54stratlover
New member
:dance: :dance: :dance: :dance:
I have 2 amps that I have recently purchased and have had time to get a feel for. the fender tonemaster, and the THD univalve. I ran them through a marshall 4x12 with 2 celestion v30s and 2 celestion gt75's. I was trying to mimic the bogner uberschall cab. I used a Les Paul with a seth in the bridge and a 59 in the neck, and the strat you see below with a JB, cool rails, hot rails.
First I'll review the tonemaster. The amp is a 2 channel 100w with 4 6550s and 3 12ax7s. First I'll cover the negative points as I see them. The amp is tube picky. I have now found out that the amp was designed to use 2 different types of tubes. One tube is a thin wafer 6550 and I forget the other, but my amp guy knows, so oh well, I think it is a short barrel 6550. Originally i bought jj 6l6s to use in it. NO GO. Then some short barrel 6l6's NO GO. the amp worked at low volume with the 6l6's. At loud volumes (3 or better) the amp was making funky scratchy clipping noises. The fellow who works on my amps thought there was a problem in the grid length, or possible the tranny. Randy (the amp guy) did some investigating and e-mailed Bruce Zinky (a story for another time) and found out the amp was designed to run on 2 specific tubes. Come to find out, the amp is a non bias amp, which leads to the prob with the other tubes. Another thing is that amp likes to be played loud. It opens up with the volume on 3. The richness of tone really develops at 3 (which is getting loud)
Anyway channel A is a nice clean non-master channel, that will overdrive when pushed with any overdrive pedal. (I used 3 different StratDeluxer specials and a rumble mod, and a maxon ROD880) the channel goes anywhere from nice fender clean to olderstyle zz-topish overdrive. the channel has it's own effects loop. I want to try a fender tube reverb unit on this channel.
channel B picks up were A leaves off. Actually the distortion tones can overlap a bit when using a boost on channel A. Again this channel likes to be played at 3 or over. this channel has a master volume. i initially dimed out the master and dialed up the gain. very rich distortion tone, but.....LOUD when run this way. I then ran the master from 40%-60% and dialed in the gain for anywhere from led zep to super heavy style distortion. this channel is very dynamic. The volume knob goes a long way. rolls of to clean very easily. once again this channel has it's own effects loop.
Another interesting feature. the amp doesn't have an standard impediance switch. the switch says lo-med-hi. the owners manual describes it as a kind of 1/2- 1/4 power switch. if functions differently with different impediance cabinets.
Overall I really like the amp. It's a keeper. I want to try different cabs in the future. 2x12 and such.
I have 2 amps that I have recently purchased and have had time to get a feel for. the fender tonemaster, and the THD univalve. I ran them through a marshall 4x12 with 2 celestion v30s and 2 celestion gt75's. I was trying to mimic the bogner uberschall cab. I used a Les Paul with a seth in the bridge and a 59 in the neck, and the strat you see below with a JB, cool rails, hot rails.
First I'll review the tonemaster. The amp is a 2 channel 100w with 4 6550s and 3 12ax7s. First I'll cover the negative points as I see them. The amp is tube picky. I have now found out that the amp was designed to use 2 different types of tubes. One tube is a thin wafer 6550 and I forget the other, but my amp guy knows, so oh well, I think it is a short barrel 6550. Originally i bought jj 6l6s to use in it. NO GO. Then some short barrel 6l6's NO GO. the amp worked at low volume with the 6l6's. At loud volumes (3 or better) the amp was making funky scratchy clipping noises. The fellow who works on my amps thought there was a problem in the grid length, or possible the tranny. Randy (the amp guy) did some investigating and e-mailed Bruce Zinky (a story for another time) and found out the amp was designed to run on 2 specific tubes. Come to find out, the amp is a non bias amp, which leads to the prob with the other tubes. Another thing is that amp likes to be played loud. It opens up with the volume on 3. The richness of tone really develops at 3 (which is getting loud)
Anyway channel A is a nice clean non-master channel, that will overdrive when pushed with any overdrive pedal. (I used 3 different StratDeluxer specials and a rumble mod, and a maxon ROD880) the channel goes anywhere from nice fender clean to olderstyle zz-topish overdrive. the channel has it's own effects loop. I want to try a fender tube reverb unit on this channel.
channel B picks up were A leaves off. Actually the distortion tones can overlap a bit when using a boost on channel A. Again this channel likes to be played at 3 or over. this channel has a master volume. i initially dimed out the master and dialed up the gain. very rich distortion tone, but.....LOUD when run this way. I then ran the master from 40%-60% and dialed in the gain for anywhere from led zep to super heavy style distortion. this channel is very dynamic. The volume knob goes a long way. rolls of to clean very easily. once again this channel has it's own effects loop.
Another interesting feature. the amp doesn't have an standard impediance switch. the switch says lo-med-hi. the owners manual describes it as a kind of 1/2- 1/4 power switch. if functions differently with different impediance cabinets.
Overall I really like the amp. It's a keeper. I want to try different cabs in the future. 2x12 and such.
Last edited:
