Product: Clark Amplification Beaufort Reverb 112 Combo
Price Paid: US $1200.00 used
Submitted
03/09/2005
at
06:18pm
by
Doug
Features
:
7
Made in Nov. 2000, has the white "Clark" tone caps Michael must have ordered, reverb (obviously), NOS tubes, and Celestion Blue speaker. 5E3 circuit with great tone. Nice laquered cabinet, not much orange tint to it unlike my Clark "Wateree" rev/trem unit.
Sound Quality
:
10
This is my second Beaufort, the other also with a Celestion Blue but no reverb. I sold the last one because I wasn't liking the tone as much as my Princeton Reverb. When I first plugged in the Beaufort Reverb, I was overwhelmed with the bass coming out of the cabinet. I mean it was way too much, and the treble pot was wide open. I thought it was the speaker, but then the output tubes started to make noise so I put in a set of Sylvanias from the '50s. Ahhhh. Now it sounds fantastic. A completely different amp. I was ready to sell the Celestion Blue, but not now. It sounds like the best of all the tweed Fenders I've had, and I've had a few. Very intense but not harsh, great reverb, I hate to admit it, but it sounds just a bit better than my Princeton Reverb, and is a tad richer than my '53 Super, and just as loud. Unreal. Tubes obviously make a big difference in this amp, so try lots of different ones. The ultimate tone is there, I promise. Only negatives are superfast volume pot. Just breathe on it and the volume jumps way up, and it is a little noisy with single coils. I use Fender-style guitars - Warmoth one-piece ash bodies in Strat and Tele shape with Warmoth maple necks. Callaham parts, Fralin PUs from Callaham underwound on the strat, Bardens on the tele. The Beaufort is a blues/rock amp when cranked past 4, but you can get a nice clean tone too in a very narrow range. Huge, fat, jazz tone if you want it.
Reliability
:
10
Michael Clark builds the best, from what I can tell. But bring extra tubes to the gig.
Customer Support
:
9
Mr. Clark takes a while to get to it, but he did a very nice, conservative job with my '53 Super. Gotta ship it to SC though.
Overall Rating
:
10
Playing 25 years, lots of amps, too many really. Still messing with new ones like this Clark. I won't sell it. It joins my Brown Deluxe, '64 Princeton Reverb, and '53 Super, '53 "600," and the really rare, out of production Clark "Wateree." I'll sell my Deluxe Reverb now. Get one of these Beauforts if you can, and don't forget the reverb!
