Fame Guitar Stacks & Half Stacks

(Originally written by SlapKid/translated from Audiofanzine FR) I owned this stack since 2004 and I sold it recently. Total weight: 79 lb. (head + speaker cabinet)! So it's light. Similar to the Hartke Piggyback 408 because it comes from the same Chinese factory (named Megatone... afterwards each brand adds its own sticker). Output power: 60 watts with this 4 ohm speaker. 40 watts with an 8 ohm speaker cabinet. Don't use a speaker with lower impedance than 4 ohms! Serial FX loop, reverb (always a bit audible even when the control is turned fully down), Electroharmonix 12AX7 preamp tube (also for the clean sound). Gain, volume, bass and treble controls in the clean channel. Same settings plus medium control in the lead channel. Low signal to noise ratio. UTILIZATION Extremely easy to use. The beautiful finish is surprising considering the price. BUT: I had to tune the speaker cabinet because it vibrated above a given SPL: I used a lot of wood glue to seal the joints. ALSO: I had to change the channel selector and the tube since they were both faulty and the amp didn't work well... SOUNDS This amp is nice because it combines two sound personalities: warm and present in clean mode, which is perfect for jazz musicians among others (the 8" speakers sound accurate). In distortion mode it produces a JCM800-like sound! With the gain setting at minimum you get a power blues sound. Set at 11 o'clock, you get a powerful sound for rhythm parts while at 3 o'clock the amp produces a versatile solo sound. The amp doesn't generate too much noise but I don't play a Fender guitar. The mid control is very useful and it doesn't alter the sound. The original reverb sounds awful so I installed a short Accutronics (235 mm) in the amp and now it's much better. Notice that this applies to another speaker cabinet because the original one didn't match the amp. It sounded too "disco" and it didn't produce enough mids. On the contrary, it sounds very good with a 100-watt Marshall head so I wouldn't say it's a bad speaker cabinet. I got the best results with a closed 212 cabinet (Celestion G12T and G12P speakers). OVERALL OPINION This stack is worth its price when you tune it. It has the right size and looks when you use it at home but the day will come when you will have to buy a better amp. For this last application I connected a multi-effects processor in the FX loop to play at a reasonable volume. The problems I had with my stack were surprising because it's not usual for an EH tube or a switch to get broken after only two months. As a summary, it's a good stack (with three years warranty).