stratguy23
New member
I took the day off from work and went to Truetone Music in Santa Monica, one of Los Angeles' great guitar stores. High end new and vintage stuff all around - non-Guitar Center Oranges and Marshalls, entire sections of Matchless and Dr. Z, and so on. Heavyweights shop there (Robben Ford, etc.). The caliber of noodling in there is ridiculous. Today there was a pre-pubescent kid shredding on a jazzbox. I always feel self-conscious there with my primitive blues licks. Anyways.
I can't afford any of this stuff yet, but I guess I'm scoping out stuff to save up for/look for deals.
My two favorite amps I played today were the Bogner Panama and Marshall 2061X, so I'll comment on those.
The Panama is a 4-watt head that evidently was intended to be a bedroom amp. It's out of production, and I can kind of see why. 4 watts is a lot for bedroom use, and this amp is ripping (no surprise for a Bogner). But the design was super-interesting in trying to hit this bedroom objective. You get a grand total of 3 controls: 2 knobs (Volume, Schizo), and a half-power switch. To my surprise, the 2 knobs covered a ton of ground. Schizo has 4 settings - 1 is mellow, sort of a dirty clean; 2 is a light crunch; 3 is an awesome Marshall crunch (my favorite); 4 is a modern hot rodded Marshall tone. These tones are so distinct that this is basically a 4-channel amp, just one that requires a knob to change channels. The Volume knob is really sensitive - lots of good tones to be found within a given Schizo setting. Half-power setting felt a little squashed, as to be expected, but still sounded good. That is probably the setting you would use in a bedroom. The Panama was going through a Fender Tweed Deluxe, and it had healthy volume in a medium-size music store setting. 1x12 is probably the max you could get away with in a bedroom. You can't gig with this, you may or may not be able to use it in a bedroom, but man, does it sound great.
The 2061X was conveniently hooked up to a Bad Cat Unleash attenuator, so I got to crank the amp and not kill everyone nearby. This 2061X sounded phenomenal. $2K phenomenal, I don't know, but if I had the scratch would definitely pick it up in the low $1K range. I was basically looking for 2 sounds, Beano/JTM and Plexi, and I easily got both with a stock SG Faded off the shelf. No jumpered cables, just trying all 4 inputs and turning the 2 knobs (Tone, Volume), for each channel. I am not a Marshall connoisseur, I've only basically played Marshalls made after 2000, but I could appreciate the noticeable jump in quality from, say, a DSL up to this amp. Everything felt simpler yet more refined, if that makes sense. No "features" other than good tone and extreme responsiveness. This was one of those amps that feels alive, like it has a presence that you interact with (cranking the amp definitely helps in this aspect, you practically feel the tubes bulging from the strain). Lots of harmonic complexity and warmth and edge. It was both very forgiving, especially with the fuzzy Beano tone, and rewarding of good technique/knowledge of cool chords. It's one of those amps with which you can just strum a chord to bathe in the overtones. I don't think I'd want to have one at home - the attenuator was doing some serious squashing, even at music store levels - but on stage this would be formidable firepower to have behind you.
I didn't even try the 1958X or the 1973X because those are immense and I didn't want to risk liking them, heh.
I can't afford any of this stuff yet, but I guess I'm scoping out stuff to save up for/look for deals.
My two favorite amps I played today were the Bogner Panama and Marshall 2061X, so I'll comment on those.
The Panama is a 4-watt head that evidently was intended to be a bedroom amp. It's out of production, and I can kind of see why. 4 watts is a lot for bedroom use, and this amp is ripping (no surprise for a Bogner). But the design was super-interesting in trying to hit this bedroom objective. You get a grand total of 3 controls: 2 knobs (Volume, Schizo), and a half-power switch. To my surprise, the 2 knobs covered a ton of ground. Schizo has 4 settings - 1 is mellow, sort of a dirty clean; 2 is a light crunch; 3 is an awesome Marshall crunch (my favorite); 4 is a modern hot rodded Marshall tone. These tones are so distinct that this is basically a 4-channel amp, just one that requires a knob to change channels. The Volume knob is really sensitive - lots of good tones to be found within a given Schizo setting. Half-power setting felt a little squashed, as to be expected, but still sounded good. That is probably the setting you would use in a bedroom. The Panama was going through a Fender Tweed Deluxe, and it had healthy volume in a medium-size music store setting. 1x12 is probably the max you could get away with in a bedroom. You can't gig with this, you may or may not be able to use it in a bedroom, but man, does it sound great.
The 2061X was conveniently hooked up to a Bad Cat Unleash attenuator, so I got to crank the amp and not kill everyone nearby. This 2061X sounded phenomenal. $2K phenomenal, I don't know, but if I had the scratch would definitely pick it up in the low $1K range. I was basically looking for 2 sounds, Beano/JTM and Plexi, and I easily got both with a stock SG Faded off the shelf. No jumpered cables, just trying all 4 inputs and turning the 2 knobs (Tone, Volume), for each channel. I am not a Marshall connoisseur, I've only basically played Marshalls made after 2000, but I could appreciate the noticeable jump in quality from, say, a DSL up to this amp. Everything felt simpler yet more refined, if that makes sense. No "features" other than good tone and extreme responsiveness. This was one of those amps that feels alive, like it has a presence that you interact with (cranking the amp definitely helps in this aspect, you practically feel the tubes bulging from the strain). Lots of harmonic complexity and warmth and edge. It was both very forgiving, especially with the fuzzy Beano tone, and rewarding of good technique/knowledge of cool chords. It's one of those amps with which you can just strum a chord to bathe in the overtones. I don't think I'd want to have one at home - the attenuator was doing some serious squashing, even at music store levels - but on stage this would be formidable firepower to have behind you.
I didn't even try the 1958X or the 1973X because those are immense and I didn't want to risk liking them, heh.
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The customer service at Truetone is really good, so that even if I don't buy something in one visit, I just might in the next, because they've built up that goodwill with me, and also because their selection is perpetually awesome.
