Fargen Amplification recently released an amp, the Fargen Mini Plex MK II, that will help you with your neighbors. You know, THOSE neighbors -- the ones who complain about the loud guitar playing emanating from your apartment at all hours. What are you supposed to do? Use a crappy toneless little practice amp? COME ON, this is rock n roll! Now there is an amp you can both use in the studio and practicing in your thin-walled low budget apartment.

"It is basically a low wattage vintage through high gain Marshall sound that can run down to a 1/2 watt for bedroom and studio use -- so the cops don't show up to your apartment." says Ben Fargen.

Fargen says the Mini Plex captures all the high gain and classic rock tones-think Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, The Who, Jeff Beck and more. The London Power scaling circuit [designed by Kevin O'Connor] allows the amp to run from 12 watts down to a crazy-low 1/2 watt. No one will notice you are playing outside the room and you will still get the same tone [or thereabouts] as if you had the amp at full capacity. The amp also features a patented "Decade Switch" which you can use to get three different classic sounds/gain. The switch also drives a cathode biased power section that offers a more harmonically complex top end than your standard fixed bias design. There is also a Classic vs. VOS mode switch.

"One other aspect of the MPMKII amp is the fact you can swap any octal power tube and also mix and match tubes without re biasing the amp. IE KTT66 in slot one and EL34 in slot two," says Fargen. "This unique feature opens up a world of tonal options that no other amp have ever deliver before. It is a tone tweaker's dream."

The amps come with either a single or dual power tube switch, custom Mercury Magnetics transformers with 4-8-16 ohm taps, Sozo vintage mustard capacitors,a 1/8 inch aluminum chassis, front panel boost switch and more. The amp is just shy of 20 inches wide, 10 inches high and 10 inches deep and weighs 22 pounds.

"The Mini Plex MKII amp is for anyone who wants emulate any vintage through high gain Marshall amp sounds at low recording studio or bedroom volumes . . . so many players who live in apartments and houses with volume restrictions [i.e. wife, neighbors, police, etc] struggle with the compromise between great overdrive sounds and volume," says Fargen. "We all know a 100 watt stack does not sound good with the drive on 10 and the master volume below 1 -- pedals work OK -- but we still yearn for the saturated power tube overdrive. The power scaling feature on the Mini Plex allows you to get think and rich power tube overdrive below a half watt at TV volume level . . . proof can be seen and heard on the several you tube videos we have posted. The element that separates the Fargen Mini Plex MKII from the competition is that fact that it is not striving to be a 'jack of all trades' then in turn master of none -- which many other low volume tubes amp in this style are."

The amp ain't cheap but you didn't expect it to be did you? The MPMKII head is $1695 and the 1X12 combo is $1895.

"I am currently developing a 'lite' feature version that i hope to offer below the $1000.00 mark very soon." says Fargen.