Recording - August 2014 - 43

BY FERNANDO CURIEL

The growing trend of low-wattage amps in small packages began with one
particular tiny amp, and it needs to be mentioned here. Nowadays you
can get high-quality amp craftsmanship that can fit in a pants pocket (well,
maybe not skinny jeans), but if you hunger for genuine tube tone, there's
really only one choice, and I'm about to introduce you to it.
The Nano Head, according to ZVex-the highly regarded guitar pedal
company-is "the world's smallest production tube amp." It's the size of a
toy, but it sure doesn't sound like one!
There's no Power switch; the included 12VDC 1.25A wall wart adaptor
plugs into the rear of the case, next to the standard 1/4" output, which is
capable of powering any speaker cabinet with an impedance of 8 or 16
ohms, be it a 1x12, 2x12 or 4x12 configuration. Respect the clearly
labeled "SPEAKER ONLY" sign and do not plug it into another amp-you
could damage your precious gear.
On the front panel, from right to left, we find the 1/4" Guitar Input jack,
which has an input impedance of 1 Megohm, then a power-on LED and
the 2-way Brite switch, whose effect is most noticeable at lower volumes.
The Volume knob adjusts from clean settings (which can output as little as
0.1 W) to dirty classic rock tones (which can go as far as 0.5 W).

guitar's brightness before adding the Nano Head's classic
rock gain. With my Telecaster and its single-coil pickups, I
was able to get good dirty rhythm sounds, as well as tones
reminiscent of Jonny Lang's round, thick blues lead tones
with the highs rolled off-eminently recordable!
With a Gibson Les Paul Standard, I was happy with the
way the rhythm sounds came together in a Big Brother &

ZVex Nano Head Tube Guitar Amplifier
To the left of the Volume knob we find the Thickness 3-way switch
(Normal, Thin and Fat), which can be useful when going into higher gain
terrain; the low end tends to increase along with the crunch, and this control allows you to thin out the sound to compensate. The 3-way Mellow control allows you to roll off treble after the first distortion stage; the middle
position is Normal (the brightest setting), to the left we get Mellow 2 and
to the right Mellow 1. The Normal setting felt most natural to me when playing, while the other two felt somewhat muffled and attenuated.
On the far left of the unit we find a small 1-inch fan that regulates the
temperature of the components to avoid overheating. If you start to hear a
sort of whining tone bleeding through to your amp, your pickups are probably too close to the fan! And there's a red "Hot" LED on top that indicates
if the fuse has blown; it's a self-resetting fuse, so if it does blow, it'll reset
after a few minutes.
The Nano Head might not have the tone-shaping flexibility one is used
to from a regular-sized amp, but would you expect it to? In fact, I believe
that ZVex packed way more into this pedal-sized amp than most manufacturers probably would... including a plastic internal 0.4 Watt speaker
under the case! It's tiny, and is admittedly considered somewhat of a joke,
but who's to say that one couldn't mike it up and get a unique sound for a
special effect?
Gain staging is a big part of dialing in great tones. Some tube amps
offer minimal tweakability, while others offer more controls and require a
little more time and effort to achieve the sound you're looking for. The
Nano Head does require a bit of one-on-one time, but once I got familiar
with what it's about, I could certainly get special low-wattage tones, from
clean and slight dirt to a sort of tube fuzz worthy of classic rock.
I played the Nano Head through a custom 1x12 cab equipped with an
Electro-Voice EVM-12L speaker, a Rivera Silent Sister 1x12 with Celestion
Vintage 30s, and a 2x12 Mesa/Boogie cab also with Vintage 30s.
Though they all sounded good, I preferred how the 2x12 cabinet responded to the amp's gain.
If you're one of those guitar players who actually use the Tone knob for
warmer and rounder sonic textures-often at the expense of clarity and presence-you will really enjoy the tones that one can achieve by rolling off the

The Holding Company-style raw classic rock sound. My
favorite of all was the way that my Eric Johnson Fender Strat
sounded with both clean and dirty sounds, as the Nano
Head really seemed to support the Strat's unique voice.
Adding effects pedals to the chain, I found that if you
want a tighter, more focused type of saturation or distortion, using the clean setting on the world's smallest production tube amp plus your favorite overdrive or distortion pedal can give you precisely the tones your track
needs.
How loud does it actually get? With the Nano Head
at full gain and my SPL meter up close to the grille of the
cabinet, I measured 115 dB A-weighted, which is about
20 to 25 dB less than what a 50 Watt amp might output
when driving the tubes far enough for optimal tone. That
lets you get real cranked tube sound when recording at
home, without driving the neighbors too crazy. It's not as
quiet as a power soak or an isolation cabinet, but those
loudness solutions have their own pros and cons.
The ZVex Nano Head packs a lot of punch! It's got
more tone-shaping ability than one might expect and
works well with pedals. Will it get the job done? Yes,
particularly for home recording. You'll be able to lay
down tracks that you could double track and mix into a
great sounding song.
Will it replace a bigger amp altogether? No. And I
don't believe it's meant to, but like all amps, it offers a
particular voice for particular jobs, and it does what it
does well. It's not cheap; you could find other tube amps
in its price range, but will they fit in a desk drawer when
you don't need them?
Price: $499
More from: ZVex, www.zvexamps.com
RECORDING August 2014

http://www.zvexamps.com

Recording - August 2014

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