AXL Akita AT30

Small guitar tube amplifiers are becoming more popular everyday. Half stacks and 2x12 combo amps are harder to transport due to their heavy weight and bulk.

This is where the moderately powered AXL Akita AT30 comes in. It's loud enough to hang with a drummer, and boasts nice cleans and high gain. All that I wanted, really, and the AT20 would have been perfect if it had a footswitch jack.

I chose the White tolex option, because I love albino amps! It's a two channel amp, but technically, the second channel is just cascaded gain stages.

(Features it should have)
1. The footswitch is optional. It would have been nice if it were standard.
2. A third channel would have been a sweet deal, as the OD channel on the amp is able to be set with savagely high gain, and having a lower drive would have been so perfect. With the click of a footswitch, the option for clean, overdriven, and high gain distortion channels would have been perfect.
3. An optional cover to play closed back.
4. Better reverb and footswitchable.

The clean channel is really nice. Bright, breaks up a little when cranked and spanked, and cleans up well when rolling back on the guitar's volume. This channel is great for single coils.

The overdrive channel has a lot of gain on tap! It has cascaded gain stages, and can only clean up to a crunch like sound when very low, if the gain on the amp is dimed. Rolling back the guitar to 1-2 produces a nice crunch, and at 10 it is all out mayhem with a lot of sustain! There is a slight hum, not bothersome like my Classic 50, but I was expecting it with this much gain, so a Noise Decimator might be a good call. I was expecting a little flub, but it has really nice bass response for an open-backed combo, and even with palm mutes it sounds controlled and tight. This channel is perfect for humbuckers.

I have yet for anything to happen, so I'll just leave this blank for now, and maybe submit another review later if needed.

It comes with a 5 year warranty out of the box, which is nice. They haven't responded to my e-mail inquiry yet so I'll have to give them a 7 here.

I would definitely purchase another AXL amplifier if I needed anything more, but I don't. The Birch Veneer is also sexy as hell!

Considering I tested the AT20 at a local shop and bought the AT30 off of Amazon for $419 shipped, free shipping, which is almost what the local shop charged for the AT20, I'd say I got a great deal!

This amp just has so much more gain the what need. I don't play "Teh Br00talz", but I feel like getting into some old school Metallica. I religiously listened to them in highschool. For 70's-90's style rock, this amp is great for practice sessions, and weighing in at at 40 lbs and a petite 18" x 19.5" x 11", this little cube is ideal.

Good job AXL Guitars!

Year it was made:
early 2008

Style of music:
It suits me very well for I play rock, hard rock and SOME hard & heavy ( eg. Status Quo, Deep Purle, Van Halen, ACDC, Accept, some Hard & Heavy of the 80s ). It's not suitable for Ramstein or Slayer style though.

My wish was:
Overaly simple with no bundled crazy effects, parallel effects loop, powerful enough for small clubs, two channels, all tube with a spring reverb, remote channel foot-switchable. So as far as my requirements, it's what I wanted.

- Preamp: 2 x 12AX7
- Power Amp: 2 x 6L6GC
- 12" Alphatone Speakers
- Accutronics Spring Reverb
- Clean & Overdrive Channels
- Common 3-band eqalizer
- Parallel effect loop
- External speaker plug
- Footswitch plug (double foot switch is optional and controls channels and reverb)

I give 9 for I miss:
- Sepparate channels (clean & overdrive), but it's a low cost one as well
- Speaker completely closed around in the rear part (no open space). It would give the sound a little more power.

Guitars:
Gibson Les Paul, Framus Panthera Custom, (20+ years old Czech guitars) Jolana Superstar and Jolana Jantar (Seymour&Duncan pickup)
Music style:
Rock, Hard Rock & SOME Hard & Heavy (it suits me)

Noise:
Clean: Noisy enough at 50%, bassy, responsive
Overdrive: Noisy enough at 60%, mid and high freq., poor in lower freq.
Overally: Two integrated speakers would unleash its full power

Sound variety:
Clean: variable since it delivers the sound in a wide range of frequncies.
Overdrive: specific high and mid-to-high frequncies, quite dynamic, missing bass

Distorted clean:
Yes, lightly and at the volume level above 90%. Well, how often do you play at this level?

Distortion level:
As indicated above the distortion is not brutal, but enough to play eg. Heavy Metal.


I give 8 for:
It's weeker in the low frequency range at the overdrive channel and the same channel is not as loud and dynamic as the clean one. That is its drawback.

Very sensible to the mains stability. Changed the HT fuse already. The rest is OK.

The company never responded to my emailed question about the footswitch model. I consider this a significant drawback.
Their reputation save our local dealer (The Czech Republic).

I've been playing 10 years with a long pause. As far as my gear I like simple and good old stuff. I use an old analog pre 90ties Ibanez CS9, guitars Framus Panthera Custom, (20+ years old Czech guitars) Jolana Superstar and Jolana Jantar (Seymour&Duncan pickup). I still own a Marshall MG10CD, have owned Hughes&Kettner Tube 20, Marshall MG30FX, but the later two have not suited my needs for either the sound or the features (some of them cannot work in parallel).

If stolen I'd be missing it and MAYBE buy anoother one for it's got all features I want. The overdrive sound is what would make me think or test twice.
I bought it as a clearance for US$300 while the regular price in The Czech Republic is the double.
Alltogether this was a very good choice, but paying the full price I'd give me more time and a few more tries before the purchase.

This is a fully tube amp using 2(6L6GC)poweramps & 2(12AX7)preamps tubes. 2 channels, a clean & an overdrive. 3 band EQ & a pretty cool Accutronic Spring Reverb. Single input, footswitch jack, fx jacks. Mine did not come with the footswitches though, i wonder why. I play rock, blues, a lil bit of jazz and acoustic stuff and it plays like a dream. Gonna crank it up with fx though. Looks great, 60's vintage design with a touch of boutique look hehehe....One problem, the volume knob its either very loud or no sound....no sound, very loud, no sound, very loud.....

I play it on my Epiphone Les Paul Std with its stock humbucker pickups, Alnico Classics. This amp sings really well, great creamy cleans & a nice OD perfect for classic rock & after piping through stomp boxes makes up for heavier rock styles but still lacking the heavy crunch that metal players would die for. The Accutronic Spring Reverb is pretty cool too. Overall this amp gives a true tube tone if thats what you're looking for with a tight budget. Stays clean at high volumes (which is really loud for a 30watt) & lose little tone when its at low level. However it hums too much. Of course it won't bother you when you're playing but when you're not it hums like a monk.. hahaha...Upon hearing advises from sound engineers, guess its the wiring &/or plates they use in these amps that causes it. But this is no biggie at all coz after all this amp is great value for it price.

I mainly use it at home. Havent brought it to a gig or the studio yet but I'm pretty sure it will do great coz its loud & yet consistent in its tone. The built is pretty solid, I own the one with a blonde tolex housing though I lust over the birch veneer. My amp was actually a bargain after a minor accident by the dealer that cause a dent in the lower front corner & a tear of the tolex at the back corner which was caused by some sharp edge cut i believe (this makes me thankful its tolex coz if it were birch veneer CRASH the amp is wood shavings). But guess what? everything inside survived the knock & i've a 40% cut off the retail price.

I had some discrepancies with the warranty & so I mailed AXL couple of working days back but till now they havent come back to me. Havent got any problems with it yet anyway just got it not too long ago. AXL says 5 years warranty, my dealer (distributor of AXL products in my country) says no, no 1 year only) bah... answer me AXL!

If it were stolen I would definitely buy another overlooking all its flaws mentioned, I still can't get over its sound. Great sounding & value for money! My buddy got tricked into buying a lousy OEM amp called SMARVO which cost around the price I paid for my little baby akita and his amp coughs.... haha.. Got mine at a discount for Malaysian Ringgit 1k after thats US$282