Test drive a new amp lately? Post your review here!!

[jimmyohio75]

This forum needs a place where people can give us their opinions regarding amps that they have played lately. Let's make this thread that place!!

(disclaimer: This thread is meant for people to give their unbiased opinion on amps that they have recently played. If you're favorite amp gets negatively reviewed please don't get angry and feel the necessity to defend said amp. Let's respect each other's opinions.)

I will go first:

I played several amps today but I am going to focus on my favorite of the bunch. Here's what I played:
1) Egnater Rebel 20 and 1x12 cab
2) Egnater Tourmaster Combo
3) Marshall JVM head/4x12 Marshall cab
4) Mesa 5:25 Express
5) Fender Super Champ XD
6) Fender Blues Jr. NOS Tweed

I was absolutely flabbergasted to find out that I liked the Blues Jr. the best. (I may be biased towards tweeds because my main gigging amp is a '59 Bassman LTD). This little beast had beautiful, articulate, chimey cleans while retaining the warmth that so many great Fender amps have. I brought my Crunch Box with me to determine how the CB sounds through the various amps I played. The BJr and the Crunch Box were like a match made in heaven. The amp was transformed into a fire breathing monster while retaining all the clarity and low end that my Bassman has. I have heard that the BLues Jr amps were "boxy" sounding. Not this one!! It sounded outstanding. I may have to buy one of these and play our smaller gigs with it! Great amp!!!

Let's hear your amp reviews!!:BEER

 

[desertbluesman]

What did you think of the Super Champ XD? Was it noisy on the overdrives.

 

[bluessyndicate]

This amp surprised me with it's warmth, articulation and nice cleans and edge tones. Our bar was the tone of my friends Sampson era Matchless Chieftain 2x12, and the Dr. Z essentially matched the cleans overall and surpassed the edge tones. I'm not saying that they sounded exactly the same, but I am saying that the Dr Z. matched the experience of the fullness of sound and pleasant playing experience, while providing a tone that was every bit as good.

We did not feel that the Maz 18, reverb or NR, equaled the Maz Sr (38) despite it's glowing reviews by so many.

We did not try the Maz with pedals, so I can't speak to how well it takes pedals.

All in all I was very pleasantly surprised.

 

[jimmyohio75]

What did you think of the Super Champ XD? Was it noisy on the overdrives.

I liked it a lot. The cleans were very nice. I was not blown away by the distortion being produced by this amp but for $299 it was acceptable. I prefer my distortion kinda crunchy like a Plexi Marshall. This was smoother, thinner. To answer your initial question I never had the volume very high on the Super Champ so it wasn't overly noisy to me while on the gain side. For $299 it would be a great practice amp. I would not gig with it because I am a bit of a tone snob and I have a prejudice against tube amps that have modeling effects in them. I don't know why but they just scream Line 6, teenage paperboy, first amp to me. No offense Line 6 guys.

 

[ibenhad]

This forum needs a place where people can give us their opinions regarding amps that they have played lately. Let's make this thread that place!!

(disclaimer: This thread is meant for people to give their unbiased opinion on amps that they have recently played. If you're favorite amp gets negatively reviewed please don't get angry and feel the necessity to defend said amp. Let's respect each other's opinions.)

I will go first:

I played several amps today but I am going to focus on my favorite of the bunch. Here's what I played:
1) Egnater Rebel 20 and 1x12 cab
2) Egnater Tourmaster Combo
3) Marshall JVM head/4x12 Marshall cab
4) Mesa 5:25 Express
5) Fender Super Champ XD
6) Fender Blues Jr. NOS Tweed

I was absolutely flabbergasted to find out that I liked the Blues Jr. the best. (I may be biased towards tweeds because my main gigging amp is a '59 Bassman LTD). This little beast had beautiful, articulate, chimey cleans while retaining the warmth that so many great Fender amps have. I brought my Crunch Box with me to determine how the CB sounds through the various amps I played. The BJr and the Crunch Box were like a match made in heaven. The amp was transformed into a fire breathing monster while retaining all the clarity and low end that my Bassman has. I have heard that the BLues Jr amps were "boxy" sounding. Not this one!! It sounded outstanding. I may have to buy one of these and play our smaller gigs with it! Great amp!!!

Let's hear your amp reviews!!:BEER

Love my Blues JR. These little amps really do shine and I have lots of amps. Take pedals well too....

 

[kludge]

Since getting my Boogie Mark I a few weeks ago I don't even wanna look at other amps. Sadly and frustratingly, it's off at Savage Audio for maintenance, but I'm looking forward to having it back in tip-top shape for upcoming recording.

Next step, I'm gonna look for an attenuator so I can open it up harder.

 

[ibenhad]

As for the test :

Blackheart - retubed sounded great
Bastage - love it with a winged C EL34
Orange TT - a bit fizzy but could really dial some nice sounds
JCM 900 2500 - not bad but didn't tinker with it enough
Blackbird head - fantastic

All played thru an Avatar 2 X 12 with one Eminence Texas Heat 8 ohm. Using a Tele with a chopper in the bridge, Robin with stock Robin Humbuckers and a Les Paul Std with a JB in the bridge and a Jazz in the neck. As for pedals just a Mosferatu into a AC booster..

 

[pickslide]

We had a local gearfest last weekend that I helped set up and I played:

Komet Concorde
Straub Cantus
Clara Amplification Overdrive Rocket (Dumble clone)

I did not get extensive time with any, but I really really liked the COncorde in Gradual mode...it just had great tone and "squish" or sag. The Cantus was also quite nice and really did go into that modded plexi type gain very well. The Overdrive Rocket sounded great clean and had a surprizing amount of gain on tap. All great amps, but the Komet really sounded best to me.

 

[eyeball987]

I was at GC in Cleveland over the weekend and tried to play the Blackstar HT-5 full stack and the Eggie rebel full stack. Both were dead. Neither one would power up. Otherwise, I would have a witty comment or two to add.

 

[jimmyohio75]

I was at GC in Cleveland over the weekend and tried to play the Blackstar HT-5 full stack and the Eggie rebel full stack. Both were dead. Neither one would power up. Otherwise, I would have a witty comment or two to add.

Which GC in Cleveland? Mayfield or North Ridgeville? I was at the Mayfield location today and played the Rebel 20. I didn't see the Blackstar or I would have played it!

 

[ripoffriffs]

I think the Blackstar HT-5 is a joke. I don't mean in terms of tone. I mean this in terms of its existence! There's none to be had anywhere. The mail orders are all saying wait until April. Yea, I'll believe it when I see it. There's one for sale on eBay, but it's near the retail price and I'm not buying since it will have no return policy if I don't like it.

How do you market a product that does not exist?

 

[ripoffriffs]

The HT-5 on ebay is already past the retail price. This is rarer than a Dumble!

 

[PatrickE_FenderADV]

Recent demos for me include the BJr and the Vox AC15CC. I love both of them, but I'm struggling to decide whether to go with the NOS BJr or the standard black tolex version. I've got the line on a barely used black one for only $300 and I'm thinking of buying it tomorrow in fact... but part of me thinks the NOS is much cooler looking. Who buys on looks vs. tone?? LOL

 

[jimmyohio75]

Recent demos for me include the BJr and the Vox AC15CC. I love both of them, but I'm struggling to decide whether to go with the NOS BJr or the standard black tolex version. I've got the line on a barely used black one for only $300 and I'm thinking of buying it tomorrow in fact... but part of me thinks the NOS is much cooler looking. Who buys on looks vs. tone?? LOL

I take both into consideration but ultimately it has to have the tone. By the way, I felt that the NOS Tweed Blues Jr sounded MUCH better than the standard black tolex Blues Jr.. No brainer for me...tweed it is!!

 

[MartinC]

I tried again last weekend with the Mesa Lonestar Special. I managed to get some nice clean tones with a Strat ... though I can think of amps that are less than half the price that are as good or better. The OD just didn't sound great at all to my ear ... passable, but not AUD$4,000 worth. And, yes, I had the bass turned down to 9-10 o'clock ... in fact I got someone else to play while I tweaked for about 5 minutes to see if I could get something I liked.

Not a bad amp ... lots of people like them. Just not for me ... which I find baffling 'cos I tend to like 2x and 4xEL84 amps that are built to produce great cleans and mild or classic rock levels of OD. Hence I keep trying again with the LSS!

Must be me.

 

[PatrickE_FenderADV]

I take both into consideration but ultimately it has to have the tone. By the way, I felt that the NOS Tweed Blues Jr sounded MUCH better than the standard black tolex Blues Jr.. No brainer for me...tweed it is!!

BUT a new NOS is $550... buying the used black tolex is saving me $250. I can buy a new speaker and tubes and still have $100 more in my pocket.

 

[Guinness Lad]

My test drive ended up in the garage. Carr Vincent, excellent amp in all regards.

 

[eyeball987]

Which GC in Cleveland? Mayfield or North Ridgeville? I was at the Mayfield location today and played the Rebel 20. I didn't see the Blackstar or I would have played it!

North Ridgeville. The Rebel was set up over by the effects and the Blackstar was just inside the door on the right. I wanted to try a few other things out but the standard group of metal kids were trying to one up the next group of kids in the next row by producing the worst tone possible. I couldn't take anymore.

 

[shark_bite]

Recent demos for me include the BJr and the Vox AC15CC. I love both of them, but I'm struggling to decide whether to go with the NOS BJr or the standard black tolex version. I've got the line on a barely used black one for only $300 and I'm thinking of buying it tomorrow in fact... but part of me thinks the NOS is much cooler looking. Who buys on looks vs. tone?? LOL

The NOS has a much better speaker. Get the black one, put a better speaker in it, and you'll come out ahead in the long run, even though it doesn't look quite as cool. My $.02 at least.

 

[jimmyohio75]

The NOS has a much better speaker. Get the black one, put a better speaker in it, and you'll come out ahead in the long run, even though it doesn't look quite as cool. My $.02 at least.

I"m all about tweed. It's worth the extra $100 to have the tweed covering...plus it will match my '59 Bassman!!