Product: Clara Amps The Ringer
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted
04/09/2007
at
05:51pm
by
Scott Partridge
Email: stungun at shaw<dot>ca
Features
:
10
The Ringer is two separate 50 watt tube amplifiers in one head style cabinet. It has two Marshall style 2204 circuits with Presence, Bass, Middle, Treble, Gain, and Master Volume knobs on each. Each amp is a single channel with Hi and Low inputs. These are both fixed bias amps and can run any type of octal tube. At the back are the bias points and pots so its very easy to try different tube tones. Currently I run one side EL34s and the other KT66s. I run the head into a Clara stereo 4x12 custom build. It is an over sized, slant, 4x12 with 2 Vintage 30s and 2 Greenbacks (one of each for each amp).With both amps running,KT66s clean and the El34s dirty, this amp has a very complex tone. It sounds good quiet, it sounds good loud, and it sounds unreal very loud. You will never hear a more powerful sound than what this thing make. I give it a 10 for this category because the only feature an amp should have is that it sounds good.
Sound Quality
:
10
The clean side can be clean, the dirty side can be dirty, the clean side can be dirty, the dirty side can be clean. I have not heard a bad sound out of this thing yet.I play rock in a working original band (www.lifelikecobra.com). I run a stereo chorus, 2 stereo delays. I also run a phaser and overdrive pedal into the clean side only. Effects sound very dimensional through The Ringer. This is a very responsive amp to almost anything you put into it. With good tubes its absolutely electric !
Reliability
:
10
Have not had any problems whatsoever. Clara amps are built like tanks. If I threw this thing off a building it would probably break. If it fell over on stage, it would probably keep working. What more do ya want ? The only problem I see occurring is I'll have to change the tubes in a year or so because I am constantly playing it.
Customer Support
:
10
Keith, or Clara Amps, is a great guy to deal with. I have heard/played about 6 of his bulids already. Every one sounds like it couldn't sound any better. I work at a music store so I get to try many different amps. Clara amps are some of the best sounding amps out there. Distinctive yet classic. Keith is very customer oriented and will build you almost anything that you want to hear. He also completely backs his work 110 percent.
Overall Rating
:
10
How could I not give everything 10's. I approached Keith with this crazy idea of two separate tube amps in one head and he didn't blink. He just built it and made it work and very well. It was also quite inexpensive for the amount of work it was. There is no better sounding amp to my ears than this one. Plug and play. If you have to worry about anything else then you don't own a Clara Amp.
