So over the last couple of weeks, i've tested out the Tiny Terror in a couple of the guitar shops in Denmark st, and thought that i'd report back with my findings.
Firstly, being a metal player myself, i was most concerned about the amount/quality of gain on tap, but also how the cleans are (i'm not gonna claim that i play some jazz and blues though :P). Guitars used were a Jackson 6 string, tuned to E, seymour duncan passive pups, and a Jackson 'cow' sig 7 string model, with an active EMG, probably the 81. Both guitars were plugged straight into the amp, and each time the amp drove a 4x12.
The 6 string sounded really nice and meaty, but not over the top. The settings were (roughly), 7watts/volume:9'o'clock/eq:12'o'clock/gain: 4'o'clock. If you turned the amp up more, you obviously got some more gain out of it, but for a moderate bedroom practise, 9 'o'clock on the volume was _plenty_ loud enough. With a clean boost infront, i have no doubt that it'd satisfy even the most gain-hungry of players :) The amp cleaned up really nicely to a glassy clean, but you could take the edge off it and more by tweaking the single eq control. The 15w setting seemed to be more useful for playing clean, not really much difference with the gain dialled in.
The 7 string was the 'acid test' for me, being a big fan of my 7 string, it had to handle the extra string well. Well, with the EMG pickup (not my pickup of choice, but it was the only 7 stringer they had in the shop), it had really balls and depth. Sounded great no matter where the controls were on the amp. Plenty of gain with it to achieve a nice doom tone, roll the EQ back to get a more 'old-school' sound to it. Cleaned up reasonably well, although the low B wasn't quite as crystal as it could have been, but i think with more tweaking (and perhaps the presence of a neck pickup!), it'd handle it superbly :)
To conclude:
Does it sound good? Yes
Enough gain for metal? Yes
Loud enough? Yes
Will I be buying one when I shift my Laney? Most certainly Yes :)
For the lions share of 300 quid, you can't really go wrong with this cracking little fella :)
Point to note: from my reasonably limited experience with the amp, I got the impression that it would be very good for more rock and roll styles. As you rolled the gain back, when you got to about 1.30 or 2 'o'clock, it seemed to drop down to 'classic rock' territory quite sharply- metal regions were only in the last quarter of a turn or so.
