This is a 225 watt tube amp with one input and a footswitch in. There are two channels, clean and distorted. There are three eqs, one reverb and one volume knob for each channel, and the distorted channel has a gain knob as well. There is also a series effects loop and a parallel effects loop, with a knob for controlling the parallel mix. There are also presence and master volume controls which work on both channels.

UTILIZATION

The amp is pretty easy to use and setup. It's pretty much ready to go, just plug it in. The sounds aren't too difficult to get out of it at all. The manual explains how to use everything pretty well, though if you aren't used to using effects loops you probably won't get what the effects loops are all about.

SOUNDS

The amp does not have that great of a sound. I bought when I was younger and on a budget, and into much worse music than I am now (metal, nu-metal, the like.) The amp definitely sounded better when I bought it, too. I used a Fender Strat and a Les Paul with it. It sounded better with the Les Paul because it didn't feed back as badly as it did with the Strat, but it still didn't sound too great. Over the years, as I would push it to try and get good sounds, the sound started to deteriorate. By now, almost 7 years later, the amp is almost unusable. The clean channel gets little to no volume, and the distorted channel is incredibly muddy (in fact, it was always pretty muddy, it's just gotten worse). I can't say any of the sounds are my favorite. I don't really like any of them. I recently tried playing a new model in a store, expecting that it would sound better than my amp does since it hadn't gone through the wear and tear. While there was more volume, it still didn't sound that great, and wouldn't make me change my rating. The sounds that you can get out of it are a mild, tame clean sound (basically no natural distortion, which I like and can get out of my Fender amps), as well as a muddy distorted sound that might be good for someone trying to emulate Queens of the Stone Age, but not much else. Turing up the low end on the distorted channel makes it really murky and unclear.

OVERALL OPINION

I have been using the amp for 7 years. I can no longer gig with it but I do use it as a practice amp when needed. The best features on it are the two effects loops, and that's about it. The sound is so awful that I can't deal with it. I tried a few models before I bought this, but couldn't really afford any of them at the time. I should have saved up a little more. For the price, the amp isn't bad, but I still would recommend saving up a little longer. It'll pay off if you plan on keeping up your interest in playing for more than a few years.