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Hayden Mofo Head £429
A British-made powerful amp head in a small metal box
Nick Guppy (Guitarist), Thu 21 Oct 2010, 9:31 am BST
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The delightfully named Mofo is Hayden's answer to Orange's hugely popular Tiny Terror metal-boxed guitar amp head. But being British-made and designed by former Matamp man Dave Green, it's far more than just a TT wannabe…
Build
The Hayden's steelwork looks sleek and modern, with a front grille fabricated from round steel bars adding a nice design touch. The case is neatly finished in a satin black coating with gold silk-screened lettering and matching anodised preamp valve covers.
We've seen some independent reviews on the internet that might give the impression the Mofo is a point-to-point handwired product - it isn't. It may well be hand-assembled, but with a couple of exceptions the Mofo's electronics are all contained on one large through-plated printed circuit board, including all the valve bases and front panel controls.
Incidentally, if you weren't sure about the meaning of the word Mofo, the non-abbreviated version is printed on the PCB - high voltages notwithstanding, perhaps a good reason for end users not to unscrew the bottom cover!
Another is that Hayden has fitted a switch under the amp that drops the output to approximately two watts for home or recording use. It's a useful feature, but not easy to get to, or to see which mode the amp is in. The general standard of the board and its components is reasonably good, as is the soldering and wiring.
Overall, it looks the part and should stand up to a fair amount of use and abuse.
Features
Hayden's Mofo is a versatile beast, with controls for gain, mid, bass and treble, presence and master volume. There's also a 'Mofo' control which is another preamp gain, plus a gain-boost function toggled on and off by the supplied footswitch - there's no other means of activating it.
There are two input sockets, labelled US and UK, which have tonal characteristics in line with what you'd expect to hear from a typical Brit or American amp. To the far right of the control panel, a single socket labelled 'FX' caters for the Mofo's series effects loop. This is a three conductor jack socket, with a common ground and separate contacts for send and return signals.
To use it, you'll need one of those adaptors that combines two mono jack plugs into one stereo plug, or a dedicated Y cable. It's fine in principle, but you're up the junction if you lose or forget the adaptor or cable: hardly the most practical inclusion.
As mentioned above, there's a slider switch on the chassis' underside labelled 'Stealth/Full Power', which reduces the output to roughly two watts and drops the volume for home use - again it's a useful feature, but the location isn't exactly practical. Same thing goes for the main power switch, which is a decent quality illuminated rocker, but mounted on the rear panel - not so useful if you happen to be on the other side of the stage to your amp when it dies midway through a number.
But these are all relatively minor criticisms, what's most important is how the amp sounds and responds.
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User comments (2)
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Further thoughts on the Mofo
The additonal 'Mofo' drive is not available from the amp without the footswitch, I would like to have tht control on the amp - could be a switch dial combination. -
I bought this as a result of hearing about it on these forums. iMuso supplied the chance to audition and I went over and played through it for a half hour or so. I don't know why the guitar fairy prevents me from being a rock god in guitar emporia but she does, the contrary little so and so. This means I have to assess if gear is going to suit me based on some pretty bad playing. No worries with the Mofo, it sounded great immediately it came out of the box, plugged into a Laney 4x12. Very rich clean tones was the initial impression, my Tiny Terror cannot really do that with the 15 watts of mayhem it supplies and the reason that I am looking for more power. I recently traded out of a Rivera 60 watt combo that would rival a big Fender for clean power, and sold my Blues Junior. My aim was to limit my amps to one for both practice and gigs. The plan is to have the head and a 1x10 or 1x12 for practice plus another 1x12 cab for gigs. OK so far. The Tiny Terror was an experiment to see just how much it could deliver but it is not really man enough for gigs, so I began to look at the Dual Terror and other options. The Mofo appealed to me because it is British made, has an effects loop, an extra foot-switchable gain stage and the romance of hand wiring. I also find the Orange signature sound to be a tad shrill and so on to the Mofo.
I picked up a Marshall 1922 2x12 cab with Celestion G12-75T speakers along the way, also to experiment and check if that might be the right way to go. This is a compact 2x12, nicely made, closed back so a tight sound. This is the cab that I used as a reference. In comparison the Tiny Terror is substantially outgunned by the Mofo, as you can imagine at half the power, it is the delivery more than the loudness, the Mofo is muscular and rich compared to the TT's complex but lighter upper mid range delivery. Harmonics and drive are present in both, TTT getting there quickly while the Mofo has to be cranked up to gigging levels to deliver that level of overdrive.
Having said that, the Mofo provides two inputs - one US voiced - one UK voiced - familiar territory for Rivera users. The US voicing lowers the headroom on the pre-amp stage allowing higher levels of drive to be accessed sooner. this easily gets it into TT drive levels. There are three level controls, Volume, Gain and a third foot-switchable Mofo dial for additional drive. They work together and can be set up for a gig very easily, kicking in louder and more driven sound in Mofo mode.
This brings me to another reason you should buy the Mofo. Underneath, and easily accessible despite other reviews is the 'Stealth Switch' this cuts power down to about 2 watts and allows you to dial in the TT mayhem at levels you could stand for more than a couple of seconds in a small room. I'm guessing that this is achieved by going to Triode and cutting the power available through the circuits, however it is achieved it is perfectly weighted for practice - great job by Hayden. If it is a Triode circuit that would explain the effect on the sound, it becomes slightly sweeter, richer and loses none of the complexity or weight - The TT in comparison does go 'lighter' in half power mode and lacks the Mofo's gravitas.
Reasons I want a Mark 2 Mofo.
1. Have a power led on the front panel - apparently there is no room inside for the switch to be mounted there but an LED would suffice, or even more funky - a fiber optice from the back to the front.
2. A standby switch please.
3. Footswitch to toggle between US and UK voicings provinding my feet with two gain stages.
That' it - get one
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MusicRadar rating
Pros
Power; features; reasonable price.
Cons
The 'Stealth' switch placement; the single effects loop jack; no front panel boost function switch; rear-mounted mains switch.
Verdict
A generally decent amp, with more than reasonable power-to-price ratio, but marred by space-saving design features that could be irritating in use.
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User rating
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Specification
Mofo Head
- Price:
- £429
- Country of Origin:
- UK
- Additional Features:
- Footswitch included, toggles boost function
- Audio Output Power (w):
- 30
- Description:
- 1.6mm mild steel, powder coated cabiner, 3 x ECC83/12AX7 preamp, 4 x EL84 power amp
- Dimensions (mm (w x h x d)):
- 365 x 190 x 240
- Weight (kg) (kg):
- 8
- Weight (lb) (lb):
- 18
- Channels:
- 1
- Valves:
- 3
knjy
Wed 9 Dec 2009, 10:52 am GMT
User rating 5 of 5