MVP 66 50-watt Tube Head - Black Review

I can die now....

That point when one note just becomes so satisfying; this amp is pure magic. I heard a lot of people say that pedals sound good, but the amp itself sounds better. It couldn't be more true!!! If you play off your volume pedal, no drives needed... I wish that wasn't true. For church I set it up with my OX with a bit of verb and delay and I really haven't needed anything else. I occasionally… read more add some phaser and/or other delays to support swells or rhythmic stuff.

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Morgan MVP66 Head

If Joe Morgans home cooked Brisket is anything like his amps, then lawd have mercy! The MVP66 is an amp for pro players and enthusiasts, who want SRV/Hendrix style tones, Clapton Cream tones, and early AC/DC and Vox tones, without any pedals. It's not really a clean pedal platform amp, yes it can be that, but that's not really what this amp about... This amp is the pedal! Plugging… read more a Strat straight in delivers "Wind Cries Mary" or "Little Wing" Hendrix tones. Not so much like SRV Little Wing, it's a bit different. Turn the gain up past 12 noon to 1 or 2 oclock and Volume maxed, you get plenty of raunchy driving SRV rhythm tones. Kick on the internal boost and it brings amazing sizzle and fire to your lead work! Much like a Silver Jubilee. With my Eric Johnson Thinline I set it---> Bass 9 oclock, Mid cut completely out, Treble maxed, Vol maxed, Gain 1 to 2 oclock, Power 9 0clock orless. No Bright pull. Cutting a bit of Bass and/or using the Bright Pull gets you into the John Mayer sparkly semi clean world. Same goes for the Tele. You get smokey Vox like tones from the neck, or Tom Petty clang and twang from the bridge. With a Tele it's great to set it up clean to get a chicken pickin tone from the bridge, and snappy country jazz tones from the neck pickup. My old 68 Tele is just amazing with this amp. With a Les Paul the Clapton Cream tones are pretty much in there, as well as a bit of early AC/DC. Although, I wonder if a "lo input" would benefit the humbuckers? It takes a bit of work to get it dialed in for the different styles of tones and the different guitars needed for each. I have not found a magical "do it all" setting that works with every guitar. You have to pick your poison, and set it accordingly. I've had the MVP66 head for a 4-5 months now, it's taken me a while to explore it's capabilities. Only 2 things I wish it had would be... * An additional input jack - It only has one input jack, so if it goes bad during a gig, or out on the road you are F'd! Leo Fender always put 2 or 4 input jacks on his amps so more players (even mics) could plug in. * 4ohm speaker output - I don't think any Morgan amp has a 4ohm speaker output jack. I don't know why? It's 8 or 16. Last thing to mention. You can not use a full size right angle plug on the amp input.Just not enough room there. So if you need to amp rack it, you might need something like a mini solderless pedal plug. Great sounding well built amp, a joy to play clean or cranked!

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My first Morgan

Well, this amp is simple and yet has many options for tonal tastiness. It's warm sounding and has a very nice clean tone, which to me is a great foundation to add pedals. All 5 of my drive pedals sound fantastic through it but I find myself leaning towards the clean side the most. I have only had this a week or so but I did get to use it live in church running it through the captor… read more X direct and it sounded great. As far as looks, of course it's beautiful and the black Tolex goes well in my room. The lit up Morgan emblem is cool also.

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Outstanding handwired goodness.

To preface this, I owned an MVP23. It was my favorite amp, but sadly it didn't have enough headroom for me to gig with. At least in the way I run my rig. So when the MVP66 was announced, I was ecstatic. Sadly when the first batch of videos released on YouTube, It sounded good.. but not as good as I expected. I still decided to take the plunge, even though it was huge chunk of… read more my budget. Still, when I got it, I couldn't get it quite dialed. Until, I hooked it up to a semi closed back cab with a creamback. As soon as I did that, the overdrive had a punch to it, the cleans sparkled, and I got all the sounds I could possibly ask for. Joe has said before that this is a different beast than the MVP23, but I'm getting all the sounds I was looking for and more. This is by far the most expensive amp I own. But.. there isn't much to compare it too. A reissue PCB JTM45? You could hand wire a kit, or buy a clone. The Morgan has, a warranty, an extremely clean simple circuit, footswitchable boost, and a lot more versatility than I've seen mentioned anywhere. It's an expensive amp, but I believe it'a worth every penny.

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