Egnater Amp-building seminar kit

Amp kit built during the July 2007 amp building seminar taught by Bruce Egnater at the Amp Lounge. As this is an amp kit designed by Bruce for first time builders, the features are kept fairly basic with some additional things you won't find on other kits.

Based on a JTM45/JCM800 style amp kit, this revision of the kit replaces the tube rectifier with a tube effects loop and solid state rectifiers. It's an all tube single channel amp with high, lo and clean inputs and a front footswitch to kind of mimick a 2-channel amp by making the input channel cleaner. This also features a presence control on the front for your top end and a density control on the back for your bottom end.

Things I wish this kit had? Maybe a headphone output, a power attenuator, a 2nd or 3rd channel, but hey it's a beginners amp kit so there's no need to complain about what else it could have. The kit itself is made of high quality components(same grade of parts that you'd find on any high end amp) and as long as you don't screw up the build, this amp Bruce designed sounds killer. The best part is, once you've built the kit Bruce will help you figure out what you could do to put in all the things you wish you had or how to fine tune the tone to change it's sound if you want.

As for what kind of guitar I play or style I play, I don't think it matters but I've tested this amp with my Caparisons (Horus, TAT II, Dellinger II), Ibanez's, Jacksons, ESP's as well as having people test it with Les Pauls, Strats and even the occasional Jazz body and the amp sounds great with all guitars and styles.

If you're wondering about the seminar itself, all I can say is that it's the best $1500 I ever spent. The amp kit alone would cost you $1200, so you're really getting a huge bargain on the seminar. If you've been thinking about building an amp and want something that's got enough gain and crushing distortion to make any Marshall/Boogie player jealous, you want to attend this seminar. The kit itself is one thing, but the knowledge that Bruce gives you is worth the $1500 alone.

PS. If you're going to attend the seminar, tell Bruce that Budd Royce from Dimarzioforum.com or Caparisonforum.com sent you (not that it really matters)

Tonally, this amp is fantastic. There's definitely more gain than you really need and the amp sounds amazingly heavy for the hard rock/metal tones. The cleans on this aren't bad and is good enough for any kind of jazz I try to fake. However, for the guys who want Fenderish cleans, this doesn't have it. I do believe that Bruce was thinking of doing a Fender style amp build, but quite honestly, by the time you're done the seminar, you will probably know how to make this amp have the clean sounds you want by manipulating the tone stack.

Is this amp noisy? -> Only as noisy as your guitar.
How brutal is the distortion -> VERY (no seriously, it may be an amp kit, but it's the best amp kit I've ever heard and even better than most high gain amps I've heard)

Reliability and dependability wise, it depends on your own skills at putting it together. The quality of components are there and there's definitely no flaw in Bruce's design so the only part about reliability you gotta worry about on this amp depends on your own soldering skills.

However, should this amp actually break down, the amp seminar should have taught you how to fix the issue.

Seeing that this is actually an amp kit from an amp seminar, you would figure that there isn't much in terms of customer support but surprisingly enough the support Bruce Egnater gives you is exceptionally good.

Warranty -> None (you built it, it's whatever warranty you want to give yourself, but should you get stuck on how to figure something out, I'm sure Bruce would give you an idea on what might have gone wrong)
Authorized Service Center -> Where ever you want to take your amp apart to fix it yourself

Overall, I am extremely satisfied with both the amp and the amp seminar. The $1500 spent on the amp seminar is worth the amp alone. However I do wish that maybe Bruce will one day to an advanced amp building seminar with a 2 or 3 channel switching amp.

If I ever lost this amp for any reason, I would definitely go do the seminar again to build another amp!

Regards,

Budd Royce Lam
Dimarzioforum.com
Caparisonforum.com