So last Thursday night at the beginning of the set at a local gig, one of the 5581 tubes in my Allston Combo decided to call it quits. I immediately turned to the bassist in the power trio and said “bass solo!”. Within a minute I had unplugged the 1/4 inch output from my mini pedal board into the input of an Electro-Harmonix 44 Magnum Power Amp, plugged the 24v power supply into the wall and pedal and plugged the speaker of the Allston into the output of the pedal. Essentially I replaced my tube amplifier with a 44 watt power amp in a pedal!
Well not only did I make it through the gig, but I got quite a few compliments on my tone! I bought an EHX 22 Caliber back when they were first manufactured as a backup amp. I never really had to use it, but was impressed with the overall tone and the way it responded to overdrive and pedals. When the 44 Magnum was released, I grabbed one since the comparable wattage to my amp (45w) made sense. I have used it twice as a backup with steller results on all fronts: Clean tones, overdrive tones, pedal friendliness etc. I am considering using one of these with a dedicated speaker cabinet as a convenient second amp on stage on a regular basis.
I am totally sold on both of these pedals. Not only as a backup, but as standard uber-light amplification! Highly recommended!! AAAAAA+++
Here is a video demo of the pedal in action: