B
BDJohnston
Active member
If you find this review useful, below is a link for a Crowd Funder for Hagerman Amplification’s POWER BABY Power Amp (with a big discount until Oct 11/25). I receive no remuneration or gratuity, and Jim Hagerman is a trusted class act. POWER BABY will be released without fail.
Hagerman Amplification’s reputation has always been about quality boutique builds at affordable pricing, but also innovation. I’ve tried pedal-based power amps (solid state) and a few digital simulations (Axe-Fx and KMG Machines), and then I heard about the upcoming release of Power Baby, a push-pull guitar power amplifier stage in pedal format that incorporates shock-mounted tubes – 1 x 12AX7 and 2 x 12AU6 with an all-analog circuit. I reached out to Jim Hagerman, as to when it will be available, but I didn’t want to wait an entire month (like most guitarists looking for the latest pedal); and so, Jim shipped off one of his prototypes (nothing more than a circuit board with tubes sticking up, although it offers the same sound as the finished product, which has an enclosed chassis measuring 4.7” x 5.8” x 2.3”). It’s interesting that Power Baby does incorporate a typical tube circuit, yet the pedal does not get hot (only warm) and does not require venting – no worries about dust, liquids or bugs getting inside. What you’re getting is D-style preamp tone from the preamp utilized, together with M-style power amp breakup from the micro-sized Power Baby.
I’ll get to the sound, response, etc., but here are some things this power amp pedal can do: 1) It can drive an 8 or 16-Ohm speaker at bedroom levels, ideal for practice; 2) It also has a headphone jack, which seems to be a common ‘want’ among pedal users for silent practice; and 3) You can go direct to a mixer/PA or into your DAW interface. And so, there’s some decent flexibility depending on one’s needs. And considering many venues are saying no to big amps, Power Baby is perfect for the gigging musician who goes direct to PA. The demo addresses the above, although all my sampling was done with the Power Baby at the end of my chain (before delay).
Sound-wise, I was blown away. I’ve heard many times that what a person often is missing in tone, particularly if working with preamp pedals and a pedal board is that power amp drive, and Power Baby delivers with thick, full pentode tube sag (via internal boost, as if tube rectification was employed), compression, and phase inverter distortion. It does NOT sound like the solid state and pedal simulations I’ve tried, all of which did add to my sound and tone, but no where near the extent of Power Baby. My setup now sounds like a full-blown amp! Also, it comes with a 12VDC 600mA power supply, although many pedal board power supplies have this available.
Listen to the demo to know what I’m talking about, as it even works wonders with my acoustic guitar (going through an acoustic preamp pedal) or my digital piano module. Both surprised me, as Power Baby is meant as an additional gain stage to really push an electric guitar playing through some dirt.
Power Baby has only two knobs, a Presence and a Master. The Presence is straight-forward, and offers that high-end clarity to off-set the raunch of the tubes, and do they make an impression as you tweak the Master. However, this depends on what you put in front of it. With an acoustic guitar, turning up the Presence and Master up half-way does not make it distorted, but crisp, full of overtones and lively… similar to what it does for the digital piano sample provided (with Presence and Master up full!). You get a tone less processed while sounding more realistic and dynamic.
When it comes to placing some type of drive or distortion in front of it, that’s where Power Baby comes to life. The fullness, detail and definition of the notes are amazing, and sometimes you only need a little (the more high-gain the preamp or associated pedals, then less gain from Power Baby required to hit that sweet spot). When listening to the demo I may have went a bit overboard with the Master knob in some instances, but I relished in the heavy growl achieved; dialing in would require hearing it in the mix, which I did in the opening composition when comparing lead riffing with Power Baby on and off. Even with a moderate gain pedal in front of it, you can go from a sizzle, to a slight break up, to a snarl and to a growl. This thing has balls! Also note that the rhythm guitar in the background to the demo’s opening number also utilized Power Baby and produced a great sounding crunch. On a related note, expect to play somewhat differently or to hone your playing skills slightly, because the harmonics and nuances that pop forward are profound enough that you can achieve more tonal qualities from varying your pick attack than what you would notice or achieve otherwise.
Power Baby is not coming off my board, unless Hagerman Amplification comes out with something even better. And in that regard, I think this is one of the best creations that Jim has developed. It simply makes a huge difference in what you can achieve with your gear, whether direct recording or playing live. I don’t say that lightly, and it’s a joy to go through all my preamps and distortion/ODs to hear them for the first time again!
https://www.hagamps.com/collections...baby-tube-output-stage?variant=45504341672130
Hagerman Amplification’s reputation has always been about quality boutique builds at affordable pricing, but also innovation. I’ve tried pedal-based power amps (solid state) and a few digital simulations (Axe-Fx and KMG Machines), and then I heard about the upcoming release of Power Baby, a push-pull guitar power amplifier stage in pedal format that incorporates shock-mounted tubes – 1 x 12AX7 and 2 x 12AU6 with an all-analog circuit. I reached out to Jim Hagerman, as to when it will be available, but I didn’t want to wait an entire month (like most guitarists looking for the latest pedal); and so, Jim shipped off one of his prototypes (nothing more than a circuit board with tubes sticking up, although it offers the same sound as the finished product, which has an enclosed chassis measuring 4.7” x 5.8” x 2.3”). It’s interesting that Power Baby does incorporate a typical tube circuit, yet the pedal does not get hot (only warm) and does not require venting – no worries about dust, liquids or bugs getting inside. What you’re getting is D-style preamp tone from the preamp utilized, together with M-style power amp breakup from the micro-sized Power Baby.
I’ll get to the sound, response, etc., but here are some things this power amp pedal can do: 1) It can drive an 8 or 16-Ohm speaker at bedroom levels, ideal for practice; 2) It also has a headphone jack, which seems to be a common ‘want’ among pedal users for silent practice; and 3) You can go direct to a mixer/PA or into your DAW interface. And so, there’s some decent flexibility depending on one’s needs. And considering many venues are saying no to big amps, Power Baby is perfect for the gigging musician who goes direct to PA. The demo addresses the above, although all my sampling was done with the Power Baby at the end of my chain (before delay).
Sound-wise, I was blown away. I’ve heard many times that what a person often is missing in tone, particularly if working with preamp pedals and a pedal board is that power amp drive, and Power Baby delivers with thick, full pentode tube sag (via internal boost, as if tube rectification was employed), compression, and phase inverter distortion. It does NOT sound like the solid state and pedal simulations I’ve tried, all of which did add to my sound and tone, but no where near the extent of Power Baby. My setup now sounds like a full-blown amp! Also, it comes with a 12VDC 600mA power supply, although many pedal board power supplies have this available.
Listen to the demo to know what I’m talking about, as it even works wonders with my acoustic guitar (going through an acoustic preamp pedal) or my digital piano module. Both surprised me, as Power Baby is meant as an additional gain stage to really push an electric guitar playing through some dirt.
Power Baby has only two knobs, a Presence and a Master. The Presence is straight-forward, and offers that high-end clarity to off-set the raunch of the tubes, and do they make an impression as you tweak the Master. However, this depends on what you put in front of it. With an acoustic guitar, turning up the Presence and Master up half-way does not make it distorted, but crisp, full of overtones and lively… similar to what it does for the digital piano sample provided (with Presence and Master up full!). You get a tone less processed while sounding more realistic and dynamic.
When it comes to placing some type of drive or distortion in front of it, that’s where Power Baby comes to life. The fullness, detail and definition of the notes are amazing, and sometimes you only need a little (the more high-gain the preamp or associated pedals, then less gain from Power Baby required to hit that sweet spot). When listening to the demo I may have went a bit overboard with the Master knob in some instances, but I relished in the heavy growl achieved; dialing in would require hearing it in the mix, which I did in the opening composition when comparing lead riffing with Power Baby on and off. Even with a moderate gain pedal in front of it, you can go from a sizzle, to a slight break up, to a snarl and to a growl. This thing has balls! Also note that the rhythm guitar in the background to the demo’s opening number also utilized Power Baby and produced a great sounding crunch. On a related note, expect to play somewhat differently or to hone your playing skills slightly, because the harmonics and nuances that pop forward are profound enough that you can achieve more tonal qualities from varying your pick attack than what you would notice or achieve otherwise.
Power Baby is not coming off my board, unless Hagerman Amplification comes out with something even better. And in that regard, I think this is one of the best creations that Jim has developed. It simply makes a huge difference in what you can achieve with your gear, whether direct recording or playing live. I don’t say that lightly, and it’s a joy to go through all my preamps and distortion/ODs to hear them for the first time again!
https://www.hagamps.com/collections...baby-tube-output-stage?variant=45504341672130