Three cheers for Aiken Amps

Tomcat.... Hurrah!
Invader... Hurrah!
Sabre.... Hurrah!


Randall, you rock! Hope to see you back in buisness soon.

 

I had a blast yesterday putting the three Aikens through their paces with 1radicalron at his Radicalhouse Studio. We ran each of the amps through a Marshall 4x12 loaded with Greenbacks. They all sounded great through this setup, though the Tomcat seemed like it would do even better in a semi-open 2x12. I'll be able to test this hypothesis next week.

The thing that amazed me was how each amp really stood out on its' own. I was expecting more overlap between the Invader 30 and the Sabre, but they really have their own tone and feel. The Invader gets the Plexi goosh and woosh of slammed 34's to a "T". The reverb and attenuater are great bonuses. The Sabre has a lot more headroom and versatility, but doesn't do the Plexi "woosh" quite like the Invader does. The Tomcat is an amazing little amp. Incredible harmonics and response. It has to be the loudest 12 watts I've ever heard. It is also the fastest amp I've played. No room for error here, but very rewarding tones.

I just got the Sabre last week, and I'm one happy camper. It has great headroom, killer harmonics, and cleans up great with your volume knob. The clean channel really impresses me: sparkling cleans to SRV with the twist of a knob. It has the best cleans I've heard on a EL-34 channel switcher. The gain channel is all buisness. A lot of shades of gain to investigate here. The gain boost takes it over the top and puts into liquid sustain territory. I'm getting an old LXP-1 worked on by Custom Audio Upgrades and will try it in the loops when I get it back, but with all of the harmonics and detail in the Sabre's tone, I'm not missing reverb at all right now. I might look into having Randall mod the gain boost, so it isn't quite so powerful, but other than that I'm blown away by this amp. A keeper for sure.

Interestingly, Ron prefered the Invader, while I dug the Sabre the best. I know Arriba has been having quite a honeymoon with his Tomcat. Different strokes for different folks. The bottom line... Randall makes killer amps.

I won't be able to keep all three amps for very long. The Sabre was a bit of a push for me, but was well worth it. The Invader might have to go on the block soon. Ron will get first dibs, but if that falls through it'll be on the emporium next month.

here's a shot of Ron burning through the Sabre:

 

New Aikens? Booooyaaaa!!

I'm very happy to hear things are rolling again at Aiken Amps.