Acoustic Image New Yorker

This amp was manufactured in 2004; it is Serial#009 so it's one of the earlier copies of that model. It's a single channel amp with one HiZ and one LoZ input (the LoZ is intended for piezo pickups). Controls are pretty simple: Level, Bass, Mid, Treble, Brite, Master, and a Tweeter Switch (on/off). It has an effects loop, direct out (post EQ) and 2 Speakon outputs (2 ohms minimim). No headphone jack. The amp is rated at 250W with the itegral 4 ohm speakers and 350W with the an additional 4 ohm extension speaker.
I play Praise & Worship music and Jazz. The amp is great for the small venues for which I use it.

I use this amp with 3 different basses: a Fender deluxe 5-string Jazz, a Carvin LB75AF 5-String fretless, and a Warrior Signature 5-string. These all have active electronics, so I do not depend much on the amp to tonal variations. This amp is a very high quality, very quiet, Class D amplifier. It is designed to produce an un-colored tone and it achieves that goal. The sound is very clean.

I've never had any problems since I purchased it in April 2004.

Never had to call.

I bought this amp because I was tired of lugging around my heavier combo. Note that my "heavier combo" is a Hartke 1x12 Kickback, and at 45 lb., the Hartke is not all that heavy, but I still wanted something lighter.

Owning anything with a serial number of 009 is somewhat worrisome, but so far I've had no reliability issues. The materials all seem to be of high quality, and the workmanship, is first class. Because of its odd shape there are lots of seams in the black carpet covering, and these are very well done.

The New Yorker is a single channel rig, about the size of a hat box. It weighs 23 lbs., has a single down-firing 10" speaker, plus a forward-facing 6" mid range and tweeter. The controls face the front as well. Because the amp is so short, and since the small knobs are mounted in a recessed control panel, adjustments are really difficult when the amp is not tilted back. The amp is supplied with a nifty little peg, to do just that, but when the amp is tilted back, the coupling with the floor is reduced, and the bass output is significantly diminished. This might not be an issue with an acoustic 6-string guitar, but with a 5-string bass, flat on the floor is the way to go. The amp was shipped with all the controls at 12 o'clock, and I just leave them that way.

One beef is with the carrying case. It's made from a really slick nylon material, and the non-padded shoulder strap tends to slip off the shoulder. Furthermore, the accessories pouch sticks out too far, and tends to hang up on door jams and other obstacles encountered on the way to the gig.

The biggest drawback of the New Yorker, though, is the price: $1385 for the amp and $125 for the case. For what I paid, I could have had a Gallien-Krueger 700RB II full stack. But again, I wasn?t looking for high power. I was looking for the highest power that I could get in the smallest, lightest package. That (along with incredibly accurate reproduction) is what I got. The short story is: if you like the sound of your ax and you don?t depend upon the amp to color the sound, then this is the most fantastic portable rig on the planet.

In spite of the few complaints and the high price, the New Yorker is just what I had in mind. I was worried that it wouldn't have enough volume but that proved to be an unfounded concern. It?s true that my church gigs or small clubs don't require a megawatt monster, but it fills even a fairly large sanctuary with all the bass sound I need, and I don?t hurt my back getting it there. No doubt in my mind: if this rig got stolen, I'd be on the phone ordering another, big bucks or not, asap.