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MGR/Alien Philosopher « Kustom Tube 12 »
Published on 09/29/03 at 15:00Musician's Friend, ~ $90
I was looking for an inexpensive, small CLEAN amp suitable for practice and living room jams - and it delivered!
Construction is very solid - they made this amp inexpensive by making it simple, not cheap.
Lack of output connection is probably its biggest fault - you would have to mic it for recording or gigging. (it clearly wasn't intend for that, but the tone is that good!)
Unit pops when turned on. this sounds minor, but after the 100th time...
The tube pre-amp was way too brown as delivered (I'm more interested in light shades of distortion)
I swapped out the original 12AX7 with a "FENDER" 12AT7EH (labeled "Electro-Harmonix" "made in Russia")for 40% gain reduction (per www.thetubestore.com - they have great info on this stuff). That helped alot, but I think I need more sophisticated pre-amp circuitry to get the distortion tones I like (I'll undoubtedly go digital w next amp)
see above.
OUtstanding bang for the buck.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com
I was looking for an inexpensive, small CLEAN amp suitable for practice and living room jams - and it delivered!
Construction is very solid - they made this amp inexpensive by making it simple, not cheap.
Lack of output connection is probably its biggest fault - you would have to mic it for recording or gigging. (it clearly wasn't intend for that, but the tone is that good!)
Unit pops when turned on. this sounds minor, but after the 100th time...
The tube pre-amp was way too brown as delivered (I'm more interested in light shades of distortion)
I swapped out the original 12AX7 with a "FENDER" 12AT7EH (labeled "Electro-Harmonix" "made in Russia")for 40% gain reduction (per www.thetubestore.com - they have great info on this stuff). That helped alot, but I think I need more sophisticated pre-amp circuitry to get the distortion tones I like (I'll undoubtedly go digital w next amp)
see above.
OUtstanding bang for the buck.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com