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Headstrong Lil’ King S 1 x 12 combo

Saturday, March 26th, 2011

Headstrong is based in North Carolina and California, and for the last eight years it has been carving a reputation for its superb Fender-influenced designs.

Like many boutique builders, CEO Wayne Jones started by building replicas of Fender ‘Tweed’-era amps, before discovering there was an unfulfilled niche for replicas of Fender’s coveted designs from the early ’60s – the blonde, brown and ‘Blackface’ eras.

“When it’s done properly, the result of this kind of construction is a robust circuit that can handle any amount of abuse and should last a lifetime.”

One of Headstrong’s most popular models so far has been the Lil’ King Reverb, its version of the highly desirable 1964 Princeton Reverb. Earlier this year, it unveiled the Lil’ King S – a higher-powered version running 6L6s instead of 6V6s, with the capacity to take most popular octal output valves.

Clad in heavy-duty blonde vinyl with an oxblood speaker grille, this particular sample is a very good-looking amp indeed. The cabinet is solid pine with lock-jointed corners and nice, evenly radiused edges.

The chassis is a robust welded steel box with folded edges suspended from the top of the cabinet by four bolts. The standard of fit and finish is very good, although we’d prefer to see integral or captive nuts on the four bolts securing the steel chassis, as the type Headstrong uses can come loose, even when fitted with locking washers.

The electronics are laid out on a fibre eyelet board, which is the traditional way to build a Fender-style amp; the board is drilled with strategically placed holes that are filled with brass eyelets, into which the components are soldered.

This is a pure valve design, with no trace of silicon anywhere in the circuit; all you have is resistors, capacitors, valves and transformers.

All the valve bases are where they should be, bolted firmly to the chassis. When it’s done properly, the end result of this kind of construction is a robust circuit that can handle any amount of abuse and should last a lifetime.

The wiring and components hold true to the vintage vibe, using cloth-covered hookup wire and carbon comp resistors, which look nice, although we’d prefer modern flameproof replacements, along with an IEC mains connector.

Nevertheless the standard of wiring and soldering is first class, demonstrating this has been put together by someone who knows what they’re doing.

The Lil’ King S’s control panel has a pair of high and low sensitivity input jacks and features controls for volume, treble and bass, with speed and intensity knobs for the vibrato circuit and a reverb level control.

Around the back, you’ll find mains and standby switches, a trim pot for adjusting the bias, a pair of speaker outlets and phono sockets for the reverb tank and the traditional Fender-style footswitch, which toggles the reverb and vibrato effects.

Sounds

We were hoping the Lil’ King S would impress us and, armed with its optional Weber Alnico Classic loudspeaker, it doesn’t disappoint.

Many smaller Fender amps from this era have a distinctive rich clean tone with a slightly compressed attack that flatters practically any guitar and makes the audio seem as if it’s expanding out of the loudspeaker.

Often known as a ’3-D’ effect, the result is the amp sounding much bigger than it is, making it easy to fill a room without overpowering other instruments.

The Lil’ King S captures this elusive vibe very well indeed, going from sweet clarity at lower levels, through a seductive subtle chiming effect that sounds great with warm jazz humbuckers, to a wonderfully responsive Texas- approved crunch once the volume control is parked at 10.

Use humbuckers and you can nail those early ZZ Top licks with ease; swap to a Strat or Tele and you can have similar fun with Buddy Whittington or Danny Gatton-style riffs; it’s a very rewarding experience and the Weber Alnico Classic’s exceptionally rich tones complement the amp perfectly.

Volume-wise it’s easy to see why Headstrong modified the Lil’ King; the 30 watts approximate output coupled with the medium-high sensitivity of the Weber driver provides just the right amount of power and headroom for the average unmic’d gig.

Turn the volume and treble on full, adjust bass to taste and control it all from the guitar’s volume knob. Back off to six and the amp cleans up exceptionally well.

“The Lil’ King S provides all you need to copy practically every American guitar part from the ’60s with ease.”

Reverb fans won’t be disappointed, as the Headstrong’s traditional valve-powered transformer-coupled spring reverb effect is good, but there’s way too much level on the control knob, making it difficult to use with precision as most of the usable range occurs within less than half an inch of the reverb knob’s travel.

The traditionally mis-named vibrato effect (it’s actually tremolo) uses the amplifier’s bias circuit to modulate the volume level, just like that found on the original Princeton.

Later Fenders used an opto- isolator, which for some never captured the same natural quality. Used with restraint this is a powerful and memorable effect that screams vintage Americana to player and listener alike.

The speed and intensity ranges are quite wide and provide enough to cover most needs; we’d have liked the speed to go a little faster, but apart from this the Lil’ King S provides all you need to copy practically every American guitar part from the ’60s with ease and total authenticity, as well as being a killer small amp for blues and classic rock.

Beyond any doubt the Lil’ King S is an excellent small combo that accurately captures the feel, sound and even – thanks to the cloth-covered wire – the smell of an early ’60s Princeton Reverb, with the added bonus of increased power and a much better speaker than the originals ever left Fullerton with.

There are three different standard finishes to choose from: in addition to this hybrid blonde with chicken head knobs you can also go for the traditional ‘Blackface’ cosmetic treatment or Headstrong’s interpretation of the much rarer ‘Brownface’.

Inevitably, such delectable looks and tone come with a premium price tag, which puts the Headstrong beyond most people’s reach; at this rarefied level there’s also some seriously hot competition from both sides of the Atlantic.

However, the Headstrong’s blend of vintage features and modifications make it pretty much unique. If you’re chasing the vintage dream, here is one very desirable amp that could turn it into reality.

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Randall RT50C112 Combo

Saturday, March 12th, 2011

Randall is another well- known American brand that’s beginning to renew its profile in the UK and Europe, thanks to a recent change in distribution.

The company was established in the early ’70s by the late Don Randall, Leo Fender’s business partner, who was responsible among other things for naming many of Fender’s key products, including the Stratocaster and Telecaster.

“Components appear to be of a decent standard and what wiring there is looks pretty neat, too.”

Today, under the guidance of US Music Corp, Randall continues to thrive in the USA and is particularly favoured by metal players, at whom many of its products are aimed.

At Winter NAMM 2010 Randall introduced a new range of entry-level all-valve heads and combos, the RT Series, designed with assistance from hard rock/metal crossover artist Joe Delany and manufactured in China.

Now available in the UK we’re looking at two of them, the RT50C 1 x 12 combo and the RT100 three-channel head.

Build

Both combo and head come in nicely proportioned well-built cabinets covered in a decently thick grade of vinyl that should stand up to most knocks without any problem. The black on grey styling with metal mesh speaker grille adds to the aggressive looks and makes it pretty clear who these amps are aimed at.

The colour scheme means the control panels are virtually impossible to read; however the layout is quite simple for both amps and doesn’t need much in the way of explanation.

The chassis are deep steel boxes with welded corners for good rigidity. Inside, the electronics are mounted on two decent-quality printed circuit boards: a large one for the preamp and power supply, which also holds the preamp valve bases and front panel controls, and a smaller one for the rear panel components and power valves.

On the head, there’s another small board for the third channel controls. Components appear to be of a decent standard and what wiring there is looks pretty neat, too.

The combo’s single Celestion loudspeaker is hard-wired to the chassis, leaving two spare output sockets on the rear panel for extension cabinets. The loudspeaker connections are crimped rather than soldered, so the amp chassis can still be easily removed for servicing.

The combo has two channels for clean and overdrive, with identical controls consisting of gain, channel volume, bass mid and treble. There are global controls for overall volume and the reverb level. The head has a third set of channel controls, but is otherwise identical.

On the rear panel there’s a pair of sockets for the amp’s series effects loop, with a simple level matching switch to cater for stompbox-type pedals and line level devices.

The RTs also feature user-adjustable bias with separate settings for each output valve, or in the case of the RT100, each pair. This is easily carried out with a cheap multimeter and a screwdriver using the test points and trim pots on the rear panel.

There are also separate HT fuses and failure warning LEDs, a nice touch not usually found on amps at this price.

Both amps come with chunky steel three-button footswitches attached to generously long leads. On the combo the switch changes channels, and bypasses the reverb and effects loop features. On the head, the same three buttons are all used for channel selection.

Overall, both amps give a pretty good impression at this price point; they’re robust and neatly finished, and should handle regular pub and club gigging without any issues.

Sounds

Both amps fire into life without undue hum and hiss; the clean channel has a nice Fender-inspired warmth at lower gain settings and pushes into a mild overdrive as you turn the gain control up.

The EQ controls interact smoothly – there isn’t a great deal of range here, but what there is should be enough to cover most needs.

The combo’s Celestion Seventy-80 speaker delivers plenty of bass from its open baffle cabinet, giving a good clean sound up to the kind of average unmic’d gig levels at which most of us play.

The overdrive channel delivers a thick, creamy distortion with a quite distinct edge that sounds good for hard rock and metal, but would be less suitable for blues or classic rock players as it’s somewhat lacking in subtlety.

The head’s third crunch channel manages to plug this gap quite well with an aggressive and fairly bright crunch tone that can be pushed into enough overdrive for lead work as well.

We used a variety of different instruments to test drive the Randalls, including a Strat fitted with Duncan Alnico Pros, an early PRS McCarty and a Fender Custom Shop Nocaster.

While the clean channels on both amps complemented each instrument, the overdrive channels tended to stamp their authority on things. This meant that all three guitars ended up sounding pretty much the same – a common occurrence on very high gain amps.

The combo would certainly benefit from an extension speaker cabinet for bigger-than-pub gigs (halls, sports centres and the like), or simply mic it through the PA/monitors for maximum spread. The effects loop is quiet and works well; being able to switch it in or out from the floor on the combo is a definite bonus.

The spring reverb works reasonably well too, although like many reverb-equipped amps there’s arguably too much of it for the vast majority of us. Still, if reverb-on-10 happens to be your thing à la Albert Collins, you’ll find plenty enough on tap here.

Definitely aimed at the modern rock and metal end of the market, both the combo and head should prove ideal for players after a decent quality valve amp at an affordable price.

Blues, country and jazz artists should look elsewhere as the overdrive channels on both amps aren’t exactly subtle; however, they’re very good at providing that heavily distorted modern metal sound and the extended bass response means seven-string users should definitely take a closer look.

Despite Randall’s strength in this niche, there are already a lot of amps jostling for market share. Most of the competition is strong and we think there are other products that could give Randall a tough time in the tone stakes.

However, this is an all-valve design at a relatively affordable price and it has the right look and attitude to appeal to a lot of younger players.

If you want to get that modern USA metal sound, the Randall RT series is definitely worth a try.

Now hear the RT100H in action…

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Blackstar HT Soloist 60 112 combo

Saturday, February 5th, 2011

When you think that most of the well- known amp brands we use today have taken at least 30 years to establish themselves, it’s quite an achievement for Blackstar to have gone from literally nothing to being a serious worldwide presence with an enviable list of artist users in less than a decade.

Until, that is, you remember the talent, technical expertise and single-minded dedication that’s behind the badge. We’ve been consistently impressed with all the products Blackstar has brought to market so far, and its latest HT Venue range is no exception.

“Despite a wealth of features onboard, we’re ready to go with some great tones in less than two minutes.”

We’ve inspected all of it bar one amp, so now it’s the turn of what might be the best-selling model of the lot, the HT Soloist 60 combo.

The Soloist offers the same smart, conventional styling as the rest of the HT range, with a subtle gold weave grille cloth accented by gold piping.

If you think that combos are supposed to be compact, the Soloist’s large cabinet might cause you to think again – it’s large, deep and, thanks to a purposefully large pair of transformers, very heavy.

However, to Blackstar’s credit, we have a pair of recessed grips on the sides and fitted snap-in caster plates underneath, helping to make the amp as portable as it can be.

Inside the steel open-ended chassis, one large PCB holds most of the circuitry, including the front panel controls, preamp and power amp valve bases, and a variety of conventional and surface- mount components. Another board caters for the rear panel sockets and mains input.

Everything looks neat, clean and robust – easily capable of standing up to a tough gigging life. The PCB valve bases mean all the valves are quite deeply recessed, making them tricky to remove and replace in a hurry, but this apart the Soloist is typical of the pragmatic design philosophy Blackstar is known for – everything has an immediately usable function.

The Soloist is a proper two- channel design, with volumeand tone controls for its clean channel and a voice switch, which accesses two different modes called modern and boutique.

In modern mode, the amp has more headroom and a tighter bass response, while the power stage runs in Class AB. Switch to boutique clean and the power amp is reconfigured to run in Class A with less headroom, while the emphasis is more on mids and highs.

The lead channel has a similar voice switch that alters the negative feedback, giving a tight controlled crunch or a livelier, looser response.

There are separate gain and master controls, with a three-band EQ and Blackstar’s unique ISF control, which progressively changes the EQ response characteristics from UK to USA.

Four knobs on the far right include presence, reverb and overall volume controls; there’s also a footswitchable boost with its own level control and a switch to add more mid-range to the overdrive channel in boost mode.

On the rear panel, you’ll find a trio of speaker outlets, a cabinet-emulated output with two EQ settings to approximate the sound of 1 x 12 or 4 x 12 enclosures, a reverb tone switch and a series effects loop with switchable levels.

There’s also a mode switch for the supplied four-button foot controller, which lets you either boost the clean or overdrive channels independently, or switch to the boosted overdrive channel automatically, essentially turning the Soloist into a three-channel amp.

All in, it’s a versatile package with a lot of interesting features, so how does it sound?

Sounds

As with the other models in the HT Venue range, the Soloist 60 is very easy to dial-in. Despite the wealth of features onboard we’re ready to go with some great tones in less than two minutes.

The ISF feature is very conventional spring reverb, while the dark setting has the warmer feel of a more expensive studio effect.

There’s plenty of volume available from the single Celestion loudspeaker, helped by the large, almost closed-back enclosure.

The bass response is generally smooth, but well-defined and instantly noticeable – this amp really kicks if you turn it up.

As with every other Blackstar we’ve played, the high-frequency fizz that afflicts many high- performance amps is totally absent, making higher volume use a real pleasure rather than an endurance test – for player and audience alike.

Fire up the boost function, then flip the switch marked ‘body’ to add more mid-range, and the Soloist produces that thick, creamy, singing sustain that Blackstar does so well.

Not surprisingly, the Soloist turns out to be one very versatile combo. Some models in the range have fewer functions, others have more; overall, we think the Soloist has the best and most usable balance of features at is price point, making it very tempting in this extremely competitive section of the market.

Our only criticism is that if you favour a combo format for convenience, it’s not the most portable 1 x 12 out there. The upside is that the outsize cabinet really improves the bass response.

The Soloist can handle practically any musical genre you want to throw at it, from jazz to thrash metal, although it really shines when used for Brit-influenced classic rock stuff.

While the price may not be in the pro league, the build, sound and looks wouldn’t be out of place on any stage. We think this makes the Soloist an ideal choice for the working players, giving it the edge over most of its competition. We think you’re going to like it.

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Foo releases Foo-YC20 v1.3 – Combo Organ Synth

Monday, January 31st, 2011

31st January 2011: Foo has released version 1.3 of Foo-YC20, a physical modelling combo organ synthesizer. This synth is an accurate copy of the Yamaha YC20 organ, including some of the flaws found in such instruments….
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Rivera Clubster Royale 1 x 12 combo

Friday, January 7th, 2011

Paul Rivera is one of the world’s most influential amp designers, with a career that’s encompassed Mesa Engineering, Yamaha, Music Man and Fender, where he revived that company’s amp fortunes in the early eighties with a range that included the legendary Super Champ – one of the last and best amps to come off the old Fullerton line.

Over the years, Rivera’s own constantly evolving designs have found favour in every musical genre from country to pop to death metal, resulting in a long and diverse artist list that includes some of the world’s greatest players.

“For a 1 x 12, the Royale’s low-frequency response is epic, and it’s not flabby like some ‘big box’ amps.”

Yet despite the boutique credibility, modern Riveras are relatively affordable, especially since the introduction of the entry-level Pubster and Clubster series.

This year, however, Rivera has upped the ante a little with the introduction of a hot-rodded and more expensive version of its Clubster 45 amp, called the Clubster Royale.

The Royale sports the same retro-styled cabinet design first seen on the Venus range of amps. Consequently it’s good looking with nice proportions, while capable of withstanding any abuse professional touring can dish out.

Thanks partly to two massive transformers it weighs in at roughly 23kg, which is about as heavy as we would want a 1 x 12 amp to be, yet still remains quite portable.

One main PCB holds most of the preamp, power amp and power supply components, including all the front panel controls. Smaller boards hold the FX loop circuitry, output valves and speaker and mains connections.

As you’d expect, the standard of layout and component quality is exceptionally high, with through-plating on the high-voltage PCBs and special chassis-mounted valve bases, which reduce heat transfer to the PCB and eliminate board flex. This greatly improves long-term reliability compared to amps that have valve bases directly soldered to the circuit board itself.

Other features include a regulated DC filament supply to keep noise to a minimum, while switching is done silently and smoothly by opto-isolators rather than relays: this is top stuff.

The lead channel controls include gain, master volume and a three-band EQ, while the rhythm channel is pared down to volume, treble and bass, with master controls for presence and reverb.

No Rivera is complete without a pull switch or two and the Clubster Royale has three, activating the lead channel’s gain boost, a bright boost on the rhythm channel and channel switching if you don’t want to use the supplied two-button footswitch.

The rear panel features Rivera’s highly capable series effects loop with send and return level controls. This loop is a useful upgrade on the standard Clubster’s insert points; it can interface with practically any effect, from a £20 fuzz box to a studio delay, and run any length of cable. Other rear panel features include a fixed level line out socket, impedance changer and a pair of speaker jacks.

Attention to detail is evident everywhere and the internal build quality is first class – this sample has been put together by someone who understands and appreciates high gain valve audio circuits.

Overall, it’s an object example of how to do things properly; printed circuit board amp construction doesn’t get better than this.

Sounds

Although the front panel is unchanged, this is a significantly different design to the original Clubster. “The Clubster Royale has a three-tube preamp while the standard Clubster has two,” Paul Rivera tells us, “and the topology [the circuit design and the way all the components interact] is very different.

“In this amp we’re using a tube as the first input stage, whereas the standard Clubster uses a high voltage FET, so the tone is sweeter and the pick attack response has changed for the better. The distortion tone is also different and the amp has considerably more gain than the stock Clubster.

“Bottom-end-wise there’s quite a thump in this amp; quite a bit more than the size would first indicate”. That’s a typical Rivera understatement – for a 1 x 12, the Royale’s low frequency response is epic!

Moreover it’s not flabby like some ‘big-box’ amps, but tight and focused, capable of punching through the chaotic audio of a live band almost like a stack. The ‘Blackface’-influenced rhythm channel stays clean and sweet up to around five or six using regular output single-coils, and easily overpowers our drummer’s large kit.

Pushed harder, there’s a cool chime effect which then becomes more of a crunch, but for proper distortion the Royale’s re-tuned lead channel is where it’s all at, delivering awesome crunch tones at lower gain.

Wind it up, hit the boost and you’ve got insane levels of distortion, with harmonic squeals exploding off the pick, Billy Gibbons-style, but all without sacrificing any of the phenomenal punch. There’s a definite British edge to this channel’s precisely defined mid-range.

Played on its own it could be a little too aggressive and punchy for some, but use it live with a band and you’ll quickly find that’s what gives the Royale its ability to cut through. Because the amp is so responsive, the subtlety isn’t lost; it just works at louder volume levels.

The reverb is big, spacious and warm, with a smooth decay and no distortion. The footswitch toggles the reverb and channel change functions but not the gain boost, which isn’t actually that much of a drawback as the amp cleans up superbly using the guitar’s volume control.

We think the Clubster Royale is a serious pro-standard amp that’s ideal for any stage or studio environment. It’s exceptionally versatile: that snappy rhythm channel has the balls and volume for killer country lead work, while you can roll off the treble and open up the reverb for some great smokey jazz effects.

The lead channel will cover anything from blues to classic rock to death metal; with so much depth to the tone you may never stop finding inspiration from it. As a halfway stepping stone between the standard Clubster and the more expensive two-channel models, we reckon Rivera has nailed it perfectly with the Royale.

The original Clubster earned its Gold Award partly on price – to be able to buy a Rivera in the UK for a grand was a breakthrough at that time. Despite tough trading conditions, Rivera’s continuing commitment to the UK was recently underlined by a new purchasing arrangement that largely cancels out recent increases fuelled by poor exchange rates.

So right now, there’s never been a better time to buy one of the most coveted of all boutique amp brands. There’s some stiff competition out there that shouldn’t be ignored in your quest for the ultimate combo, but most of it costs £200-£400 more, which makes this great little amp practically unbeatable.

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Fender Rumble 150 bass combo

Friday, December 17th, 2010

Fender’s Rumble Series of bass combos has been around (on and off) for some time, but never has the range been as appealing as now.

Robust, well proportioned and very stylish with black livery and an expanded metal grille, it features nickel-plated metal corners, heavy duty spring-loaded handles and removable castors: road worthy and easy to move around.

“You’d expect this combo to be limited in performance ability, but the design produces significant headroom.”

The front baffle is ported for maximum sound dispersal and it’s designed as a workaday gigging unit or for practice sessions. The mains socket is at the rear, but all of the controls and connections are on the front panel.

The single input socket is provided with a -6dB switch making it suitable for either passive or active basses, while the EQ section features high and low mid controls, plus the usual bass and treble bands, and a lone volume control.

Extras include the shape feature, with two switches labelled punch and scoop, and an overdrive section with controls for gain and blend. Along with the on/off switch are extra sockets allowing input for CD/mp3, tape player or drum machine, a footswitch socket and a very handy headphone jack.

Sounds

Manufactured in the Far East to keep costs down, the most important question is can it produce the classic Fender bass amp sound that we love? Well, yes, it can. This is partly due to the relative simplicity of the tonal circuit and its no-frills approach.

Using the four tone controls gives great variation, but the simple addition of the shape filter offers further enhancement and quality sounds. Scoop (as the name suggests) takes out the mid-range frequencies while boosting the high and low-end to give a tightly-focused funky sound.

Punch produces a rockier sound with high impact and delivery. With both activated you get a boost in note definition, but for more classic Fender sounds leave them both out and stick to those basic controls – it’s particularly good in a studio environment as it allows your bass to retain its individual sonic characteristics.

The dedicated overdrive section gives you far more control over your distorted sounds. Whether you want the subtleties associated with a valve preamp for added warmth and colour or the angular blast of an overdriven hornet’s nest of metal mayhem, the Rumble obliges.

It’s not reliant on high volume levels, either, and can also be activated by a footswitch. Rated at 150 watts you’d expect this combo to be limited in performance ability but the clearly efficient design produces significant headroom.

With an active bass guitar, and the low-end of the Rumble wound to maximum, it certainly shifts air and the speaker handles the whole thing with confidence and clarity. It’s hardly a sound that you would want to use often, but it demonstrates just how capable this unit actually is.

The switchable horn also performs exceptionally well and, although there’s no level adjustment, it adds good projection to the top-end.

Well proportioned, easy to transport and with plenty of muscle, this could be your ideal gigging partner, even if the front panel with all its controls and connections does suggest that it’s more of a dedicated practice combo.

But while we’d like to see some of those moved to the rear panel, it doesn’t affect the performance in the least, this workaday combo is hard to fault. User friendly and with plenty of sound options it performs well on looks, practicality and power.

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Orange TH30 Thunder 30 1×12 combo

Sunday, November 21st, 2010

First unveiled at Winter NAMM 2010 back in January, the circuit inside Orange’s new Thunder 30 head and combo is something of mash-up, combining elements from the Thunderverb, Dual Terror, Rockerverb and the now-discontinued Rocker 30.

Although there’s plenty to be said for the mighty roar of the company’s 50 and 100-watt amplifiers, for this writer at least, ever since the AD30 arrived in the late nineties, there’s been something a little bit special about EL84-loaded Oranges with 30-watt power stages.

Will this TH30 combo be another citrus-flavoured hit? Time to find out.

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It’s fair to say that the last few years have seen Orange prove that it can do small valve amps rather well. If imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery, then the Tiny Terror’s success can be measured not just in units shifted, but also by the huge number of copycat designs that followed.

Evidently, the TH30 is a much less radical proposition, but for all the revolutionary force attributed to the electric guitar when it’s played in anger, we guitarists are a seriously conservative bunch.

Although there are few cooler onstage sights than an Orange head sat on top of a couple of the company’s fantastically overbuilt 4 x 12 cabinets, years of hauling heavy amps up narrow pub staircases is enough to steer even the most nihilistic rock ‘n’ roller towards pragmatism.

Your spine, your shoulders and the soundman will all thank you for turning up to soundcheck with a 1 x 12 combo; leave the stacks to the handful of fortunate souls with their own road crew.

We’ve said it before, but a 30-watt, 1 x 12 valve combo is in many ways the perfect gigging amp. Bigger 2 x 12s are often too heavy to carry around with one hand and far less inclined to sit safely on the passenger seat of your car.

While some players can get away with less wattage, in most cases a sensibly designed 30-watt valve power stage hooked up to an efficient speaker will provide more than enough clean headroom to compete with even the hardest hitting Butterbean look-alike tub thumper.

Orange’s last stab at this format was the aforementioned Rocker 30, a raunchy little beast capable of some high quality tones, but the combination of EL34 power valves and just a single volume control with no EQ on the clean side of the equation left some players wanting more flexibility.

Enter then, the TH30. “The idea behind the TH30 was to make a very versatile amp with as few controls as possible,” explains Orange design guru, Adrian Emsley.

“People were also asking for an FX loop on the Rocker 30, so we added a super low impedance, valve-driven one on the TH30. I was pretty pleased with how the output stage on the Dual Terror came out both functionally and sonically, so we used the very same output stage on this one.

“The clean channel has the same interactive bass and treble control as used on the first series Rockerverb, but has been re-voiced for EL84s and uses a branched power supply to deliver more headroom and spank.

“The dirty channel is a four-stage with the same amount of gain as the Rockerverb, but with the inclusion of the shape control found on the Thunderverb.”

Not only does the TH30 have the same output stage as the Dual Terror, but it also shares that amplifier’s variable power switching, pushing out 30, 15 or seven watts depending on the way you have the chunky half/full power and two/four output valve toggle switches set up.

This means that you can easily tailor the amp’s output and headroom to suit your needs, be it getting power tube saturation at studio-friendly levels or maintaining clarity on larger club-type stages.

Build-wise, this chunky little combo looks more than tough enough to withstand the rigours of touring and it’s consistent with the high manufacturing standards showcased by the updated Rockerverbs we’ve praised in the past.

If anything, this combo’s less busy control panel looks even smarter than the RK50C – it’s certainly a doddle to get one’s head around, even under moody stage lighting. As with all Orange amps, the TH30 isn’t exactly a shrinking violet in visual terms, but this cat really digs those funky retro stylings.

Sounds

Thunder by name, thunder by nature. Despite its compact size, the TH30 is capable of making one hell of a racket. With a Fender Strat plugged in, on full power the clean channel has a three dimensional quality and bags of additional spank.

Less compressed than a Vox loaded with a quartet of EL84s, the TH30 is bold, firm and percussive. Fans of Biffy Clyro’s Simon Neil will love the amp’s vicious attack, but be sure to watch that fingering; it’s seriously unforgiving of sloppy playing technique.

Taming the power stage by switching it down to 15 or seven watts inevitably makes for a spongier attack, but even at the lowest power setting there’s a surprising amount of clean headroom available.

This is a different clean experience to the early break-up of Orange’s older 30-watters such as the AD30 and Rocker 30. Of course, humbuckers make it much easier to get your growl on, but single-coil fans only need a decent overdrive stompbox in the chain to bridge the gap between the channels.

Over to the dirty channel then and, well, it’s a beast. Don’t be fooled by the spartan appearance of the control panel: the interaction of the volume, gain and that all-important shape control inherited from the Thunderverb series – essentially a mid-range EQ sweep – can take you from raunchy mid-rich blues-rock crunch through to AC/DC on steroids into full-bore scooped extreme metal territory.

The four-stage dirty preamp inherited from the Rockerverb series has colossal levels of gain and easily turns a Telecaster bridge pickup into a heavy metal monster.

With humbuckers, the full power mode keeps the bottom end tight, while the 15 and seven-watt settings introduce a little more sag and swampiness suited to grunge and heavy alternative rock sounds.

The lack of a dedicated gain control on the clean channel means that, in 30-watt mode at least, this isn’t the easiest Orange to get rootsy sounds from when armed with singlecoils. However, the range, scope and quality of the tones on offer is seriously impressive, and all from just six control knobs.

Despite the stage-filling projection of its ported cabinet, the TH30 combo is compact, cute and easily portable. Throw the variable power switching into the mix and you’re looking at a dangerously tempting, versatile package.

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Fuchs Train 45 1 x 12 combo

Friday, November 12th, 2010

Andy Fuchs is perhaps best known in the UK for his Overdrive Supreme, a stunning recreation and upgrade of the infamous Dumble Overdrive Special amplifier. However, there are other Fuchs amps, and one that’s definitely worth a closer look is the Train 45.

This design is inspired by the original Trainwreck amps, which were built between 1981 and 2006 by legendary amp designer and Ampeg guru Ken Fischer from his workshop in Colonia, New Jersey.

“We expect only the very best at this level and the Train 45 certainly doesn’t disappoint us here.”

They’re simple, minimalist heads, but beautifully made with cherry, curly maple or walnut cabinets. One endearing feature is the lack of serial numbers – instead Fischer christened each finished amp with a girl’s name.

Real Trainwrecks are very rare, even rarer than Dumbles (Ken only made around 100), and priced well beyond mortal reach. Notable users allegedly include Billy Gibbons, George Lynch and Brad Paisley. Typical second-hand prices range from $ 30-50,000 dollars, depending on the model.

Consequently, there are many Trainwreck ‘clones’, while the simple circuits also make them a favourite for DIY enthusiasts. Sadly, there will be no more originals – Ken battled with ill health in later life and passed away in 2006 aged 61.

The Fuchs Train 45 has the usual audiophile Fuchs upgrades to bring it up to date, but does it have the mojo to compete with an original Trainwreck? Let’s take a closer look.

The Train 45 is built to Fuchs’s usual high standards, with a tough, neatly finished cabinet housing the chassis and single 12-inch Celestion speaker. Incidentally, original Trainwrecks were never offered as combos, although one or two conversions have since been made.

The cabinet is covered in thick black vinyl, which has been expertly applied, with white piping around the black grille cloth to accent the controls and logo. Fuchs uses a highly reflective license plate-type plastic for its badge; we think it would be a good idea to use the same material for the control panels, as they’re difficult to read unless you’re really close.

The white LED mains indicator is positioned to be the headlight in the train graphic on the far right of the panel – but it’s a good idea not to stare at this for too long as it’s extremely bright and could do with toning down. The rear of the cabinet has a full height baffle with a large circular port, echoing those seen on Dumble cabs.

The electronics are contained inside Fuchs’s tough aluminium chassis, mounted on an extremely high quality printed circuit board, as opposed to the perforated Verotype board base that Fischer used.

We expect only the very best at this level and the Fuchs doesn’t disappoint us here, using ultra-thick PCB traces and ground plane technology to emulate some of the more arcane characteristics of point-to-point construction, but with enhanced accuracy and consistency. There’s also a DC filament supply to reduce the amount of noise picked up by early gain stages.

The valve bases are all chassis-mounted, with a protective grille surrounding the two EL34 output valves.

The controls are simple: volume, three-band EQ and presence, with a three-way switch offering a choice of bright, dark or flat preset options. The presence control is a ‘real’ presence function, working in the Train’s negative feedback loop, as opposed to a high treble tone control.

On the rear panel there are mains and standby switches and a ‘hard/soft’ switch that changes the power stage response. In keeping with the minimalist design of the originals there’s no effects loop, slave or line out jacks.

The overall impression is one of solid, professional reliability – this is an amp designed to handle anything pro touring can throw at it.

Sounds

At switch-on, there’s practically zero hum from the Train 45, but fairly audible hiss, indicating that this is a high gain circuit. Sure enough, as you turn up the volume control the amp readily pushes into distortion.

It distorts more and gets louder until about three-quarters of the way through the volume knob’s travel, after this the tone gets thicker and more saturated without any appreciable volume increase.

The Fuchs is very loud indeed, with a powerful, driving bass and an aggressive, cutting tone that’s distinctly influenced by a certain Bletchley-based amp company, so to our ears the Train 45 is better suited to rock rather than blues or country.

You might think there’s little in the way of clean headroom here, but the Train 45′s best trick happens when you turn down the guitar’s volume control, as it cleans up exceptionally well.

The quality of tone you get when you do this is partly down to your guitar’s electronics – we used a ’94 PRS McCarty, which doesn’t have a capacitor strapped over the volume control, and the results were excellent, with a rich, balanced tone that retained all the harmonic bite you normally need to have volume controls on 10 to hear.

The three-way bright switch works quite well, although the dark setting makes things a little too muffled – we tended to use the flat position for single-coils and bright for humbuckers.

The hard/soft switch on the rear panel also makes a noticeable difference; we prefer the soft setting as it generally responds better and feels easier to play.

Overall, the Train 45 is an absolutely killer rock amp that sounds at its best turned up to what Billy Gibbons calls ‘patent pending’ and controlled from the guitar’s volume knob.

This means that it’s ideal for traditional players rather than those who prefer the convenience of footswitches. Handily, if you find using it like this to be too loud, you can swap the EL34 output valves with 6V6s, which drops the output level down to around 22 watts. Fuchs also provides two similar models with lower wattage, the Blackjack 21 and the single-ended Lucky 7.

The Train 45′s simple circuit provides excellent touch sensitivity with a very wide dynamic range, however, it isn’t subtle and you really need to attack it to get the best effects.

Blues, fusion and country players are probably better served with Fuchs’s outstanding Overdrive Supreme, but for ballsy, loud rock the Train 45 is absolutely superb.

Inevitably, with the Fuchs badge on the front, its expensive, but you’re getting a world-class amp and a world-class tone – serious competition is somewhat thin on the ground and similarly expensive, so despite it’s high price tag we think the Fuchs is still good value for money.

If you want a simple but truly outstanding rock amp, the Train 45 should be at the top of your list to try.

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Iliadis re-releases VH-1 and VH-2 Drawbar and Transistor Organ plug-ins and reduces prices of iVF Combo Organ, iBX Tonewheel Organ and Euthymia Electronic Organ

Monday, November 1st, 2010

1st November 2010: Iliadis has re-released the freeware VH-1 Drawbar Organ and VH-2 Drawbar and Transistor Organ plug-ins and reduced the prices of its commercial offerings: iVF Combo Organ is now and#8364;20. iBX Ton…
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Fender Hot Rod Deluxe III Combo

Monday, October 11th, 2010

Let’s assume for a second you’ve never seen or heard one of these amps. This would mean that you’ve barely been to a gig, jam, rehearsal room or music store for over a decade. They’re everywhere – the most popular, semi-pro and pro valve amps on the market, and they remain the cornerstone of Fender’s modern amp line.

The watershed year was 1995. Ritchie Fliegler arrived from Marshall and promptly discontinued Fender’s most successful amps of the time – the Blues DeVille and Deluxe – and evolved them to Hot Rod status, complete with an extra drive stage.

“The Hot Rod’s normal channel is a brilliant base for pedals, thanks to its high headroom and dynamic range.”

Now for 2010, they receive a version III update, which includes a new top panel, different pot tapers, ‘tighter’ overdrive and new speakers in certain models. Here we have the biggest seller, the 40-watt Hot Rod Deluxe III.

The latter black and silver Hot Rod colour scheme (the first Hot Rods were Tweed) comprises a simple black Tolex-covered quality ply cabinet, fronted with a silver grille cloth. It’s a narrow-panel, top-loading fifties-style cab, with mid-sixties livery, basically.

The bigger change here is the control panel, which to date has been silver, with the decals facing backwards. Version III brings a black panel with white lettering with the decals facing you when you stand in front of the amp. It might seem like a small thing, but the legion Hot Rod users out there will tell you that this will make a massive improvement to legibility either on dim stages, or under reflective lighting.

The controls themselves remain as the previous Hot Rod Deluxe, with its dual-channel set-up, powered by a trio of 12AX7 valves. There are two inputs, the first at 1 meg-ohm, as is usual in most quality valve amps, and the second lower than that, which has the effect of attenuating high-end and level.

If you have overly bright, or mega high-output pickups, or perhaps you want a warmer sound for jazz, for example, it’s worth experimenting with the second input.

The normal channel has a single volume with no master control, and there’s a bright switch for extra zing and presence should you so desire. We had hopes of a separate master volume added to this channel to increase versatility, particularly at lower levels and make it easier to balance with the drive modes, but Fender has chosen to keep it simple.

The second channel is all about overdrive, with the additional mode ‘More Drive’ selectable either via the top panel, or via the included footswitch. The result is three sounds at your feet – clean, drive and more drive – via the included, and much improved two-button switch.

The two principal electronic changes over the previous Hot Rods are firstly that Fender claims to have ‘tightened’ the overdrive: “More attack and less slop on the lower strings,” according to Fender senior product manager and amp expert Shane Nicholas.

Secondly, the volume and treble controls have a new taper, designed to make the lower regions of the control more gradual.

“The Hot Rod Deluxe had a reputation among some users for being quiet on one-and-a-half and loud on two,” continues Nicholas, “so we changed the taper of the control for smoother response. We did the same thing with the treble control. This is especially appreciated by players who use the amp at home, yet it won’t bother the gigging guitarist.”

We do wonder who buys a Hot Rod Deluxe to use purely at home, under two on the volume – it’s a very loud amp – but nevertheless, Fender clearly thought that it was a big enough deal among current players to make the change.

“Drenched in reverb, what emanates from the combo is an almost 3D quality that makes you want to call-and-answer with chords and melodic phrases all day long.”

Fender approaches its series effects loop with two jacks titled Preamp Out and Power Amp In; think of them as send and return respectively. There are no designated level controls, so you might have volume issues with overly quiet pedals if they don’t have their own level attenuation.

This is no different than plugging certain pedals straight in the front-end of the amp, of course. And when you do, the Hot Rod’s normal channel has always been a brilliant base to layer pedals on, thanks to its high headroom and dynamic range – version III is every bit as good as its predecessors in that respect.

On the inside, this is very much the modern valve amp; a custom PCB layout so they can be manufactured to a consistent quality in high numbers. Well designed and put together, this isn’t circuitry as art, but the seemingly countless Hot Rods out there are testament to its general road-worthiness.

The biggest issue that we’re aware of to date is with the reverb, where the tiny wires in the tanks themselves can come loose. Thankfully it’s a safe, easy and cheap fix, if you need to.

The reverb in the Hot Rods isn’t valve-driven as it is in higher-end Fender amps, such as the Super Sonic and some vintage reissue and custom models. Instead it has its own little op amp to drive the signal to and from what some see as a clunky, mechanical relic from yesteryear; others as the absolute and only way to create reverb in guitar amps.

The other significant change in the version III Hot Rods is that there’s now a Celestion speaker on the end of the dual-6L6 40-watt power stage, instead of the previous Eminence driver.

Replacing the speaker has become a common mod for Hot Rods, so Fender has chosen to change it to a 12-inch called the G12P-80. Not a million miles from Celestion’s current Seventy 80 model, it has an 80-watt power handling capacity and 98dB sensitivity with a 31oz ceramic magnet. So let’s see how it…

Sounds

You haven’t heard clean until you’ve heard it from a 6L6-equipped Fender amp, and short of the hand-wired Custom stuff, this is as good a place as any to get it. The Deluxe III’s normal channel has all the shimmer to make single-coils sparkle, but it’s the room-filling bass, coupled with the slightly scoopy mid-range that completes this sound.

We have to note that all of the above is significantly improved when using a high-quality cable between guitar and amp.

Drenched in reverb, what emanates from the largely open-backed combo is an almost 3D quality that makes you want to call-and-answer with chords and melodic phrases all day long.

As you turn up the wick, you can introduce some light overdrive, especially with more powerful pickups, but we’re talking about gig volumes for that. With or without pedals, this channel alone will out-shout most ‘normal’ volume acoustic drummers.

The reverb is sweet, spacey and old-school evocative, but it can start to feel unrefined as you go much past three and dig in hard, certainly when compared with more advanced circuits in amps such as Vox’s AC30 Custom and the Mesa Lone Star series. It’s still infinitely better than many of the digital reverbs cropping up in some low/mid-priced valve amps, however.

The drive channel is where things have changed most over the previous Hot Rods. There was a tendency for the overdrive to become somewhat ragged sounding, especially with single coils and your guitar controls maxed-out.

Heading straight for ‘more drive’, the Deluxe III returns a notably richer distortion with what feels like a more musical harmonic structure. It hangs on to the bottom-end with more authority, too, so it doesn’t become muddy unless you want it to by adding tons of bass.

There’s still plenty of high-end, which is good news for more powerful humbuckers and darker sounding guitars in general, though with vintage-style Strats and Teles, you’ll be reaching for the tone pot on your guitar for fatter, modern-style gains.

There’s tons of overdrive on tap; full, saturated Gary Moore-type blues that can also veer into that mid-rich ’boutique’ area, and heavy rock riffing if you need it, with the mids dialled down.

Going back to the Drive mode in channel two – the LED goes green from red – the gain level drops off to a bluesy/rocky crunch. Depending on guitar, it can span softer, Hendrix and SRV-type chordal stuff, through to more strident and spiky punk-derived Arctic Monkeys/Strokes sounds, then on to smoother classic rock rhythms.

There is some compromise involved in the shared EQ and single drive pot, but to us the relationships make sense when flicking between modes. We find that putting the drive control somewhere between five and nine (it goes to 12) covers most blues, classic rock and heavier/more contemporary rock applications, depending on the guitar you’re using.

Whether it’s the revoiced overdrive or not, this speaker feels like a real improvement over the previous Eminence model. It’s less spiky in the upper mids and low trebles for the most part – but as we say, do watch those tone controls with bright guitars.

What a superb amp. Fender has done the smart thing in providing a wide range of tones from classic clean, to more saturated, harmonic drives from one simple row of knobs.

We know that from Hot Rods past, of course, but the updates – the more focused overdrive, easier-to-read-controls and the improved speaker – are all changes that players are going to feel and hear straight away.

The caveat is that the Hot Rod Deluxe III requires that you interact with it as an instrument, rather than simply treating it as a noise box. With neither independent EQ for each channel, nor dual gain pots in the overdrive modes, the true extent of this amp’s versatility lies in your guitar’s controls, and your fingers of course.

Some amps don’t offer that kind of dynamic and flexibility, and it’s fair to say that not everybody likes to play that way. For those who do…

The Hot Rod Deluxe has become popular for good reason, and this version III update will only continue that excellent reputation.

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