Customer Reviews

C Tech Pocket Rock-It S1b Standard Bass Headphone Amp

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
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This little device does what it is advertised to do in my book. The input for the mp3/iPod was the key that I wanted to practice along without disturbing others.

Controls: The device has a couple of controls to make the bass sound 'big' or 'tight' and to control tone. They work fine from everything I see and hear.

Battery: I haven't burnt through the first battery yet, so not sure on battery life at this time.

Look & Feel: The device is not going to look or feel like a million bucks. The battery compartment is cheesy. But for $40, it seems overall adequate to stay together and do the job.

1/4" Jack: The jack always sticks out so this thing will not fit in your pocket very well, unless you have cargo pants. Also, the jack on my Dean bass is recessed down in the body. So if you have a guitar with a recessed jack, you may need to make up a short female-to-male extension cable of your own to get from the device into your guitar jack.

Headphones: This device comes with a set of headphones. They accurately represent the sounds and work fine for me. They don't press on my ears very much so it's not a tiring thing to wear them for an hour.

Overall: This headphone amp is worth $40. If I could change anything, I would make it out of aluminum and make sure things like the battery door were tight and reliable cause I'm sure I will drop this thing some day.

In a nutshell, I was looking for a good sounding headphone amp to use at those times where I really didn't want to bother others or just wanted to play somewhere there wasn't an amp. I tried this unit and here it is from my perspective for whatever it is worth.

1. The unit is inexpensively made but if you are a little careful, should last.

2. The unit and its adjustable plug (Approximately 30 degrees per ratchet) allows versatility... but if feels awkward, clumsy, and very bulky when attached to the bass in my opinion.

3. The sound is OK, but I would save your money and step up to the V1b model (More bang for the buck) and I feel the V1B has a far better sound, although the S1b is passable.

4. One MAJOR drawback is that the ON/OFF switch is a pushbutton toggle so you have to be very careful it isn't turned on without you knowing it. A slide switch would have been better I think in this case...

Now some possible work arounds:

2(a) In this area I purchased one of the Pocket Rocket V2 bags, got a straight coupler and a 10 foot straight/angled cable (I prefer the angled because my plugs are all on the edge of the Bass and not recessed). I zip-tied the cable unit above in place and plugged the amp in the top. Believe it or not it makes for a tight and useful package that can be used attached to a belt or with the shoulder strap, and doesn't put any additional stress on the instrument plug like the unit would by itself ...

4(a) For this I simply coil the cable and put that in front of the switch so it is harder to press by accident. Another advantage of the bag is that there is a compartment in the front where you can carry a spare battery (or two).

Overall, a very workable unit that is lots of fun away from the house (and an amp)

It serves its purpose. It sounds pretty good, however the headphones that came with it had one side that was much louder than the other - so I use my Skullcandies. There is some white noise in the background which takes some getting used to but is OK. My bass still sounds punchy as ever with this thing. Not bad for just practicing around the house or in a loud area.

This is the second Pocket Rock-It device I've purchased. The first was several years ago for guitar. It was cheaply made but worked ok. Eventually, the 9v battery connector broke off, but was easily re-soldered. I recently bought the bass version and was pleased to see the battery connector had been re-engineered and was now a couple of clips inside the case rather than a little terminal holder on a short wire. The bad news, with the 9v secured in its mount, the battery cover does not fit properly!

However, just as I found with the guitar version, while this device is cheaply made and somewhat fragile, it works very well, delivering good tone through the decent supplied headphones, which are quite comfortable. The key benefit of this device is the easy with which you can plug in a player (iPod in my case) and play along with your favorite stuff for practice. For this, and to be able to not annoy neighbors and loved ones, it's well worth the money! The flexible jack is a great idea - fits in most types of guitar/bass socket.