Killer New Egnater Rebel 20!!!

Re: Killer New Egnater Rebel 20!!!

I played one of the prototypes at the NY Amp Show back in May or June... pressed on time, I'll have to come back... but the short, SHORT version is that it seemed cool but left me underwhelmed.

The Tiny Terror has left a much deeper impression on me...

However, I'm interested to see what the final version of the Rebel 20 is all about. Are they shipping yet? They were supposed to have been in stores months ago...

JMoose, did you check out the video's?? That tone sounds pretty good to me.
 
Re: Killer New Egnater Rebel 20!!!

JMoose, did you check out the video's?? That tone sounds pretty good to me.

Not this morning, but I just listened to a few minutes of each now...

Truthfully, I can't put ANY stock into what's "heard" over Utoob. The audio compression is atrocious... 12-bit mono and while I have over $3k in monitors in the mix room I've got $25 speakers on the computer that, in all fairness I do listen to a good bit of music on.

Nothing compares to being in the room with the amp... let alone actually playing it.

Nothing!!!!



Anywhoo...



The Rebel I played at the NY Amp Show was a prototype... I believe they said "the final" as well though it's a bit different then one shown above. Most notable is that the one I sampled didn't have "tube blend" but had a rocker switch for either/or. There may be other differences on the panel but that's the most obvious...

I brought my lemon top LP (AII & Jazz) with me to the show & one of my hi-fi player friends came along too. We used my Lester throughout the day to keep a consistent point of reference among the amps.

The Rebel was going a pair of 1x12 cabs and was somewhat quick to impress... had a good range of available dirt tones thanks to the 3-band EQ and voicing switches. What I recall is that it covered all the "classic" rock tones and then some but wouldn't/couldn't get into modern metal or hi-gain weedly weedly shred tones.

Frankly... the thing that most sticks out in my head when I think of the Rebel was that no matter how it was setup it couldn't produce a usable clean tone, and when it did, it was at a volume that we could EASILY talk over. That, and it was very "unfriendly" to dynamics. Didn't matter if we rolled the guitar volume back, picked lighter... turned the gain down and the master full up...

It just wasn't there.

The guys from Egnater were turning dials & flipping switches... handing me different guitars... trying everything to get a clean tone. When I rolled the guitar volume back all the top & bottom end disappeared leaving a really peaky, ugly tone.

Felt pretty bad to play too. Really bad.

Listening to the "clean" clips above with a ton of FX and a compressor, and he kept turning the master up & up... I dunno man. Is it better? Probably... could it produce a giggable clean tone? Won't know until I play one...

Now when we were in the room (May?) there were bunch of GuiTarget corporate flunkys there talking to Egnater cats & listening to me abuse the amp... I overhead that these were supposed to in stores by end of July/August which I only remember 'cause there was a joke made about getting one for my birthday (Aug 1).

I wonder if they went back & redesigned the output section... we talked for a bit about what was going on there, how the wattage scaling actually worked (lowers plate voltage to the tubes) but I couldn't help to think that having a master volume AND the variable wattage was redundant.

Maybe that's where the issue was...

I've played the Tourmaster & an Egnater modded JMP & liked 'em... this didn't have the vibe. All I know is that while I love inexpensive gear that sounds great, I'm really a "cost is no object" guy and will GLADLY save for a long time to get what I want. There was nothing about the Rebel I played that has stuck in my head & got me thinking that I need to own one.

On the flip side, when I played Germs "Wrecked" amp (the Tone Shop) that day it left a huge dent in my head... So much that it's on the short list of things to investigate if I can ever sell my '84 JCM800.

The Tiny Terror left a similar mark (though not as deep)... as have a handful of other amps.


Like I said though, I played a prototype of the Rebel that's visibly different from the "final" so who knows what else is different under the hood. If they got the dynamics sorted out it could a TT killer... otherwise, probably not.
 
Re: Killer New Egnater Rebel 20!!!

Agreed, until you really play/hear it in a room it's tough to tell. I do think they must have changed it a bit because I have a buddy who got one and said he can get it quite loud and quite clean, but I haven't heard it in person. I really want one of these though, but am paying two mortgages.........bummer!! Of course I don't really play much true clean and a little hair on my cleans won't bother me, so it should fit me fine. Plus I have my Mod 50 for any clean I really want/need.
 
Re: Killer New Egnater Rebel 20!!!

That little stack was the grand prize at the LA Amp Show drawing. Everyone was crowding around, hoping to snag it, and it went to a 16 year old kid. I felt better knowing it would be a kid's first good amp. I still wanted it though.

When they called out the name, they were saying "Joe" and stumbling over the last name, so I thought it was mine, then the big letdown.....another last name!
 
Re: Killer New Egnater Rebel 20!!!

Of course I don't really play much true clean and a little hair on my cleans won't bother me, so it should fit me fine. Plus I have my Mod 50 for any clean I really want/need.

Sorry to hear about the dual mortgages... not a good time for that kinda thing.

Anyway... yeah, I have a '61 Bandmaster & other stuff so if it doesn't produce a great clean sound that's one thing... but not what I was getting at.

Even with gain, when I rolled the guitar volume back it wouldn't clean up, at least not much that I recall. What DID happen was that it seemed to engage a filter or something... got real funky sounding like a fixed wah was engaged.

So, at least to me, it had all the dynamics of a pancake.

I dunno.

Some amps are one-trick ponys... like a Trainwreck or a Plexi.

Something like the Rebel should be able to cover a fair amount of ground, and the fact that it's small appeals to me for cartage reasons...

It's probably killer now... but I'm not about to gamble & order one when I usually love or hate most things in the first couple three minutes.
 
Re: Killer New Egnater Rebel 20!!!

Bumping this thread because I finally got to try one out.

I love it!

I was out boating with my relatives in Oxnard, Ca. and stopped at their GC on the way back, sat down, and demoed it with a US Tele Deluxe, Gretsch White Falcon, and PRS Singlecut. That is one of the coolest low wattage amps I've ever played with!
At first it was plugged into an Epiphone 1-12 cab, and it sounded really good, then I ran the speaker cable out to the Egnater 4-12 and wham!!!....I want it!!!

Every feature worked like a charm, from mixing the 2 tubes, the wattage knob....just everything. So tubey and nicely voiced for any style of music. I'm sure it'll take pedals nicely, and I'd also use something like a Holy Grail Reverb with it, since it lacks reverb. But it's a great sounding low wattage amp with a big sound and big gain if you want it. The whole range of tones from clean to heavy rock were all there. It sounds as good as amps costing 3 times as much.

Now, I've got to decide whether I want my next amp to be a Bogner Alchemist or the Egnater Rebel 20. The Bogner is more well rounded, but it's also twice as much money.
The Rebel is a cute little amp....smaller than I'd even envisioned. I think it'd be the perfect backup head for someone to bring to gigs because it's so small. As a main amp, I'm leary of using small tube amps that could blow, but another great idea would be two of them on a 4-12 stereo cab. How cool would it be to have 2 tiny heads on one cab, side by side! I think they'd fit.
 
Re: Killer New Egnater Rebel 20!!!

Come on Joe, we all know nothing but crap comes out of China. LOL (My thread in the Guitar section)
 
Re: Killer New Egnater Rebel 20!!!

LOL... I too played through this amp tonight.

I had no idea it even existed until this evening. I stopped into GC to see a friend and they were closing up shop, so I wandered around eventually picked up one of the new Les Paul traditionals.

So my friend comes by and sees me strumming along unplugged, and tells me I need to plug into this new Egnater amp. So I walk over and see it siting atop a couple of cabinets, and I guess I have the "look" on my face, because he says "just trust me".

Anyway, the **** thing rocks. I liked so much more than I thought I would, and maybe that is part of the charm. I was very quickly able to get a very good sound at a reasonable volume, and it only sounded better the more I turned it up.

I doubt I will buy one, (like I need another amp) but it is a very cool amp.
 
Re: Killer New Egnater Rebel 20!!!

I know....I sure as heck don't need it, but it's such a cool little amp. Plus, there's one sitting on LA's Craigslist for 5 bills. I'm going to wait till they're all over the used market, because I know Egnater is going to sell a ton of them!

It takes a lot for a low wattage amp to blow me away, but the Rebel 20 sure does. With the wattage all the way up, utilizing both tubes equally, and using the gain control to taste, it delivers bigtime! With that amp, a good 2-12 and an OD pedal, you'll have big Marshall tone at perfect stage volume.....all coming from an EL-84 and 6V6. Bruce Egnater hit a homerun with this amp. $600 new and worth it....but just wait till they start popping up at $400. Then, I'll be gettin one.
 
Re: Killer New Egnater Rebel 20!!!

Yep, I left the tube knob straight up, and fiddled with the gain. I will have to wait and see how they do on the used market, but everyone knows I am a gear whore. :D
 
Re: Killer New Egnater Rebel 20!!!

The Tourmaster wasn't bad but there's no point in me owning it, since my Ecstacy will stomp it. But the Rebel 20 is a very different amp...far less loud. I like it a lot.

I'm probably going to sell some junk to get the Bogner Alchemist head, but we'll see. I don't need it...I just want it because....you know! LOL

But the Egnater Rebel 20 on my Bogner 2-12 with a Holy Grail in the FX loop would be a KILLER home practice rig....and maybe grow on me enough to use it when the XTC is far too loud for the situation.

Egnater really put themselves on the map this year. A lot of players were ogling over those at the LA Amp Show. As highpowered amps, the bigger Egnaters will be big hits, but that Rebel 20 is destined to be one of their classics. They're gonna sell of ton of them! And the reason is because it's voiced like a small EL-34 amp, not necessarily a EL-84 or 6V6 sound. They just used those tubes because it scales it down.
 
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Re: Killer New Egnater Rebel 20!!!

I've come to the conclusion that for my situation (son no longer plays drums, another drummer buddy has a diferent work schedule) a low powered amp is the way to go to.

I was actually going to buy one of the Rebels but they kept pushing the release date back and in the meantime I came across a used 10 watt Marshally voiced head that looked like it was perfect for me. It runs on a single EL34, KT66, or KT77 and has power scaling for some great low volume tones but can still get pretty darn loud.

But the Rebel looks like a heckuva value with the effects loop and all the other features mentioned earlier.
 
Re: Killer New Egnater Rebel 20!!!

Looks like something I could jive with but I'd probably get killed with the US to AUD dollar conversion rate trying to acquire one down here.
 
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Re: Killer New Egnater Rebel 20!!!

Heres the guts of thre tourmaster;
( Just lookoing at it it appears as if it may have some of the same concerns as a Fender..or many other amps in that pricerange).;

DSC00503.jpg
 
Re: Killer New Egnater Rebel 20!!!

i'm with you on this one joe...in a few months from now...they'll surely be showing up for $400 and a bit under...now THAT WILL BE A DEAL!!!

glad to hear some good reviews of it...can't wait to try one out myself!
 
Re: Killer New Egnater Rebel 20!!!

I picked one for $$500 out the door W/ A spkr cable thrown in the deal, @ GC in naperville ILL. last week, i have only had a chance to play for about an hour, so far i LIKE it.
 
Re: Killer New Egnater Rebel 20!!!

Hmmm. $500 out the door huh. At least I know GC has room to move on the price.

But, my new guitar sucked up my budget for now.

I think the Egnater Rebel 20 with it's matching 212 would one heck of a gigging rig for someone that knows how to work a single channel amp. Luckily, it's voicing is really dialed in. And with an FX loop, something like the Line 6 M13 would be a glorious setup.

It'd be real tube tone with all the versatility of a modeler.
 
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