The Amp Review Thread

[Diego]

Re: The Amp Review Thread

Roland Cube 60.

The Pros:

It has two great clean channels (Based on Roland's JC120 amp and a Fender Blackface) which really live to the bar they set, at all sorts of volumes, from bedroom to stage.
Very versatile and both love to have distortion/OD pedals in front, particularly the Fender model which can be very warm and round or nasty and aggressive. Suit it for your taste.
Did I mention the Cube 60 is the loudest 1x12 combo I've ever played through? Never taken it past half volume at gigs. Never ever.
And I've never ended with back pain from carrying it around either, or asked for help to do so.
Not that I'd matter if I dropped it or something. It's extremely tough and well built.

So those are the amp's strengths IMO.
Two fantastic clean channels that will make it the perfect backup for your nice tube amp -or alternative, if you don't want to lug it around- if you like to use pedals for your dirt.
It's light, it's ridiculously powerful for it's size, and has so much headroom it'll shake your balls off or make you deaf before breaking up.
And the included reverb, delay and tremolo are very nice, not very flexible but you'll find a sweetspot for sure.
The line out with emulated speakers is fantastic for gigs,
the cabinet extension does it's thing and makes it sound enormous through a 4x12, and the headphone output is great for late night jamming or recording a demo.
You'll still want a mic for the best possible sounds though.

The Cons:

The distorted models are all nice somehow, but in the end still fall short of their name.

The Vox model sounds nothing like the well-known Vox tones. No Beatles or Queen tones here.
Instead it's sort of a JCM800 take, that cleans up very well. It's nice, but even with single coils it doesn't give the chimey, bright overdriven sounds you'd expect.
It's just not warm enough.

The Tweed model does a nice impression of a very saturated old combo, what you'd use for angry Bluesy tones. Nice, but I'm not qualified to comment if it's a good reproduction.

The JCM800 model is where the problems begin. It's a bit fizzy in the high end, even with the treble and presence on zero there's some weird overtones in the higher frequencies.
But it's very dynamic and focused sounding, the bass is punchy and not overbearing and the mids are just right.
This one, I've gigged with but there's better Marshall sounds to be had from dirt boxes.

The 5150 model is very aggressive, even with the mids cranked and the bass on zero it's a bit too scooped for my taste.
It won't clean up like the real thing, and adding gain just adds fizz. A workaround for this is leaving the gain on zero and boosting it with a TS style pedal.
That sounds fantastic, extremely heavy and powerful, plus it adds some much needed mids.
Also, in this mode the treble knob adds fizz too. The presence knob works better. It's the best model but you have to work a lot to make it sound good.

The Rectifier model has no versatility whatsoever, unlike the real thing which can cover some wide grounds. It will give you Metallica's Black Album tone in a pinch, and that's it.
Super tight and brutal. Doesn't clean up at all. Triple Rectifiers do clean up.

It's also got a DynaCube mode or something, supposed to clean up like a tube amp. And it does.
But shamefully, the breakup is extremely unnatural and no amount of EQing takes away from the fact that it's a fizzy, fake breakup with no bite and no flavor.

FX-wise, the onboard reverb and delay are very nice. The chorus, flanger and phaser... aren't.
You can't control the wet/dry ratio, only their rates, and they're excessively present. They sound like a toy. Chorus is kind of acceptable with clean sounds, and a joke with anything dirty.
The tremolo however is very good and I love to use it. No FX loop, and I don't miss it much.

Overall:

It's a truly fantastic amplifier for clean sounds, that will get much louder than what you'd expect, and will deliver phenomenal tones with the right boxes in front, for the price.
The included dirty tones aren't that good, but they'll do for certain applications.

A beginner will find his tonal path through the versatilty it has, and a seasoned veteran will appreciate the portability, the power and the tones, which you can squeeze out with the right tools.
It's definitely worthy to keep as a backup.
Nowadays there's better modeling amps by Vox and other brands, but this one can be had for cheap in the used market and it's very reliable.

[mwalluk]

Re: The Amp Review Thread

Courteously of UberMetalDood....

MESA BOOGIE ELCTRADYNE

It's a great amp. It has a clean channel that's everything they it's supposed to be... and then some. It's a real great Fender clean. It has more overdrive than people think. I would say it has about the same amount of overdrive as you can get on a JCM 800. There are two overdrive modes that are differently voiced. It's a little difficult to dial the amp in at first, especially trying to even out the levels between clean volume and overdrive volume, but once you get it set, you get exactly what you want.

Its sound is relatively dark and compressed, but it cuts through like any other british amp. Like every other Mesa Boogie I've tried, it has more than enough bass.

I have used it with 6L6's and EL34's, and I can tell you that it sounds better with 6L6's clean and EL34's on overdrive. Overall, 6L6's work best in the Electradyne.

The Electradyne has an awesome reverb. It's not all springy sounding like a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. You can do a whole lot with an Electradyne. I have something I recorded with mine here. I did at a very low volume in my home.

The Electradyne is a really cool amp. Even just looking at the chassis and the inside, it doesn't look like any other Mesa Boogie. The trick is getting it dialed in and learning how to siwtch between the channels. Once you got that figured out you will enjoy it tremendously.

[Stratman]

Re: The Amp Review Thread

And now for the Celtic amps….


(Speak up for Scott_F)

[UberMetalDood]

Re: The Amp Review Thread

Blackstar HT-100

I have read a lot of different opinions and speculation about these amps and it seems like people just don't know jack about them yet. Guitar Centers don't have Blackstars lining the shelves like they do with those cheap, crappy particle-board Marshalls they've been pushing lately, so a lot of the general public doesn't know what to make of these Korean made Blackstars.

Most of the information you find is on the very low wattage models like the HT-5 or the popular HT-40 combo. When you're looking for an amp head, the HT-100 must be taking into account because it's a killer amp head.

First off, it's a very dark sounding amp. It takes a few ingredients to get the tone out. At first impression, it's dark and compressed and dry. The first thing you want to do is raise up the gain to see if you can breath some life into it. Then you start pushing the buttons to see where that gets you.

I was thrown off by the ISF knob. Clockwise, it's supposed to be British sounding, then counter-clockwise it's supposed to be American. When I turned clockwise, it got really dark and compressed and reminded me of a Mesa Boogie Electra Dyne. I turned to the right and it got brighter and more open. It's still confusing because the HT-100 doesn't sound like an American amp no matter what you do with it.

I don't understand what Blackstar is trying to accomplish by doing the American/British amp thing because first of all it doesn't sound American; second of all, they should just stick to making "better than Marshall" Marshalls.

You're not going to get a good idea of the clean channel in a music store with a low volume and a strat. If you put the volume at 12:00 on the clean channel and use a humbucker guitar, you will get a gritty clean. It's a dry clean. It's not jangly and spanky like a Fender. You're not going to sound like SRV. It doesn't stay completely clean with a humbucker guitar unless you set the channel volume way low around 9:00.

What the clean channel offers is a decent clean sound that when hit with a touch of chorus and a little bit of boost starts sounding really awesome. There is a voice switch which to me sound bland and dark. I leave it out because it's brighter and more lively sounding.

The OD channels are quite dark. To me it sounds like a Marshall DSL that has been smoothed out and darkened and compressed. You will not get that trebly crunch like you get with a DSL unless you keep the ISF knob counter-clockwise and engage the voice (which is basically like a treble boost), even then it's still smoother than a Marshall DSL.

As your master volume increases, so do some of the mids and treble. So once you get pretty loud, it starts sounding less dark and compressed.

OD 2 is brighter and gainier. It sounds better than OD1 with the voice control out. Push the voice button in and it sounds much more like the red channel on a Marshall DSL. You have a truckload of gain available on OD2. You probably wouldn't need to go past 12:00 with vintage humbuckers. Single coils get all juiced up just past 12:00.

This amp sounds kind of bassy so I like to lower the resonance and keep the bass back a little, and I keep the mids and treble up. That gives me the Marshall type sound I want from it.

A few words about the reverb. I don't really like it that much but it's nice to have. It sounds like a digital reverb that tries to be a spring reverb. After 1:00 the reverb gets a little washed out and doesn't sound authentic. The reverb on a Marshall JVM is probably a little better but the HT-100 does sound more natural if you don't use a lot of it.

I bought this amp cheap; therefore, I have been very careless with it. I cracked the headshell twice by dropping it. Once the preamp tubes went out. It still works perfectly though.

It's durable so far, but only more time and lots of band practice will tell how its Korean craftsmanship will hold up over the years. I would like to know an amp tech's opinion after examining the wiring of one of these and a DSL 100 side by side. That would be interesting to hear about.

[FuseG4]

Re: The Amp Review Thread

Fender '65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue

It's supposed to be the same circuit as a vintage 1965 Deluxe Reverb. Does it sound the same? Most people say "no."

However, it's a bad ass amp. Everyone knows how the amp is voiced. Warm bass, lots of high end, and what feels like no mids. Thick, smooth breakup that really retains the character of whatever guitar you throw at it.

2 channels, normal and vibrato. 2 inputs, high and low. Channel volumes (no masters), treble, bass, and the the vibrato channel has reverb and tremolo speed and depth. Everyone uses the vibrato channel because the reverb driver and recovery stages (I think that's what does this) add more gain, and this channel is much brighter.
First, let me discuss the bomb-ass normal channel.

Thick, articulate, and plenty of headroom for pedals! There's no shortage of the fender sound here, and if you want, you can crank this sucker all the way and not have the overdrive get ratty. If you don't play with reverb, you can get a LOT of love from this channel.

The vibrato channel is bright at low volumes, begins to thicken up at around 3, and begins light breakup (with single coils) around 5. 7 is dirt and many speakers start to contribute a little breakup around here. 8 is right before you gotta watch for any rattyness from the amp or the speaker. Roll back your EQs to find the sweet spot if you need to be on 10. The breakup itself is smooth, and not a crazy crunch. The sustain is fairly liquid and you can really, really clean it all up with the volume control.

The amp gets loud quick. Some people can play small bars with a light drummer if they set the vibrato channel to "2". I can set it to 1 in my apartment and get a cool clean tone, but everyone knows it really gets much sweeter from there. It's not an amp that sounds like ass until you hit a certain volume. It's all useable if you play around with it.

The treble control has a wide useful range, I'd say everything from 2 to 7 sounds good depending on the speaker and guitar/pedals. With the volume below 3, I generally keep the treble below 3. Who says you have to go and cut the bright cap? Idiots. You have a treble control!
The Bass control sounds good up around 7 if you're playing clean. With high volume, or OD pedals and such, also keep the bass medium to low (around 6 or under for natural overdrive, 4 or under for pedals) to let the mids come out more, then adjust your volume accordingly.

Below 3 on the volume, beware fizz on the vibrato channel! It's potentially everywhere with any OD/dist pedal! Keep that treble LOW and use your guitar tone control. It's a bright amp, and it'll stay clear through all this. There's mids in this amp, and you've gotta cut the other two controls to make use of it.

The reverb is strong. I've never taken it past 5. 3 is a nice "wet" reverb tone and 2 to 2.5 is good for just adding a little more dimension. It's warm and not obnoxious. Not too metallic like some other combo amps.

The tremolo only works when the footswitch is in. It can go from a slight warble to all out wackiness. Very smooth, but not as smooth as some "bias modulator" types of trem circuits.

Mine came from the factory with a faint ticking in time with the tremolo, when it's on. I don't mind, I don't think I'd ever record with the tremolo on. It's supposedly related to dressing of the leads in the amp. I'll get it fixed some day, maybe when I need a cap job.

Hum is pretty low. It's not the quietest amp I've ever owned but it's not too bad.

The stock speaker is bright and has a sort of blaring upper mids. Some dudes who stick with it and break it in swear by it. I had a Eminence Texas Heat laying around and popped it in. Way nice. Deep, warm lows, still enough chime and treble, and a little more low mids. It's also a "cleaner" sounding speaker. Less hair on your notes.

As far as reliability and serviceability go, well that's another reason to get a SF or BF model. This thing is PCB and it's not invincible. I expect it to do well though. People gig these things all over, every day.

Pros:
Unmistakably Fender tone, with one of the worlds most trusted clean tones!
renowned for being a great pedal-platform
GOOD onboard reverb

(potential) Cons:
Learning curve with the EQs
Stock speaker could be better
not enough headroom for everyone. Well they do make the twin...
A real '65 is usually said to be warmer, smoother, and even less compressed.

[wahwah]

Re: The Amp Review Thread

Ulbrick Venue 30

The Ulbrick Venue 30 is a Class A, 30w 1x12 combo, featuring all tube Accutronics parallel mixed reverb, and all tube true grid tremolo. Hand made from start to finish, Dave Ulbrick even produces his own paper bobbin hand wound transformers, and the circuitry is mil spec point to point hand wired. The amp also features dual parallel preamps, marked Deep and Bright, allowing for a very broad range of tones from the preamps by combining them in various amounts.

Controls

The top panel controls include Master Volume (with a pull pot for 'Clean'), Bass, Middle, Treble, Bright Volume, Deep Volume, Speed & Depth (Tremolo) and Reverb. Underneath the top panel, there is also a switch for New/Old rectifier switching. The Old setting provides a greater degree of sag in the rectifier. The Clean pull pot on the Master provides more slam to the power amp for more breakup and crunch in its down position.

Tubes

This particular amp was custom made for me by Dave Ulbrick, and we sorted through my vintage tube collection for the most appropriate tubes for the preamp stages. We settled on an early 60's short plate Mullard ECC83 for the Bright preamp, and a late 50's RCA blackplate 12AX7 for the Deep preamp. For 6L6GC's, we went with SED Winged C.

Speaker

Dave had a couple of Celestion Gold alnico 12's in his factory when he was putting my amp together, so we put one in the combo and one in an extension cab. The standard version of the Venue 30 comes with either a modified Vintage 30 or G12H Heritage. I tried all three, and much preferred the Celestion Gold in this amp.

Tone

The Venue 30 is predominantly a clean single channel amp, with substantial headroom and a broad range of tones available from the combination of the parallel preamp stages, the tone controls, adjustable rectifier and the switch for slamming the power stage. The Deep preamp has a distinct Fender quality to it, and the Bright preamp provides something closer to a British voiced tone. Being able to combine these two preamps in parallel makes this a very versatile amp, and one that takes pedals extraordinarily well. As a result, it provides a beautiful tonal foundation for a wide range of different types of gain and fuzz pedals, while providing excellent clean tones straight from the amp.

Reverb & Tremolo

Both are gorgeous.

Clips

Here's an audio clip of the Ulbrick Venue 30 running clean with my '68 Strat

Ulbrick Venue 30 Clean

And a couple of YouTube videos running the amp with different pedals. In the first clip, I'm running a Lovepedal Eternity into it, and in the second, a Hermida Zendrive. At this gig, I have the extension cab mic'd through the PA.











Cheers......................................... wahwah

[PVFan]

The Incredible Hulk Junior from the Rising Sun

Ibanez TSA15H "Tube Screamer Amp"


Best deal out there as of this writing for under $750 US brand new. Maybe $1000 new. And it's a dual 6v6, oy! Pairs great with an EL84 like my Dr. Z.



Been doing some tube swaps and I'm in tone shock. Replaced the 2 stock preamps with a JJ and a Sovtek, removing the 2 simply labeled "CHINA". Left the 2 stock output tubes in there because they seem to be rocking stoutly. Besides, they're black. All black, like tinted windows. Can barely see the fire inside. It's just cool looking. Eventually I will allocate the best 6v6s I can for this amp, but, the tube swap of just the preamp tubes made the tone stack far more usable, it made the Tube Screamer sound 100% badass and "TS-familiar" thru the entire range of all 3 knobs dedicated to the stompbox built into this amp, and even the boost seems to work more like one would expect a straightforward but fairly transparent 6db boost to function.

All 6 knobs are smooth and fun and have linear sonic tapers to their travel. The panel is recessed. The 2 little switches (TS & Boost) are strong, and the big switches (Power and Standby) are chunky, and when you flip any of the 4 there is plenty of Snap! It feels and operates like a nice, overcrafted German machine or Japanese Zero. Almost frictionless operation to the knobs that invites experimentation. Everything is confident and authoritative. The headshell is tight, more solid than a lot of popular models that creak and groan when you pick them up and set them down. The white tolex and piping are beautiful. The green chassis is gorgeous.

The chassis is not the only thing that is green. The pedal for switching the TS & Boost on / off is made out of battleship armor and is the same green as the chassis. So is the cable for the footswitch. A nice, almost luminescent green (long cable, too. About 75 kilofeet. 1/4" plug on the end).

Even the Owner's Manual is the same GREEN.

Big, cleanish amp with built-in classic stompbox that can be more expensive by itself than this amp that actually includes one. Great sounds, huge crunch, but some really darn sweet tones to be easily found also, pentode/triode 15w/5w, an FX loop? Not a typical $299 offering in any way. American tone and legendary Japanese crunch that handily consumes the small amp competition under $750 American as of this writing.

I'm not going to get into the tones too much because I've gotten so many good ones with so many speakers and guitars. I will say my favorite tone by far with this amp is plugging straight-in with no pedals into 2 greenbacks and 1 alnico blue, with the TS ganked and the boost on. The first thing you think of when I say "Uber-Recto Junior" would be in the ballpark of the mountainous, articulate chunk-balls and fat leads I'm getting, except with far quieter operation.

The signal path looks like this:

1. input > Tube Screamer > boost >
2. FX send / return >
3. 1st half of 12ax7 #1 >
4. EQ >
5. 2nd half of 12ax7 #1 >
6. both halves of 12ax7 #2 >
7. 2 x 6v6GT >
8. OT with 5 output taps >

... so if you plug your guitar into the FX loop's return, you're all tube, and the TS & boost are bypassed. I don't know if V2 is functioning as a splitter nor what the power amp's class of operation is. Web research says it is a "hybrid bias" design somewhere between cathode-biased and adjustable. No clue. Block diagram taken from owner's manual.



more:

bass, how low can you go? Death Row. Whutta brutha know.

wouldn't it be cool...?


For the price tag, it's the most bang for buck deal I've encountered in my life. I love it. 100% keeper that will always be useful and fun. Addictive to play as anything I've owned, and I can't emphasize enough how Ibanez *must* have been thinking "fun" even as they designed the interactive use. And mine has the misprint on the front panel. ;o)














hopefully not the final edit ...

Blown fuses. Root cause unknown. They are hard to get to, being accessed by a little top panel with no room for hands, and you will need fuse pullers to avoid the risk of electric shock.

my TSAmp is in a laboratory being looked at by top men. If it ever comes back to me it is true love; I hope it does. It was good while it lasted in any case. But I haven't got time for fleeting love so I got the replacement hookup.

[PVFan]

Re: The Amp Review Thread

Pittbull 50CL



/ amp search

[Scott_F]

Re: The Amp Review Thread

Fender Mustang 3

A keeper for solid state modeling amps.

Pros:

1. Good celestion speaker
2. Open back
3. Big digital read out on top for us old guys with tired eyes.
4. Fender amp models are superb.
5. Price
6. Two different pedal control options.


Cons:

1. I hear a little electronic fizziness sometimes. Not sure if it's an amp model or an FX model. Comes and goes a bit but doesn't keep me from enjoying the amp.

2. The line out headphone thing is a bit sterile sounding. They don't have a "cab" model for the line out like Line 6 products did when I used them. Once you disconnect the amps speaker cab, you lose a bit of something. I've not tried to record with it. It's basically only good for late night stuff for me.

3. I took a look at what's inside and I'm not sure how robust it is. (electronics) Time will be the judge of this one.

4. British amp models were good, but not great to my ears. But, then again, I"m more a fender guy than a marshal guy. And I really didn't like any of the "metal" models. Then again, I'm not metal so go figger.



Overall, a keeper for sure. If you want a quick grab and go amp for practice and light gigging, the Mustang 3 is a good choice. 300 bucks gets a lot of amp.

I had the Mustang 2 previously. I didn't care for it. Control system was clunky, closed back, speaker wasn't that swift. For 100 bucks more, the M3 is a waaaay better model than the M2.

[Surgeon]

Re: The Amp Review Thread

I’ve retubed it with Tung-Sol 12ax7s in the pre-amp and TAD EL84s in the power section.

Guitars: I play Les Pauls through it (a Custom with a Custom in the bridge and Pearly Gates in the neck; a Classic with Custom in the bridge and Seth Love in the neck and a DC Junior with the stock pick-up).

Cab: It’s plugged through a beefy home-made 1x12 cab loaded with an Eminence Wizard.

Construction:
I have nothing to say about it really, other than the fact that it looks and feels solid, the tolex is cleanly applied and everything looks top-notch. Getting the chassis out to retube took some time but that’s not really a problem. The amp isn’t particularly heavy for it’s size, I’m assuming the transformers aren’t super-beefy, the amp being only 30 watts. I don’t have any frame of reference for 30 watts heads though. It’s actually my first head…

Clean channel:
This channel has: volume, low and high knobs.
The clean channel is quite loud. It gets louder than the dirty channel when knobs are set at the same position. This isn’t a bad thing per se, unless one wants some break-up at lower volume. Otherwise, it’s positive since the clean tone gets hairy quite rapidly (around 12 o’clock) and turns into a very usable crunch past 2-3 o’clock. When used at volumes that allow the clean to remain “clean”, the tone was quite surprising. I wasn’t expecting such a nice clean tone from this amp. It’s lively and deep. Played through the aforementioned set-up with the stated guitars, the tone can be a little dark (of course, the p90 in the junior helped with this compared with the other two LPs). I keep the treble knob almost all the way up and the bass quite low. Set like this the clean tone is very pleasant and doesn’t sound dark at all; it is to be noted that this knobs placement can seem quite extreme to some, considering that there isn’t much more increase of the treble that can be done. I assume that players looking for a Fender-type shimmery clean tone may need single coils, a treble booster or, well, just buy a Fender or fender-clone. I never perceived the Wizard as a dark speaker (although there are much brighter ones out there for sure) so I don’t believe the problem lies there.

Dirty channel:
This channel has three knobs: volume, gain and shape (EQ knob increasing of decreasing the mids while doing the opposite to treble and bass). This Shape knob is either liked or disliked on the web (although I suspect that many naysayers haven’t played through this amp and are stating things more generally). I can see how having more control over the EQ curve could be beneficial but I don’t feel there’s anything missing from the control you have with just this knob. Turning the knob counter-clockwise increases the mids while decreasing the treble and lows. Setting it the opposite way increases the lows and highs while scooping the mids. There’s actually something very cool about having so much tone-shaping capacities over your dirty tone from tuning just 2 knobs. Whether you’re a “set and forget” type of guy or an incessant tweaker, there’s something for you, although there isn’t much to tweak. I’m assuming the incessant tweakers will run out of experiments in a short period but both gain and shape knobs interact nicely with each other. It was really easy to find very satisfactory tones on the amp. The beauty of its simplicity lies in how easy it is to “come back” to tones you’ve found before. I don’t find myself taking notes on knobs placement anymore (which would actually make me sound quite dumb seeing how it’s only 2 knobs right?).

The dirty tone of this amp is full with the low-mids that make the sound of Orange amps so unique. It does, however, have a bit less of the crunchy mids at lower gain settings, which in turn yields a tone that may be a bit less organic than some might desire. I’m assuming that folks solely in search of a retro crunchy tone will be better off looking at other Orange amps geared towards lower gain.

The reason I was drawn to this amp (or any Orange amps lately for that matter) is that the lower-mids tend to make the amp sound crunchy and heavy without having to go for full-blown scooped distortion, which I never found in my former JCM 800 or Genz Benz El Diablo (even though both were amazing amps…yes, even the GB). That not only ensures a tone that cuts through the mix with ease but also enables one to retain the playing dynamics without sacrificing said heavy-tone... heaven for riffing on the lower strings. The sweet-spot for the tone I was looking for with the dirt-channel was between 10 and 2 o’clock for gain and between 9 and 1 for the EQ. This may seem quite constrained but just by tweaking between these points for both knobs the tone can be quite drastically changed. Almost any settings could be useful, the only moments where the tone was unusable for me were on the extremes: EQ completely counter-clockwise or completely set clockwise. Pretty much the same can be said for the gain. However, it didn’t sound bad for certain types of music with the gain maxed-out (it was tight and brutal with a lot of the fizz EL 84s are known for) but it certainly wasn’t something I can hear myself using.

Wattage:
One of the very practical characteristics of the amp is that it can be switched between 7, 15 or 30 watts. Being such a loud amp (30 watts in Class A), this is a home-player salvation if you play both home and with a band, allowing you to keep playing the same amp in both situations. A switch on the back allows you to use only 2 of the 4 EL84 output tubes while another on the front panel allows you to switch the amp to half of its capacity (I’m assuming switching between pentode or triode mode). This also allows two different 15 watts modes: 4 tubes in triode or 2 tubes in pentode.
I found that switching between the different modes didn’t alter the tone that much. My former Genz Benz turned into a quite different beast when switched to triode at 30 watts (quite darker with less gain). It isn’t the case that much with this amp. What I did observe is that, as expected, when used with the switch at half capacity (triode mode) the tone did get a bit “looser”, not as tight compared to the full mode and “maybe” a slightly bit darker. Depending on your tastes and type of music you can tailor your tone a bit more with this knowledge, especially if you can deal with only 15 watts (where both modes are available as described above). My preference goes to the tighter gain character for most of my electric guitar work but it’s nice to have the option. Since using tubes to their full capacity yields a bit of a brighter tone, this could also helped the clean channel (read the description above).

All in all, it’s a great amp. Very versatile and can get quite loud. Being made in China, the price it commends when new IMHO makes it a tremendous value. I haven’t seen any on the used market yet but I can only imagine they’ll be an amazing deal considering what this amp is.

[UberMetalDood]

Re: The Amp Review Thread

Engl Raider 100 (1x12, 100w combo)

I just got my Raider yesterday, but I have been playing it for several months. This local shop had it sitting there for a long time and finally made me a deal on it. These cost $1999 new and I think the same reasons it sat there for so long are the same reasons why I never gave the Raider any consideration until playing it... which boils down to the marketing.

We're talking a 100w 1x12 combo that by appearance looks a bit smaller than my Screamer 50. It's all black and looks like a mean metal amp. Engl seems to do nothing to promote it as anything other than a metal machine which is sad because it could be incredibly popular; even at that price.

The first thing that caught me was the clean channel. It's not a Fender clean or anything you would expect, but it has all the qualities you look for in a great clean amp. It has 2 bright options and can be a bit of a chore to dial in at first, but the shimmery sparkle of more classical clean amps can be had in the Raider.

I'll compare it to a Fender clean since everyone can make a connection to them. To me, Fender cleans are typically very loose and sensitive, with lots of high end detail or "sparkle." Fender cleans are warm and don't sound compressed. What you would expect in a high gain amp is a compressed, warm, dark clean which is kind of what the Raider delivers except it parallels the Fender clean with it's own sweet detail and shimmer.

There are two basic ways to dial in the clean channel (there's a bit more to it but I'll keep it short for the sake of brevity), using the bright switch and 3 band EQ, or switching on the presence and depth/punch controls. Each one has kind of a different approach to shaping the EQ. One is kind of a way to adjust the presence across the EQ curve, and the other adds the proverbial sparkle.

Being a high gain amp, you're not going to get authentic Fender style cleans, but in turn you get a great variety of beautiful clean sounds. It's a bit compressed compared to Fenders, and to the touch, it's tighter and not as jangly. To me, Fenders are extremely dynamic; almost frustrating if you accidentally pick hard because it will suddenly go from a light twang to a jarring "karrang." The Raider cleans don't have that kind of dynamics, but considering that it's a channel-switching, high-gain amp, it has a considerable amount of dynamic range.

If you're familiar with the Engl Powerball, then you know it's not going to give you much nuance. However, the Raider is abundant with nuance so players with great technique can get a substantial range of dynamics without having a loose, jangly sound that's too transparent in overdrive.

The Raider features a high gain button that you can engage on either channel. When set on the clean channel, the high gain button turns it into a crunch channel which at best does classic rock crunch. It stays as clean as you want it, or until you get loud enough to get breakup from the V30 speaker.

There is already a great deal of versatility within channel 1, but channel 2 gives your more surprises. There are basically 3 characters of channel 2 which have substantially different voices between them. By itself, channel 2 doesn't get necessarily into hih gain territory. It probably gets about as saturated as a JCM 800, so you can get a great rhythm and some lead tones.

Then you can switch it to high-gain and it gets pretty heavy saturation, but I don't think it gets as much saturation as a Marshall JVM which can get stupid amounts of gain in the red mode. I personally would not need to set the gain any further than 1:00 in high gain mode. By then, the built-in noise gate works extremely well.

The most awesome feature on channel 2 might be the mid boost. It seems to also boost the gain slightly so it would probably be very useful for a solo boost (it's footswitchable by the way, but I'll tell you more about that in a minute). The mid boost changes everything and brings all the mids right out front. I heard a modest video on youtube and the guy did a little metall riffage with the mid boost and it sounded fantastic.

The Raider was an upgrade to a Screamer that I had for the last couple of years. I don't think I have to tell you how incredible the Screamer 50 is. Overall, it was one of the greatest amps I've owned. However, there were two things that I could never quite get beyond with my Screamer. It had an aggressive low end that I could never quite get exactly where I wanted it. It could also be a little harsh at times when I wanted a cutting lead tone, or when it played it at low volumes.

When I say harsh, the Screamer is an aggressive sounding amp, but it's not harsh in the way that a Dual Rectifier can be. I have heard some opinions that even though the Screamer is a great amp, it still sounds a little bit processed or solid state. Even though I generally disagree with those comments, I can agree that it's not as organic sounding as high end Engls like the Raider, Invader, or Steve Morse sig head.

The Raider reminds me a little of the Steve Morse head with a 6L6 flavor. It's smoother than the screamer and has kind of a Mark IV growl to it. No it does not sound like a Mark IV, but it has a cool growly sound when you're playing rhythm. It has an organic, midrangey lead tone which subtly cuts straight through a mix. It's cuts nearly as well as a Marshall so there's no concern for it being too dark, not even in high gain mode.

It has a tube monitoring system which shuts down power tubes that are faulty or get too hot and lights up front panel LED's to let you know if it happens. It has a built-in noise gate which works wonders, but I don't use it because I get enough gain from channel 2 before my rig gets too noisy.

It has a footswitchable, adjustable, FX loop which works incredibly well with my Line 6 M9 effects. It also has a bunch of foot switch options, one of which works with the Z9 foot switch. The Z9 foot switch lets you control anything you want. I have a 2-button Z4 foot switch which I can use for channel switching, to switch on/off reverb and FX loop, and to control the high gain setting. I think there are a couple of more foot switch options, but I'd have to consult the manual.

The Raider 100 comes with a Celestion Vintage 30. I think it's like a 65w or 75w speaker, so I'm not sure why they chose it for a 100w amp. However, it doesn't seem like an insanely loud 100w so maybe the V30 could handle maximum volume. I don't know and probably will never need to find out.

I have tried several Celestion and Eminence speaker swaps with my Screamer so I could probably give you a good idea what would work. I would imagine that the Eminence RWB, Black Powder, Texas Heat, Man O War and Screamin Eagle would be great choices depending on whether you want to brighten the amp or balance it. I think the V30 make a hard-to-beat stock speaker, but I could see it sounding good with a Celestion Classic Lead 80.

All I have left to add to this review is that you need to get out and give the Raider a try because if you get the same impression I first got from it, then you will be pleasantly amazed when you plug into one. Just remember that Engl builds a lot of features into the control design so you can greatly expand your tone settings by how the controls interact with each other. Still, they're a little bit easier to set than Mesa Boogies.

[UberMetalDood]

Re: The Amp Review Thread

I played the head a couple of times, then spent the last 3 days with the combo version. This is the PRS 2 channel amp with Heyboer transformers. There are basically 2 versions of this 50w amp design; one with EL34's and Mercury Magnetics transformers, and mine with 6L6's and Heyboer transformers.

These amps are made by PRS and designed by Doug Sewell who I've heard great things about, but never tried his amps. This amp has a lot of great features. Each channel has independent EQ and volume/gain controls and master volumes. It has one of the best reverbs I have ever heard. The manual describes it as a "universal depth" control, and I don't know if that describes it well, but I sure like the reverb a lot.

I love that it has toggle switches for the channels and bright controls. One weird thing about the amp is how the FX loop send/return controls work. I don't really understand it yet but somehow it controls the power of the amp. Turning them up adds volume/gain. It works like variable power scaling so you can actually get a great tone from this 50 watt amp low volume.

Another kick-ass feature is the external bias which you can adjust if you want to go from 6L6 to 6V6 power tubes. I can't wait to try 6V6's in this amp. That's something I'm going to try as soon as I can find out how to set the bias for those tubes. I have a set of JJ 6V6's waiting already.

One thing about this amp is that it doesn't have a tremendous amount of headroom. You can get very clean sound but not as loud as it can get. You have to keep the gain at 10:00 or below which reduces the volume. Somehow, you must find the sweet spot between the clean master volume, FX send/return, and gain controls to get the perfect pristine clean tone.

It can deliver all kinds of bluesy cleans in spades. The way the amp responds to your playing makes it a whole lot of fun playing with the gain maxed out on the clean channel. It's like a cranked Fender.

Another weird thing about these amps is how the EQ controls interact with each other. For instance, if you change the treble then the bass and mid controls react differently. Same thing if you adjust either the mid or bass. I don't know how it's supposed to interact, and the sucky manual doesn't tell you either.

One more note is that it's not a tremendously loud 50 watts. My Engl Screamer and Marshall DSL50 are both 50w but louder than this one. It's not a big deal though because I bought this primarily for home recording and band practice. It has enough volume for up to medium size gigs so volume is not really an issue.

It comes with a Celestion Vintage 30, but I think this would be a great candidate for an Eminence Governor or G12T75. Well, I can think of a number of Eminence speakers I'd like to try in it like the RWB.

With this amp, I also used an Xotic BB Preamp and Maxon OD820. The overdrive on this amp gets fairly fluid but not capable of really thrashing without a little boost. The amp distortion is very good once you figure out how to dial in the interactive tone controls (some difficulty), but it sounds so much better with my pedals. The Xotic BB Preamp is fast becoming my favorite OD pedal. It's great for everything from a clean boost to an overdrive, and boy does it add everything you want to the "H" series amp.

The BB Preamp has treble and bass controls and also adds some inherent midrange so it makes the amp distortion sound even warmer and rounder and tighter. It's a pretty transparent sounding pedal. My OD820 is also a magnificent pedal itself. It's not as transparent as the BB, but what it adds sounds incredibly good.

In my overall opinion, these amps are of incredible quality and tone and features too, but they sound even better with pedals. They're made in the USA with the best components. There is nothing cheap about these amps. My first thought still persists: "Why is this amp only $1650 when PRS guitars cost a fortune?" You would think that amps of this quality would be sold for thousands, but PRS has managed to make them fairly affordable. If not the best value in the price range, they're a top contender.

[Stephen1967]

Re: The Amp Review Thread

The Peavey Vypyr 15.

I know, it's another modeling amp but for the price and combination of sounds it is worth a good look as a practice amp.

Pros: The amp has 12 different amp models to chose from. Many of the metal options are based on Peavey's own line of different amps including on the left side the XXX, JSX and 6505. It also has modes for th K-Stein, Recto and others. On the cleaner right side it has settings for the Deluxe, Classic, Twin and Brit and a few others. If you push in the selection dial the led selectors change from green to red and really crank up the distortion. All of the crunchy amps sound great on the red setting. The K-Stein and DLZ are great for getting hard rock and 80's metal tones while the XXX and 6506 produce insane metal.

The next dial (and they all have LED markers instead of numbers) controls all of the effects. Some are useless like the Octaver and the pitch shifter. The reverse effect is neat for about 3 minutes then gets boring. The only thing I can think of using it for is the first part of the Ace Frehley solo in "Speeding Back to my Baby" other than that it's very gimmicky. The Chorus, Flanger and Phaser are decent but my favorite is the infamous Tube Screamer. Pushing in the effects dial puts you in edit mode where by playing with the Pre-gain and Low dials you can change the attributes of the effect selected. the Tube Screamer works great on the less distorted amp modes. My favorite is the K-Stein and the DLZ but it also sounds great on the classic. When in edit mode you can also adjust the delay setting with the mid and high knobs and the reverb with the post gain knob. Push the effects knob back in and your settings are in place and now you can fine tune with teh pre-gain, low, mid, high and post-gain knobs. You can at this time also press and hold one of the preset buttons on the lower left to save your settings. There are 3 banks of 4 settings. Some of the factory settings are decent and others are garbage. The post-gain controls is neat in the sense that it lets you crank up the amp but lower the volume with the post-gain knob...in essence you are cranking your amp but keeping the volume down to almost a whisper. I've never seen another amp pull that off. On the flip side if you crank up the master volume and ppst-gain the amp will roar. It is very loud and doesn't break up until you really turn it up. The effects and amp models sound very realistic especially when compared to the Spider VI series. It had a headphone/ record out jack, and aux input for playing music from an iPod or MP3 player.

The cons: Unlike it's bigger brothers the 15 does not come with the stompbox effects which is too bad. It also does not come with the Sanpera footswitch or USb connectivity. It isn't loud enough to gig with and the front panel had a tendency to rattle at higher volumes. The Vypyr logo looks a bit cheesy.

Botton line...For under $100 dollars it is well worth the monthy.

[brunogio]

Re: The Amp Review Thread

Mesa Boogie Tremoverb

I've owned this amp for a few years now and have put it through a number of paces. Mostly played in my hard rock band where it shines but could be used in a number of settings.

The amp has different controls for the rectifier and the spongy/bold. Also had a switch for the power tube selection but I've always played through 6L6s in this particular one.

I've played around with them a bit and mostly go for Bold and leave the rectifier on Solid State. There is also a channel cloning feature that I don't use much mostly because I want there to be a difference between the two channels. There are also front controls for turning off Red and Orange settings which I haven't gotten to work after a bit of tinkering and found I just leave them set on.

It's a two channel amp with additional controls for each. Ch 1 has Clean / Vintage Hi Gain while Ch 2 has Blues / Modern Hi Gain. These have a huge difference on the voicing of the channels. As you can somewhat get, the High Gain channels allow a lot more gain to be dialed in.

Clean is very clean on Ch 1 and has a lot of shimmer. I've played single coils through it and got really nice surf tones. I don't think of it as Fender clean because there is still some more umph in this setting but it's very nice.

I've recently found the trick to getting this amp to sound really clean is to turn the knob on the back to turn off the effects loop. With this turned on, you can use the effects mix like an additional gain but with it turned off and the regular gain turned down you get better clean tones. Again this isn't Twin Reverb type clean but a very warm thicker sounding tone that you'd expect from vintage Fender gear.

Ch 1 on Vintage Hi Gain is somewhat misleading. The reason I say this is this channel with the Gain really dialed and the bass pushed gives you what I can say is the unmistakeable Mesa Rectifier sound. Thick, warm and complex that sounds crazy good for downtunings and applies great to modern sounds. To this day I'm still blown away by how this can dial in such a rich tone that is just unique to my ears.

If you dial down the Gain on this channel I get tones that are similar to those on my Marshall JMP. Not fizzy or brittle but really crunchy gain.

Ch 2 in Modern is more what I would consider classic Mesa lead sound. Sweeter with less buzz and a better singing voice to it. I think this is where Boogie comes from because there is something in this setting that just jumps out and seems so perfect for playing leads and cutting through.

Again if you really run the gain at full bore you get deep distortion that almost has a touch of fuzz to it. Think Paranoid era Sabbath. I only recently dialed this in.

Ch 2 in Blues mode is hard for me to put a finger on but it is closer to its name than it isn't. Definately more pushed than the clean channel 1 setting and good for blues and classic rock. Since I use this channel mostly for leads I don't use it much for rhythm settings but I can see how this would apply well.

I feel this amp can really do it all and I mean it. It handles every style of music you can imagine with the ability to dial just about anything in. The complexity of this amp lies in the Loop settings. It acts like a separately gain and can be used to further color the sound. Oddly it seems to have more impact on Ch1 Vintage Gain setting. Ch 1 clean seems to by pass it and give you much more output regardless of how this is set.

The tremolo and reverb on the amp are really nice features but I've never used it via footswitch which I hope to someday. Those would be killer on demand settings.

UPDATE
After finding an aftermarket footswitch that controls the tremolo, channel, effects loop and reverb. Just one less pedal to run in front of it and you got many more options.

It has the standard separately EQ with presence, reverb, gain and master settings for each channel which gives you lots of options and they have a lot of control over the sounds.

This amp is a true classic and has a ton of respect in the Mesa community as just being warmer and more rich than other Dual Rectifiers and I can't disagree. You can get the fizziness that some DRs are known for but I think it's easier to get something really rich that those amps just can't dial in as well.

Last note: This amp is very heavy in head format. I'm guessing it's around 80 pounds and not something you want to lug up stairs very often.

PM me if you have any particular questions.

[Ed Hunter]

Re: The Amp Review Thread

The Peavey Vypyr 15.

I know, it's another modeling amp but for the price and combination of sounds it is worth a good look as a practice amp.

Pros: The amp has 12 different amp models to chose from. Many of the metal options are based on Peavey's own line of different amps including on the left side the XXX, JSX and 6505. It also has modes for th K-Stein, Recto and others. On the cleaner right side it has settings for the Deluxe, Classic, Twin and Brit and a few others. If you push in the selection dial the led selectors change from green to red and really crank up the distortion. All of the crunchy amps sound great on the red setting. The K-Stein and DLZ are great for getting hard rock and 80's metal tones while the XXX and 6506 produce insane metal.

The next dial (and they all have LED markers instead of numbers) controls all of the effects. Some are useless like the Octaver and the pitch shifter. The reverse effect is neat for about 3 minutes then gets boring. The only thing I can think of using it for is the first part of the Ace Frehley solo in "Speeding Back to my Baby" other than that it's very gimmicky. The Chorus, Flanger and Phaser are decent but my favorite is the infamous Tube Screamer. Pushing in the effects dial puts you in edit mode where by playing with the Pre-gain and Low dials you can change the attributes of the effect selected. the Tube Screamer works great on the less distorted amp modes. My favorite is the K-Stein and the DLZ but it also sounds great on the classic. When in edit mode you can also adjust the delay setting with the mid and high knobs and the reverb with the post gain knob. Push the effects knob back in and your settings are in place and now you can fine tune with teh pre-gain, low, mid, high and post-gain knobs. You can at this time also press and hold one of the preset buttons on the lower left to save your settings. There are 3 banks of 4 settings. Some of the factory settings are decent and others are garbage. The post-gain controls is neat in the sense that it lets you crank up the amp but lower the volume with the post-gain knob...in essence you are cranking your amp but keeping the volume down to almost a whisper. I've never seen another amp pull that off. On the flip side if you crank up the master volume and ppst-gain the amp will roar. It is very loud and doesn't break up until you really turn it up. The effects and amp models sound very realistic especially when compared to the Spider VI series. It had a headphone/ record out jack, and aux input for playing music from an iPod or MP3 player.

The cons: Unlike it's bigger brothers the 15 does not come with the stompbox effects which is too bad. It also does not come with the Sanpera footswitch or USb connectivity. It isn't loud enough to gig with and the front panel had a tendency to rattle at higher volumes. The Vypyr logo look a bit cheesy.

Botton line...For under $100 dollars it is well worth the monthy.

I bought one of these new and played it for a week or so and swapped it even up for a FENDER mustang 1
The mustang 1 is a much better amp and you get way more bang for the buck than the peavey.
The fender fuse software makes the mustang 1 kind of like a PODxt. The settings/options it offers over just the amps panel are amazing
the amp without the fuse software is decent but really shines when you apply FUSE.
so for $100 new you get a vypyr 15 type amp along with FUSE software that makes it as good as a PODxt,and they also include
Amplitube fender LE,abletone lite recording software. great deal for $99 new and hands down the best practice rig for under $100!

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitars/fender-mustang-i-20w-1x8-guitar-combo-amp