Amp maker Mark Sampson is a bit of a legend in the US boutique tube amp world. He along with Rick Perrotta formed high-end favorites Matchless Amplifier Co. in the late 1980s. He later went on to build amps for Bad Cat and even later, around 2004, started producing new lower-watt tube amps under the Star Amplifier moniker. Star currently produces five different hand-wired point-to-point amps ranging from the biggest – the 30-watt family of the Blues Star, Sirius and Celestial to the smallest… the 5-watt Star Nova. Its small stature and low wattage is aimed squarely at the home recording market. With that in mind, we decided to rev up the Nova and see what we could find.

The Star Nova is a 1×10 combo amplifier that pumps out five fairly loud watts of power. With a single 6V6 power tube and two 12AX7 pre tubes under the hood, the two channel Nova is as fiesty as it is pretty, available in a variety of tolex wrappings. The front panel features a high gain Input 1 and Drive 1 control knob… then the Input 2 (standard input) with Volume, Bass, Treble and Master Volume knob controls accents with vintage-styled chicken head knobs. The channels are not foot-switchable. The rear of the amp features a line out, headphone out, speaker out, an On/Off toggle switch and power input. One nifty feature of the Nova is that the speaker can be unplugged and the amp utilized as a preamp or headphone amp or both at the same time. Sampson accomplishes this by means of an internal load circuitry that is engaged when the speaker is unplugged. The Class A Nova utilizes a 10″ Jensen speaker that is specially designed for Sampson.

When plugged into the high gain input, the high gain channel overdrives the rest of the amp… meaning the Bass, Treble and Master Volume controls are still functional. When using the standard input, only the Drive 1 control is overridden. Do not be fooled by the Nova’s diminutive size (about 14″x14″x8″) or its low watt rating, this little box has some boom to it. It is still usable at bedroom volumes, but can more than perform as the main guitar amp in a small gig setting.

Checking out the high gain side of the Nova first, we dial the Drive 1 all the way up. Volume at 2 o’clock, Bass at noon, Treble at 1 o’clock and Master Volume at 1 o’clock, we run through the streets of Tokyo, knocking down buildings and such! We’re going to use the Strat first, bridge pick-up. Take a listen…

The single coil gives off a nice growl at a high gain setting, with decent depth as well. The gain texture sounds very organic to the ears, not overly harsh or brittle. Here are the same settings (and same BOC classic) on the amp using the Les Paul.

The Godzilla riff gets noticably meater with the humbuckers in support. It is a more rounded, thick sound that is great to show off your power chord prowess. Still with the Les Paul, we dial into Channel 2 and clean up considerably. With Volume at 2 o’clock, Bass at 3 o’clock, Treble at noon and Master Volume dimed, here is a little tail-end piece from a lullaby written a few years back.

The standard channel offers a good clean tone as well. We found that diming the Master Volume and tweaking the Volume knob to taste offered some of the best clean tones – adding good depth to the sparkle and chime. Back to the Strat, things get bluesy with a slinky jangle. Using the neck pickup, we dial the Volume back to 11 o’clock, Bass to 2 o’clock, Treble to 3 o’clock and keep the Master Volume all the way up. Take a listen…

Sampson said previously that of all the amps in his line, the Nova is the world-beater, out selling his other offerings in 2008 by of margin of ten to one… and we believe him. The Star Nova is a punchy, portable dynamo. We were a big fan of the cleans from this little unit right away and, while skeptical at first, the gain channel was fairly quick to win us over. This amp is versatile enough to produce a wide band of savory tones, which makes it ideal for the home recording environment where space can be a concern. Some may feel a bit hemmed in by the limits of a 1×10 combo and its somewhat ‘boxy’ nature when it comes to tone, however there is a bit of a fix to this. Removing the back of the amp (six Phillips-head screws) opens things up a bit and can give a noticeably bigger, more three-dimensional sound in some applications.

Made in the US, Class A, hand-wired goodness does come at a price however. The list on the Star Nova is $1,665. It is a bit cheaper in the stores, of course, and once in a while a good Nova deal pops up on ebay. Like with all things, you get what you pay for… and if you’re in the market for a top-line, low-watt tube amp that can double as a bedroom/recording solution, the Star Nova could be the answer. We think it’s out of this world. That’s our opinion anyway… your mileage may vary!

PLEASE NOTE: All clips for YMMV amp reviews are played using a 1979 Gibson Les Paul Custom and a 1998 Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster. No effects are used on these clips. The amps are mic’d with a single Shure SM-57 dynamic microphone.