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Anyone have any opinions on this amp? I played it today at a Guitar Center. I'm looking at the 30 watt model for the reverb (which didn't sound like ZOMG AMAZING but I almost always play with a little reverb, so it would be nice to have that), the effects loop, and the XLR emulated line out. The line out is probably going to be the most important part, since I can't really play at "cranked 5 watt" levels in my apartment, and I plan to play through a mixer or audio interface to a pair of headphones.

Some thoughts:
The 1 watt to 30 watt knob seemed like kind of a joke. I didn't notice it cleaning up at the same volume on the gain channel by turning up the watts. I couldn't really crank the volume at 1 watt, so it's still an loud amp for its size. Or, I suspect these wattage knobs are doing nothing and it was still basically powering the speaker at 30 watts.

The gain seemed nice and smooth, but Guitar Center is a loud, open space and I always have trouble hearing the way it is distorting/compressing. Also, I would've liked to have a boost or a tubescreamer to play with, but I didn't have that to try.

The tight switch really sounds nice on the clean channel. I like the chimey cleans it can give and it seemed like the clean channel had a lot of head room. I didn't really crank it, though.

Eventually I'd like to be able to play places other than my apartment, so I'll need a cab, too. The Egnater 1x12 cabinet seemed nice, and they don't carry any cabs from Egnater larger. The GC guy said that I'd probably be disappointed by the tone from the 4x12's they sell -- they're all Blackstars and the like, meant for metal and 100 watt heads. The Egnater 12" had some nice thump from the bass.

Of course, there's no real telling how it will take pedals, so if anyone has any experience with this, I'd love to hear it. My guess is that the clean channel would accept fuzz well, as long as there is headroom, which it seemed to have plenty of. Luckily, GC has the 30 day policy where I can return it if it doesn't play nice with my other gear.

Oh, and it is really light and tiny. I thought I was looking at the 20 watt head, which only has one channel, when I first saw it on the shelf.

Thoughts? Anything else in this price range ($500-$900) that I should look at with line out? (that is, the kind that mutes the speakers for recording.)

I've only played a rebel 20 in the store, so my input may be useless... but my understanding is that the watt knob doesn't really do much to the volume, it just makes it break up at lower volumes. so if you're playing at low levels, you can turn the wattage down to get a natural overdrive. I would expect it to be more noticeable on the clean channel.

Anyone else have experience with Egnater amps? I like the Tweaker 15w too, but it is too loud for my apartment. And it is only one channel.

Last night we had to call the cops on a loud neighbor. I know it sucks, because I've been on the receiving end of noise complaint and got in trouble with my landlord. But he didn't turn it down after I banged on his door and asked, and his stereo was thumping bass explosions from some video game (not music) for like 4 hours between 2AM and 6AM, and I really treasure my sleep. So my landlord calls me this morning to remind me that *I* have a noise complaint on my file and can get evicted if anyone complains about me in the future. It seemed kind of like a threat. I dunno. It sucks that I'll never be able to play guitar loud enough to hear it, or always have to wear headphones of some sort (which eventually gives me a headache.)

I need to take my SG in to the Guitar Center to see how it sounds through the Egnater Rebel 30. The SG Classic I tried last time was glossy to the point of stickiness and didn't sound like my SG.

oh yeah, those attenuators are not functional at all

The ones with tube mixing right? I've wanted to try one but dealers never have them in, only on order

The tube mixing is kind of neat, but not a killer feature. Kind of gimmicky.

There's lots of gotchas with this amp:

Mixing it to one type of tubes or the other reduces it to 15-20 watts. Only in the middle with both power tubes do you get 30 watts.
The 0watt-30watt knobs for each channel just increase the headroom, they don't actually make the amp quieter. That is, the distortion channel on 0watt is only a tiny bit quieter than on 30 watts.
The reverb is digital.
The amp head construction is great, but the speaker cab is known to rattle.
The speaker cab is also a 1x12 closed back when a small combo really should have an open back, IMHO, and the next Egnater cab up is a 2x12 Tourmaster that costs a lot more.

Edit: re:amp cab: I'm going to ask to try to hook up the Egnater Rebel 30 head to the Tweaker 1x12" cabinet (open back) next time I'm in a store with one and see how that sounds. That or skip the cab to start, only play in "Silent Recording" mode to a mixer+headphones (which I'll probably do anyways) and save for a nice big Emperor 4x12.

i considered the rebel 20, but the attenuator has some pretty pathetic reviews, and i got a better price on a Vox AC15c1. most of the features on the Egnater seem really gimmicky, as mentioned before.

From what I can tell, you can't get a cranked tone out of an AC15 without it actually, you know, playing loud. Which for me, kills it. (And I'm not always into the Vox overdriven sound. Sometimes I want a Marshall cranked or Fender cleans. I'm hard to satisfy.) It's the same with the little Fender amps, I do like their overdriven sound, but they're too damn loud.

Even the Marshall Class 5 is really loud. You can play through headphones on it, (or apparently cut down the speaker volume by a lot by plugging the speaker into the headphone jack) but the Class 5 doesn't have enough features for me.

What I really need is to find an amp that's nice (like, boutique nice, nice Marshall or Orange nice, etc.) with the features I want:

• 0-30 watts. Being able to play it live at some point would be great.
• 2 channels. I want one for cleans (nice sparkly Fender cleans that sound good, not dead/lifeless solidstate PA-head clean) and a dirty channel that sounds good.
• EQ knobbies.
• Gain AND master volume.
• A line out. MUST MUST MUST have this. Emulated speaker cab or not, hell, even if it is a cheesy headphone line out that MUTES THE SPEAKERS. Not one of those "preamp out" that still pumps sound through the speakers at full volume.
• Reverb onboard would be nice, but not required.
• Effects loop would again be nice, but not required.

I'd rather have the line out than an attenuator, any day. Mainly because I can't play through a guitar cab in my apartment (and as people will tell me, again and again, it won't sound good because the speakers aren't moving enough air and attenuators attenuate parts of the signal, etc etc. I've heard that all before.) So a line out that keeps all the frequencies and lets me hear them on a pair of headphones, through a mixer, into my computer for recording, etc. is EXACTLY what I need.

Things I don't need: high gainy/nu-metal noises, hum, 100 watts that I'll never use.

The problem I've had is I get two types of responses to talking about amps in guitar forums (but not here, I love you guys! )

"You can't get good cranked tone without pushing the speaker / cranking 40 watts [blah blah blah]" completely ignoring what I said about not being able to play a cranked amp.

or

"Try this Behringer/Epiphone/Bugara 5 watt amp with one volume knob it sounds great cranked" and a lot of times these people make it sound like I don't deserve a decent sounding amp and should settle for a practice amp that hums and has 1 knob / no features. I in fact got in trouble with my landlord, slapped with a $205 ticket, and threatened with eviction, for playing an Epi Valve Jr at maybe 10% volume, no where near where it is cranked to sound good.



I've actually looked into a ton of lunchbox amps, the ZVex nanohead thing, rackmount amps, etc in my search for the right amp, and I still haven't found it.

[/rant]

I'll risk double-posting.

Someone turned me on to the Blackstar Studio 20 today. It comes in a head and a combo. It has 2 channels and an emulated line out for recording. (It can record silent - exactly what I need!)

The clean channel apparently is overhyped but not great, while the overdrive channel can go all the way to high-gain. (Which I don't need, but somewhere in the middle I probably will use.) It has digital reverb that isn't footswitchable and apparently isn't anything to write home about, and an effects loop, too!

I'm going to try this thing out the next time I can get out to Guitar Center. I should be able to compare the Rebel 30 to it directly in the same setting and decide which I like better. AND, it's cheaper too

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbqhIfDSx_w[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0QzjSq5Q-k[/youtube]

ah the blackstar. The clean channel killed it for me. it was just a clean channel. nothing more to it. nothing special about it, but it wasn't terrible. just kinda bland/sterile, and the high gain was much more than i needed. it wasn't a terrible amp. it just felt lacking in a few ways.

Engl Gigmaster 315? I don't know much about it but it seems like it would meet most of your feature reqs.

I'll have to check it out further, but the Engl might work. Unfortunately, there aren't any dealers anywhere near here that would carry it to try out

So I hate to be that dude, but have you considered an amp simulator option? You're asking one amp to do a whole lot of different things, and it doesn't surprise me that you're having trouble finding that. The rack options like Digidesign Eleven Rack and the Fractal Audio Axe FX are supposed to be great and work just as well at home as on stage. An even lower budget option which I am using right now is to get a computer interface for at home times. I'm using the Line6 UX1, which has worked well, but there are a lot of different options. My final suggestion would be to check out some of the boutique solid state amps like Henriksen and Pritchard. I haven't looked into them in a while, but I would guess you could find something between them that suits your needs.

hclapp219 wrote:So I hate to be that dude, but have you considered an amp simulator option? You're asking one amp to do a whole lot of different things, and it doesn't surprise me that you're having trouble finding that. The rack options like Digidesign Eleven Rack and the Fractal Audio Axe FX are supposed to be great and work just as well at home as on stage. An even lower budget option which I am using right now is to get a computer interface for at home times. I'm using the Line6 UX1, which has worked well, but there are a lot of different options. My final suggestion would be to check out some of the boutique solid state amps like Henriksen and Pritchard. I haven't looked into them in a while, but I would guess you could find something between them that suits your needs.

yeah, I thought about mentioning amp modelers as well. I use a Tech 21 Blonde -> mixer -> headphones or monitors for most of my apartment playing. it takes pedals really well and generally sounds pretty good. definitely good enough for quiet practicing.

there's also the THD Univalve. a used one would be in the price range you mentioned.