Red_Label
New member
I have in my possession a mint Elmwood Modena M60. It belongs to a friend of a friend and the friend and I will likely acquire it and then resell it eventually. But it's been fun to play with for a while and compare it to my Bogner Ecstasy Classic.
First-off, the Elmwood is a 60 watt 2XEL34 amp. It's got two channels, with the ability to kick-in an adjustable gain for each channel. So it's really more of a 4-channel amp. There are two master volumes that can be switched back and forth while on each channel. This gives you basically an adjustable volume boost for leads on each channel. There are also global "edge" (presence) and "fat" (resonance) controls on the back next to the loop. A VERY versatile little head.
When I first plugged-into it, I immediately found a crunchy, hairy tone on the clean channel with the boost engaged. The tone I was getting was very reminiscent of the blue channel on my XTC. BUT... it wasn't quite as complex or "girthy". Even though I run my XTC at half-power, I chalk that up to the fact that the XTC is still a 4-EL34 amp and just has much more grunt and headroom to it. Still... I was pretty impressed with the Elmwood (considering the low price I may end-up paying for it). The cleans aren't quite as complex and snappy as that on my XTC. And they don't have near the headroom as it does. But they are still very nice.
The gainier second channel has a very nice, organic growl to it, with or without the boost engaged. There is plenty of gain on-tap there for most modern rock. Though I scooped it out and dimed it to see how close we could come to Ubershall or Triple Rec territory, it's not quite to that level for metal. Which suits me fine, because I'll never understand why someone buys a $3K handmade amp and then scoops it out and makes it fizzy so all picking dynamics and complexity of tone are lost.
All-in-all I was impressed at how close to my XTC the M60 sounded. The biggest concerns are the headroom (when compared to the XTC), and the slightly-more complex overtones of the XTC.
Would I grab the Elmwood and ditch my Bogner? No. The Bogner's got some things (intangible and tangible) that the Elmwood doesn't. But it's a pretty subtle difference. For my tastes, the Elmwood gets me to 90% of the Bogner. If I didn't have the XTC and landed-on the M60, I think that I could be very happy and content with it for good. Highly recommended if you stumble on one for a great price and are looking for a great-sounding, great-looking amp that you don't find very many of out there.
First-off, the Elmwood is a 60 watt 2XEL34 amp. It's got two channels, with the ability to kick-in an adjustable gain for each channel. So it's really more of a 4-channel amp. There are two master volumes that can be switched back and forth while on each channel. This gives you basically an adjustable volume boost for leads on each channel. There are also global "edge" (presence) and "fat" (resonance) controls on the back next to the loop. A VERY versatile little head.
When I first plugged-into it, I immediately found a crunchy, hairy tone on the clean channel with the boost engaged. The tone I was getting was very reminiscent of the blue channel on my XTC. BUT... it wasn't quite as complex or "girthy". Even though I run my XTC at half-power, I chalk that up to the fact that the XTC is still a 4-EL34 amp and just has much more grunt and headroom to it. Still... I was pretty impressed with the Elmwood (considering the low price I may end-up paying for it). The cleans aren't quite as complex and snappy as that on my XTC. And they don't have near the headroom as it does. But they are still very nice.
The gainier second channel has a very nice, organic growl to it, with or without the boost engaged. There is plenty of gain on-tap there for most modern rock. Though I scooped it out and dimed it to see how close we could come to Ubershall or Triple Rec territory, it's not quite to that level for metal. Which suits me fine, because I'll never understand why someone buys a $3K handmade amp and then scoops it out and makes it fizzy so all picking dynamics and complexity of tone are lost.
All-in-all I was impressed at how close to my XTC the M60 sounded. The biggest concerns are the headroom (when compared to the XTC), and the slightly-more complex overtones of the XTC.
Would I grab the Elmwood and ditch my Bogner? No. The Bogner's got some things (intangible and tangible) that the Elmwood doesn't. But it's a pretty subtle difference. For my tastes, the Elmwood gets me to 90% of the Bogner. If I didn't have the XTC and landed-on the M60, I think that I could be very happy and content with it for good. Highly recommended if you stumble on one for a great price and are looking for a great-sounding, great-looking amp that you don't find very many of out there.
Last edited:
