It has two 1/4" inputs for your bass (one of which has a 3db pad), which feed a pre-amp with volume, bass, mid and treble controls. On the back, there's a 1/4" stereo/mono jack for your CD player or cassette deck, and there's a volume control on the front panel for each channel, allowing a mix between your bass and the 2 channels of a stereo mix. The rear channel also has a line out allowing the box to be used as a pre-amp. There's also an aux send on the rear panel, which when used with the mono rear channel CD/tape input doubles as an effects loop. It's powered by two 9 volts which are supposed to last 50 hours, and it weighs less than 1 lb.

The sound -- amazing! First, I plugged my bass in straight, and the sound was great...a very modern and punchy sound, similar to an SWR or Trace-Elliot pre-amp. Then, I ran my bass into an Alembic F1-X, and I sent the output of the F1-X into the instrument input of the PHA-1. Still great, although now my tone sounded like the F1-X. Then, I used the PHA-1 as a pre-amp, driving my Stewart power amp and an Eden 210XLT. The tone was really good...very much like the classic SWR sound. So good that you could definitely gig with it in an pinch if your regular pre-amp died.

Another use: for recording, you could split the signal coming out of your bass, sending one line to the board or amp, with another going to the PHA-1. Then, you can blend that signal with a monitor mix feed, plug in your 'phones, and give yourself your own personal mix...with you being as loud as you want.

Bottom line: $200 bucks gets you a perfect/great-sounding head- phone practice amp you can run a tape or CD into, and an emergency stand-by pre-amp that will fit in our gig bag. Can't beat it!

Construction	100%
Size/Bulkiness	100%
Usefulness	100%
Value	90%