Egnater Rebel 20 Vs. Blackheart Handsome Devil 15

[Tubebender]

I own a Blackheart Little Giant mini stack (5 watter) And plugged it into my Carvin V3 Vin30 4x12 last night and holy moly. I went straight in with my double fat strat with a pearly gates in the bridge, no effects, and was lovin life. (My neighbors we not thou). I was pushing the 5 watts into submission getting some awe inspiring distortion. On the 3 watt setting, I was getting some Perfect cleans.

I was considering Either another Blackheart, the Handsome Devil 15watter, or the Egnater Rebel 20. Or rather, something with good tone that is loud enoungh to play at rehersal and medium sized venues. I just don't feel the Little giant 5 watter would cut it.
I like the price of the Blackheart, but lack of effects loop. I do however see that the BH has more options for speakers on the rear.

I read a few threads about how good the Rebel 20 is. Just wondering if anyone has compared the two.

Does anyone know if the Rebel is made in China?
It's too bad neither have a footswitchable option anywhere, or a 2nd channel. Guess the guitar's vol knob is your channel switcher.

 

[1936chebbie]

far as i can see,hear,smell its all a matter of: which amp you want to tell your friends you own. I have a blackheart little giant, and also a crate 18 in 2x12, 1x12, and 2x12 ext. cab format. No big names to be sure, but tone GRANDE-GRANDE,MUCHO. IF you have tall dollar ears and can really hear the difference by all means invite Mr. egnater over to play at your house. We all have gear envy but if you cant hear it why pay for a little piece of plastic with someones name on it.

 

[desertbluesman]

Does anyone know if the Rebel is made in China?

yep all of Egnaters newer moderately priced amps are made in China I believe.

 

[Waxhead]

Hey Tubebender - 5w verses 20w - what do you reckon.
The Rebel 20 is a loud 20w when cranked too.
Provided your band doesn't play super loud and for rehersals & for small venue's the Rebel will be fine.
If that doesn't cut it a Mesa 5:25 definitely will.
More $$ but definitely the best amp in that small watt range - all made in California

Or wait for the Rebel 30 to come out in a few weeks - it will have reverb too

 

[Tubebender]

Hey Tubebender - 5w verses 20w - what do you reckon.
The Rebel 20 is a loud 20w when cranked too.
Provided your band doesn't play super loud and for rehersals & for small venue's the Rebel will be fine.
If that doesn't cut it a Mesa 5:25 definitely will.
More $$ but definitely the best amp in that small watt range - all made in California

Or wait for the Rebel 30 to come out in a few weeks - it will have reverb too

Thanks. The Black Heart Handsome Devil 15 Watt is $349 and the Egnater Rebel is $599. My refund = 390, so Maybe I'll wait to see if there is a 2 channel to come and add the cash. (even though I'm set with amps already...)

 

[champster]

If you like how the Little Giant sound then you'll love how the Handsome Devil sounds. I have both and while I really do enjoy my LG which I play quite a bit, the HD makes it sound lifeless. Either way you go though you should them for yourself.

 

[JOHNNOUSA]

The Blackheart amps have 1-2 tubes. The Rebel-20 has 7 TUBES!!! 2 x EL-84, 2 x 6V6 and 3 12AX7 preamp tubes. There is no comparison between these amps - features and tone. If you get a tube amp get one. These wannabe tube amps with only one tube do not qualify

 

[Rob3000]

Haven't tried the Rebel 20, though it looks *very* interesting. I just have too many amps right now to justify getting one. I have a Handsome Devil head, and this is what I can add:

Great classic rock type overdrive tones, average to good clean tones (IMO). Cleans up nice w/guitar vol. knob.
Extremely good build quality; built like a tank.

Previous post mentioned 1-2 tubes; not true. it has 2 12ax7's & 2 EL84's in the following config: 2 gain stages, phase inverter, push-pull power section.

With a guitar with medium to hot pickups, it breaks up nicely for that classic rock tube OD sound. Hit the front end with some active pups or a clean boost, and it sounds really good 'n crunchy; really mean sounding.

Things I'm not impressed with: the half power (7W) switch. I don't get these, and they seem to be really popular on lower powered amps these days. The low power (triode) operation just makes the amp sound limp & wimpy in my opinion. I always keep it on the 15W setting for the fuller & more ballsy sound. I'd much rather have a standby switch in place of the 7/15 switch.

All in all, for the money it's a great bargain for a really nicely built and nice sounding amp, if this is the sound you're going for. I'm sure the Rebel 20 is more versatile, but it's also nearly twice the price.

 

[CharAznable]

The Egnater is simply more versatile and feature packed. Well worth the extra cash.

 

[Tubebender]

Thanks for the responses. I just missed the Scratch and Dent Rebel for 4 sumthin. Oh well. They're both Chinese. I hope we can start making USA stuff affordable for us of those who can't rap out 1500 on a whim for a bad ass 20 watt head. I suppose for those who rely on one amp it's justified. It'd be nice to get that quality and tone for that money without sending it to China. K-done. Too many beers. bye

 

[scott58]

I haven't played the Handsome Devil (have played the little giant). But I really liked the Rebel 20. I could hear a noticeable difference with the blend control between the 6V6's and el84's. Especially using the nashville deluxe series tele i was checking it out with. A friend of mine just told me today that he actually went back and bought the tele we were using. Besides the fact it's a pretty nice guitar the rebel certainly helped sell it. It was giving up some really nice tones. My next amp for sure.

 

[eldanko]

I was in GC for a couple hours today trying different amps - probably tried 10 or so while in there - kept coming back to the Rebel 20. It really is a fantastic amp. I liked it more than the Tourmaster sitting right beside it. Go figure.

 

[Tubebender]

Tried the Rebel today at GC, with an American Deluxe Sienna sunburst/ash deluxe strat....
It sounded great. But,,,for the money I'm gonna be sendin to China, I'm goin for the cheaper BH handsome Devil...Only because it's more robust in design than the Egnater, bigger, and I know what tapped out EL84's sound like on my BH 5 Watter, so an additional power tube and additional preamp tube, class A, loud as heck, why not. They DO sound good people. Even thou it's Cheap Chinese, but who the heck want's to finance in these times. Not me.
Peace
TB

 

[Eric Pykala]

Owned the Little Giant, played the Devil when it came out, and really like both. However, I sold my MESA Express 5:25 to get a Rebel 20 head (got lots of cabs) and haven't looked back. Set it up dead clean/6V6 for the country band, then turn the tubemix to favor the EL84s, crank the gain and it's a wicked Marshal/Vox for the rock band. It's also the loudest 20-watter I've ever heard. The BHs all suffer from lack of a loop, which is a necessity for me.
So, just to confuse the issue, Egnater is coming-out with the Rebel 30 in combo form, with two channels, reverb and loop, and speaker-simmed out. I think as player-consumers we have to get used to stuff coming out of China until their economic bubble bursts. Condemming a product due to its country of origin is somewhat like judging a book by its cover. There are only two types of amps, good ones and bad ones. I buy good ones.-Eric

 

[DeaconBlues]

"Condemming a product due to its country of origin is somewhat like judging a book by its cover."

Better and better products are coming from China, no doubt. It's just a bitter pill to swallow on many other levels, though.

 

[forgivenman]

"Condemming a product due to its country of origin is somewhat like judging a book by its cover."

Better and better products are coming from China, no doubt. It's just a bitter pill to swallow on many other levels, though.

Absolutely true.

 

[mwc2112]

Better and better products are coming from China, no doubt. It's just a bitter pill to swallow on many other levels, though.

Well, in the case of the Rebel the design is American and the manufacturing is Chinese. Not sure if that makes if a US product, a Chinese product, or something in between.

 

[Robotechnology]

All the home electronics stuff has been made in china for a long time so amps made in china/korea are no big deal to me. The Rebel 20 and Tourmaster (which I own) are great sounding and well built amps. Guitars made in china are a different story, I'd rather pay more for a US/Japanese instrument (Yamaha Taiwan factory and Epiphone Masterbuilt handmade Chinese acoustics are okay too).

 

[Goldstrat]

I have had both. The Rebel sounds a little better but is not worth that much money. My Traynor YBA-1 that I paid $300 for destroys all those toy amps. I have not had a 2-el84 amp yet that had enough headroom.