Bruno Underground 30

This amp is covered in purple tolex, with a fender style wheat grill cloth, with 2-12" ceramic Fane Speakers. The cabnet design is reminiscent of a black face Super Reverb with the exception of 2-"12 speaker being mounted on a diagonal. There are two channels, normal and bright, which share an EQ scheme of: Bass, Treble, and Presence. You will not find any master volume, effects loop, or reverb features on this amp. I only wish this amp included a middle control so it would be easier to dial in Vox tones, but then again this amp sounds great as is. I mainly use this amp in a small club application and find that 30 watts of the Undergrounds power is more than adequate. The amp sounds great for rock, blues, country, and alternative.

This is the best sounding amp I have ever owned! And I have owned them all: Vox AC30, Hiwatt Custom 100, Marshall Plexi, Fender Blackface Deluxe, etc... I use only the bright channel with either a G & L ASAT (as same as telecaster) or a PRS custom. With the ASAT I can get Vox and Fender tones at a low to med volume and very marshall tones at med to loud with the PRS. Basically the review in Guitar Player Mag. Feb 1997 is right on: "What a great sounding amp." The amp sounds at best when using my reverb unit, Peavy ValveVerb, but I have to say this amp really kicks with it or without it. When I compare it dry to my AC30, does it sound exactly like it? No, but it does give you that fantastic Vox chime. It seems Tony decided to slightly scoop the mids, which takes away that box sound of the vox. This is not a bad thing, with the scooped mids you can get a better than fender clean sound. How? Class A just gives better singe note articulation and really accentuates ghost notes. When I use my reverb unit the Bruno is really at it's best. It makes gentle chords sound like empty bottles delicately shaking, it is quite an experience. Now how does the dirty sound compare to my 1972 Marshall 1987 half stack? The Bruno has an excellent overdrive crunch and a close but no cigar Marshall munch, albeit I am comparing a 2-12" combo to a head and 4-12" cab, this amp has an amazing lead tone you have to hear to belive. When cranked at 6, lead note are just beautifully covered in rich harmonics. The individual note ariculation: Amazing. The sustain: Amazing. Cholesteral Heaven! If I had to buy this amp again, I would without hesitation. The only thing different I would do would be to spend the extra bucks and get the built in reverb model.

I bought the amp used and when it arrived, via Ups, I plugged it in and it worked perfectly. A week later it had a low rumbling noise that would come and go intermittently. The problem went away when I replaced a preamp tube. I have used it on 12 gigs so far with no problems, the thing still sings. I hate to say anything negative about this amp, because it is such a great amp, but to be fair to the rating system here goes. There appears to be some air bubbles in the purple tolex in more than one area. Since I bought the amp used, I do not know what caused this. The amp is in excellent condition so I assume it must be a manufacturing defect. I have yet to repair the air pockets, but I have been told by my amp tech he could repair very easily.

I have not had to deal with them yet, so I have no opinion.

Overall this is a fantastic amp. If you buy one, buy the one with reverb, it is the icing on the cake.