Crate Profiler 5 guitar amp

With two four-inch speakers, a full DSP section, battery power and an auxiliary input, this flexible amp is great as a portable practice box, but it doesn't stop there. For the studio musician, this badboy has a USB port on the back, which means you can record the output straight into your favourite software.

The unit is quite plasticky but built pretty solidly, and the sound is great for such a small amp, with the twin speakers being a real bonus.

On the top of the unit there are rotary controls for different gain profile presets, multiple delay settings, a decent effects selector and finally a Reverb Amount knob.

This is a great first guitar amp with enough flexibility to use for some recording. It's worth noting there are even guitar strap mounts on the side of the amp if you ever feel the need to become some sort of wandering busker type.

It's no replacement for a whopping great valve amp and some sexy microphones, but as an instant and portable amp it works brilliantly. Oh, and there's nothing to stop you plugging your synths into it either...

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