Great Clean Amp/Deluxe on steroids and then some!

These are all things I wish I was told, and I very much recommend this amp and love it. Every amp I’ve ever owned, has one thing you may want ti play with.

So this is two amps in one and takes a bit to wrap your head around. Lots going on here, but still a 65 Deluxe at heart. It has a Lead channel that has less bass, but sits well in a mix. It will do a Tweed, Vox and old 18w Marshall sound. 4 amps in one! I’ll be mostly focusing on the Rhythm channel many are interested in.

Manual states a good clean is 3 volume, Treble at 3 and bass at 7. The bass seems to add width to me. Lessen the bass and it shrinks a bit as you go down. Very cool!

Pedal wise it takes all my overdrives fine! Pedals are great with this amp. Now Fuzz and Distortion is just like a 65 Deluxe here, and no way to bypass the bright cap on the Rhythm or other channel to get past it. However, once you hit 5.5 and over it’s fine and bright cap won’t cause an issue. This is where the attenuator comes in handy at home or in small practice spaces. You can crank it to higher volume, not have to dial pedal settings all over. Good tip is too back the guitar volume down with volume on amp at 6. This will allow to still get the perfect cleans you get at lose volume of 3 or less, and use all your Fuzz and Distortion. Plus you can crank the guitar volume for some natural break up. Attenuate that on the back to get your level if too loud. GE JAN 5751 tube in V1 here helps. Allows more fine tuning and less break up sooner.

Otherwise, if you don’t like this way if you play distortion or fuzz and want to play at 1-3 Jazz cleans at the same time…well you know what to try, and it’s a $20 tech fee. Also GE 5751 tube in V1 helps keep cleaner headroom at higher volumes, and use less attenuation with more fine tuning of volume.

But to sum up this amp, it’s sonically in a different league of quality! It’ll do pretty much everything but metal. You could use it with no pedals or just one or two. Want modern rock sounds with pedals, keep it up and dirty at volume 5 and above for all around pedal friendly. Turn guitar volume down to clean up!

If you play blues or indie rock with no heavy gains, you’ll be fine on any volume. Heavy gains and some fuzzes at under 5 is the only weak spot I could find. The sound and build quality is hard to beat. This is not a HRD clean pedal amp, it’s a professional AAA amazing amp. Out the box it’s for blues/Jazz players at 5 and under volume, and rockers/Indie rockers at 5 and above that live in overdrive world. If you play these styles you will love this amp! This amp can carry itself with just a guitar and cable at any gig. 4 stars just on the lack of a bright switch, that alone would make this perfect. Lack of a mid channel is no big deal, as it’s set around 6-7.

Important: I’d also like to update on something I found out others may know. If you have a buffered pedal…any boss and most older pedals due. Stick a volume pedal at the end on the pedal board. Then turn the amp to 6.5 or louder, and keep your guitar turned up. Control the volume going in with the volume pedal. This should allow to bypass the bright cap, and get good cleans and break up on the fly. This works well Vs using the amp knob, and you can do it on the fly. This is a good non destructive approach, I learned from 65 Deluxe players as a standard touring pedal practice. This way bright caps won’t matter, and I’ve seen all kinds of fuzzes and distortions used this way on the 65 circuit. Set the attenuator as you limit/master volume point if you like. Just make sure you have a buffer in your chain! A compressor pedal in the chain, may help as well with this practice.

Quality! Quality! Quality!

There is no piece of equipment that makes you play better but if you want to hear exactly what your playing with perfect clarity this is the amp for you.