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Celtic Franklin Amp Review
This is a very sweet 15 watt amp in a small package. It's one of those amps that you just want to crank up and play with for hours 
I highly recommend it for classic rock, blues and country styles.
It has a master volume configuration. You can get distorted tones at low volumes if you crank up the preamp. If you want to hear the EL84 power tubes come to life, then the master volume can be cranked, and the preamp volume can be lowered. I think the amp really shines when the EL84s are being pushed.
If you play with other musicians at reasonable volumes, then you shouldn't have a problem with headroom (getting clean tones at higher volumes). The balance of wattage and box size seems very fine-tuned. This little guy has plenty of "reasonable" volume. Also, it really does clean up nicely when you back off on the guitar’s volume control.
The tone controls are pure and simple: volume, bass, treble, master. The amp has plenty of bass response. The bass and treble controls are very responsive; therefore you need to play around with the levels to get that "sweet spot". I powered my Marshall 4x12 with it but I like the amp's tone more when it stands alone.
One major attribute of this amp is its dynamics/sensitivity which varies with playing style. I found a setting with plenty of volume, where I could really control the sound with force and guitar volume; playing gently on the strings gets you a nice clean tone and hitting the strings harder gets you a great natural distorted tone.
The distortion is so smooth that you almost don't know it's there. For that reason, I really like it for blues. Many amps are great for either clean tone or dirty tone, but the in-between tones are more of a challenge to attain. This little amp nails the "in-between" tone in a great way.
I highly recommend it for classic rock, blues and country styles.It has a master volume configuration. You can get distorted tones at low volumes if you crank up the preamp. If you want to hear the EL84 power tubes come to life, then the master volume can be cranked, and the preamp volume can be lowered. I think the amp really shines when the EL84s are being pushed.
If you play with other musicians at reasonable volumes, then you shouldn't have a problem with headroom (getting clean tones at higher volumes). The balance of wattage and box size seems very fine-tuned. This little guy has plenty of "reasonable" volume. Also, it really does clean up nicely when you back off on the guitar’s volume control.
The tone controls are pure and simple: volume, bass, treble, master. The amp has plenty of bass response. The bass and treble controls are very responsive; therefore you need to play around with the levels to get that "sweet spot". I powered my Marshall 4x12 with it but I like the amp's tone more when it stands alone.
One major attribute of this amp is its dynamics/sensitivity which varies with playing style. I found a setting with plenty of volume, where I could really control the sound with force and guitar volume; playing gently on the strings gets you a nice clean tone and hitting the strings harder gets you a great natural distorted tone.
The distortion is so smooth that you almost don't know it's there. For that reason, I really like it for blues. Many amps are great for either clean tone or dirty tone, but the in-between tones are more of a challenge to attain. This little amp nails the "in-between" tone in a great way.
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