Product: Clark Amplification Belmont
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted
12/04/2007
at
11:09pm
by
spammenot
Features
:
7
Average features, nothing special.
Sound Quality
:
3
The amp was sold to me as an amp that used 12AX7's to produce vintage tweed tone. However, it is unusable with 12AX7's. You can only use the amp by replacing every 12AX7 with the weakest tube available, 12UA7, and then the amp has none of the punch and vitality needed. In fact, the tone very dull. With AX7's, the amp would merit a 9 rating, but the amp produces, with any speaker, ghost octaves or other distortions at the 12th, and 15th or 17th fret on the high E string, E's and G's an octave below that, and the equivalent pitches no matter where you fret or if you bend into them. This is not a tube issue, believe me, I tried many tubes and speakers. The amp is a dog.
As if this were not enough, the cabinet is not large enough to really accomodate the add-on reverb, so the energy from the speaker vibrates those tubes into oblivion very quickly. All kinds of odd rattles and buzzes permeate the tone. At moderate volumes, the amp sounds as if the chassis itself is vibrating and producing a buzz. Terrible.
Reliability
:
No Opinion
No, you can't depend on this amp. Sticky, gummy stuff dripped all over the reverb tank. I was told by either Clark or Perfect Note that this was normal - it came from the speaker when it was first played. But wait, Bob at Perfect Note swore that Mr. Clark personally broke each amp in by playing it loudly for hours and hours. Surely this "normal" drip would have occurred and surely the amp guru would notice the numerous odd noises.
Customer Support
:
1
Customer support is non-existent. This is a company that does not stand behind their product in any way. They never offered a refund when I was 100% dissatisfied. My amp did not work on arrival. Tubes. They were very polite and sent me tubes quickly. Then the speaker immediately blew. I shipped the amp back to them, they pulled the AX7's and replaced them with AU7's, not mentioning that to me. The amp sounded like a dog and I found the switched tubes. Speaker blew again. I complained. They sent me what was said to be an $80 new Weber speaker. You have to DISASSEMBLE THE ENTIRE AMP to put in a new speaker! You have to pull the chassis out! I took it to a tech to accomplish this and....the "new" speaker was blown and the tech said it had been installed in another amp before.
Mr. Clark, who is a very gruff, rude, person on the phone, told me that I could just keep shipping the amp back to him saying it didn't work and he would keep shipping it back to me saying it did. He would not address the fact that it was impossible to use 12AX7's in the amp as described. Worst customer service ever.
Now Bob at Perfect Note will certainly ring up the phone bill on your dime to sell you the amp, but he will return neither your calls nor your emails once the amp is in your posession and not to your satisfaction. He was no help at all. Neither party ever offered a return, this was clearly out of the question, and they did not stand by the product in a professional manner. I've never had worse customer service ever.
Overall Rating
:
2
I'll never buy another Clark. This is why they show up on Ebay so much. Read the reviews of every model, you'll see I'm not the only one who regretted buying a Clark or had problems with service.
I play a variety of high-end vintage and newer gear, no point in listing it here. I've played for decades. Don't make the mistake of buying one of these without hearing it first.
