Henriksen The Bud with Gig Bag

Pros: Stellar clean tones

Cons: Not as fat as some might want from an exclusive jazz guitar rig

Having owned a JazzAmp head for years I was already sold on Henriksen quality. I bought The Bud after reading all the glowing reviews and desiring a jazz guitar sound that would be more acoustic and articulated in nature. I also needed an amp that would provide more versatility in terms of the types of guitars it could accommodate. I believe The Bud is the best voiced amp I have ever heard. I play straight ahead jazz with archtops, use a Godin nylon, and I also have a Dupont MD-50E that I use a Peche La Mouche (Stimer clone) with. With anything I plug into it, there is an honest sound that it gives back. Henriksen has something they do with the basic signal that makes it feel like a warm, wonderful tube amp's clean tones (only more refined and musically truer). For jazz, it gets a remarkably warm, round tone that is highly articulated. Not as big and fat as my Raezer's Edge Stealth 12 or NY-8 cabs can crank out, but when I couple one of these to it the result has got to be about as good as jazz guitar tone gets. The Godin nylon sounds perfect and the Peche La Mouche (on my Dupont) sounds as good as I think it can get. Somebody here complained about the reverb. I think it's a very fine guitar reverb. Honestly, I'm not sure what the problem was that the reviewer had. I knew The Bud was going to be small, but when you first pull it out of the box it's a shock. There is a disconnect between the physical size and the fullness of sound it cranks out. I am very pleased with the purchase and believe it will be my workhorse for years to come.

Submitted by: Dave Lincoln on 01/30/2016 08:07:24 PM

Pros: tone, power

I needed a small but powerful amp, well, we all do! I don't like to play loud, but if I have to, I can. (rather have it and not need it than the converse) the reverb is not my cup of tea, but It has great tone, which is most important, all in all, I love this amp!

Submitted by: eddieboy on 11/04/2015 02:11:22 PM

Pros: The ultimate in signal path logic and portability

Cons: Super cheesy-sounding reverb for those who care.

The Bud has a feature set that was a long time coming in the Jazz Amp world. If you gig regularly, you know that some jobs require a couple of instruments to round-out the gig. It may be an electric archtop and a classical guitar, or guitar and mandolin, what-have-you, but regardless, the reason you schlepp another axe is to bring more sonically to the table. Instruments are relatively light in weight--amps, however, not always the case. The two redundant channels of the Bud are a real boon, in that you can wire two different instruments (or instrument and mic)and not mess with A/B'ing and re-tweeking EQ all night. Your biggest hassle would be crossing cables over the course of the evening. The manufacture claims that this tiny amp will keep up with heavy-handed drummers, and that's a dubious comment at best. This amp is for small gigs, period. Free-standing, it will work well in most low and mid-volume restaurant/cafe jobs. Plugging into an extension bottom with the Bud kind of defeats the purpose- then you are back to hauling more stuff and not traveling very light. You might as well be playing a 1X12 combo at that point. The XLR DI out is useful when you can round-out the sound by plugging into a p.a. It could potentially add alot more umph without more freight, but I have yet to try it. The EQ/Preamp in this amp is really very good- infinitely adjustable, to make any sonority possible. The frequencies are all well-placed and make sense for someone adjusting on the fly. There are only two real deficiencies regarding this amp-- first is that because of it's diminutive size, it really matters significantly how it's positioned in relationship to the player/room/crowd. If you place it wrong, you will be regretting it in short order. I immediately modified mine to accept a folding handle on the bottom to act as a "kick-back" to angle the amp into the center of the room. It didn't add much weight, but also elevated the bottom port slightly to enhance low end. It is my humble opinion that this feature should be standard on this amp, because sometimes you walk into a gig knowing nothing about the volume of the ensemble, the size of the room, acoustics, etc. With this kick-back, you at least have a fighting chance in a variety of less-than-optimal situations. Secondly, the reverb is terrible. When I say terrible, I mean cheesy and detrimental to the overall quality of tone as to detract from the sound and (in my case) even annoy the player. While rehearsing, I had the reverb knob at about 3.5, and noticed this really odd anomoly with regards to note decay. After swapping cables, guitars, etc. I found the issue was with the actual digital reverb. It pulses in a very chessy, non-musical way. Furthermore, the way the reverb blends with the dry signal, it removes all the thump and "punch" from the sound. Somehow the routing of the reverb is wrong in the circuit, compared to other amps. I mentioned this issue to the manufacture, and he replied that "he didn't use reverb", Which I guess justifies the crappy sound and his lack of interest in taking the amp from very good to being outstanding. I understand the use of reverb is arguable in the jazz world, but this effect really lacks in comparison to the studio-quality variety available on far-less-expensive Jazz amp mainstays like the Roland Cube 60. Hopefully the rest of the Henrikson line doesn't suffer the same malady. Maybe I expect a bit too much for having plunked down most of 1K? I think not. Yes, I'm picky about the details for that amount of cabbage! Overall, this amp is hard to beat for portability- the main selling point for me. But with a hinky reverb, those of us who use that effect as part of our sound will find this amp a flawed potential gem.

Submitted by: bdeluxe on 05/08/2015 11:17:27 AM