I have been using my Smallbox since about 5 weeks. I have the older version (without the toggle switches on the front).
Positive points: the amp sounds really smooth, creamy and heavy through its dirty channel. However, the winner of this amp is the clean Plexi-like channel *with* the gain knob! In fact, the reason why I chose the Smallbox instead of the HBE or the Cantrell is this feature. Honestly, I cannot believe why Friedman didn't put a gain knob on the clean channels of the mega-expensive JBE and the Cantrell.... I mean, for an amp of 3600 euro's a gain knob on both channels would be the least one could expect??
Anyway, back to the Smallbox: I have never heard a clean channel on any Marshall-style amp sound so fantastic as on the Smallbox. My bandmates made comments about it, and that says something...
The effect loop is great too, although I would have liked to have it switchable. I think this might be one of the modifications I will ask my amp tech for.
As said, the gain channel sounds very convincing. Fat and creamy, although personally I would have loved the sound to be just a little more 'open' (like a JCM800) and also I would like the amp to have a little more gain. For solo's I now have to use an SD1 to really get it going.
The cabinet I use is a Friedman 2x12 (closed back) equipped with V30's. Although this cab was pretty expensive (somewhere around 800 euro's) the thing is very well build and sounds absolutely fenomenal with the Smallbox. No problem whatsoever cutting through the mix, no harsh sounds even with the treble above 12 o' clock, just a killer sound.
In short: it's a great amp, well worth the money, with a fantastic clean/crunch channel. With some minor modifications (more of an 'open' lead sound and a switchable FX loop) I'd give it a 10, now 8 out of 10 points.
