Anyone tried a Hotone Thunder 5-watt head?

[Naetharu]

Hi folks,

I'm pretty new to bass and I am looking for nice little practice amp. This Hotone Thunder looks pretty interesting.

[url="http://www.hotoneaudio.com/products/nanolegacy/74.html"]http://www.hotoneaud...olegacy/74.html[/url]

I was wondering if anyone has experience with them? I'm going to have to mail order it so it'd be great to hear what anyone thinks of them before I commit my cash.

Best wishes

James

[Uncle Balsamic]

There's a thread on talkbass where a few people who've bought them talked about their experiences http://www.talkbass.com/threads/hotone-thunder-bass-anyone-heard-of-it.1074630/

They seem to be pretty cool given you understand the limitations of a 5W head

[bassmanklm]

I didn't watch it, but there is this video demo on YT: https://youtu.be/rjmuwaCHNhI

[Ed_S]

I got one a while back. Have to admit that I bought it on a whim as a bit of a toy-come-curio, but came to actually quite like it for what it is.

If I had any advice, it might be to consider the cab you want to use it with, as mine sounds a lot more pleasing (to me, at least) with my Markbass cabs than it does with my Barefaced ones.

I think it could probably play a small / acoustic gig with the right cab, but I have other kit better suited to that job, so for my purposes it's just something with a slightly different flavour to the rest of my kit to drag out of the cupboard and jam with in the living room every now and then.

Don't get me wrong, my stock suggestion to anyone wanting a nice practice amp is still "try a Markbass Micromark 801", even more so now they've come down in price so much, but if you're set on the HoTone you probably won't be too disappointed.

[Naetharu]

[quote name='Ed_S' timestamp='1432885098' post='2785803']
Don't get me wrong, my stock suggestion to anyone wanting a nice practice amp is still "try a Markbass Micromark 801", even more so now they've come down in price so much, but if you're set on the HoTone you probably won't be too disappointed.
[/quote]

Thanks for the heads up on the Hotone. Out of interest, what it is about the Markbass amp that makes you suggest that as the go-to practice amp?

[Ed_S]

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[quote name='Naetharu' timestamp='1432905150' post='2786090']
Out of interest, what it is about the Markbass amp that makes you suggest that as the go-to practice amp?
[/quote][/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=-apple-system-font][size=3]
To me, the Micromark is just a nice, even-toned amp with un-fussy controls and plenty of power, that's been built into a sturdy and very conveniently sized little box with a good quality speaker, and the whole thing manages to sound a lot fuller and louder than it ever 'should' to look at it. For the practice bit you get aux-in and phones-out with the ability to mute the internal speaker using a button on the back, and for playing out you get the ability to power another 8ohm cabinet and a really nice sounding DI-out to send to the PA.[/size][/font][/color]