Time is precious. Don’t believe me? Jam with a bad drummer!
My point is that sometimes you get in late, and it’s just not possible to crank a guitar without catching a few dirty looks, nasty phone calls or unkind words tossed in your direction.
The Palmer Pocket Amp is worth its keep by acting as a headphone amp, DI box, overdrive/distortion effect pedal and a re-amp amplifier simulator box. All this is packed into one rugged box that's tough enough for stage use and can be tossed around in a gig bag until its next use.
The amp models are US, Brit and Tweed. The three modes that work with the amp models are Heavy, Crunch and Clean. Finally, to get a little bit of air in your sound, there are three different microphone simulations: OffX, Center and Classic. The Pocket Amp offers a Drive, Level, Treble and Bass knob for fine tuning.
While using this as a headphone amp, there's a handy ⅛” Aux input that allows you to plug in an MP3 player. If the onboard amp simulators aren't what you’re after, you can bypass them and use it as a straight DI box. Besides the ¼” input and output jacks, there's an XLR output. The unit can be powered by a 9-volt battery or an external 9-volt power supply.
For the audio sample below, I started with the neck pickup on a Strat and a Tweed/clean setting on the Palmer. Next I flipped the same Strat to the bridge position and used the US/Crunch mode. Finally, I plugged in a Les Paul with humbuckers and set the Palmer to Brit/Heavy mode.
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You can't believe everything you read on the Internet, but Billy Voight is a gear reviewer, bassist and guitarist from Pennsylvania. He has Hartke bass amps and Walden acoustic guitars to thank for supplying some of the finest gear on his musical journey. Need Billy's help in creating noise for your next project? Drop him a line at thisguyonbass@gmail.com.
