric Guitar - Shaman
Silos features six presets, tap tempo, one full second of delay time, and three voices—two of which are styled after bucket-brigade and tape-delay sounds. In the $150 price category, it’s not unusual for a digital delay to leave some number of those functions out. And spending the same money on a true-analog alternative usually means warm, enveloping sounds but limited functionality and delay time. Silos, improbably perhaps, offers a very elegant solution to this can’t-have-it-all dilemma in a U.S.-made effect.
A More Complete Cobbling Together
Silos’ utility is bolstered by a very unintimidating control set, which is streamlined and approachable. Three of those controls are dedicated to the same mix, time, and repeats controls you see on any delay. But saving a preset to one of the six spots on the rotary preset dial is as easy as holding the green/red illuminated button just below the mix and preset knobs. And you certainly won’t get lost in the weeds if you move to the 3-position toggle, which switches between a clear “digital” voice, darker “analog” voice, and a “tape” voice which is darker still.
“The three voices offer discernibly different response to gain devices.”
One might suspect that a tone control for the repeats offers similar functionality as the voice toggle switch. But while it’s true that the most obvious audible differences between digital, BBD, and tape delays are apparent in the relative fidelity and darkness of their echoes, the Silos’ three voices behave differently in ways that are more complex than lighter or duskier tonality. For instance, the digital voice will never exhibit runaway oscillation, even at maximum mix and repeat settings. Instead, repeats fade out after about six seconds (at the fastest time settings) or create sleepy layers of slow-decaying repeats that enhance detail in complex, sprawling, loop-like melodic phrases. The analog voice and tape voice, on the other hand, will happily feed back to psychotic extremes. Both also offer satisfying sensitivity to real-time, on-the-fly adjustments. For example, I was tickled with how I could generate Apocalypse Now helicopter-chop effects and fade them in and out of prominence as if they were approaching or receding in proximity—an effect made easier still if you assign an expression pedal to the mix control. This kind of interactivity is what makes analog machines like the Echoplex, Space Echo, and Memory Man transcend mere delay status, and the sensitivity and just-right resistance make the process of manipulating repeats endlessly engaging.
Doesn't Flinch at Filth
EarthQuaker makes a point of highlighting the Silos’ affinity for dirty and distorted sounds. I did not notice that it behaved light-years better than other delays in this regard. But the three voices most definitely offer discernibly different responses to gain devices. The super-clear first repeat in the digital mode lends clarity and melodic focus, even to hectic, unpredictable, fractured fuzzes. The analog voice, which EQD says is inspired by the tone makeup of a 1980s-vintage, Japan-made KMD bucket brigade echo, handles fuzz forgivingly inasmuch as its repeats fade warmly and evenly, but the strong midrange also keeps many overtones present as the echoes fade. The tape voice, which uses aMaestro Echoplex as its sonic inspiration, is distinctly dirtier and creates more nebulous undercurrents in the repeats. If you want to retain clarity in more melodic settings, it will create a warm glow around repeats at conservative levels. Push it, and it will summon thick, sometimes droning haze that makes a great backdrop for slower, simpler, and hooky psychedelic riffs.
In clean applications, this decay and tone profile lend the tape setting a spooky, foggy aura that suggests the cold vastness of outer space. The analog voice often displays an authentic BBD clickiness in clean repeats that’s sweet for underscoring rhythmic patterns, while the digital voice’s pronounced regularity adds a clockwork quality that supports more up-tempo, driving, electronic rhythms.
The Verdict
Silos’ combination of features seems like a very obvious and appealing one. But bringing it all together at just less than 150 bucks represents a smart, adept threading of the cost/feature needle.
EarthQuaker Devices Silos Multi-generational Time Reflection Delay Pedal
