Hotone Ampero II Stomp - Review

[KingsXJJ]

I'm in club "spring reverb is the weakest of the reverbs". I don't even care for real ones!

The HQ 140 Plate is really nice. I really wish they'd add more HQ models and fx.

Yes Sir, the HQ plate is my go to. The HQ Velvet Verb is also quite lovely.

Totally agree that more HQ models/effects would be very welcome. I remain hopeful that Hotone will deliver!

 

[KingsXJJ]

Playing the Stage tonight. Really enjoying the Bogner models. Blue Vintage, Blue Modern, Red Vintage, Red Modern.

Super cool and a blast to play. I think they have the same ones for clean but f*ck that! Using either a plate or delay with them is tremendous fun. Super eay to set up and tweak.

 

[KingsXJJ]

You can get a new Ampero II Stomp from sonicake on eBay for $365 including tax and shipping right now.

 

[KingsXJJ]

New Ampero II Stage is $547 shipped with taxes included.

Coupon on product page and another applied automatically at checkout start. On both products.

 

[KingsXJJ]

That’s Mooer territory!

 

[GTR37]

Looks like another new box from Hotone coming June 30th wonder if this will be a ToneX catch

 

[laxu]

Looks like another new box from Hotone coming June 30th wonder if this will be a ToneX catch

Looks a lot smaller than the Ampero stuff for sure. Maybe it's something akin to an upscale Valeton GP5?

 

[GTR37]

Looks a lot smaller than the Ampero stuff for sure. Maybe it's something akin to an upscale Valeton GP5?

It’s actually about the size of your stomp if you flip it sideways maybe a tad smaller
Looks also about nano sized
If you look there are definitely footswitches at
Least 3 possibly 4

 

[Sedaxel]

Links? Pics?

 

[GTR37]

Links? Pics?

On their FB page looks like a box in an ice block

 

[laxu]

Well, fixed my Ampero 2 Stomp power jack.

It fits a standard 2.1/5.5mm 3-prong DC jack like this:

They really could've used a 0.1 cents more expensive part here.

The repair itself isn't too hard, but I don't recommend swapping the jack without a heat gun, plenty of flux and good desoldering tools. It's a pain in the ass to desolder 3 prongs, and you might damage the pads if you are not careful.

1. Open up the unit.
2. Disconnect front panel flat cable (turn up the little black flap holding it in place) and power cable.
3. Disconnect the short fx loop PCB cable.
4. Remove the square wave shaped support beam. Three screws under the device.
5. Remove nuts and washers from jacks.
6. Remove 4 screws from I/O board.
7. Lift the I/O board until the 3 thick conductive pads underneath it become loose. It can be stuck pretty tight.
8. Desolder DC jack.
9. Clean up pads with a desoldering braid.
10. Clean up any solder and flux residue with isopropyl alcohol.
11. Solder in new DC jack.
12. Clean up any solder and flux residue with isopropyl alcohol.
13. Test that it works by connecting the front panel power cable. No need to connect the flat cable. If the footswitches and touchscreen light up, you're good.
14. Reassemble.

 

[laxu]

The new Hotone product mentioned a few posts before:

Thread 'Hotone Verbera - Convolution reverb'

Jun 30, 2025

Marketing blurb:

With real-space sampled IRs and advanced convolution technology, Verbera restores the natural ambiance of iconic locations—from vast stadiums to the walls of NASA’s spacecraft bay. It also brings vintage plate and spring reverbs back to life with stunning precision.
But Verbera doesn’t stop at reality.
Inside, you’ll find a curated collection of imaginative, never-before-heard IRs—featuring unique filters, delay artifacts, and textures that feel lifted from retro sci-fi scores.
Verbera blends these worlds using a dual-reverb design:
IR reverb for spatial...

• laxu
• Replies: 55
• Forum: Pedals & Effects

• 
• 

Please continue discussion about it in that thread and let's leave this for the Ampero 2 Stomp.

 

[AlbertA]

Heads-up, 20% discount at Amazon (prime day) for Ampere II stage ($560) and stomp ($400).

 

[stompstomp]

I am attempting to unbrick one of these units that is stuck on the recovery screen. Have any of you dumped the 16MB winbond ROM on the bottom of the core board? The one under the shield on the top I believe has more to do with the SHARC core. The recovery area is at 0x20000 in the bottom 0x20000 ROM. This area is not included in any of the firmware updates. They seem to only update >0x80000.

I also found that the USB was datalines out the USB-C port were having 6V transients due to a 5R1 5.1ohm R66 resistor failing open between the USB multiplexer IC and the USB-C port ground. The two MCU that are connected to the USB port are the RT1052 and the XU210-256-TQ128. RT1052 does the controls and display and the XU210-256-TQ128 handles the midi and audio. The RT1052 seems to be connected to the usb port for recovery and the XU210-256-TQ128 seems to be used when the device is stated for audio interface duties. It could be the USB PHY on my RT1052 is dead or the area <0x80000 has been corrupted on the failed update and the USB PHY isn't being setup properly.

 

[laxu]

I am attempting to unbrick one of these units that is stuck on the recovery screen. Have any of you dumped the 16MB winbond ROM on the bottom of the core board? The one under the shield on the top I believe has more to do with the SHARC core. The recovery area is at 0x20000 in the bottom 0x20000 ROM. This area is not included in any of the firmware updates. They seem to only update >0x80000.

I'd contact Hotone and see if they can help you, or maybe sell you a module with the ROM or something.

 

[stompstomp]

I'd contact Hotone and see if they can help you, or maybe sell you a module with the ROM or something.

I bought it off a guy that reached out and they said they couldn't even repair it. I did send them an email to see though. I'll likely need to replace the RT1052 MCU or get a second device to dump the ROMs from.

 

[FrankyFire]

Hey everyone,
I've got a very unusual idea and setup in mind: Swap my HX Stomp for the Ampero Stomp II
Why? Because I would like to use my NAM files on stage. Yes, the conversion is flawed, but way closer to my ENGL Savage than anything in any Modeler in this price range.
But I've read mixed reviews on MIDI capability. I'm relying heavily on MIDI, as we control everything from the DAW. I also intend on switching analog pedals with MIDI using Oscillatordevices Hydra. As I have some Pedals with Expression Input (EHX Pitch Fork, OBNE Mondegreen) I also need a solution for that.

Now to my question:
The HX Stomp allows the external EXP Pedal Input to be "translated" and passed through as MIDI (by setting the EXP Input to a MIDI Channel/CC). Is this also possible with the A2S? As far as I can tell, the Expression is mapped to CC#11, but is it also passed through/translated when using the analog EXP Input?
My idea is to use the Oscillatordevices Garbage Collector to translate that MIDI signal again into the Expression Inputs of the analog devices.

 

[laxu]

Hey everyone,
I've got a very unusual idea and setup in mind: Swap my HX Stomp for the Ampero Stomp II
Why? Because I would like to use my NAM files on stage. Yes, the conversion is flawed, but way closer to my ENGL Savage than anything in any Modeler in this price range.
But I've read mixed reviews on MIDI capability. I'm relying heavily on MIDI, as we control everything from the DAW. I also intend on switching analog pedals with MIDI using Oscillatordevices Hydra. As I have some with Pedals Expression Input (EHX Pitch Fork, OBNE Mondegreen) I also need a solution for that.

Now to my question:
The HX Stomp allows the external EXP Pedal Input to be "translated" and passed through as MIDI (by setting the EXP Input to a MIDI Channel/CC). Is this also possible with the A2S? As far as I can tell, the Expression is mapped to CC#11, but is it also passed through/translated when using the analog EXP Input?
My idea is to use the Oscillatordevices Garbage Collector to translate that MIDI signal again into the Expression Inputs of the analog devices.

I no longer have an Ampero 2 Stomp so I can't say what happens with expression pedals.

But I would absolutely not swap the HX Stomp just because of NAM. The captures are so demanding that you severely limit the number of fx you can have in a preset. Plus the NAM conversion had IMO noticeable enough issues that I don't want to use it.

 

[BFRaid]

Really nice in-depth review, thanks.

 

[FrankyFire]

I no longer have an Ampero 2 Stomp so I can't say what happens with expression pedals.

But I would absolutely not swap the HX Stomp just because of NAM. The captures are so demanding that you severely limit the number of fx you can have in a preset. Plus the NAM conversion had IMO noticeable enough issues that I don't want to use it.

How many blocks are left?
Also I've read that the A2S switches Presets extremely quickly. I might be able to work around that this way.

My Problem with the HX Stomp is mainly, that you can only load one Amp channel and switching Presets takes quite some time. I cannot switch the Amp model in a snapshot/scene and so I have to figure a way to get a clean and a distorted Amp sim into one Preset. This limits my options extremely as it doesn't support 2 full models in one preset (only very light ones).
If the preset switching is fast, I might be able to switch from clean to distorted wihtout anyone noticing if I include an FX return with trails on. The reverb is analog in my case and will not be interrupted by the switch.