Product: Blues Pearl CD50115
Price Paid: US $700.00 used
Submitted
09/08/2001
at
09:02am
by
Dave Engel (The Bluesbear)
Features
:
9
This amp is the Chris Duarte model. It's about 5 years old. I bought it used. It is all tube and has one channel. Because of it's age, it has a single knob reverb (fine with me, I use very little reverb anyway). It has 3 band EQ and a presence control on the back. It has a Weber VST speaker. I believe this amp has 50 watts (more than enough; if you need more than that, mike the amp). No bells and whistles that would be useless for me, but it has almost every feature I need. I wish it had a pentode - triode switch, but I can always have that added and I'd bet I could get it done by Blues Pearl.
Sound Quality
:
10
I use a custom wired Brian Moore I1 (H-S-H), a heavily modified Strat H-S-S), and a '65 Firebird for slide (H-H). The amp sounds great for blues and southern rock. No high gain, just sweet tube distortion. It cleans up nicely when the guitar's volume is backed off. I've been getting paid for this for 37 years and right now I have 24 amps. This is the first one to completely satisfy me.
Reliability
:
9
I've only had it a few weeks but this thing is a tank and extremely well made. I doubt it'll ever be a problem. Only an idiot (or someone who doesn't care about professionalism) would ever go to a gig without a backup amp and guitar. I carry extra tubes but would use the backup to get through to the next break. I'm giving it a 9 only because I haven't had it very long
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Used, no warranty. I haven't had any dealings with them other than to call and ask if they had a manual but the amp has been out of production for 5 years so they didn't. They were certainly friendly and as helpful as they were able to be, but under the circumstances, I'd better not rate this section.
Overall Rating
:
10
This is far and away the best amp I've ever played through and I'm going to buy another Blues Pearl (possibly a different model, just for fun) just to have it. Like I said, I wish it had a pentode - triode switch. I have 2 Seymore Duncan Convertibles (great amp but complicated, when it breaks down, good luck finding anyone who understands it), a '59 Gibson GA-40 Les Paul, a BR-9, a GA-7 Discoverer, and a GA-5 Skylark; a '65 Fender Bandmaster, a '66 Bassman, a Bassman 10 combo, a Super Champ, and a siver face Princeton; a Peavey Delta Blues and a Classic 20; a Bedrock head, an old Ampeg, etc. I think you get the idea so I'll stop.
