Donner Bass Guitar Headphone Amp Basement USB Rechargeable Mini Portable Bass Headphone Amplifier for Bass Guitar

This review is coming from a METAL guitar player. Rock, country, pop, blues players will likely NOT love this. So here goes...OK - blown away by the distortion honestly. Been playing thrash, speed, death, black metal for 20+ years as a hobby and stress release. I'm a tone and distortion s*ut and can spend hours tweaking stuff on my racks to get it right. Cheaper pedals, headphone amps, and mini amps NEVER have enough distortion and oomph for me. I rarely get enough distortion and "kick" unless I putz with a 20 band EQ all day and use whatever the heaviest distortion is available. I don't do "crunchy". I do "melt my face off!". "Everything at 11 !" - is usually still not enough.But this little gem has MORE distortion than I need. I've NEVER said or written this sentence in my life before. Ever.Right out of the box I plugged it into one of my Ibanez RX series guitars, plugged in an AKG set of cans, dialed everything up and BOOM - Dimebag Darrell (RIP), Chuck Schuldiner, or Slayer sounds - like, OMG!I had to dial the distortion DOWN about 20% to clean up the tone a tad.Again, never thought I'd dial down distortion on anything lol.The little Tone dial does wonders, too. All the way up it's a crazy treble-heavy death saw from hell that's just fricking awesome! Small incremental moves of the dial change the tone quite dramatically so be careful with those sausage fingers!I'd say the tone range is somewhere like a Solano amp, all levels up, mic'd up cab on side axis. Maybe also some Marshall with dual V-Type Celestial cones, depending on your tone and drive settings. Of course your ears, guitars, and headphones all will make a difference too. YMMV.There's a dial for volume (SUPER loud, depending on headphones), Tone, Drive (that's Distortion), and...that's it! All you need, honestly. These dials will get you from filthy clean-ish to DEATH METAL skull drills.There's a simple On/Off switch (thank GOD this unit doesn't do the one-button-does-it-all BS like some others)There's a "FX" switch on the side and it just adds a delay effect with some extra reverb. It's alright for practice but certainly not the main attraction here.Haven't tried the line input so I can't comment on that.As for build quality - it's not great. It's thin plastic and I'm worried something's going to fly off at any moment, especially the on/off switch or the dials. In fact, I broke one unit when I accidentally sat down with it plugged into my guitar. The unit got squeezed on the bed, and the headphone jack broke (!) the unit's internal headphone input and it vanished somewhere inside.Usually when something is built as badly as that, I throw it out or return it. In this case, the sound is so fricking sweet, I immediately bought another one. And a different one (Mini Turbo, pictured) to try that one out too.I haven't heard of Donner before but somehow they manage to make incredible digital sounds in those tiny boxes. I'm gonna buy 'em all. If they do the other sounds as well as they do METAL, and for a little over twenty bucks, it's worth it. Will leave a separate review for the more expensive Mini Turbo.Besides the rather flimsy hardware quality, my only other gripe is that it charges with a MINI-USB. Not micro. MINI. That's the one where you probably don't have a cable lying around for anymore because it's an old standard. Luckily, Donner provides a (super short) Mini-USB cable to charge the unit. I really wish they'd gone with at least a micro-USB (which they did on the Mini Turbo) or better yet USB-C.Personally, I would be happy to spend twice the amount IF they increased the housing /hardware quality, and added USB-C or at least micro USB charging option. The sound is THAT good (again, if you're really into hard metal).To be fair, I realize they can't make the housing TOO heavy because then it'll unplug itself from the guitar. (All the weight is on the plug and you REALLY don't want to sit down with this one, see above)Not recommended for Country, soft rock, pop rock. This really is a METAL headphone amp.Hope this helps my fellow Metal brothers and sisters!

Excellent purchase

So, I bought this to do a comparative review with a different headphone jack amp; the Vox Amplug High Gain. Naturally, the Vox is slightly more expensive, so I wanted to try to compare them and do so fairly.One of the first things I noticed about both of them is that the Donner is a slight bit louder in its volume setting, almost to the point of being shrill. And the drive and tone controls have a noticeable amount less of range than you get on the Vox. Also, by comparison, the actual character of the distortion is a bit closer to a late 90s/early 2000s cheap distortion pedal.If that sounds like it's a bad thing, I'm not actually discouraging that. Just about everybody who was playing guitar during that period has used cheap distortion pedals and made them work to magnificent effect in one way or another. It's just not a super great or "deep" style of distortion. And with the outputs, you could probably rig it through an effect chain to squeeze out some interesting DI recording stuff out of it.One of the things that really bothers me between this and the Vox is that on the later you can rotate the angle of the plug to adapt to different guitar body styles, while on the Donner it is static and can't be moved. This could create a problem if you are using a strat with a Floyd Rose, if just because it would get in the way.If you plug the headphones into the unit with it on, and insert it into the instrument, there is a really weird, low hum as the signal engages on the Donner. I didn't get that from the Vox. Do with that information what you will, it was merely an observation.The most frustrating thing with the Donner, if it can even be something you care about if you have a noise gate, is that I got a lot more microphonic feedback and buzz from the signal chain. I'm not sure what is going on with that, I haven't taken the thing apart. It just seems to reinforce the late 90s garage metal distortion pedal vibe, and in some way that's sort of endearing and nostalgic. Again, do with that information what you will.The things that I really loved about it compared to the Vox were the fact that the corners and controls were angled bit smoother. This is largely inconsequential, but in the bottom of my consciousness I felt a gentle annoyed curse every single time I picked up the Vox to put it into the guitar during my side-by-side comparison, and I didn't feel that when I picked up the Donner.The other thing that was a bit interesting is that both units include an effect setting. The Vox wins in general because it seems to have a much wider array of effects inside the same unit, but the controls to use it are very counterintuitive. On the other hand, the Donner has an absolutely INCREDIBLE sounding delay/reverb, although there's not a whole lot of was to customize it. It does sound pretty good, and really compensates for the otherwise tastefully stale base distortion, and I can't seem to get one out of the Vox that I like as much.Ultimately, the thing that I believe is the coolest feature is that the Donner uses a USB rechargeable internal battery that seems to last for quite a while, whereas the Vox uses two AAA batteries. The wind gets taken out of my sails on this one when I realize that it's a mini USB and not a USB–C charge port.I also like that they decided to include a stereo splitter, charging cable a 1/8" headphone jack cable with the unit as a bonus.So how do I feel about it?Honestly, for the price it's not bad. For slightly more than twice the price you can get the Vox, which has an objectively better sound and a measurably larger amount of flexibility, but it is not absolute garbage, and it has enough features, plus the delay/reverb effect is so good in my mind, that it justifies the price all day. You are not getting ripped off buying one of these for its intended purpose; the kid just starting out, playing late at night in their parents house; the traveling musician that is practicing privately in a hotel room; an apartment-dwelling bard with volatile neighbors; or maybe just somebody that would rather get the nostalgia back of being in an early 2000 garage death metal band that experimented with atmospheric textures on an extreme budget and didn't get along enough to release an album, wanting to experience the nostalgia while drinking alone in their basement and playing along to their old recordings....that last example was oddly specific, but the sentiment rings true. If you are on a budget, this thing will do everything you want and more.

Does the job so far

I love this thing! I use with my portable amplifier to practice electric bass/guitar when I’m on the go eg. park, pool, airport. It has very many features EQ settings - most of which I don’t use. I just need something that allows me to practice low key in public. The big downside is that it produces SO MUCH LINE NOISE! I had to purchase a separate ground loop noise isolator which reduced the noise by approximately 80%, so now it’s tolerable. I recommend the manufacturer upgrade the unit with a noise isolating feature. It will be worth the cost and much more convenient to have it all in one vice having to buy a separate device. I like how lightweight and portable it is. IMO the extensive EQ features are a waste. If you’re going to utilize these settings, you’re better off doing so on a 20+watt amp.

I l like the product especially being from China because China products are not good at all.

Works amazing, and I loved it. Past tense, though. I was playing through it, and there was a popping noise, and it suddenly went dark. Naturally, it waited until I'd had it about six weeks so it was out of warrantee. This is the second one of these I've had that's done this. Do yourself a favor and get real pedals.

Customer service was great and the product works as expected. Great for a smaller space or when you just don't want to bother the people living with you. You can still hear and play as you practice.