Emery Superbaby owners: Fill me in

[smilefan]

Could any Emery Sound Superbaby owners fill me in on
their impressions of the amp? Sound? Character?
Good house amp, or still too loud? Perceive much
difference with tube changes?

I have heard it is very much the the Tweed Champ camp
for sound quality. Does that mean small, splattery, and
flatulent (sounds like my bathroom affairs).

Inquiring garage hacks want to know!

 

[Sam Evans]

I've got a Microbaby, and I love it. Not flabby,farty or small in the least. OK, it's a little small, but at 1 watt, what do want?! I kinda wish I got the Superbaby so that I could use EL34s, but doing that would have defeated my volume criterion.

The amp loves low wattage, efficient speakers, and a resonant cab. There are quite a few Superbaby owners here. and I'm sure they'll holla soon enough.

BTW, Curt is building a dual PP/SE amp that incorporates the Superbaby and a higher wattage (more gain) amp. Check his site. Curt is super cool to deal with.

S

 

[drbob1]

I've owned a Superbaby sinced the EQ defeat switch was produced, my review is the first one on Harmony Central I think. I second everything Sam has to say, Curt didn't even make fun of me when I toasted the PT trying to use a rectifier tube with a broken key...

Anyway, the amp completely changes character depending on the tubes and speakers you're using. It can sound like a Champ, like a big, harmonically rich Twin or like a crunchy Marshall (and with a Yellowjacket, 1/2 of an 18w). It can be quite loud, but not hearing damaging-you won't want to play with a baby sleeping in the next room, but you can jam full volume without ear plugs. You'll want to start collecting a stash of NOS tubes so you can get all the sounds you want out of it. Compared to the Univalve-it is MUCH more transparent in showing the character of the tubes.

 

[Lavely]

I have one and really like the "pureness" of tone you get from it. As drbob says, tubes make a HUGE difference because there is very little circuitry to alter the tone. Very, very good clean tones, takes pedals really well, crunch at reasonable volumes!

Also, the SuperBaby is the first "small" tube amp that doesn't sound small to me. I have had a few others, and they all have lacked the fullness of a higher power amp. This one is the exception.

Lavely

 

[Sam Evans]

Agreed, Lavely. My goal was to be able to sit in front of my Microbaby at full volume w/o a wince. The amp sounds big and full like a larger amp. I'm not foooling myself though. The minute I plug in my /13, it becomes obvious that the Micro is 1w. That's fine, because I got what I wanted.

The only thing I'd like to see is for Curt to make an amp with more gain. I like his voicing choice, and I'd love to here another 12AX7 in the signal path. I want a little more "chainsaw." I don't want to change my Micro, so a completely different amp would be fine and Dandy Don. Maybe that's what the Stagebaby is all about.

S

 

[wishywashyfishy]

I'm also interested in the Superbaby. For those of you who own one, about where on the dial does it start to distort?

Are the soundclips on his home page pretty accurate, cos I'm really diggin' the first two LP clips.

 

[drbob1]

Originally posted by wishywashyfishy
I'm also interested in the Superbaby. For those of you who own one, about where on the dial does it start to distort?

Are the soundclips on his home page pretty accurate, cos I'm really diggin' the first two LP clips.

It depends on the tubes you're using. With a high current rectifier, low gain preamp (12AU7 or 12AY7) and a clean tube (6L6 for example) you can get almost flat out without distortion. With a high gain preamp (Mullard 12AX7), 5Y3 and 6V6 or EL34, it starts to distort pretty early (say 30%) and goes from there. I gotta say that I usually use bigger amps for clean, though, and use the Superbaby for crunch to drive-so it spends most of its time wide open with the EQ bypassed.

 

[Ogre]

Sam, there's not an amp made that has enough gain for you, you rock and roll bigfoot!

 

[Sam Evans]

Originally posted by Ogre
Sam, there's not an amp made that has enough gain for you, you rock and roll bigfoot!

True. So very true.

 

[TAVD]

I have the Emery spotlight. Great amp. Takes pedals well and sounds organic. The speaker choice really becomes a big part of the sound with this amp. A 6v6 and a small alnico speaker will sound like a champ and a kt-66 with a 4x12 will get you early marshall tones.

 

[wishywashyfishy]

Think I'm going to pull the trigger on a Superbaby soon. But before I do, I thought I would ask you guys if anybody here has some clips of their superbaby in action?

I've heard the clips on Curt's site and I'm really liking the tone of that little amp, but I'd kind of like to hear "outside" clips just for reference sake -- clips by real users at home and such (if that makes sense lol). So if anybody has mp3's of their superbaby I'd love to hear it!

Edit: Would love some hard rock clips of this little guy!

 

[TAVD]

I have one I can post but I'll need to edit out some tracks. Check back tonight. The clip is a strat with lace chrome domes, a tube od pedal and the emery amp plugged into a 70's checkerboard marshall 4x12, miked with a shure 517.

 

[wishywashyfishy]

Awesome. Thanks, man. I'll check back!

 

[TAVD]

MP3 as promised. The Emery is the lead guitar track. The rhythm guitar was a Standel turned up to 10.

www.denyleguitars.com/info/emery_solo.mp3