Has the Bluguitar Amp 1 died before it got going? Nah!

firepaulmusic

Christ! Sorry for the sloppy ketboard skills, it won't let me edit at the moment...

monquixote

Sassafras said:

Isn't this reasonably priced compared to the Quilter amps which don't have half the features. If it's well built and proves to be reliable then for a 100 watter, the price seems about right to me.

It depends which Quilter. 

The chap I spoke to suggested the Quilter Tone Block could be as little as £250 and although it lacks many of the features if you just want something to blast your pedals into that's a pretty awesome deal.

monquixote

Brilliant review @firepaulmusic

Can't wait to see how you get on with it live!

Great to meet you at the weekend as well.

markblack

I know they have them in stock at Ivor Mairants on Rathbone Place, London. I walked past it in the window for the last couple of weeks. Incase anyone is looking for one in London to try or buy.

£589

Kebabkid

markblack said:

I know they have them in stock at Ivor Mairants on Rathbone Place, London. I walked past it in the window for the last couple of weeks. Incase anyone is looking for one in London to try or buy.

£589

I tried mine there. There's a couple of BluGuitar 1 threads at the moment so I'll bung my post on here as well seeing as reviews are starting to appear:-

I got the heads up on one of these having arrived at Ivor Mairants, London (JHS distributor) and tried one out today. I used a Fret King HSH guitar with the unit plugged into a H&K 1X12 (probably a 60 watter) and both belonged to the shop.

To my ears, the unit is a little more dynamic than a Boss multi-fx unit or a POD and responded well to guitar volume and tone knob changes, but it's not as dynamic as a valve amp. It's pretty versatile and fairly intuitive to use and most sounds are pretty generic with  a good degree of control over them and the EQ. In fact, I found the sounds not too dissimilar to a Hughes & Kettner amp and that's no surprise given Thomas Blug's input and association with the company. I liked the clean sounds (spanky and funky were in there but not chimey) and the vintage overdrive was nice and quite touch sensitive to the pick. There's also more than enough gain on tap in this thing, especially when you engage the boost, and it reminded me of how I use my own EP Boost on my overdrives for a general thickening up and pushing of the sound. That brings me to the lack of noise from this thing and I didn't need to deploy the inbuilt noise gate even when the gain was high up on the modern channel.

To be honest, I couldn't get a harsh sound out of the unit and whereas I'd previously found it hard to dial in good overdrive sounds on my old H&K TM36, on this it was a doddle.

The reverbs nice and smooth too and I missed it when it wasn't on.

I think to get the most out of the unit live, you will need the additional footswitch. Also, you know what it's like in some music shops regarding volume, well,whilst I had the volume and master up a fair bit, I didn't think the unit was producing a lot of volume, so I do recommend playing around more with the additional channel volumes, trying different cabs and seeing if you can turn the wick up on this to a decent level.

Bottom line, I liked it and I think it should be tried. I think it's a useful piece of kit to build a rig around or have as a spare amp or even use for recording, but I'm not sure of the price. I don't want to offend Mr.Blug or his R&D people, nor do I know what the quality of components are like in this unit, but I'm not sure I'd pay £595 - it seems steep and I wish this was more around the £350-400 mark. I  dunno, maybe I've got that wrong for such a versatile unit that includes a power amp. I also need to be convinced that a gigging volume can be obtained from this thing (it claims to have a 100W power amp) and I'd like to plumb in a few of my own pedals, like a compressor, delay and favourite OD and try it again with different cabs and speakers.

I hope that helps and I look forward to seeing other people's comments on here once they've tried it.

Paul_C

The one thing I want this and/or the Blues Cube to be able to do is an AC15-like chime, but it sounds like I might be disappointed.

firepaulmusic

It didn't do the AC15 think at all really. The clean channel with boost was a pleasant edge of break up though.

Kebabkid

@McToot - on your search for an amp for home and jam sessions, this might suit. I'm not sure if you like the concep and already have a speaker cabinet. As mentioned, Ivor Mairants is the place to try one if you're around Central London.

monquixote

I actually think as a home / jam sessions amp the small Quilter could be very cool as it has an internal speaker for home and you could add a cab to kick out the jams at high volume.

Kebabkid

monquixote said:

I actually think as a home / jam sessions amp the small Quilter could be very cool as it has an internal speaker for home and you could add a cab to kick out the jams at high volume.

Yes, @McToot - based on what I've heard, and learnt about these today, these look appealing and good call by @monquixote.

koneguitarist

I was very impressed with the amp. Any amp will do heavy distortion type stuff, but few do a really good clean.

This did, I liked the big low mid thump of it, it sounded very musical and solid. Reminded me of a cross between a twin and the old HiWatt amp type of clean. Yet that's not to say the OD channels don't work, the sound was extremely muscular, solid is the word that keeps springing to mind. 

Perhaps if I speak nicely to @firepaulmusic ;he may let me try it at a gig. 

ThePrettyDamned

koneguitarist;542913" said:

I was very impressed with the amp. Any amp will do heavy distortion type stuff, but few do a really good clean. This did, I liked the big low mid thump of it, it sounded very musical and solid. Reminded me of a cross between a twin and the old HiWatt amp type of clean. Yet that's not to say the OD channels don't work, the sound was extremely muscular, solid is the word that keeps springing to mind. Perhaps if I speak nicely to @firepaulmusic he may let me try it at a gig. 

The only people who would say "any amp will do heavy distortion" are people who don't use heavy distortion.

So far, the heavy distortion from this I've heard isn't amazing, but the "classic" Plexi mode sounds really rather good, and seems capable of a pretty heavy crunch.

I'm really excited by this amp. It looks smart, too, and there is a chap who's recorded a heavy demo of it using only the emulated out on YouTube. It's not the best heavy tone, but it's pretty decent considering the tiny package.

John_P

I've just been checking out the clips online and it looks great - I was very close to ordering one tonight.   If it had a midi in or out so i could link it to an effects unit or if it had 4 presets than I suspect I would have grabbed one.   What a great rehearsal rig it would make.   If the price drops anymore or used one start appearing I can see myself buying one as a very nice backup amp.

monquixote

John_P said:

I've just been checking out the clips online and it looks great - I was very close to ordering one tonight.   If it had a midi in or out so i could link it to an effects unit or if it had 4 presets than I suspect I would have grabbed one.   What a great rehearsal rig it would make.   If the price drops anymore or used one start appearing I can see myself buying one as a very nice backup amp.

You can buy a MIDI adapter for it. Thomann are doing them for £35

koneguitarist

ThePrettyDamned said:

koneguitarist;542913" said:

I was very impressed with the amp. Any amp will do heavy distortion type stuff, but few do a really good clean. This did, I liked the big low mid thump of it, it sounded very musical and solid. Reminded me of a cross between a twin and the old HiWatt amp type of clean. Yet that's not to say the OD channels don't work, the sound was extremely muscular, solid is the word that keeps springing to mind. Perhaps if I speak nicely to @firepaulmusic he may let me try it at a gig. 

The only people who would say "any amp will do heavy distortion" are people who don't use heavy distortion.

So far, the heavy distortion from this I've heard isn't amazing, but the "classic" Plexi mode sounds really rather good, and seems capable of a pretty heavy crunch.

I'm really excited by this amp. It looks smart, too, and there is a chap who's recorded a heavy demo of it using only the emulated out on YouTube. It's not the best heavy tone, but it's pretty decent considering the tiny package.

With the amount of different pedals available today, covering just about every type of distortion character, then add it to amp it will get you the sound you are after. 

But you have to have a basis for a great clean sound, and a lot of amps like Soldano for instance to me sound sterile and bland to the degree of boring. That's what I mean, not just great distortion out of any amp without anything, as we all know a twin reverb with out pedals does not do metal! 

Years ago I would always look for an amp that could do both, but one sound would always be a compromise. Now I settle on a great clean sound, and get the distortion through a pedal. 

This Blug will do great OD and Distortion but to me it's the cleans that really stand out. 

Kebabkid

Some of the demos for this are good but the proof is in the trying and really putting it through it's paces at a rehearsal or gig.

The cleans are satisfying, as are some of the overdrive options, but there's such a degree of control over it that I think most generic sounds can be found within it and for those of us that have tried it, we've only just touched the surface.

I'm looking forward to some reviews once the people who have it on order get their ones in and have had a good play of it.

As to what @koneguitarist said about a clean amp and pedals, I couldn't agree more

McToot

Kebabkid said:

monquixote said:

I actually think as a home / jam sessions amp the small Quilter could be very cool as it has an internal speaker for home and you could add a cab to kick out the jams at high volume.

Yes, @McToot - based on what I've heard, and learnt about these today, these look appealing and good call by @monquixote.

Interesting thread.  I've completed let these things pass by, so this 15 minute read is the first notice I've taken on this particular bit of kit.  For me? Not sure.  I'll give it a whirl, but I'm a man (an aging one at that) of few requirements and a hankering for old school.  I had one of those Fender Mustang thingies and that lasted weeks.  The THR10X is a keeper, but doesn't get used much.  Handwired <=20w head with a JMP/JCM leaning is where my heart lies Methinks. 

That said, this Blu thing is gear.  I love gear. I will be forced to try it out

firepaulmusic

It's finally here, waited in all day on my day off. The plan was to have a blast but it pitched up at 5:30 just as the Mrs got home pah!

firepaulmusic

So couldn't wait and hauled some gear to our rehearsal place to try it out. My usual fx unit is a TC Nova System which for some reason sucked the life from the Amp1 so that came out the loop straight away. I put my volume pedal in the loop and set it to parallel (I usually use a serial loop but this worked better). I found my gigging volume at about 10 o'clock on the master. I play in a five piece with a fairly loud drummer but always mic the amp. The clean is as I remember from the show, nice and round, it breaks up nicely with the boost. All three of the drive channels are superb. Vintage is as close to the sound in my head as I've ever found, Classic is the same but slightly gainier with more sizzle on the top end and a slight mid dip, plenty of girth. Modern is really useable contrary to some reports, it has masses of gain and is really dynamic. On my front humbucker it does the 'Still got the Blues' tone really well. Over all I'm smitten with this unit. I need to know there are no little gremlins of any kind before I know it's real love but it looks good so far...

Kebabkid

@firepaulmusic - nice one and are you using it through? PA or cab (which one)? Also, is it 100w valve-loud or solid state and apart from your Nova, can it take pedals well?