Topic: New Amp
I've been playing an early 70's MusicMan 410 for so many years that I can't remember. It finally died last year in a combined death of wood rot and electrical smoke. I loved that amp. It was one of the early ones with the 12AX7 preamp stage instead of the solid state preamp that came in the later models. It had switchable power: 65 watts or 130 watts. This amp was freakin' loud and played super clean, super dirty and anything in between. It had the kind of versatility that I didn't think could be matched. I didn't think that I could find a replacement for it, so I held off for months and went on a rather extended search for my new amp. After months of searching I found it. Yesterday I received my Egnater Rebel 30 212 combo. Wow, what an amazing amp. It's half the size of the MusicMan but for some crazy reason it still weighs 70 lbs. It's a two channel amp with 5 12AX7 tubes in its preamp section and a blendable power stage section. Each channel is adjustable from 1 to 30 watts. You have the option of using 6V6 tubes or EL84 tubes and with one knob you can blend the two together, use one or the other or any ratio of combination. The 12" Celestion speakers are also kind of unique. One is 30 Watt speaker and the other is an 80 watt speaker. They are intentionally mismatched. This amp has a very unique and also very familiar voice. Your tonal options are just about endless. Although it lacks the tremelo of the MusicMan, I does have two very nice digital reverbs. One for each channel. When switching channels, there is no abrupt change. They fade into each other. Very nice. Very recordable. I'm taking it the Ms. Newby's tomorrow in Panama City Beach. I'll post a report about its use in a live setting when I get home. So far, I think Bruce Egnater hit a home run with this one.
