20-40w tube amps - what do we like SS?

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NickD
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Re: 20-40w tube amps - what do we like SS?

Post by NickD »

Rhysyrhys wrote: Fri Feb 03, 2023 2:53 am He wouldn't accept 420 boooo, but did accept 435 which, ok whatever have ur 15 dollars, bub.

Finally, 14 years after creating my Shortscale.org/forum account I will finally be able to get the sondzzz(era)

I'm winging my way to Chinatown 10am tomorrow, gonna bring it home slap it down and try to demo it, though I have no microphone...
Use your phone to do an demo.
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Doog
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Re: 20-40w tube amps - what do we like SS?

Post by Doog »

Freddy V-C wrote: Thu Dec 29, 2022 10:35 am
NickD wrote: Fri Dec 23, 2022 7:37 pm 50w is too big for most gigs.
You take that back.
Aye, this; if you need a 100% clean tone (as a pedal platform or whatever), 100w is a good ballpark figure. I gigged with a 50w tube Marshall for years and, even with higher headroom EL34s, it still got crunchy at gig volumes.
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Looks like a sick amp, Rhys; the font and black-yellow colour-scheme has a 'high-vis warehouse' vibe which I'm into; just gotta lose that fugly logo badge
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Bacchus
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Re: 20-40w tube amps - what do we like SS?

Post by Bacchus »

Doog wrote: Fri Feb 03, 2023 9:30 am Looks like a sick amp, Rhys; the font and black-yellow colour-scheme has a 'high-end titty bar' vibe which I'm into; just gotta lose that fugly logo badge
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Doog
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Re: 20-40w tube amps - what do we like SS?

Post by Doog »

Por que no los dos? I'm sure there's a gap in the market



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Bacchus
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Re: 20-40w tube amps - what do we like SS?

Post by Bacchus »

Hard hat area indeed.
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Rhysyrhys
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Re: 20-40w tube amps - what do we like SS?

Post by Rhysyrhys »

SONDS ACQUIRED: MISSION COMPLETE.

He was a nice fella too, picked up on the British accent, offered me a cuppa and it was a decent cup of Yorkshire Gold, that never fucking happens out here... He was a session musician and did a bunch of stuff in the UK, apparently got addicted to the tea. Can't really blame the lad now can we?

Anyway, my strat is dirty and I broke a string basically as I sat down, so you filthy lot are gonna have to deal with photos just for now and I'll give the old girl a scrub and string in a few hours when I get back from Home Depot.

---- TL;DR warning, unsolicited amp review prose:

Initial verdict: I agree with Doog/Freddy; from my days of gigging (admittedly a very long time ago now :( ), high headroom means deafeningly loud with no hint of breaking up, in my old band all my amp setups were to achieve that goal then get all my gain from pedals because we were so LOUD/quiet/LOUD for a lot of songs.

This is not that. At 50% on the clean channel with a humbucker we get very dirty and using my Kramer Pacer with a rocketship shooty bangbang humbucker inna bridge position (measures 18.6k basically a Duncan Invader) the breakup is actually not that pleasant. Using something a bit less industrial strength the break up happens around 60% and feels more even ordered harmonically - so I discern from this it doesn't like having something real hot crushing the preamp as some amps do.

It sounds like a choob amp should, it's big and bold when clean and there's this nice 6V6 Fender-y compression that has a lovely sweetness to it. Speakers don't flub using a Baritone (will demo). Its not quiteeee a Fender amp sound, there's something almost more "British" to it to use useless tone words, but it's a bit more midrange-y and it barks a bit more. The cabinet is very directional, I had to tilt it back against a wall to really be able to hear it. Both channels respond well to volume knob shenanigans.

Channel 2 fucking rocks, they really got that right. Past 60% on the gain dial and you could easily be in a metal outfit and blend right in, down at like 10% gain it's basically a more spicy version of Channel 1. Really like the gain sound and the midrange control, lots of tones, lots of genres and very musical over all.

The Tone stack is really nice! There's a lot of range in there for a fairly brisk control panel, all EQ is "additive" for want of a term (don't know the tone pot lingo) but like you can have your treble and bass all the way at 0% and still get a very usable clean tone. For my initial forays into getting a decent sound out of it I found that I left the tone controls all the way down and just dimed up the treb/bass to like 10% and 15% (2 or 3 on the dial) respectively and that was that, not too woofy, not too glass shattering. Presence control is a nice touch, reverb predelay is too high for my tastes at anywhere above a 6.

Edit: It's also quite physically smol as well, which I reallllllllly appreciate, it's about shin height as u can see from the photos and it weighs in the region of 35 pounds or so. Goes neatly in the boot of my car, with space to fit a big ass pedalboard and two guitars and that was wholly the objective of this purchase :)

-----

All in all I'm not jizzing a wad into my pantaloons but I never really expected that to be the case. It definitely is in the pocket of what I've wanted, constructed like a tank, will stay just about clean with a drummer and no house mics/foldback, sounds like real TUBES with all that gooey compression and complexity.

Gets a 7.8/10 so far from the initial fuck around I've had with it.
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plopswagon
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Re: 20-40w tube amps - what do we like SS?

Post by plopswagon »

All I can say from the photos is, who’s a good boy? he’s a good boy!
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ekwatts wrote: Wed Dec 21, 2022 12:53 pm The word "moisty" has made me irrationally angry.
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Rhysyrhys
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Re: 20-40w tube amps - what do we like SS?

Post by Rhysyrhys »

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