Egnater Rebel 30 - i tried one today

infrared72

New member
I had a chance to try one of these today - granted it was only for a short period of time before someone came over and told me to turn it down. Never mind the fact of two other teeny boppers wanking away, and wanking pretty loud on two guitars.

Anyways, on to the quick review. I grabbed an HSS Fender highway one strat to test. This little Egnater 30 is pretty nice - both channels have the tight/bright switches and reverb. Channel switching + reverb on/off from the two button footswitch. With the volume at GC, it's difficult to hear in detail what the tight switch was doing. Definitely the bright adds a top boost though, and it seems to be configured/calibrated nicely for the clean or dirty channel. The clean is pretty nice, though the clean channel is only a 2 band treble/bass eq setup. The dirty channel cleans up nice when you drop the volume on the guitar, with nice variance of light to mid to fully distorted in between. The reverb was nice too - I know it's digital, but it sounded good to me and it won't EXPLODE if you bump into your amp. They put the Tube Mix on the Rebel 30 as well, which in a loud retail environment is probably difficult to hear the difference. I think this Tube Mix is a pretty cool feature, and I haven't seen anyone else incorporate that into an amp.

I think Rebel 30 I tried had a loose tube socket or some issue with the speaker. There was some buzz or rattle that I could hear, so I wonder if something just wasn't tied down properly. Maybe somebody damaged the speaker from cranking this up with the gain maxxed out?

It's been confirmed that Egnater *IS* making the Rebel 30 in a head, and from what I read this evening will be available in October. I think it might be cool to hear this amp with different cab/speaker combinations. If the price is right when that head comes out, that's probably the direction I'm heading.

-PT
 
Re: Egnater Rebel 30 - i tried one today

I really dig the Rebel 20, but I need a two channel tube amp with reverb and a footswitch. I haven't compared them side by side, but I believe the Rebel 30 is voiced a little different from the Rebel 20. I think the 30 is a little more aggresive than the 20.

The owner's manual for the Rebel 30 head is already on their site, and the head weighs only 23 lbs. For what it has to offer, I think it's a great deal. And granted I only got to try the combo for about 20 minutes, it sounded pretty darn good. I think the reverb spillover is a unique thing, so yeah I'm really looking forward to trying out the head when it comes out in October.

-PT
 
Re: Egnater Rebel 30 - i tried one today

Id be curious for confirmation if the the 30 is more aggressive.. I liked the 20 but it didnt cover alot of new ground from my PV classic 30 to justify purchase.
 
Re: Egnater Rebel 30 - i tried one today

As a follow up to my original findings with the Rebel 30 combo, I got to try out the Rebel 30 head today with an Egnater 112 cabinet. This time, i got to use the glassed in room at GC where they keep the 'expensive stuff' - yer $4000-$6000 Gibsons, Vintage stuff, and probably $2000 and higher PRS guitars. I have to say, I think the Rebel 30 is a fantastic little amp. It addresses 98% of what I thought the Rebel 20 was missing which is primarily channel switching and reverb. In addition, there are bright/tight switches that you can set for each channel, variable wattage control 1w to 30w for each channel, and an overall Tube mix control for both channels.

I tried out the head with my HH Telecaster with P-Rails, and I was able to get a lot of different sounds out of this amp. I know some people are down on the whole digital reverb thing, but I think it sounds pretty darn good. It's not overly Hi-Fi like a studio grade Lexicon reverb or something. It's still somewhat clean, but there is still some grit in there. The Rebel 30 seems like it can do the low and mid gain stuff really well. So I set up Channel 2 about 12:00-1:00 on the gain backed off the volume on my Tele and it's a fairly in between clean/gain tone. Dig in with your pick and bring up your volume and the thing responds really well. And the Rebel 30 has a LOT of gain on tap - I had that thing rockin pretty loud earlier. I even went so far as to try some Drop D stuff, and that also holds up well with this amp.

I can hear only a subtle difference between the EL84's and 6V6's - you've really got to fiddle with how many watts you're pushing into each set of tubes to hear it. Each side "feels" a little different though from a playing perspective - if that makes sense.

So this Rebel 30 head is probably where I'm headed (no pun intended) for sure. This little guy is only 23 lbs, and with a lightweight 112 cabinet that I'm having made it will make a perfect mobile setup for me.

One gripe I do have - the Rebel 30 combo and the first Egnater 112 cab I plugged into had this annoying ringy noise like a speaker cone was jacked up, the cabinet was loose, or the speaker was loose. So I don't know what's up with their speaker cabs/combos. The 2nd Egnater 112 cab I plugged into earlier was fine - no weird unnecessarily resonating/buzzing parts inside.

Go check one out if you have a chance -they're pretty cool. At 23 lbs, the thing won't kill your back or give you a hernia either.

-Peter
 
Re: Egnater Rebel 30 - i tried one today

I bought the 20 last year and it's been a good amp. I've been running it with the 1x12 and haven't had any issues, but I get the feeling that it would definitely benefit from a "more x something" cabinet...maybe a 4x10 or just adding a 2x10 to what I've got already.


The Renegade 65 is the amp I've really been itching to try (6L6/EL34, dual channels, etc.). They make that one in a 4x10 combo, but I think I'd rather just get a cabinet and use it for the Rebel 20. By the time I can afford the Renegade they'll come out with some other "holy crap!" kind of thing.
 
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