View other reviews for this product:
jkessel « Very versatile amp head!! »
Published on 04/30/12 at 23:2088 watt, all tube amp head. Runs on 2 KT88 (but can use 6550) power tubes and 4 12ax7 preamp tubes. Called the tweaker cause of all the tweaking options it has. Along with 2 channels it has a 3 way switch EQ switch that changes the voicing of the 3 band EQ. USA which gives it a fender style EQ, VX which is VOX style, and Brit which is marshall. Each channel also has a vintage/modern switch which in modern boost the highs and lows slightly for a more modern sound. Along with those each channel also has an adjustable, programmable, footswitchable boost, tight/deep, mid cut/normal, clean/hot, and bright/normal switches. Those are pretty straight forward for what they do.
UTILIZATION
The manual did a great job explaining how each switch worked so there was no guessing. It setup very easily and I had no problem dialing in a great tone right away.
SOUNDS
At first I was looking to get a Orange Tiny Terror but decided to try this out next to it. While the TT sounded great this was easily able to get a very close tone but also hundreds of other tones, while the TT is pretty much a one trick pony. The 2 channels are voiced slightly different, ones darker while the other is brighter. They're not labeled "rhythm" and "lead" cause they weren't designed that way. Both channels have equal amount of gain. So if you want the bright channel as clean and dark as gain that's your choice, same for vice versa. Really give you the chance to fully tweak your tone. You really could have 2 lead channels as well, just 2 different sounding leads.
This has a very clean tone, the KT88 tubes are almost impossible to overdrive so you can really crank it and still get pristine cleans. The lead though sounds great at low volumes. Because it's very high headroom from the tubes these amps were designed to get the tone from the preamp tubes, so low volumes vs high volumes isn't as drastic. There will still be a difference but you get great tones from low volumes because of it. The gain goes from light marshall-ish crunch to tight aggressive modern metal and everywhere in between. I can get Randy Rhoads type tone by having higher mids, set to Brit EQ, deep switch off, tight switch off, mid cut off, hot on, and mids turned up a bit. But I can also get MetallicA style tone by setting to USA EQ, tight on, deep on, mid cut on, and cutting the mids a bit. Really just too many options.
OVERALL OPINION
Overall this is a fantastic amp. It is a 2 channel amp but feels like there's 10 with all the options. For the money ($900 new) I can't think of a nicer amp. I also tried the Tweaker 40 prior to this and while the tone is the same I liked the added boost feature of the 88 along with more watts. I can always turn it down but I have the added volume if I ever need it. It's a great amp and I'd recommend it for anyone from blues to metal.
UTILIZATION
The manual did a great job explaining how each switch worked so there was no guessing. It setup very easily and I had no problem dialing in a great tone right away.
SOUNDS
At first I was looking to get a Orange Tiny Terror but decided to try this out next to it. While the TT sounded great this was easily able to get a very close tone but also hundreds of other tones, while the TT is pretty much a one trick pony. The 2 channels are voiced slightly different, ones darker while the other is brighter. They're not labeled "rhythm" and "lead" cause they weren't designed that way. Both channels have equal amount of gain. So if you want the bright channel as clean and dark as gain that's your choice, same for vice versa. Really give you the chance to fully tweak your tone. You really could have 2 lead channels as well, just 2 different sounding leads.
This has a very clean tone, the KT88 tubes are almost impossible to overdrive so you can really crank it and still get pristine cleans. The lead though sounds great at low volumes. Because it's very high headroom from the tubes these amps were designed to get the tone from the preamp tubes, so low volumes vs high volumes isn't as drastic. There will still be a difference but you get great tones from low volumes because of it. The gain goes from light marshall-ish crunch to tight aggressive modern metal and everywhere in between. I can get Randy Rhoads type tone by having higher mids, set to Brit EQ, deep switch off, tight switch off, mid cut off, hot on, and mids turned up a bit. But I can also get MetallicA style tone by setting to USA EQ, tight on, deep on, mid cut on, and cutting the mids a bit. Really just too many options.
OVERALL OPINION
Overall this is a fantastic amp. It is a 2 channel amp but feels like there's 10 with all the options. For the money ($900 new) I can't think of a nicer amp. I also tried the Tweaker 40 prior to this and while the tone is the same I liked the added boost feature of the 88 along with more watts. I can always turn it down but I have the added volume if I ever need it. It's a great amp and I'd recommend it for anyone from blues to metal.