Joyo BanTamP Bluejay

When writing this, Bluejay has been my go-to home practice amp combined with a Harley Benton 212 vertical cab (original Celestion V30 speakers still inside, yet...) for about a year and a half. This little wonderbox packs a punch.

One channel with Normal or Bright voicing under a switch. Controls: Gain, Tone, Volume - couldn't get much simpler than that. Preamp has one 12AX7 tube, the power section being solid state. FX loop on the back. Includes Bluetooth connection for jamming with your favourite tunes - haven't tested, so can't comment. Robust metal housing, external transformer. (A slight minus for me, but saves the space, so...)

The sound: totally believable blues rock machine on its own and even surprisingly loud. You get the soft tube characteristics from the preamp, so I'd say the hybrid technology works here very well. Although tone stack may seem limited at first because of one control knob only, in action it gives you wide range of tones, all usable IMO. (Ive mainly used normal voicing, though - bright just doesn't do it for me.) To my ears the sound profile sounds a bit scooped in the mids, in the way of Fender style amps.

On its own it's not a gain monster, but hell yeah its an excellent pedal platform! Set this to slight breakup and drive your favourite fuzz or distortion in it, and the world melts appropriately. I have been very surprised to see that this small box has become my go-to Doom head in home practice.

Snobs will scoff, but ignore them. Good gear is good gear. This may look like a lunchbox plastic toy, but looks deceive. With the price of a lower moderate range pedal you can get a 20W head with this sound - it's a no brainer to have as an practice / home studio amp. One star out for small things: working but non-tweakable tone section, futile Bluetooth gimmick (subjective, I know) and no footswitch jack (I'd like to select between Normal and Bright modes by foot, however little I have use of the Bright setting), and somewhat fragile solution of wall wart instead of internal transformer (this being less of a hassle if you're not going to gig with it). 4 stars as an amp head in general, 5 stars with this price tag.

Combined this one with a Harley Benton G212 vintage vertical cab. The package is quite potent.

I use this at home for practice and experimentation with various pedals. It seems quite pedal-friendly, but testing is always a good idea before goind live. The FX loop is a very nice feature, often missing from much costlier amps. It offers only a single channel, compared to other Bantamps, but I like the simplicity compared to modelers.

You can annoy your neighbours if you use all its power, but it's not necessary if you want to enjoy it for home use. The 2*12 cabin pushes lots of air with it, despite the small official wattage.

I haven't used the Bluetooth connectivity yet, so I cannot comment on it.

It's a very light head, and I don't know if it can take much physical abuse in concerts, if you want to play live outdoors it may be a good idea to have a second head as a spare.
It's so cheap and light that you can easily get a pair (or even another Bantamp, for variety).
(note: a speaker cable is included in the package, but I bought a separate one anyway)

I have to say, this was probably the most surprising piece of gear I've bought for a while. I couldn't believe the overall sound this head deliver alongside with my alnico Jensen 10' speaker cabinet. I don't care if this is "fenderish" or not, I don't care about labels.
Thumbs up for the chinese brand that come up with this because the build quality and in terms of clean sound, compatibility with pedals and tube feel dynamics... for this price... I'm dazzled.

If you want a amp that will provide you clean tone to use as a pedal platform or clean music. This is the amp for you. Its LOUD!!

My ONLY drawback with this is that ... its too much in the trebily range ... hardly any mids & no bass to the sound even with the tone control to the base side. I had this going through the HB 212 non celestion cab n again .. no bass or mids whatsoever vs say a orange micro dark or a bugera G5 infinium throught the same 2x12's. STILL .. If you want clean & clear .. this is a good buy & bluetooth audio works well also !!

Again if they could even put a 2 or 3 band eq on these things they would be great.