By and large, practice amps are often a necessary evil. Because it doesn't take amp makers significantly longer to make full size stage combos, and because certain essential components (knobs, leads, circuit boards etc.) cost much the same whatever size of amp you're making, they can look like poor value beside the same manufacturer's 50 watt types. Also, because they are often engineered 'down to a price' they can deliver a pretty poor sound. The trouble is that most of us need them, and finding a good one at a fair price can be difficult.

One maker who stands a good chance of getting the practice amp formula right is Yorkshire-based Custom Sound. Their reputation has been built on 'workhorse' products - the stalwart amps of semi-pro players for many years, amps which have become recognised as reliable, inexpensive and offering a good sound for the price.

Custom Sound's newest range of practice combos, the Cubs, are immediately recognisable by sporting what some wag in the IT office dubbed the 'Cyril Lord look' - a unique carpet-like covering material which, try as we might (sorry, Custom Sound!) we found ourselves virtually incapable of damaging. Visually, it gives the Cubs something of the appeal of vintage tweed-covered Fender amps of the 1950s to our eyes, and certainly gets away from the inevitable black vinyl which most people use. It's a matter of taste but, yes, we liked the look it gave these combos.

Obviously well constructed, the Cubs carry two-year guarantees, something which we very much approve of. For our tests we took them in order, from the smallest upwards, which is how we'll present our findings.

Cub 7 Watt (Battery/Mains)

£69.95 inc. VAT

Battery or mains powered, this baby of the Cub Series is very sturdily made for the price (£69.95), which compares well with similarly rated products from other makers.

The battery option makes use of two types - 12 HP7s or 2 PP3's - the latter combination giving just around an hour's use. Batteries are hideously costly against mains power, don't forget, so always use the mains when you possibly can. Facilities on this model are very fair for the price, comprising a single input, gain, bass, middle and master volume controls.

Sound quality was pretty reasonable, although (of course) it was limited by the sheer lack of size of the (sealed) enclosure and the low output power. Tonal range was pretty good, with all three controls working well enough.

It would be hugely unfair to expect the performance of a large combo from such a low-cost, small product with its tiny speaker, and providing you aren't expecting miracles then this baby Cub should serve you very faithfully. It's louder than you'd expect, with a reasonable overdrive/distortion sound and very fair Eq range. Pretty good value for money would be our opinion - providing you don't have unreasonable expectations.

Cub 15 Watt

£79.05 inc. VAT

This is an altogether beefier sounding job, although minus the battery option. At £79.95 it does have some impressive competition these days, but (again) is very well made, has plenty of useful facilities and comes with that two-year guarantee which has to be taken into account.

A bigger speaker in a larger enclosure delivers a much punchier performance than its baby brother, and the tone circuitry provides a good deal of variation. In ultimate terms we'd say that its distortion sound wasn't the best we've heard on this size combo, but it was still acceptably good.

Particularly for the player who wanted a clean sound, this Cub is an impressive little package for the money, it's loud, has good facilities and a useful tone range, being only let down in ultimate terms by its overdrive which, although good by many standards, can be bettered by one or two amps in this price/size category.

Cub 30 Watt Bass

£125 inc. VAT

We approached this one with some trepidation - tiny bass combos being a pet hate of ours, on account of their almost always poor performance, with farting, rasping bass sounds at volume and weak Eq. But not - certainly not this Custom Sound! In fact it is undoubtedly the very best low-cost practice bass combo that we have ever tried - bar none!

Somehow Custom Sound's engineers (working closely with their sister company, Fane, no doubt) have managed to develop an extraordinarily fine performance from a tiny box. Even an active bass (the type that can wreck the sound of much larger combos) failed to out-Eq this amp, the deep bass performance being absolutely remarkable in its warmth and faithful reproduction. Having the advantage of middle and treble controls, all the sounds you could want are there, too, from traditional almost string-bass tone to sharper, funky attack for slappers. The mid pot is particularly effective in tailoring the vital mid frequencies as a fine-tuning exercise, and we have to say that we've never before got such a good sound out of such a small bass combo!

Facilities, again, are well provided for and the amp is loud, too, for the size. Instead of rasping and belching once you get the gain control up above halfway, it goes right round, only 'over-cooking' as you get near full-on, by which stage it's really very loud for such a small unit.

We'll say it again, this is the best small bass combo of its size, type and price that we've tried to date. Ideal for private practice, for rehearsals - maybe even for the smallest gigs - it's a guaranteed winner! At the price it offers phenomenal value for money!

Cub 30 Watt (Reverb)

£134.75 inc. VAT

After the revelation provided by the 30 watt bass Cub, we didn't know what to expect from this guitar version but, once again, the sound quality was superb, particularly bearing in mind the low price and small size of this newcomer.

Twin inputs enable you to run a wide variety of signal strengths into the Cub, and our choices ran (in output power) from a Gibson SG through several Jap copies to a low output Tokai Tele. Mind you, this last guitar is the Editor's 'torture-tester'. It's one of those guitars which can sound awful with a bad amp but fantastic with a good one, and the Cub made it sound near its very best! In fact the ability of this combo to enable every single guitar we tried it with to sound great must imply that it will suit the majority of our readers' instruments. With the right input and the pre-gain set against the master volume, the overload sound from this combo was astounding for such a small unit, and the Eq. range equally impressive. Certainly, it's a transistor sounding overdrive, not a valve type, but what do you expect at this price?! Wind-in some of the more than generous reverb depth and kick up the volume - some Cub: this one's more like a full-grown Siberian tiger!

Again, like the 30 watt bass version, this Custom Sound Cub far outperforms its price level, not to mention any sensible expectations you could have of a relatively tiny 30 watt practice amp. Fabulous value for money would be our verdict!

CONCLUSIONS

Given that you don't have unrealistic expectations of what money can buy, the 7 and 15 watt Custom Sound Cubs offer very fair performance and value in their respective classes. The 30 watt Bass and Guitar models, however, are quite outstanding in their abilities - the bass being the best in its class we've ever tried and the guitar model capable of putting far larger and costlier amps to shame. Congratulations, then, to Custom Sound, especially for their two 30 watt models - they really do have to win our highest possible commendation!

More info from Custom Sound Ltd., (Contact Details).