#1 · Apr 27, 2009 18:20 UTC
Holy gods, men. Spent an hour on this beast in the local shop yesterday.
Pros: Greatest clean sound I think I have ever heard from any amp, not counting ironsheep's recordings. Really sweet, and really big and warm in the bass. So big I was flummoxed by the mere 12" speaker. Seems like the amp's got some nice features... A master volume that you can switch out of the path (I compared with master volume in and out, and the amp sounded slightly better without the master volume). Huge sound that went from pretty dark and ballsy to pretty bright and scoopy. Bright switch worked as advertised. Very nice spring reverb that sounded really sweet. Ability to footswitch the "boost" which was adjustable, and seemed to turn the amp up by maybe 10 dB. Ability to use either 6L6s or EL34s. Price: $569, and I've seen it used as low as $350. Ridiculous.
Cons: definitely no "distortion" sound. The gain, when pushed, was raspy and harsh. Up in the mid-level, it was all clean but gritty sweetness. Up at the top, it was pretty much useless unless you are in Sonic Youth. Since it's only a single-channel amp, that's kind of a no-brainer... get a great clean sound out of it, then throw in your chunk du jour. No fx loop. Large (almost big enough to fit 2x12 speakers).
Here's a good youtube video. Not in English, but dude stuck a mic on the amp.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNbkZi5mkUI
Here's his drive demo... not terrible, but as you can hear, there's no heavy on this amp.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z00rfiJoV70
Pros: Greatest clean sound I think I have ever heard from any amp, not counting ironsheep's recordings. Really sweet, and really big and warm in the bass. So big I was flummoxed by the mere 12" speaker. Seems like the amp's got some nice features... A master volume that you can switch out of the path (I compared with master volume in and out, and the amp sounded slightly better without the master volume). Huge sound that went from pretty dark and ballsy to pretty bright and scoopy. Bright switch worked as advertised. Very nice spring reverb that sounded really sweet. Ability to footswitch the "boost" which was adjustable, and seemed to turn the amp up by maybe 10 dB. Ability to use either 6L6s or EL34s. Price: $569, and I've seen it used as low as $350. Ridiculous.
Cons: definitely no "distortion" sound. The gain, when pushed, was raspy and harsh. Up in the mid-level, it was all clean but gritty sweetness. Up at the top, it was pretty much useless unless you are in Sonic Youth. Since it's only a single-channel amp, that's kind of a no-brainer... get a great clean sound out of it, then throw in your chunk du jour. No fx loop. Large (almost big enough to fit 2x12 speakers).
Here's a good youtube video. Not in English, but dude stuck a mic on the amp.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNbkZi5mkUI
Here's his drive demo... not terrible, but as you can hear, there's no heavy on this amp.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z00rfiJoV70