Egnater Rebel 20 & 1 x 12 cab

You've read about the features. What I'd like to say is that most of them (bright & tight switches, watts control, tube blend) are greatly reduced in effectiveness at low volumes. I thought the bright & tight switches were broken until I turned the amp up to almost "gig volume" (I don't gig super loud). I think this may be why opinions vary so widely on the features. I play classic rock and blues and this amp works great for me. I like a single channel amp that screams a little, but cleans up with the guitar's volume knob. The Rebel does this pretty well. I wish it had reverb, but I knew it didn't going in so it's all good.

I agree that the handle is rather flimsy, but the amp only weighs 16 lbs.(!)

Mostly I use a Les Paul Std., and occasionally a '62 reissue Strat. It does a good job of sounding great with either while still letting the character of the guitar through. I got this amp because I was tired of hauling my Marshall Vintage Modern and homemade beast of a 2x12 cab around. At first the bottom end was a little thin (let's be fair here, though. I was comparing it to a 50 watt Marshall with a large 2x12 cab!). I put a Boss GE7 in the loop and boosted the lowest fader just a tad and the bottom filled out nicely with no flab. Now this dinky little amp will hold its own with anything out there. It makes a little noise, but I run the gain kinda high, so it's to be expected. It's not any noisier than the Marshall. Definitely quiet enough for stage use.

Too new to know, but I gigged with it once and it worked like a champ. Sounded the same at the end of the night as it did at the beginning. I've been surprised at how many amps don't.

I've been playing quite a while and I come from the Marshall camp. This amp fits in nicely with what I do, plus it looks very cool. It takes effects well, in front and in the loop (I've heard of others that had problems with thte loop, but mine's been fine). The best sounding 1x12 I've ever played. I wanted to compare it with the Marshall Haze, but here in the midwest the Haze didn't show up until well after its "release date", by which time I had gotten tired of waiting and bought the Rebel. I have since played the Haze and it's nice, but I think I got the right amp.

Great features that all work together to offer up a broad variety of sounds. Feature set has been described before - my unit was manufactured after Feb, 2009. Plenty of power and nice to be able to play through different tube sets.

Here where it falls down for me: very thin bottom end. My 65DRRI and hand-wired Gibson amp (12 watts class A) had dramatically fuller but not boomy bottom end. Other than that, a dynamic amp that had good headroom clean and nice overdriven sounds. Very noisy with single coils on certain settings (neck position on strat). Now, it is probably the speaker cabinet and NOT the head that contributed to thin bottom end. I didn't have the patience or luxury of playing it long enough and quickly enough to break-in the speaker any more without getting past the seller's return policy - so back it went. Bought a Blackheart Handsome Devil and 12" cab and am MUCH happier.

Seems very dependable - made well and switchgear had a solid, smooth feel to it,

I reached out to Egnater to ask about speaker break-in period and advice on thin bottom end but I never heard back from them. Others report a personal touch and quick response - not my experience.

I am strictly a hobbyist and a mediocre player (blues, traditional rock/roll, praise & worship). I would rate myself a 2-3 as a player with 10 being best. I would, however, rate my ears a 9-10 as I grew up with tube amps, preamps, electrostacic loudspeakers, etc. I could NOT get the Egnater to sound good to me. I wanted this to work so badly, but was not able to. So - buy the amp with the intention of trying it thoroughly in your environment. Those that like it love it.

The is a 20watt amp and it's super versatile....check eganter.com for more info.

alright...I am Producer/Studio owner and still play out quite a bit with different groups. I am more of U2/Lincoln Brewster style of player.

I bought this amp just to have something different in My studios..I own over a dozen amps(Vox's,Marshalls,Boogies,Custom amps..ect).

This amp can go from a gorgeous clean which is very usable with pedals to a flat out power house on it's own when you turn up the gain.

NOTE: it comes with tone suggestions in the manual..I started with these tones..it was easy...they are pretty amazing.

I produce everything from brit rock, worship records to metal bands...This amp makes it on almost all the tracks...it's that good and usable.

LIVE...this is amp is wonderful...I use the clean sound with my pedals and it is great...however it was want something more diverse live I would check out the REBEL 30 when it comes out..it is a 2 channel version of the rebel 20 with more kick on the dirty side.

I feel comfortable gigging with out a back up...it is solid for hours in the studio.

I have emailed them a few times about the Rebel 30..I get reply's quickly...they are cool to talk to...

I have been playing for almost 20 years...seriously almost 15 years now...and this amp has rocked my world.

I normally prefer AC30's and AC15's for my tones...I still use these amps and love them however the egnater has brought a new dimension I have not had before..I truly enjoy playing this amp.

I have not been this excited about a piece of gear since I got my first iPOD.

So this is a super versatile amp with multiple unique features that drawn me to this lil devil. The tube mix dial is a nice you can a get a good blues sound and a awesome rock tone with the turn of the dial. Wattage dial definitely a big plus because i could do some late night recording and get killer clean and distorted tone, but i have played multiple out door gigs and it being plenty loud enough and when i want drown out the PA. No reverb sucks but that can be remedied.

I use a Strat 335 and ES 320 sounds great through all, I play blues and classic rock. This amp gets a killer distortion like the Rev Gibbons and his crate. Such a great low end and i keep the bright switch and tight switch off. I use only a boss tuner and holy grail pedal and thats it. Turn the gain up to were it just barely breaks up then use your Volume knob on your guitar for you sustain and dist. Overall sound is phenomenal. I only use the one cab. Soon i will buy another and see how that sounds.

Been Purty good with standing the out door gigs in the texas heat.

This amp is all you need for any gig. If the place is too big just through a 57 in front. You don't need a bigger or more power full amp. I was choosing between a ac 30 1x12 and then the guy showd me this little monster and that was it. Great amp for any kind of music. PUT A REVERB ON THE AMP. oh and great price

Egnater rebel 20 - Wow! A single channel amp that allows you to dial in 6v6 or el84 or any combination, effects loop, and no reverb. Power range from 1 to 20 watts. Can be used with 4, 8, or 16 ohm cabs. The lack of reverb is one thing I don't like about the amp. The other is the handle. Small complaints when considering the many other positive aspects of this tone machine.

I use a LP, strat, and a 345. Mostly play old rock and blues. I can get a variety of tones that fit the styles. The amp also has extremely good distortion (young players will really like the possibilities).
This is a great amp for low volume rehearsals or practicing.

The build quality seems pretty good. I have had no problems and hope the reputation of the builder holds true. I feel comfortable using it without a backup.

The three year warranty is pretty good, I would like to see it go to five. I have had no need for repair work.

I have been playing for 35 years. I WOULD buy this again. I wish I had an amp like this for most of those years. It really is a great sounding low power amp. It is light, small, and easily transported. The speaker cab sounds pretty good and the cost of the amp make this a great consideration for most any player.

I had considered an Orange Tiny Terror as an option too. I am very pleased with this choice. Even though both are good small amps, I liked the variety of tonal possibilities of the rebel 20.

This is a single channel, pure class A tube amp, with an effects loop, but no reverb. Cool features include dual output tubes (6V6 and EL84) with a mix knob that cand blend them if you like. Also variable wattage from 1W to 20W. Egnater proprietary Bright and Tight switches give more versatility to the amps EQ. Small, light and portable, but built well and durable. Has bias adjusment pots for each pair of output tubes. Giving a 9 because of no reverb. Second channel would be nice, but for not much more you can get the 4 channel Tourmaster 4100 for a great price if you really need it.

I'm surprised to hear the ratings here, but I agree with some. First off, I did have some noise when I first got it, especially at higher gain settings. Also, the tube mix knob and watts knob do make noise as you turn them. SO what! Egnater says they do, but you're not turning them while you play. I switched out the preamp tubes for JJ gold pins with a balanced triode tbe for the phase inverter in V3. This quieted the amp for me and smoothed it out some. But, the best thing I did was re-bias the output tubes. They were biased at about 55% dissipation, but I biased them hotter at 70%. Wow! This amp really opened up and sounds like a new amp for me. The cleans are really sweet, but nothing miraculous. However, the OD and distortion this thing puts out is simply awesome, and gets better every time I turn that baby on. I have a Lovepedal Provalve and Les Lius, and a hardwire TL-2 Metal pedals in front, but I love to play straight through this thing even more than these fantastic pedals. Plus, I can get to real, beautiful tube distortion at a moderate volume that I used to need pedals for. Not that weak cheezy distortion sound everyone is wondering about when they play at volumes of 2. Listen, NO tube amp on earth can get a good distorted sound at "bedroom levels" You gotta push those output tubes! But this thing gets there much earlier than many others, so you can rock out without your wife kickin you out! I play mostly blues and all kinds of rock, and this thing nails all but Triple rectifier mayhem (but not a bad rendition of it). I'm using the Rebel 1x12 cab and I don't know who isn't happy with the low end. Maybe I just have a select one, but this thing has a low end that can shake my windows out and can be as tight or loose as you want it. Use your EQ and Tight switches guys! When I hit an open E chord with heavy distortion, I get chills, and the sustain rings forever! I'm playing a Strat, Tele, Les Paul, and some Seymour Duncans (Jazz and JB) and all kick ass. I just have to adjust the treble sometimes between the Strat and the HB's, but that's expected. One last comment. For those idiot's on youtube who adjust the tube mix knob while just picking the low E string and can't hear the difference, do you even know anything about tube amps? You gotta freakin play some good stuff mixing solos and chords, low and high on the neck, with some OD or Distortion on board. also with the watts knob. It's not a volume control guys. More watts sweetens the sound and opens your sound up tremendously, but only affect volumes in smaller amounts if your measuring decibels. Play lots of stuff at a moderately loud volume and repeat it and LISTEN when you change these knob settings. If you can't hear the differences, you don't deserve a tube amp, my friend.

Seems build is really solid to me. But I'm not a gigging musician and baby my gear. Can't comment here.

This amps relatively new, hitting the market in late 2008, so hard to say. However, Bruce Egnater has a reputation for quality amps and great customer service. To me, it's built pretty solid, but I haven't needed to contact Egnater and hope I never do.

I've been chasing tones for years, going through a variety of amps, but even more pedals. But I have finally found my BABY! It's got all I want and can get pretty much any sound I'm lookin for. Plus, it takes pedals great, and has an effects loop. Doesn't have reverb, but I put a Hardwire RV-7 Reverb pedal at the end of the loop on the plate reverb setting and it beats my Fender spring reverb tank, hands down. Plus, I have many reverb type options now. Overall, my biggest problem now is deciding whether to play straight in, or use some pedals. I love them all. But, maybe it's a good thing there's not more great reviews here. Then everybody would have one and I wouldn't feel like I really got somethin special here. Plus, for $600 plus a cab, how could you not wanna give this thing a good trial. Maybe you should try one at a friend's house and not in the store where your afraid to let loose! It's a tube amp.....play it like one! As for the cabinet, everyone's got their own taste. Speakers ARE all voiced differently, and the cab design definitely adds to the sound as well. So, choose a flavor that suits you. But, I am enjoying the Rebel 1x12 just fine. Maybe I'll add a 2nd to the stack. If nothing else, It'll look freakin' coool! Hahaha. Just check it out for yourself guys and give it a REAL test drive.

Extremely compact and unique 20-watt head with a front ported closed back 112 cabinet; power scaling, variable control to balance between EL84 and 6V6S tubes; TMB tone section, bright and tight switches; effects loop.

Rebel 20: Especially given how inexpensive, small and light it is, this thing kicks major butt. It was easy to dial up great sounds right out of the padded gig bag that comes with it. It's easy to pull a dark, classic Marshall sound out of it and I especially dig that I can make subtle changes by choosing EL84, 6V6 or any combination of the two. It has JCM800-type gain, plenty of low end, and way more mids and highs than I need. The tone controls are very useful, and the switches interact nicely with them. Sounds great through my Marshall 1966A and Mojo 212 cabs and Hughes & Kettner 112, and eventually the Egnater 112 (see below)

112 cab: This took a little tweaking. I'm sure the speaker would be fine once it had broken in...it's a Chinese produced Celestion Classic Lead 80 (labeled "Elite 80" and supposedly modified for Egnater to achieve better bass). However, I had some speakers laying around so I tried a few in the cab...choices were limited to a THD-treated, English production Classic Lead 80, Jensen C12N, Weber 1265, and an old Celestion 1265. Long story short, the Weber sounded best in this box, but I still was not happy with the low end, except when the cab was laying flat on the floor so it could "couple" with the floor. However, I know I'm going to need to use this kicked back, so I modified the cabinet...I blocked the port with a piece of 3/4" Baltic birch ply and cut the back cover of the cab at the bottom. The result is a 2" slot port at the bottom in the back of the cab and this creates nice low end response when the cab is angled back. Because it is now open back, I ended up using the THD Classic Lead 80. The upper mid/high was still a little bit brash, so I installed a Weber Beam Blocker over the front of the speaker. The cab is GREATLY improved and now this tiny rig sounds fantastic!

Looking inside the head, Egnater has used thick circuit boards and nice components, so I'd expect it will hold together well. At this price point I was not surprised to find the tube sockets were board mounted...still would have been much more comfortable if they were mounted to the chassis. Nevertheless, it looks to be VERY well built.

I emailed a question to Jeff, and got an answer very quickly.

This is a highly unique, versatile, tiny, light and relatively inexpensive rig with great tone. I've had no problem using it in live band situations at reasonable volumes...it probably won't keep up with a loud drummer and another guitarist with a 4-12 and 100 watt recto, but it's a 20 watt amp...it's not for that anyway.

This amp is positively a keeper...very useful in situations that require tube tone at lower levels! I'll still use my JCM800s for bigger gigs, but it's also nice to have this to bring as a backup.

the features are what made me wanna buy it. fx loop is great the variable wattage is cool. not the most versitile amp i've got but its fun to play with, more of a recording/bedroom kinda thang

the sound of the head is great. you can pull a lot of cool tones out of this thing. i got my head a few days before the cab came so i plugged it in to a 112 tone tubby ceramic and i was amazed. it killed and i never needed or wanted to touch the tight and bright switches. it handled buckers single coils and p90's like a champ. then plugged it into mesa vintage 30 2x12. that was not as nice , it was darker and slightly muddy. great speaker cab but not for this little head. next was a dr z loaded with 1 g12h anniv. very nice bigger and smoother than the tone tubby but not quite as much character. i was hearing less amp and more speaker with g12h. then the egnater cab showed up and it sucked so bad. like a piss stained sleeping bag had been put over the top of the amp, i know i had spoiled my ears with pricier cabs but for 249.99 i could have loaded an empty cab with almost whatever i wanted. now i am trying to figure out whether i should send the cab back or reload it and see if its the cab or the speaker that sounds like poop. everybody seems to be lovin the setup but hear for yourself the cab is all hype. a 9 for the head and a 4 for the cab.

too soon to tell. so far so good

Compact 20 watt amp. Uses 2 6v6 & 2 EL 84's and can mix between them. Power can be adjusted from 1 to 20 watts. Master, treble, mid, bass, gain controls. This gives you a versital amp somewhat. The watt knob goes from 1 to 20 watts but the difference is not dramatic. Hell I have a BlackHeart Litle Giant and 3 watts is loud!(great amp). The tube mix is a nice touch. You can tell the difference in the settings.
Has a standby switch, and a small led power on light. Come onand give us a real light. The amp heads handle is a piece of crap very flimsy. Over allits weel made with the exception of the handle. First thing I did was take it apart. Made in China but wiring and circut board are neat and well laid out. Pots are crap but at this price what do you ecpect. Tubes are Groove tubes whic I think are the white bread of tubes. The were replaced with TAD 84's and 6v6's.12AX7's with old mullards.

When I first fired it up with Groove tubes, it popped and hummed. Thought I had a clunker on my hands. To be fair I put it on stand by and let it sit for an hour. That seemed to settle it down. I fooled around with a real Broadcaster and tried several recommended settings. I was supprosed at how it sounded. Has Egnaters bright and tight switching which helped to adjust to the guitar. There is hum if the amp is cranked so recording with it may be a problem. Also some noise turning the watts knob. I next plugged in my 58 Les Paul(real) and again the amp responded very well. Hey I'm old enough to remember music without the Beatles and I've had these guitars for ever. Changing tubes improved the sound. I like a 12AX7 in the first spot, and it made it much quieter.

Hey BRuce how about a real handle on the head? Other than that its a new amp so.............

New amp no problems yet.

Overall This little amp kicks. You can get good tones out of it and it really handles pedals well. The 1x12 cabinet is great.. an 80 watt Cellestion and front ported. Tolex is well applied. Like I said I've been around and owned alot of amps and guitars. The head weighs 16 lbs and comes with a carring bag. Nice to lug around. Loud enough to gig with in a samll club. Versatile tone stack. I have to try this with a 2x12 cab. There are a number of good sounding small amps out and the best improvement you can make is getting rid ot the original tubes.