Product: Drive VGA 30T Combo
Price Paid: US $200
Submitted
06/21/2001
at
11:51am
by
jonathan blair
Features
:
8
This is a new amp made in Korea, three band EQ, master and gain, channel switching, pre-out, headphone-out, one 10" speaker, reverbless, tweed cab. The handle is cheap.
Sound Quality
:
10
I use three guitars, all Fender or Fender-types, all alder bodies, maple necks. One has hot S.C. pickups, another has Kent Armstrong "hot rails", the other has lipstics and a JB humbucker. I play Blues. This is THE quietest tube amp I've ever heard. DISTORTION: As you'd expect from a pair of EL 84s, it distorts at "low" DBs. The secret to this amp is to remove the Chinese 12AX7s and the muddiest 10" speaker you've ever heard. Luckily I own a Mullard
12AX7 and put it in the first stage . . what a difference! The second stage has a Sovtec Premium. The EL84s are Sovtec (origional), and I left them in. I replaced the 10" with a 12" 40 watter, nice move. The Mullard is a very tight-sounding tube and it really helped calm the raspy Chinese driver. This is now a great sounding amp . . AC15ish, good highs . . a screamy little thing. The company, Shinko, rates this amp at 30 watts RMS into 8 ohms, not a chance! How do you get 30 watts out of a pair of EL84s? It is, of course, just a small recording or giging piece and, as we know, clean tight cords don't come out of these amps at a gig environment. The switchable overdrive feature doesn't serve you very well as the amp gives a nice natural distotion at about 6.
Reliability
:
No Opinion
It's brand new.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
I know nothing
Overall Rating
:
10
I've been a guitarist for 40 years. I like (love) this amp because it's small, light, cheap, and makes a lot of noise, nice noise. I also like to tweek and this amp is very tweekable. Permit me a word; if you like natural output-tube distortion AND clean cords, get an amp like this one, a 50-100 watt (even a transistor) amp and an A B switch.
