Joyo BanTamP BlueJay 20W Guitar Amp Head

The BlueJay from JOYO’s BanTamP series is a very compact and portable 20-watt head. The BlueJay is an amp that got its name not from the feathered friend of the same name, but rather from the fact that it can be a great companion for blues and jazz. Its warm, clean tones are reminiscent of the classic amps that came out of California many years ago. It can do more than clean though. It can also deliver rich overdrive tones that make you want to play those pentatonic licks all day long.

The amp operates with a single 12AX7 tube in the preamp and uses a solid state power amp. The FX loop enables you to put your time-based effects (or Phasers, Flangers and Choruses) behind the drive section, keeping the effects sharp, preventing them from being too muddy.

The CLEAN channel can take pedals really well, which makes it flexible and a great little companion for many situation where your “big” head is just not sensible. The amp has a speaker out rated at 8 ohms, but can also be operated at 16 ohms with less power.

Careful, the amp is small, but loud … its 20 watts can be quite a handful. If you want to practice quietly, use the built-in headphone out with speaker emulation.

The BlueJay’s icing on the cake is its Bluetooth connectivity. Easily connect with your Bluetooth-enabled device and play music through the BanTamP. This is great to practice with playalongs or to learn songs.