Egnater Tweaker 15

Stratman

Stratman

Guitaris Maximus
Nice little amp that has a lot of different settings.

Can be used at home, studio, and miked in barroom gigs.

FuseG4 said:
Egnater Tweaker Head
15 W of cathode biased 6V6 power. A 12AX7 Preamp, a 12AX7 phase inverter, and a 12AX7 FX loop buffer.

The best and most unique features on this amp include several mini-toggles designed to tweak the amp's voice, and they deliver tweakabilty only outclassed by Mesa.

The basic voicing of the amp lies in USA mode. The character here is something in between the egnater voicing and a fender blackface voicing. One could say it is similar to the rebel 20's 6v6 mode, but with less compression, more sparkle, and what feels to me like less presence in the upper mids. It doesn't quite achieve the warmth or shimmer of a PRRI or DRRI, but I think it gets a little closer than a blues Jr. When overdriven it rides the line between "blackface-like" and "tweed-like" in EQ, based on how you set the mids, with the character of the breakup always being closer to a 6v6 blackface amp.

Switching to the AC mode cuts some mids and bass and adds treble in such a way as to add some airyness and some more bite. It lacks the crunch characteristics of the real thing, but it certainly gives the impression of playing a darker vox.

The Brit mode adds a bass and plenty of mids, and bumps the volume up a tad for more agressive breakup. I can't say this nails any particular british amp's sounds. It doesn't sound like a JCM800 or plexi on it's own, but when paired with a celestion speaker, one can get that they must have been going for something in that vein, as it certainly sounds "british". This mode has as much balls as the amp is capable of and enough gain to do hard rock.

the vintage/modern switch is pretty useful. In a given voice, the "vintage" side is the normal voicing of the amp. "Modern" adds bass and treble for a little more oomph and cut. I leave mine on "modern" a lot of the time because I like the added sparkle for clean sounds.

The clean/hot switch adds 9 db of gain. With the gain all the way up in clean mode, you get some into the lighter side of classic rock breakup. In hot mode, taking it past 1 o'clock gets you into smooth gain with plenty of sustain for playing most types of rock n roll.

Bright/normal adds treble the way a normal bright switch would, and it becomes less effective as the gain knob is turned up. I like to leave it on bright all the time, as it really adds to the fender and vox-like voices.

The tight/deep switch should be used depending on gain as well. Leave it on deep for the best bass response, unless you're playing past 1 o'clock in hot mode, where the deep switch starts to detract from the clarity of the amp.

Overall this amp comes reasonably close to blackface fender EQ, and does a decent impression on the other two voicings. There are a bunch of toggles, but they are so straightforward that it's actually very easy to pick a sound and stick with it.
The amp is quite dynamic, and you can get great cleans with your volume knob if you;re running the gain up high. Very touch-sensitive.
Because the amp is only 15W and is cathode biased, it gets rounder and more compressed at high output settings. It loses it's "punch" when it's really going. What you get as a trade-off is a "browner" sound, somewhat saturated, with a flowing sustain for leads.

Pros:
*Price!
*Warm and open feel, less compressed vs other egnaters
*3 modes to choose from and several tweaker toggles
*nice FX loop

(potential) Cons:
*lacks the punch of higher wattage amps
*doesn't dead-on nail any famous amps' sounds. Might leave you gassing for "the real thing" for any given amp voicing.

In closing, get it if you want a versatile amp that really rides the line between vintage and modern tone and feel. Its worth the price, even if all you ever use is one voicing.
Click to expand...
 
Re: Egnater Tweaker 15

Thanks for quoting my review :)
The tweaker was a cool amp but it was jack of all trades and master of none. 6V6s seem to help out the USA mode but the other two modes seem like they could have been paired better with el84s.
 
Re: Egnater Tweaker 15

I've bought enough things this month, and don't need anything else. But, there's a Tweaker 15 head available for $229 that's pretty tempting. I want it, but have to take into account that I don't NEED it, and the holidays are around the corner.

This recession sucks, but when it comes to cheap gear and Craigslist being a buyer's market, hard times equates into super deals.
 
Re: Egnater Tweaker 15

I've had one for around 6 months, so I've got a few things to say.

The fact that it takes pretty much any octal tube excepting KT88 is amazing. I've got a pair of EHX E34L (not EL34, E34L) in mine and they rock.
They add a lot of bass and high end grit over the stock EHX 6V6 which are buttery and amazing in their own way.

It loves dirt pedals. I've used a Zvex Super Duper, a Metal Muff Top Boost, a Marshall Jackhammer and a Keeley Boss BD2 all to great effect.
You can shape the clean sound a lot with all the switches, so you can dip the frequencies you don't like.
Haven't tried a nice fuzz yet, I'd love to!

The tonal shaping possibilities are ridiculous. For example, the "VX" channel with the mids set real low is a hidden "Rectifier" mode but still with enough mids to get heard.
It sounds absolutely amazing for modern heavy sounds with no pedals.
And you've already read enough about the cleans and mild overdriven sounds on this thing. They're fantastic.

And second, I'm GASing badly over a nice 4x12 cab to add!
My 1x12 + Emi Wizard sounds great with the Tweaker but I'm pushing the bass too hard to make it sound big, and that makes it a bit loose I imagine.
So a bigger cab should allow me a more neutral EQ and a cleaner, bigger sound.

I love my Tweaker man.
 
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Re: Egnater Tweaker 15

Hmm.. I should try some diff tubes in mine... My Splawn has been in need of a retube for months, so my Tweaker has been my main amp since. It really covers alot of ground very well...
 
Re: Egnater Tweaker 15

I owned one for a year before going to the Tweaker 40. They are very cool, very tweakable. You can take any tube and put in them. 6v6, 6l6, EL34, even the big bottle stuff only if you can fit it in there. But even then you can just take the grill off the top. I ran El34's in mine with a 1x12 extention cab and could keep up pretty good on small gigs. After I changed out the Preamp Tubes I could get the volume up to between 2 and 3 o'clock and it was very managable. Cleans up with the volume know very well and likes to eat pedals on the front end. I bounced between running the Clean Channel with the gain Dimed to running the Hot channel with the distortion around 12 o'clock. That is when I moved to the 40 watter and then set both my channels up like that. Great Amps I would recomend them to anyone that is spending the money in that price range.
 
Re: Egnater Tweaker 15

The Tweaker's a great amp. I'm hearing good things about the 6P3S tube on another forum. I wanna pick up a couple of these tubes to try out.
 
Re: Egnater Tweaker 15

Earlier today I tried out Tweaker with GEC KT-66. I already know that the amount off current that the KT-66 tube is very high (1.3 amps) but this combination is so, so sweet.

This evening I changed to tubes to RCA 6L6 black plates which have less current draw to see how those sound and again sweet.

However, I was surprised that the overall volume with the 6L6 tubes did not go up much at all and the headroom increase just a little bit, while the KT-66 had a much larger overall volume and headroom change.

Tomorrow, I plan to try out some EL34’s.
 
Re: Egnater Tweaker 15

I have my Tweaker 15 paired with a Rebel 112 that I loaded with an Eminence Private Jack. Sounds great for overdriven tones, but the cleans are a bit flat. I've been keeping my eyes on CL for a Tweaker 112 to use with my other Private Jack.
 
Re: Egnater Tweaker 15

I had the best luck with the Fender voicing. It may have been my particular amp, but certain drive pedals (Les Lius in particular) sounded like there was an undercurrent of white noise going on under the notes.

Like Fuse, I moved on to one of the 'real things'....an AC15
 
Re: Egnater Tweaker 15

Little noisy but a smoking little amp as far as I am concerned.

I've gigged it a few times and it holds it own pretty well. The Marshall channel seems to cut the best. The Vox-y channel is pretty good depending on the guitar (for me anyway). The Fender channel is money, the 6v6's really show they're worth running that channel. The G12H speaker seems to be a great match now that is is really broken in.
 
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Re: Egnater Tweaker 15

I gigged a Tweaker 15 combo for about a year. Great value for money, great tones. Great look too, imo. I really liked the Voxy channel, and it started getting me into the Vox sound a bit more. Unfortunately it went back through the revolving gear door... haha.
 
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