MusicRadar Verdict
The Trailblazer is an excellent all-valve option for beginners and those on a budget. Its simplicity is a big part of its charm, and there is a surprising amount of tones you can wring out of it.
Pros
- +
Well-made from very respectable components.
- +
Simple operation.
- +
Plenty of gain on offer.
- +
Unbeatable value.
Cons
- -
For 250 bucks? Nothing.
MusicRadar's got your back Our team of expert musicians and producers spends hours testing products to help you choose the best music-making gear for you. Find out more about how we test.
What is it?
Juketone has always been alive to the growing demand for smaller, more manageable and affordable valve-driven guitar amplifiers, but with the Trailblazer Head, it has officially joined the lunchbox club.
The lunchbox amplifier is a familiar format by now. Orange pioneered its contemporary usage, with the likes of Victory and Cornell offering boutique lunchbox heads, and EVH and PRS notable for their high-gain offerings. The concept dates back to the 1940s but has really found its stride now.
With its tough steel case, finished in a heavily-textured black paint, its perforated lid, chrome front panel and carry handle, the Trailblazer has the look of the industrial about it. Inspired by Orange’s Tiny Terror, it shares the simplified features set and no-fuss operation.
On the front panel you’ll find controls for gain, tone and volume, two heavy-duty toggle switches for mains and standby, with standby offering two output levels of a full 15 watts or 8 watts. On the rear you’ll find four-ohm and eight-ohm speaker outputs and a series effects loop.
This is an affordable amp, pretty much an entry-level valve head, and yet the quality is impressive.
Under the hood there are metal film resistors, auguring well for low-noise operation, with the brains of the amp organised on two printed circuit boards, the larger of the two housing most of the front-panel controls and valve sockets, the smaller housing rear panel outputs.
The mains and output transformers have a bit of heft about them. The valve setup sees a pair of Chinese Ruby 12AX7 preamp valves complemented by Ruby EL84 pentode output valves.
Performance and verdict
We ran the Trailblazer through a matching Juketone 1x10 open-backed cabinet with a Celestion Ten 30 speaker and used a Strat with Duncan Alnico Pros and a Les Paul with PAF-style humbuckers.
For an amp of modest size and a scaled-down control panel, the Trailblazer has a fair bit of range. There is a lot of gain here. It could certainly handle classic hard rock styles, and borderline metal when full bore. The accent to this tone is decidedly British, with that tight midrange that’s exaggerated a little by the 10-inch Celestion.
• Juketone True Blood 1x8" Combo
Available direct at just under the magic £250, this amp’s tweed magic at a bargain basement price – check it out!
• Orange Terror Stamp
If the Terror format and portability is your primary concern, this could form the backbone of your rig, Orange tones you can throw in a backpack.
• Orange Dark Terror
Cranking the gain is probably what will draw most people to this amp in the first place, so we'll be blunt: it's deliciously filthy. In either mode, cranking the preamp gain and raising the level to suit gets you a rich slice of high-gain valve tone.
This is great for the rock tones, but for clean tones we would be tempted to us a 1x12 cabinet to open things up a bit. The warm EL84 churn is never too far from the surface, adding heat and character to blues tones, and a bit of sparkle to indie cleans.
The tone control is interesting. At higher-gain settings, there is a more pronounced treble roll-off. With clean tones, there’s less impact on the top end. With the Strat’s single-coils, the Trailblazer responds nicely to picking dynamics; him them hard and the grit is right there. Tickle them and it’s clean.
At 15 watts, there is fair amount of headroom – enough for small gigs. For those, we’d definitely size up the speaker cabinet. At home, and for recording, that 10-inch speaker does a very respectable job and you’ll be glad of it when recording especially, as the slightly squashed midrange bump makes dialing in a tone for the mix a cinch.
The Trailblazer is a fun amplifier. Like the Tiny Terror, the Trailblazer’s simplicity is key to its appeal. With the turn of just a couple of dials you can transform your tone. And, of course, it’s affordable and portable – very on-trend.
MusicRadar verdict: The Trailblazer is an excellent all-valve option for beginners and those on a budget. Its simplicity is a big part of its charm, and there is a surprising amount of tones you can wring out of it.
Hands-on demos
Honkin' Harmonica / Juketone
Specifications
- ORIGIN: China
- TYPE: Valve preamp and power amp
- OUTPUT: 15W switchable to 8W
- VALVES: 2x 12AX7, 2x EL84
- DIMENSIONS: 215 (h) x 308 (w) x 150mm (d)
- WEIGHT (kg/lb): 6.5/15
- CABINET: Steel
- CHANNELS: 1
- CONTROLS: Volume, tone, gain
- FOOTSWITCH: None
- ADDITIONAL FEATURES: Series effects loop, Hi/Lo power switching. Price includes free UK delivery
- OPTIONS: The Trailblazer’s ideal partner is the Juketone 1x10” tweed-covered cabinet, loaded with a Celestion Ten 30, priced at £155 delivered. There’s also a CelestionV30 1x12” option at £195 delivered
- RANGE OPTIONS: None
- CONTACT: Juketone
“I wondered if I was insane for wanting to do this”: How Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen learned to play again after losing his left arm
“A unique octave bass fuzz with a built-in, 2-voice ring modulator”: The Maestro BB-1 Brassmaster is a super-rare bass octave fuzz from the ‘70s that sounds great on guitar, sells for $2,000+, and Behringer just made a $69 clone of it
"Coated with analogue warmth, and many a chunky nugget for the keen and avid listener to find": Röyksopp get even more Mysterious with new surprise reworking
