Did a trade with
@firepaulmusic last week and haven't had much of a chance to crank the amp until tonight at our weekly jam.
Plugged it in and put my pedal board in front of it, strat with Fralin Vintage Hot pups. I had the volume right up at 2 o'clock and it was loud but not as loud as I'd expected, I could just about keep up with the other guys, but the biggest problem at that volume was the speaker, a Weber R1 ceramic, probably a rebadged standard Weber speaker. when I pushed the front end with a boost or a drive pedal I got a lot more speaker breakup, more than I wanted really so after a couple of numbers I swapped to my 2x12 with the EV and Emi Red Fang.
My what a difference, huge great gobs of bass (turned it nearly all the way off just like I used to have to do with my EZG) and backed the mids off a little. Loads more volume, so the weber is probably very inefficient, maybe 95-97 dB?, so I could ease the amp volume back a touch so it was cleaner and a boost gave a nice kick and just a touch more compression. But most importantly the authority and clarity the cab gave was very impressive.
This amp is a lot like my old EZG but it does it at lower volume levels, much more useable volume levels. All my drive pedals worked nicely and the amp responds very well to guitar volume. I did spend a lot of time with just the RC boost on and my guitar volume backed off. Very clear juicy leads just how I like them, not too compressed, not too dirty, but lovely sustain and responce.
All in all well impressed. I wish it had a 16ohm output tap, I know Steve Carr says its fine to run it into a 16ohm cab with a little loss of volume (hah, that was bollocks!) but I'd be happier knowing the cab matched the OT. Oh and an LED on the trem footswitch would be nice. As with every amp I've ever owned, they all sound better through the cab thats the biggest ballache to cart around, c'est la vie. I wonder if it would be possible to graft the amp into a headshell?
So I'm left loving the amp, not so much the speaker. But the upside, is the amp will work much better in a quiet environment with the Weber, and I'd plug into a big cab if I ever wanted to gig it.
Comments
Might try a Creamback M I have lying around. But then again a low power speaker is usefull sometimes. I just wish it didn't break up so much.
Second place goes to WGS ET65 (which is creamback-ish I believe), not unlike the Elsinore in that it gives great cleans but is robust enough in the mids to give a great drive tone too.
@Hywelg - you do sometimes see a few rare 2x12 Ramblers pop up,for sale... someone (Im forgetting who) owns one on the forum !
Big improvement, louder and no breakup, but it feels a bit tight, it is brand new so its going to take a while to break in. Leaving it in place for now.
Also got a Tonespotter, a WGS Reaper that I could try, though I might well rip the gold out of my Plexi combo and try that.
At studio volume it is wondrous.