Egnater Tourmaster 4100

First, how can you value my opinion? I have owned and played almost every kind of amp (Marshall JCM, Mesa Triple Rec, Mesa Nomad, Fender Bassman, Fender Twin, Guild Thunder 1, Rockman XP 100, Fender Red Knob Deluxe, Carvin Vintage 16, Bumbox Cielo, Fargen (Plexi Clone), Marshal JTM, Vox AC30 - AC15, Fender Blues Deluxe, Matchless Clubman).

The features on this amp are mind boggling (4 CHANNELS!) with separate gain, volume, contour (essentially some kind of mid scoop) and EQ for each channel. Switchable FX loop, switchable POWER for each channel 10, 20, 50 and 100W. Direct recording out which simulates a mic'd cabinet, edge mic'd (as they do in the studio). AND tube biasing control.

First off, this amp is a 10. Look at the amps I've listed above and trust me, this is a 10. I have not been able to find an amp like this one. I really need 2 usable channels (clean and distortion) and let my pedals do the rest. Since I got this amp, I've ditched many of my pedals and now simply run a Glass Nexus and DD-20 delay with it. I plugged it in and instantly dialed in my tone. I've spent thousands on pedals alone trying to get the tone from this amp.

Btw.. this amp has a toroidal transformer in it (only used in high end audio gear). I was surprised to see it in this amp, but maybe that's part of the reason this thing sounds so good.

Haven't had any problems with it. The thing is a tank. I wouldn't ever go on tour without a backup though (regardless of the amp)

Bruce seems like a real kind chap. He personally writes on the website and makes you feel like you joined some community.

Playing for 20 years. (Listed gear above). If it were stolen or lost I would definitely buy another one.

It's an amazing feeling to have hunted for tone all your life and then find the right piece. I've spent so much time researching amps, that I'm so relieved to not have to think about that any more and focus on the writing.

I don't care if you play Blues, Pop, Jazz, Metal, Thrash, Punk or Americana, this is the amp you've been looking for all of your life.

I dont what else for features they could add

Negative reviews for this amp? They originally shipped with jj tubes and had a high failure (and noisey)percentage, they no longer use jj tubes. This amp has awesome clean, blues ,overdrive and heavey distortion. If you cant sound good playing through this amp, become a drummer

no problems gigging 6 months

complaints about costumer service?-give me another break-these guys will do whatever it takes. Go to rig-talk.com, the have a forum there.

Besides being heavy as all heck, I love everything else.
check these tunes, all recorded with the tm
http://www.myspace.com/therodwellesbluesband

Crap, forgot my ratings!

Features have been explained below. Bought at Guitar Center September '08. Think I've had it long enough to post a fair review. While it is versatile enough to do anything, I'm more of a rack/midi guy...motorized knobs for me would be an absolute dream. However 16 motors at $200 a pop would be some serious coin! If you can tell I'm also a Soldano X-99 user, love the ease of use with that preamp. I run that with an Axe Fx Ultra and Carvin TS100 with JJ E34L's and 6L6's and it sounds geat as you can imagine.

All that being said, and that I live near Makin' Music in Chicago, a place to check out all kinds of extraordinary gear, here's what I have to say about the Egghead.

Absolutely love it, but I too am not pleased with some of the subpar reviews it received way below.

I won't try to act like an expert tube amp specialist, but have enough experience to maybe explain why some folks may have had problems.

For one, big kudos to Guitar Center for even offering a 30 day trial period. How many other stores do that??? If you don't like it, return it for a full refund within 30 days, which some have done.

2. Tube amps can be very sensitive and UPS is not going to pay any attention to "fragile" written on the box. You may get a lemon sometimes, heavy packages get dropped, which can cause all kind of problems with a tube amp.

3. Tubes! OEM tubes are never as good as what you can get from a good tube supplier. I haven't had any issues yet with the tubes it came with but the Carvin I bought came with the same 12AX7's and just one tube made a very strange whirring noise and then a pop about every 10 seconds. After replacing all was fine. I've tried more tubes than I care to mention, and if you really want to hear something special, do some research. There are so many possibilities (for any amp) you may be overwhelmed. A great start would be Bob at Eurotubes, Doug's Tubes, Tube Amp Doctor (TAD), etc.

My point is to start with a great versitile amp like the 4100, and if your still not completely satisfied, try some other tubes. Hey, tubes amps are a pain in the ass, and there are tons of tubes to try. Fortunatly this amp is easy to bias (with a good set of matched power tubes)....and while the manual says 115 to 125mv, a better idle setting would be 140 to 150mv. 120 is rather cold, 165 and up would be hot.

Preamp tubes are a whole other can of worms. You can never go wrong with a nice new old stock set of Mullards, but very pricey. Same goes for RCA, Sylvania, Telefunken, Brimer, etc.

JJ (warm)and Tung Sol(thick)and maybe even Electro Harmonix (bright) are all decent newer tubes in my experience, but don't by anything from Guitar Center. Groove Tubes are simply the above mentioned with a different lable and are not as well tested as the online dealers are. If you don't have experience with many different tube manufactureres, expect to go through much trial and error before you find the "sound in your head"...if you don't like the stock tubes. Chances are, you won't like the amps that cost 2 or 3 times as much either with their stock tubes.

Guitars I am using are a PRS Dave Navarro, great tone, sweet leads, somewhat muddy bottom.

Jackson SL2H w a Dimebag in the bridge, put a .001uf cap in series cuz it is so bright, sound great now with clarity and a force in the mix.

Jackson KV2 w EMG 81, easy to dial in, always predictable.

Jackson Mustaine KV1 sunburst w Duncan Distortion, Kahler fixed bridge, somewhat mushy but great tone.

ESP KH2 w EMG's, nice for drop tunings, EMG's are it if you don't like muddiness.

Guitars and pickups will make a big difference as far as how tight or muddy the bass, or how spikey the mids and highs.

Been great so far. Transformer is sensitive if you put an effects processor on top. It may add hum so you may need more space between them.

Never dealt with.

I'm 42 and have been a serious player since my early teens. I compared this to a Bogner Ecstacy and Deizel VH4 before I purchased. If you really like the Bogner tone, get one, it's awesome. Remember much of it is in their cabs too...but I loved the Ecstacy, outstanding tone, but at almost 3 times the price, and no 30 day trial, well... It could not do the Eggie's channel 4 though. The Diezel could however with a great metal tone, but could not do the Eggie's channel 3, which is like the Bogner/Marshall. The Diezel was also noisier than than all 3, tubes, maybe?

Overall I am very very happy with this amp. I also auditioned Krank, Splawn, Framus, and the top 3. It is made in China, outsourced, which is killing our economy, but if you buy because it's made in the USA, who do you think is making it? and for how much? Aside from the Soldano SLO... Don't get me started...

Feel free to email me with any ??? or comments.

Dave

I use this for an indie-rock band that gets as clean as some Death Cab for Cutie tones, yet as heavy to handle riffs for Foo Fighter's and Cave-In stuff.

Very versatile. The tone, gain, and settings are very responsive.

I wish the distortion would break up a little more, however, hearing overtones and clarity through heavier riffs is more of what I wanted to achieve.

***ATTENTION!***
I bought this new on January 30th 2009 from a Guitar Center.
It stopped working after light use (about 10 practices after purchase).
I have yet to get a response from Egnater...

I've been unsuccessfully been trying to contact Egnater Amps for 8 days now (6 business days). I have tried emailing, and calling several times to both the Michigan based shop as well as the national contacts they offer for the Tourmaster series. No luck yet.

I live in Michigan and bought an Egnater to support the Michigan started company and I always assumed this would be a great advantage for amp repair and customer support.

I hope to post a resolution soon with my problem. I will keep everyone updated.

Playing for 15 years. 3+ years of touring

Made in 2008. This thing is loaded. 4 channels, each with it's own eq and classic or modern switch, master volume, assignable effects loop (series or parallel), power grid to select 100, 50, 20 or 10 watts, bias adjust, record out, on and on and on.

FINALLY!!! I found an amp that delivers the tone I hear in my head. I've gone through so many amps (Marshall, Mesa, Laney, Peavey etc.), searching for one that can do clean, crunch and the BrOoTaLz. Most amps I've owned can do one or the other really well, but never all three. I got tired of running boost pedals while dancing around a pedal board. With the Tourmaster, I can just plug my guitar straight in and BAM, I've got four great tones without the mess of pedals.....YAY!

I'm playing a Gibson SG Standard with stock pickups and a Flying V with Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge and 498R in the neck. I have a Strat, but I'm rebuilding it and it's in about 30 pieces at the moment. My custom built 4x12 cab is loaded with Celestion V30's. I play mostly Rock and Metal, but occasionally stray into the Blues.

OK, here's the deal with this amp, you must first read the manual before dialing in your sound. In there you will find lots of great tips, but one really important tidbit: the global Density and Presence knob should be used sparingly. The lower the Density, the tighter the bass. If you like the bass flabby and loose, be my gueat, turn that ***** up. If you turn up the Presence knob too much, your tone will get shrill real quit. I set both around 9:00 to 10:00 o'clock. I let the channel EQ do most of the work.

The Clean channel is pristine and sparkly...lots of spank, even with my humbuckers. This channel is screaming to be played with a Tele or Strat.

The second clean channel can be super clean too or you can add a little grit to it. Great for the Blues, Southern Rock or Classic Rock.

The first OD channel does the AC/DC tone easily, but it can be cranked to Metal territory with a turn of the gain and contour knob. Oh I forgot, there is a contour knob on each channel and unlike some other amps out there *cough* Peavey *cough* the contour knob actually does something. The contour knob shifts your eq from low mids to high mids and it's can be quite dramatic. Perfect if you want a rhythm or lead tone or to sit perfectly in the mix. the bass frequncy is really tight which I love. I cannot stand flabby bass....grrrr.

The second OD channel is much like the first, but has more gain on tap. The distortion can get as brutal as you want, assuming you actually know how to tweak an amp. This channel has a very liquid, violin-like sustain. It's great if you want to set the OD1 as your rhthym and set OD2 as a solo boost. Or you can set OD1 as your crunch tone and OD2 as your Metal tone.....the possibilities are endless.

Another cool feature is the Classic and Modern switches for each channel. The Classic switch is for a British Marshall tone and the Modern switch is for a California Mesa tone. It's like having the amp loaded with both EL34's and 6L6's.....very cool!!!!

This amp is not noisy at all. I read a few reviews that said it was noisy and I'm calling shenanigans. I'm cranking this thing every night and I do not use a noise gate....I don't need too. Sure, the amp hums when cranked loud on the OD channels, that's inherent with any high gain, but it's nothing like some Marshalls and Laney's I've owned. Have you ever played a Laney? That is one noisy amp.

Probably the best feature of this amp is the power grid. You know how on most multi-channel amps when you dial in a nice clean tone and then switch over to your dirty channel at it's way louder than the clean channel? Well, on the Tourmaster you can set your clean channel to 100 watts for lots of headroom and set your dirty channels to 10, 20 or 50 watts. Now you can have a clean channel that will stay clean and be as loud or louder than your dirty channel....genius!!!!

So far so good. I've had no issues with the amp so far.

Never dealt with customer support. I have a three year warranty and I hope I never have to use it.

I've been playing for 20 years and I've gone through so much gear in that time. It took me 10 years to find the right guitar and finally now I found an amp that speaks to me. I don't have to fight this amp to get what I want. I get all tones I love and can play any genre I like. I'm really happy with it.

This is a 2008 Egnater Tourmaster 4100. Extraordinarily versatile especially for it's price class. It has everything anyone could need as far as tonal options. I play everything from hard rock/metal to blues and classic rock roadhouse type of stuff and it covers everything that I could possibly need all in one head. This amp has four channels two clean and two dirty each voiced differently. It reminds me of a Randall modular head except with a fourth module and a whole lot better tone. The effects loop is highly usable and more than enough for me. I am a plug and play guy. No pedal board no effects just tone. I use a Danelectro delay through it for leads. The power grid is god like giving more power tube saturation than you know what to do with. It is easy to match Marshall grind tones at low volume. The tube reverb is great. Not too much not too little. Beautiful. Thew only thing that I wish it had was a separate switchable solo boost in the master volume section but with four channels to choose from one can easily just be set up as a redundant lead channel so I guess it really doesn't matter. Also the presence and density controls are brilliant. I can dial in to any room I'm in in seconds with this feature which is what it is intended for. People who don't understand the controls and the reasoning for them are the only ones complaining about them. I use this amp in the studio and gigging about three nights a week and it has more than enough power to contend with whomever I am playing with and we all use big boy toys. My other guitarist is running a Fender Prosonic and a Peavy 6505 which are both insanely loud amplifiers and it keeps up easily. I do have to say that my amp came with 6L6 power tubes instead of the standard 5881s..... I am not sure why.

For the most part I use dual humbucker guitars mostly Les Pauls. I have a Paul hot rodded with Dirty Fingers Pickups and this amp screams with it. Sustain for days. This amp totally nails every sound that I have in my head. I play heavy hard rock with heavy classic rock influences and this amp nails the Marshal JCM sound on the nose. Channel four I have set to sound more modern like a Dual Rectifier but better. Notice I said LIKE a dual rectifier. It does not sound quite like a Boogie... it has it's own flavor of high gain that I can't really put my finger on.... I just know that I like it better. It sounds less homogenized and more liquid. I only have the gain st at 10 o clock on that channel and it absolutely cooks. No noise that I can detect but the amp was biased well and it is brand new soooo only time will tell. The clean channels are great. In the classic voicing the channels have just that little bit of Marshall breakup that just warms up your clean playing like butter. Actually like a Marshall without the honky ugly mids that plague every Marshall pre amp ever developed. My other guitarist refers to this amp as the Marshall/Boogie. :) Cleans break up the way they should at high gain and it has enough grind for anyone with any sense. Remember kids, the more gain you dump into your dirty channels the ****tier you sound. Less is better. We play guitars not chainsaws.

I never gig without a backup. Never failed on me yet though one can never tell. Tube maintenance is of course the only concern with this amp. You have to be careful with tubes.

Not had to deal with them yet

I have been playing for over a decade and I have more gear than I would like to mention. This amp is actually replacing a MESA/BOOGIE Strategy 500 rack system that crapped out on me this summer. Not the Boogie's fault... hell I think the thing was older than I am. I was playing through a Peavey Supreme and a Mesa Boogie Studio hybrid custom rack system to get by until I could get this. If it were lost or stolen I would definitely get another Egnater. This is one of the most versatile amps I have seen in years. You just watch... we're going to start seeing the power grid feature on Marshalls and Boogies and everyone else under the sun here shortly. This amp is truly revolutionary.

this head is nock down drag out rocker amp. and with the variety of tones availible, it can achieve brilliance in ANY genre of play. ill xplain... i have read several reviews by obvious non owners and im quite disapointed by the responce... the power grid is an amazing feature first and foremost. this not only can save u on tube life for quiet practice or recording BUT alot of ppl have not concidered the effect diferent wattages have on tones channels and even the fx loop. the amp is meant to be output pushed to acquire the tonal glory, especially in overdriven channels. you will find alot of popping and feedback if your gain is gated against the powertubes output level. dont be afraid to push your tubes, this head is made for it. mine was made in 2008, i am a studio musician, and i play blues, southern rock, alt rock and metal. the amp has footswitchable reverb, parallel fx send return, line out and 4 incredibly clear channels give you`ve been bias properly. im dialed in at 125mv.

i play metal and alt rock with an jackson dk, ibanez s and rg. blues with the ibanez s and a studio lp. the first and second channels are prestine in clarity. the first channel very clean and sparkly on the vintage setting, push the gain and this channel will distort very mildly. same with channel 2 but more overall gain and fantastic blues. im short on words for the contour it seems to simply dial tones between marshal and mesa but effectively on all channels. i use contour on all the channels.. with out it the first two channels are too brite and the second two are in your face mid range, almost hard to tollerate. the overdrive on the third channel is very marshal and with the contour you can dial it into a peavey mid gain sound or a mesa high gain, this channel is good for classic and mordern rock rythm and has plenty of headroom for shrilling leads. once again i cannot stress enough the importance of using the full potential of the powergrid and pushing your powertubes. i guarantee you would find your tones to be more pronounced and natural overall. fourth channel can be anywere from soaring solo tones to all out crushing metal masacre. both channels also have a vintage/modern option which basicly is a high/low gain selector. my only complaint is the modern settin for the first two channels is too empty, hollow sounding and have not found a use for it

to answer the question leaft by harmony central.... i would NEVER gig without a backup, and mine is an american made mesa dual rectifier. the stock tubes for head are groovetubes. they warm up well and last very long, and that is gigging 3 times a week and letting them bake at low power for up to a half hour before use at full power. sticking with the stock tubes is a very good idea. this head is ssoo heavy. it weighs more than a 4x12 speaker cab. it feels very solid. the material that covers the wood of this head is very attractive too but rips easily as ive had a minor accident with mine already

the nearest egnater store is a 6 hour drive but i have dealt with them before. they have been very friendly and helpfull.

i am a life long musician. piano at 8, drums at 12 and guitar at 15 till present. ive dedicated countless hours to the wood and i will dedicate countless more for work and pleasure. as far as the tourmaster goes.. in trueth, it delivers as promised. ive read many review on this head and i invite these people (if owners) to contact me as i may be able to help them with their tonal deficiency. i will also add, i was not impressed with the egnater 4x12 cab with this head. not that its bad, but mine drives a 1960b and sounds absolutely, sublime. there are many things to take into conciderate when dailing your tones and with 100w tube head dont expect tonal brilliance at bedroom volumes. take care friends

4 stage powergrid + half power full power selector = good tube life and turn it down ability, and multitude of other tonal abilities. did i mention you can select from 10-100w per channel independantly?
4 distinct and gloriously clear channels, given you've bias checked properly.
channel one clean and prestine tube tone, can be dialed almost accoustic once dialed in.
channel two pushed clean channel, def. blues and soft rock, oh so clear and sparkly.
channel three totally marshal only the crunch is much more crisp. kinda like a tube fuzz crunchy bowl of korn flakes, def rock and hard rock or metal with the rite pickups.
channel four, dead nuts mesa, throaty bass and alot punch. mids and highs are peircing at this channel as well.

independant vintage and modern selector for all 4 channels.

contour roll really brings out the mids or drop it to bring out the ball z mesa tones on channels 3 and 4. on channels 1 and 2 its helps bring out some very natural tones for blues/jazz/country.... way way country if ya like that kinda think :/

reverb natural, spot on. no complaints at all.

its an '08 chinese and built like a brick sh-t house, but don't drop it hahahaha. heavy son b-tch too!

fx loops n such, send and return with a return level/mix dial and send level dial if ya decide to push it a tad, it also has a 4 stage selector for the foot petal in the loops block for pedal assignment, basicly, what channels to assign fx to and there is an option to assign to all channels.

pedal board itself comes with the head and works nicely. tiny little lights tell you what channel your on.
you can turn on/off reverb and fx loop on the pedal.

ibanez rg and s series for the brutal thrash and metal. s series also sounds VERY good for the blues and accoustic types. gibson les paul studio, and a dkmg ... i think i covered this topic above.

any guitar you plug into this thing takes on a whole new color.

i'm not gonna jerk ya around guys, i got this thing sitting on a 1960b that isn't even broken in yet and it just sounds SSSSSOOOO kill, so so kill.

i have a 3 channel dual rect for backup.

i'll update if it breaks.

i emailed jon at egnater about getting a longer pedal cord... he calls me and says, yea we have them now people have been asking about em BUT you don't even need to order on from us. guitarcenter sells a 30' 7-pin midi that will do the same damn thing ours will.
and sure enough the lights even come on.
he's like second in command in that company and a really cool dude.
i trust him and i'll use egnater amps for life.

i been jammin since i was 15 man and never played a head that sounded this good, even the rect and let me tell you something else, me and that head have seen it all.

i covered it all, get whatever the h-ll ya want.

i have never rated anything this high but now its time. this is 4 amps in one and they are all foot switchable.

i am a working musician that needed something to cover alot of styles. the rig that i had was a mesa 50/50, rocktron prophesy, sonic maximizer, furman power conditioner, corg tunner. this is all on ebay now:) about 4 grand worth.
i set out looking for a marshal that had 3 chanles. one for clean, one for 80s rock and one for heavy rock. we all know what the price on that is. the things is, with a marshal, you get a marshal sounding clean, you get an over drive marshal sound and then you get a marshal tone that has alot of gain, muddy gain at that. no matter what you do it still sounds like a clasic rock marshal.
i got this home today and thought it would serve some but not all of my needs, so the 1st thing i thought was, ok what pedals will i need.the fast answear is none.
the cleans are vox ac 30 like or even fender bassman, yes i said it.
the next channel has clapton all over it. you can even go a little heaver if you like on it. the 3rd channel is dead on hot rodded marshal, i mean dead on. the 4th channel is full on mesa boogie but better, it isnt muddy the lows are low and the mids are all in place.
then my nex thought was, ok 100 watts i cant play this at home. i was wrong again. on the back you can change the watts to each channel. i dropped it down to 10 watts and i have the same tone as if i had it wide open at 100.
i know this sounds funny but this is a cover bands dream, to have all the tones you want and its all foot switchable. then i hooked the sonic maximizer to it and magic. thanks goes out to agnater for a job well done. ond for those who say not enough gain. i have mine set on 3 and its heavy heavy heavy.

i dont on this yet, i havent had it long enough but it is built like a tank.

i have been gigging for years now and i have always had that tone in my head and have spent thousands of dollars tring to get it only to say, thats close but just not it. its nice to be able to work on just playing now and not chaseing that tone.