Music Gear Review recently posted our review of the Kramer Condor, a solid thin-body acoustic electric that impressed the heck out of most of the folks here at the office. Part of that review process was playing that 6 string through another great piece of equipment - The Electar Acoustic 30 amplifier. The folks at MusicYo! are rapidly developing a reputation for quality gear at value-minded prices, and the Electar Acoustic 30 is no exception to their current line-up.

The Electar Acoustic 30 is a 2 channel acoustic electric guitar amplifier that when used with the included XLR microphone input can double as a modest PA system for small rooms, coffee houses, quiet bars or outdoor barbeque gigs. The first channel has both low and high input jacks so you can get solid signal strength out of whatever guitar you have plugged in to it. The second channel manages the XLR microphone input and has it's own level control so you can tweak the levels between your guitar and mic with ease. With the high and low level input jacks, you could probably even use this little amp with other electric instruments if you so choose.

The front of the amp has the bold Electar logo on it and the controls are nicely tucked away on top of the amp for easy access. The Acoustic 30 sports - you guessed it - 30 watts of clean power with quite a bit of projection for an amp with this modest amount of juice. The Acoustic 30 won't knock your socks off in the volume category, but does surprisingly well in smaller environments. With the spread of four 5" speakers, the tonal quality is neither terribly bright nor noticeably boomy even while driving the amp quite hard and utilizing both the instrument and microphone inputs. What's more, the amp even has a jack so you can plug in an 8 ohm external speaker!

The Acoustic 30 sounded really warm with the Condor plugged in and performed equally well with our Ovation Celebrity Deluxe. The closed back ported design rounds out the sound well, unbelievably well, for an amp with four smaller cone drivers. We're typically used to seeing an amp with an 8" woofer and maybe a cone tweeter in this size category and were quite surprised at the sound quality the Acoustic 30 offered. Also included, for tweaking your sound, is an Accutronics spring reverb and 3 band equalizer.

As mentioned earlier, this amp is a nice entry level unit for someone looking for a system that can be used for solo acoustic gigs. Recently, at a Memorial Day party on a friend's deck, I unloaded the Acoustic 30 and the Kramer Condor from behind the seats of my truck and was plugged in and playing in minutes. After a little warm-up, I plugged in my Shure Beta 58A and went to town. I tend to do party "sing-a-long jams" quite often, you know - lots of Buffet and Mellencamp tunes, so this amp really is perfect for that type of performance. In addition, it's incredibly lightweight and easy to carry. Despite its small size and modest power rating, even while performing outside, this little amp was more than adequate for that environment. One thing to remember if you pick one of these up is to set it up on a chair or stool. The small footprint and profile of this amp begs to be elevated to get those groovy tunes up around your listeners ears.

What could be improved? Well, it's kind of hard to say. For the price, I find it hard to be picky about any of the gear that MusicYo! offers. You've got to understand that they are offering these items, factory direct on the web at the lowest prices possible. You really won't find more value anywhere else in my opinion. The Acoustic 30, while doing well in every category, is no $1000 amp. If you push it too hard, it will start to get muddy. While the 3 band EQ offers more tonal flexibility you won't get crystalline highs and tight punchy lows out of it. It does, however, come in handy when tweaking the vocals. Utilizing the EQ or tone knob on your acoustic electric should allow you to tweak a little more treble or bass out of your guitar, though. After all, you are most likely going to be playing an acoustic instrument through it, not an overdriven electric guitar. The only issue I had with the microphone section was that I was getting a bit of ping-pong effect when using the spring reverb - even at the 3 level. However, the mic pre-amp seemed relatively clean and this was only a minor occurrence.

Lastly, don't expect loads of volume from this amp. I've seen reviews all over the web from folks who pick up a 30 watt or similarly rated amp and whine about it not being "loud" enough. What do you expect? When everyone started feeling pretty good the other night, I was finding myself strumming awful hard to not be drowned out from the god awful choruses. This little pup didn't give up, though. I probably played for about 2.5 hours straight with only a few breaks and had it cranked the whole time. One thing to remember is that if you have a relatively low output preamp, be sure to use the "low" 1/4" input as this will ultimately end up providing a more robust output signal.

Bottom Line:

Here's the kicker folks: you can pick up an Electar Acoustic 30 from MusicYo! for around $130. That's right. You get a sweet little acoustic amp that doubles as a small PA for less than half the cost of similarly featured models from other manufacturers. Sure, it doesn't have the power to play a large stage. However with all of the included features, and for the price, it really is an unbeatable deal. What more could you ask for?