I only had an hour or so with it today. I'll try and post a full report later. What an amp! So punchy and ballsy! Amazing gain with zero buzz. Beautiful highs, solid lows and rich mids. What more could you want?? It rips with both my R7 Les Paul and Strat. I couldn't stop playing Gov't Mule, AC/DC and Zep riffs with my Les Paul. I wish I had a Tele. It takes pedals amazingly well. My London Fuzz never sounded so good! I set up the TMB channel for mild crunch and the London Fuzz sounded absolutely amazing! I was a little concerned about headroom based on what I'd read, but with single coils, I think I'll be fine. Keep in mind I've been playing mostly low watt amps (18 watt) lately so I am not used to huge Twin Reverb cleans. I like my cleans with a little dirt and this delivers! Before I plugged into the amp, I was a little skeptical of the click channel. I just didn't think I'd find a setting I'd like without more control. Wrong! I love it set two clicks in from the left side. I have seen quite a bit posted about how this is not a good bedroom/home amp. I don't see any issues with it. I don't think you could use it in an apartment, but I can't imagine why it wouldn't work in most home environments. I am not going to crank it up now with my kids sleeping, but I can set it up clean and hit it with a pedal or two and it sounds fine. Not nearly as good cranked up, but it will do. More to follow. For now, I am in heaven. I need to join a band just so I can hear this in that context!
As I've posted, in a band environment it cuts through and sounds stunning....makes people do double takes for the tone. It sure cleans up well...giving my strat nice woody plexi tones. Sometimes I play it in my studio/office with an attenuator down 2 clicks, volumes at 3 o'clock and the guitar rolled back, and it sounds so good. I don't even use pedals with it. Othertimes I use the techniques i've posted about, i.e. daisy chaining, or setting the eq's all extremely low in order to tame the volume. I certainly advocate the Switchazel as a channel swither as well as for the clean boost...if I did not have that I guess I would A/B and use an RC Booster, but I really can't see sticking anthing in front of it other than a wah and a fulltone Deja Vibe. What a great amp. Fred really did it up right..and in speaking with him, he is obviously proud of having done many cool things under the cover. Congrats on your amp...now try it with greenbacks, then G12H30 open back, then G12H30/Blue open backs and see how it differs.
I have the same exact amp except I am playing it through Fred's 4x12 cab. The head is conservatively rated at 23W but it is plenty loud for me and for my P&W band. We play in front of about 1000 folks every Sunday and I get complements all the time about the tone. For some reason, I have not bonded with the click channel so I am using its clean channel only and use a couple of OD pedals when I need them. Its clean channel kinda reminds me of "Marshall Clean" which I like a lot and for a serious headroom, I'd use whip out my '64 Fender Twin. YMMV.
Sweet! Congrats on your new amp. I'm still floored everytime I plug into my LDW 17/39 and 2x12F that I picked up a few months back. Fred truly makes amazing amps.
Try the click channel on lower volume settings, or even when it's set up for a boosted lead volume/gain structure, try rolling back...I think it cleans up very well. or If you continue to prefer only the TMB channel, try daisy chaining the two channels, and try blending in only a little click channel as desired to give a bigger sound.
This is the one amp I Really want to try!!! I Love My London, but this amp seems to be a real cool design.
The 23 is certainly capable of more volume, but depending on what tone you want it doesn't have to be louder than a 9/15 set to max. Having a/b'd the two amps quite a bit, the 23 is definitely a different sounding amp, and I preferred it althought I thought the 9/15 was nice. You really have to think of the 23 as a marshally plexi with a tremendous amount of potential for harmonic complexity and gain....mixed with with a liveliness that cuts through the mix like no other and is very "present" in the room.
Truly appreciate your helpful comment and I will give it a try. Do you eschew pedals - such as OD - in favor of click channel? Thx, Ed
I personally eschew pedals...but don't mind an Xotic Effects RC Booster when needed. But that's just me. I don't think the 23 needs any pedals, although I will use the clean boost on the switchhazel for a lead bump if just goign from TMB to Click channel is not enough (which it usually is enough...so I rarely need a boost actually).
