1989 Roland Boss MG-10 Guitar Practice Amp

Vintage practice amp, from the famous effects and amp giants, made in Taiwan

Contemporary Americans may be among the most nostalgic humans to roam the Earth and this blogger is no exception. As mentioned in the post about the Squier 15 Practice Amp, this Boss amp was the first thing that I ever plugged a guitar into and made some horrible noise. So even though this little box isn't the world's greatest amp, I had to have one when I saw that they were still floating around 25 years later.

I plugged the Knight Warrior into this little guy when I got home on Friday night and messed around with it for about 20 minutes, before giving way to the Fender Eighty-Five and getting some real good Cobain-esque sounds. I'm not sure this will get very much use and I definitely bought it for the memories, but at least it is in impeccable shape.

The previous owner listed it as "never used" and I can believe it. You can see some white marks on the molding along the face of the amp, but those are the only and tiniest of imperfections. I definitely didn't remember this thing being so small, I think there are two 5-inch speakers inside. Other recent reviews claim that this takes Boss pedals very well, and that would make sense, but the only Boss pedals that I have are overdrive and distortion. This amp already comes with built-in distortion, possibly with the same components as the pedals, so I haven't made a point in plugging them in yet to find out.

Thanks for looking, more high-resolution photos here.

1990s Squier 15 Practice Amp

Vintage jam box, made in Taiwan under the Fender banner

Normally the Squier brand isn't something that I would purchase, especially after spending a little time with the more recent guitars they've put out. This amp, however, carries a large amount of nostalgia with me. The 2nd amp that I ever owned was a Squier 15 and I traded a fellow classmate of mine my first amp, a Boss MG-10, because he came by to jam and I just fell in love with the old school crunch that it was pumping out through my Les Paul.

Sure enough, it still kicks and this youtube video (not me) demonstrates just some of the sounds that this little guy is capable of. That guy is playing a 50-year old Fender through the amp in that video and my Custom is a 1977, so maybe that does play a (large) role in the final sound, but I was happy to score one. These are still available all over this place somehow, I must see one or two every month. If you're an amp person and you're looking for something new to play with, you can find these for as little as $20.

Thanks for looking, more high-resolution photos here.