Brownsville Choirboy 212

OK, on paper it looks great. Built in (real stereo, yeah right) chorus and reverb, two channels (footswitchable) and built to rock. Too bad all the stupid knobs move when the wind blows. You'll never have the same settings as when you start playing after a half hour. The distortion is solid state, and, well, keep reading...

THIS THING SOUNDS LIKE CRAP! The clean is actually all right and doable, but not even on par with other 2x12 100 watt amps by any means (granted, very few of them cost $300, but still). If you play anything other than death metal, the distorion is USELESS. It only sounds good with the bass turned all the way down, mid at about 10 o'clock, and treble cranked all the way, at which point it makes a whiny, ear-shattering distortion akin to early 80's glam rock crap. For me, it sucked. I tried it with a HAmer strat knock-off, and it sucked. Then I used an Ibanez Artist, which is notoriously bassy, and that was too much for it to handle. Finally, I settled on an Epi Les Paul (coolest guitar on the planet) and it still sounds like a turd. Don't even try to get feedback from this thing. It's just dumb. I would give it a one if the clean wasn't decent, but that would be unfair.

Well, OK, it's never not turned on, but it's got this quirk with its channels that really bugs me. If you plug anything into the second input, it mutes everything, for good. I had no idea how to fix this, and just hoped and prayed that it would work if I unplugged it. Well, it did. When I got it, its cheesy black vinyl was ripped, and the tweed was saggy. Now it's even worse, but I didn't want to have to deal with the tech support, which is

Based on previous experience with Sam Ash, I don't ever want to deal with this. NEVER EVER TRUST SAM ASH WITH YOUR CASH. EVER!!!!

I've been playing for some time, and was looking for a cheap amp to get some power in my rig. Now I'm buying a Sovtek Mig 100H, which is also inexpensive, but ROCKS THE HOUSE. Pick up one of them and a cheap cabinet, and you're set until superstardom. If this amp were insured, I'd pop an oily rag in the back of it and collect. It's an almost useless piece of excrement on the face of the guitar world.

2-12" speakers, Solid state chorus amp

Clean sound is above average. Distortion side is average - extreme treble. If you practically zero out the treble, a "brown sound" classic '70's distortion emerges. Chorus is pitiful - never use it. Reverb is adequate.

no problems to report - mine was dropped & smashed - I bought it for $100 - built a dovetailed mahogany case for it & have a great amp for practically no investment. Considering how it looked like it had been dropped off a skyscraper when I bought it & works great, I'd say thats pretty darned good.

n/a

Good clean tone amp - wouldn't buy one new - good amp if the used price is right.