The IK Multimedia iRig Nano Amp is a small pocket-size guitar amp and iOS interface. It is a standalone practice guitar amp small enough that players can take it anywhere in their gig bag, pedal board or guitar case. Just plug in the iRig Nano amp and it comes alive with a British tone stack circuit with Tone, Gain and Volume controls.
When positioning Nano Amp on my desktop, I liked popping out the “kickstand” in the back of the iRig Nano amp to allow the 3-inch speaker and the mighty 3-watt Class AB power amp to fire right at me. It runs on three AA batteries (included).
In addition to the 1/4-inch guitar input jack, there is also a 1/4-inch output jack to connect an external speaker. The Volume control acts like a mastervolume and the Gain knob sets the amount of overdrive from super clean to very distorted. The Normal/Bright switch sets the overall tone with Bright being my favorite position when I connected Nano to the 12-inch speaker in my Fender Blues Junior amp.
Switching the Amp/Device switch to Device, the Nano becomes a recording interface for use with your iOS device. Connect your device using its 1/8-inch TRRS jack and included cable and run IK Multimedia software such as: Ampli- Tube, AmpliTube LE, AmpliTube FREE or 4-Track Looper. With a set of stereo headphones plugged in you can play through any number of effects and stomp pedals and put down song ideas. Along with your guitar, the iRig Nano Amp and your phone loaded with IK’s software, you have a complete studio you could hold in your hand! iRig Nano Amp sells for $49.99 MSRP.
Barry Rudolph is a recording engineer/mixer who has worked on over 30 gold and platinum records. He has recorded and/or mixed Lynyrd Skynyrd, Hall & Oates, Pat Benatar, Rod Stewart, the Corrs and more. Barry has his own futuristic music mixing facility and loves teaching audio engineering at Musician’s Institute, Hollywood, CA. He is a lifetime Grammy-voting member of NARAS and a contributing editor for Mix Magazine. barryrudolph.com
