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The Peavey Ampkit audio interface for the iPhone is another homerun gift from my wife, who really gives the best gifts ever.

After getting me the Digitech pedal for Christmas, she noticed my interest in guitar travel guitars and amps, and came away with the idea to get me the Peavey Ampkit. So here’s a review on this unit, complete with screenshots and sound bytes.

Peavey’s little creation really does make a lot more sense than dragging a Pignose around on an airplane anyway – its small, and if you have an iPhone, you’re going to have it with you anyway.

The first thing you notice when you open the box, is that the unit is battery powered. This is going to save some strain on your iPhone’s battery, as well as help to reduce the feedback found in the unpowered units.

The setup is simple, as you can see in this image, it plugs into the iPhone’s headphone/mic jack, and you plug in your guitar and headphones, or line out to an amp or mixer.

The software is very good it ran super smooth for me, considering my phone – not a iPhone 4, or even a 3GS, but an iPhone 3G. No problems at all with the software.

You can record yourself solo, or with some of the background tracks included. Some of the background tracks are just drums, some drums and bass, and others have drums, bass and electric guitar.

Once you have a recording down, you can email it to yourself, or upload it to soundcloud, which is what I did.

The free version of the app is fully featured, but you are limited to one amp, two pedals and two microphones. You can purchase software bundles separately, or get the whole shebang for $20 from the iTunes store.

Here are some screen shots (they’ll pop open):

The Amp settings screen. There are more settings if you scroll down.

The Amp / Pedal / Mic screen. You can click any element to swap it out or change it’s settings. You can use a preset or save your own creations.

The bundles screen. A few examples of the bundles you can purchase.

And of course the app comes with a pretty good tuner and metronome.

This app is really impressive – I mean if you think about it, the piece of hardware itself is pretty simple, its really the app that makes this thing rock.

Overall if you’re thinking of getting this – I can say you will not be disappointed. Great for travel, bedroom jams, or heck, with the sound quality and the option to output to a mixer – you really don’t have any limits.

Here are some sound clips:

Acoustic

Clean Sound

Blues Tweak My Texture

Captain Crunchy

Nu Metal Valve

Overall, good sounds! You can pick this unit up at zZounds, here.