Budda Twinmaster 2x12 Combo

I have to give this a 9 and not a 10 because of one reason- no Master Volume. That is one thing that frustrates me about these boutique amp makers. How hard is it to stick one pot in the final stage? Anyway... other than that, it's great. Volume, Bass & Treble. It might not seem like much, but it does all you need. Reverb might be nice, but if I wanted reverb there are things I could do about that. But it really has what you need. All tube, even tube rectifier.

LOUD. The first thing I can say is that this is loud. Don't be fooled by the 18W. It will make your ears bleed. It will be a nice sound that makes them bleed, but nevertheless. It has a very bluesy sound. You are not going to shred on this thing, but if smooth overdriven tones are your thing, then this is a great amp. Think Clapton style tone. Very quiet. Nice cleans as well.

Built like a tank. Never had a problem with it.

Quick response, very helpful. I just had a quick question and they responded right away.

Great amp. I love it. The only beef I have is that it has no Master Volume. The only reason I would trade would be to get an amp w/ a master. The tone is great. Especially for anything I do. I play mostly in a church setting and it has a nice distortion for what I am doing. You can crank it up and get those Plexi tones or roll back and get a nice clean jazzy sound.

This is a handwired, point to point, non-master volume EL-84 class AB powered 18 watt combo amplifier made in 1997 which I bought new. This is a very simple amp in terms of its features. Front: two inputs (Normal and High Gain), volume, treble, and bass, on/off, and standby. Back: speaker out jack, post-EQ effects and return, 4/8 ohm mini-toggle switch, and a slave out jack. It is loaded with two Celestion Vintage 30's. Only one input works at a time. Simultaneously plugging into both inputs disables the High Gain side, so you cannot use an A/B box to switch between the two. There is no channel switching. While there is plenty of room to plug and unplug your speaker cable and/or effects loop cords, you do have to search a little once you are in there, since the chassis is not as deep as the cabinet. A little care is needed to not swat you tubes with you cable plug. As far as a feature rating, it doesn't have much, but the minimal approach here has no adverse tonal effect and is rewarding in a no-fuss sort of way.

I use this with a THD 8 Ohm Hotplate power attenuator to allow me more tonal options at higher amp volume levels while keeping the speaker volume more manageable. I play a mid-90's Les Paul Standard with stock 490R and 498T humbuckers. I have tried, but do not use, the effects loop, instead preferring to place the pedals in line between the guitar and amplifier. I have never slaved, so I cannot comment on this feature.

Normal Input: Lower volumes are rather crisp and can be used for blues as is. Rolling off the treble on the guitar or the amp can allow you to spit out jazz. With the volume set from the halfway point on up, sounds get fatter the farther up the volume ladder you go, and you can control the dynamics from clean to gutsy by varying you pick attack. Digging in harder overdrives the amp at this point. This area is good for thicker blues and tamer rock sounds.

High Gain Input: Lower volumes here are also crisp, but the power amp sees an extra tube gain stage in this signal path, so they are punchier and more aggressive. Volumes from about a third of the way on up to two thirds do yield vintage Marshall tones, which are good for classic rock and Clapton era Bluesbreakers/Cream soundscapes. The tone here is raw and gets quite thick. Pushing the volume higher than two thirds finishes filling out the spectrum. This amp has teeth. Setting it here lands you in a meaty, creamy, robust realm, though it is not metallic. I'd have to liken it to EJ's 'Righteous' or 'Last House On The Block' heavier non-lead tones. Musical feedback is quite happening here, too.

The volume is plenty loud enough to gig with at your average club.

I have never had a problem with this amp. Replacing the tubes is to be expected. I also own a Phatman overdrive pedal (three years) and a 1210 cabinet (six months) and have had no problems with any of Budda's equipment.

Very good - Scot and Jeff are courteous and knowledgeable. They are friendly and willing to answer emails and phone calls. The website has a nice user forum that also is of great use.

Having grown up on a steady diet of small channel-switching master volume combos, this non-master volume amplifier was actually like learning how to play a whole new instrument. And that's a fun process! It definitely has a different feel to it. This amp does what I want/need it to do, so it meets all of my expectations and thus warrants the scores I gave. This amp can be a plug 'n' play model if you want it to be, but experimenting with the various volume and tone settings, swapping tubes and speakers, throwing pedals at the front end, and attenuating with different Hotplate settings gives you many different tonal options. The Twinmaster is a powerful tone generator that can get quite corpulent, be dynamically responsive, and bare its fangs, all the while maintaining control, something which can't be done with 50 and 100 watters. I'd get another if need be.

I don't know the actual age, but this is a very early TwinMaster. Rating this amp for "features" is very difficult, because it is an extremely simple amplifier. It is single channel. The controls are volume (or gain), bass & treble. No channel switching, no master volume, no reverb, nothin'! Actually, it has an effects loop, which seems to work well, & a slave output for driving other power amps, which I have never used. It had two inputs, Normal & HiGain; HiGain adds another stage of tube drive, & hits the power amp conciderably harder. The only thing on my wish list would be reverb. (I believe the Budda VerbMaster is essentially the same amp with reverb.)

It's main feature is TONE, & lots of it! This is the best sounding amplifier I have EVER played! 18 watts, through 2 12 inch custom Celestions. I plug into the HiGain input, crank the volume until my solos are just a little bit too loud, then back off my guitar volume for cleaner parts. Adjusting my picking attack & guitar volume lets me go from pretty darn clean to a fairly raucous ZZTop-Skynard type of tone. This is not a modern, ultra gain, monster, but it is an incredible blues-rock machine!

I play in a blues-rock band. I play either a Les Paul with Duncan Phat-Cat P-90s, or an SG with '57 Classics. My TwinMaster gives me recording studio type tone every time! I have played Starts & Teles through it, & they sound good, too, but I'm more of a Gibson guy. Any qulity rock guitar is gonna sound very good through this amp.

We play small clubs, up to maybe 150 people. We never mike anything, & this 18 watt amp is certainly loud enough. It will NOT give me loud, pristine clean tones with my Gibsons, like say, a Strat through a Twin Reverb. I have never needed to turn up more than half way to get my crunch & lead parts across, & I can still get an "agressive" clean tone that is plenty loud!

Tube amps can be noisey, but this one is fairly quiet. I think that might be because most of the distortion comes from the power section, not the preamp. I use it for studio work because the tone can't be beat! I'm a fairly marginal guitarist, but this amp makes my licks sound tasteful. I truely am a better guitarist when I play my Budda! Who could ask for more from an amplifier?!?

I have a Mesa Boogie V-Twin pedal that I can set in front of this to get that over-the-top distortion. I tried it a couple times, sounds really good, but the amp gives me as much distortion as I need without the pedal. I use no effects with this thing. A good guitar, a chord, & my Budda - that's all!

This is a very solid amp, but I would NEVER, EVER play a gig without a backup. It has never let me down. The amp only uses 5 tubes, so I carry a full set of replacement tubes, plus fuses, to every gig. (I also carry a SansAmp Classic that I could plug into the PA, if I HAD to.)

I bought this one used, so I have no idea about service. I have called the company. They can be hard to get hold of, but they will take their time to help you, once you find them!

I've been gigging since '68, & I've owned a lot of other guitar amps. For the blues/rock style I play, amps don't get much better than a Budda! I know I will always have "The Tone" when I plug into it. It's loud enough for gigs, but low powered enough that you can really make it work for a living. The amp I think this compares to most is a Mesa Boogie Blue Angel; same kind of clean preamp, distorted power amp setup. I bought the TwinMaster because I like the 2x12 format, & I got a great deal on a used one.

Budda amps are not very common. If you ever get a chance, PLAY ONE!

Vol., treb., bass, hi input, low input, line out, fx loop, 18 watts 2x12 celestion vintage 30's. Mine was made in 1996. I use the amp to play mostly blues and occasionally classic rock. Very loud amp given it's wattage rating. Loud enough to use in a normal sized club without miking, darn near as loud as my RI bassman with a SS rectifier. I can't really think of anything that I would like to see added to this amp. Based on this, I give the amp a 10. If I had wanted a channel switching amp, I would have bought one. I could see using this amp for just about anything, outside of thrash or heavy metal.

I use this amp with a custom strat with Lindy Fralin pu's, a Hamer USA T-51, a '93 PRS CE 24, and a Yamaha SA2200(ES-335 style). Makes every guitar I own sound great. Very touch responsive. Everybody compares the hi gain input to a Marshall, well, I don't know about that, I've never owned a Plexi, but I do know that it sounds great with my PRS w/humbuckers, very early ZZ Top-ish. This is a very easy amp to mic and have it sound great to tape without any fuss. I have never been able to get such a big sound to tape so easily as I can with this amp. With my PRS, it's old ZZ Top, with my strat or tele, beautiful overdrive along the lines of a tweed amp, with my 335 into the low input 1/2 way up, gorgeous, thick blues tone, along the lines of Bluesbreaker era Eric Clapton. I don't run any effects into the loop so I can't comment on that, and I haven't tried the line out because I don't use one. I do use a Fender RI reverb tank into the front end of the amp that sounds just great. The two celestion V-30's are a good match for this amp and probably contribute a lot towards the amp being as loud as it is since they are pretty efficient. Also with the tele into the low input, some great classic early country tones come to life with enough headroom for gigs. This amp just wants to sound good and could handle almost any gig that you would care to throw at it. As far as noise goes, I haven't really noticed that it is really all that noisy. A little noisier than my RI Bassman and BF bassman, but neither one of them has as much overdrive as the Budda so I wouldn't expect it to be as quiet as either of them. I haven't had a problem with noise while recording or at a gig so it can't be real bad. This amp makes me play better.

Never had a problem with it. I have noticed though, that you need a pretty high quality 12AX7 in the first preamp slot. If something would go wrong it looks like a snap to get it fixed. The layout is very clean and the soldering is very neat. A lot of work went into building this amp.

The customer support at Budda is the best that I have ever encountered. Scott Sier is super at what he does. When I was looking into buying this amp, I e-mailed him with some questions and had repsonses by the next day, every time. I was also informed that even though I was buying the amp used, if I sent them my serial #, they would extend the warranty for the amp for a year. Wow! That is confidence in your product.

I have been playing for 15 years and giging for 12. I also own a BF Bassman, a SF Bassman, a RI Bassman, and a RI reverb unit. If it was stolen I would not hesitate to buy another. This is the best sounding amp that I have ever owned, including a BF'ed SF Twin, and a BF Princeton. I love how I can go from clean to dirty by altering my pick attack. Also, this amp really cuts through a band without being harsh. The fact that you can find these for $500 in the head form used just blows my mind. Just a beautiful sounding amp.

Hand Wired Point To Point (really beautiful job, too), 2 EL84 Power Tubes, 2 12AX7 Preamp Tubes, 1 5U4 Rectifier Tube. Class AB Power Ssection. Dual Inputs: Normal and Hi Gain. Treble, Bass and Volume Controls. Effects Loop With Slave Out. 18 watts. Plugging into the Normal channel you can overdrive the power amp into overdrive and feedback as the knob approaches 12 O'Clock. Very loud for 18 watts. The High Gain channel distorts a lot sooner than the Normal channel, but both channels are quite useful and distinctive.

I have three main guitars that I use with this amp. A Les Paul Recording model from 1971 (the ones with the slanty low-impedance pickups and the control plate with Bass, Treble, Tone, Decade, Phase and Volume controls), an Alvarez Villain electric with a factory Modulus Graphite neck, a floating locking trem and SC/SC/HB pickup arrangement and, finally, a Peavey Wolfgang with a maple top. The range of tones this amp will get with my guitars is amazing. The controls on my Les Paul Recording have always been subtle through my Hiwatt, but this amp responds to a flick of the Tone switch or a twist of the Decade knob like I'd redesigned the front end of the amp. It's never going to give up ultra-high-gain tones, but it delivers everything you could possibly ever expect to milk out of your instruments with a simple preamp section. Subtle changes in how I finger notes makes a huge difference with this amp and backing off the volume knob on the guitar will clean up even the most saturated tones. It has some little quirks in that it chirps and squeaks and makes noises like an amp about to explode when I've got it fully cranked up, but I guess that's what it sounds like when you're killing the power tubes. This amp has changed my life.

When I got the amp the tubes were in foam padding in a box tucked into the back. When I had some trouble getting the rectifier tube into it's socket I noticed that it was because one of the copper prongs in the socket was bent. After the tube went in I noticed that it had folded the prong over on itself and I started getting some unusual noises out of the amp. I was worried that I'd killed my new amp, but the people at Budda decided it was probably the effect of shipping on the rectifier tube and sent me another one (at no charge). I haven't had any problems since.

See above. The people at Budda have been nothing but helpful. In fact, when I was first thinking of buying a Budda I was complaining about the shortage of 2x12" models and the wait I was going to have to deal with if I wanted one. In a few hours they found me one in Atlanta at one of their dealers. Great company.

I'm primarily a bass player, though I bought a guitar while I was at BIT and I've always fooled around a little with six-string, but I think this amp has caused me to turn a corner with my playing. I was looking at a lot of point-to-point "boutique" amps when I bought this Budda and I'm confident that I made the right choice. I can't say enough positive things about my Twinmaster. I wish the channels were footswitchable, but the Normal channel cascades into the High Gain channel so plugging into one disables the other. Even an A/B switch won't get you around that. I recently spent a month around Edward Van Halen and I find myself looking at high gain amps these days. I really wish Budda made one. I'll probably own a 5150-II soon, but I feel like it will be for "party tricks". It would take a miracle for another amp to sideline my Twinmaster.