Egnater Tourmaster 4212

I purchased this amp from Guitar Center in DesMoines almost exactly a year ago. I play in a cover band that gigs two weekends a month all year-round. I'm able to achieve every playing style our music demands with this amp, from Staind to Jimi Hendrix. I utilize every channel of this 4 channel monster. Clean - Clean with a little grit - Overdrive for gainy songs - and a louder overdrive for leads. I use just about every feature the amp has to offer. I mic the front of the amp as well as run direct out of the speaker simulator into the mixing board. Those two tones are then mixed together and sound killer. I run all my effects through the effects loop in parallel mode. When practicing at home, I take the amp down to 10 Watts to saturate the tubes at low volumes. When playing live, I rarely go over 50 Watts (The amp is capable of 100).

I use two Schecter C-1 Classics, one with the original Seymour Duncan JB and 59s and the other with EMG 81 and 89s. I also run my Ibanez Jem, RG, and ESP Horizon (all with DiMarzio Evolutions in the bridge). The amp really brings out the diverse tonality of each pickup I use. My band plays 90s to current rock tunes (smashing pumpkins, linkin park, korn, staind, jimi hendrix, buck cherry...) whatever the fans want to hear pretty much. Myself, I play a lot of Protest the Hero, Skindred, Deftones, Taproot... This amp can do it all! At high gain settings, much like many tube amps, this amp gets a little noisy. I have introduced a noise suppressor and now, it's so quiet, you can hear a pin drop. The clean channel works perfectly for what I need. I've heard that some bluesy players don't like it but I used to play a lot of jazz and the clean works beautifly for that. The overdrive channel has everything I used to love about my mesa dual rectifier rackmount but it fills in the tones I couldn't get out of the mesa. Very nice. The amp also sounds great with an overdrive pedal plugged straight into the clean channel. I've used a line6 podxt live, metal zone, and marshall shredmaster this way, and all are very killer and distinct. It just depends on what you like.

I'm not sure how to rate the reliability of the amp. Like I said, I've been using it for a year now (two weekends a month gigging and daily at home practicing). Up until recently the sound has been consistent but the other day at band practice, I lost a ton of volume all of a sudden. I emailed Egnater about the problem and John Ewing called me back within minutes. I have now purchased a set of four ECC83 Gold Groove Tubes (there are 8 tubes total) tubes and I'm going to replace those tonight. I'm confident the amp will be back to it's old rocking self again afterward. This amp get's banged around in our trailer and in my car A LOT! So far so good.

I couldn't speak more highly about Egnater's customer support. John has called and emailed me on several occasions and he treats me like a rock star, even though I'm in a cover band. He values my oppinion and loves to hear about how improvements can be made and how well the amp is holding up on the road. I've never had service this good. I can't say the same for Guitar Center in DesMoines who made me wait at the counter, money in hand for more than 45 minutes before asking me if I needed help when purchasing the amp. Because of this, I lack the faith in them to make repairs on my amp and do my own bias adjustments, and tube replacement. Caution: That will void the warranty! I've been working with tube amp for over 15 years, so I'm pretty confident I know what I'm doing. I still consult John first though. I'm not sure how long the Warranty is under Egnater, I'm sure it's competitive though.

I've been playing for more than 15 years. I've owned tons of equipment of the years and frankly, it would be pretty boring to list it all. It would also be very depressing to mention all the equipment I wish I still owned. I just bought the 212X bottom cabinet for my Egnater last night and can't wait to try it out today...after I change my preamp tubes.

If my amp was stolen I would replace it immediatly. Actually, I might even switch from the 4212 to the 4100 head insead. Either way, it would be a Tourmaster.

I love everything about the amp.

I hate how heavy it is, but hey, it's worth it.

I originally was going to buy the JSX 212 combo but I tried it, and a line6 Bogner, and a peavy Triple X. I fell in love with the Egnater, now I won't go back.

The amp has everything I need. The only problem I have is in my own personal pedal setup. I'm looking into getting an Amp Gizmo that will allow me to switch channels on my midi fx board while simultaneously switching channels on the amp. Not the amps fault...

The amp has quite a bit of features although not all of them are useful. The contour dial as mentioned in earlier reviews seems to just suck the life out of the tone.

The amps has some ok tones on the vintage setting. The tone on the modern setting on channel one sounds like one of those acoustic emulators. Not so good. With some work you can get some good tones, but many lack some life.

This is where the amp really doesn???t make it. I gave it a rating of ???1??? because that???s how many I played out of four that worked. I ordered the amp from musicians Friend. The first one they sent was in the shred of a box and the reverb did not work. The other two came in good boxes. The second work for 20 min and then blew fuses. I sent it back and received the one I have now. The reverb does not work on this one. If the amp can???t survive being shipped it will never survive constant shows. So the only one I ever player that worked was in the store.

Some may think amps really can't take a beating. I had one of my own amps crushed when shipped back to me. It still worked.

Musicians friend was great and did a lot, including sending the amp by different shippers to help. Egnater didn???t return my call yet.

I'm looking for somthing else. I agree with most of the complaints about this amp below. I also agree with what someone below wrote. They said, now someone will write a review with all "10" that some what resembles the egnator selling points. Maybe they will get smart and start to write more moderate reviews. Not much will help but better packing and better manufacturing.

lots of features to many In my opinion.

I guess this is hit or miss with people but I love the way this amp sounds maybe it takes a little more time to get "dialed in" but when you do its really great.

People talk trash about P.C.B. and praise the point to point wiring. Im calling bull on this electricity moves just as well through PCB and if you take proper care of an amp (keep an eye on the condition of your tubes and using the right tubes for your amp) your not going to have anything to wory about. The guy below me he did not understand that and he ruined a great amp.

I am a guitar instructor and this amp is great no hesitations with it what so ever. With the over seas manufacture you can get awesome tone with minimal investment.

Lots of great features....all of them mediocre. A four channel amp that is supposed to cover a lot of territory.

I play a PRS ce22. The guitar has killer pickups. My style is a bluesy/classic rock. Been playing for 30 years. It can do everything from Fendery clean to Mesa Recto. There are some good sounds in this amp, but you have to work to get them out. It can also get quite loud. 100 watts.

Here it is guys!!!!! Don't bother. I should have followed my gut when I was testing the first one out and it died right there in the store. I had played on it a somewhat low volume and it farted out....and didn't come back! So I went to another store and tried another one out, played for a few hours and bought it. I was trying to get Egnaters custom built amp tone in a easier on the wallet budget. What I got was a 95lb paperweight. It presently does not work. Died during practice a couple days ago. This is the second time in 6 months it will be going into the shop. The first time the output tubes only a few months old started making some freaky sounds. This time there is no sound...only the still hushed voice of the fan. If you want Egnater tone, YOU HAVE GOT TO BUY THE HANDBUILT ONES MADE IN THE U.S.A. I however will not do any such thing because if Bruce is going to allow his name to be turned into crap so he can make some more $$$$$! He has lost more than clients. MADE IN CHINA!! Need I say more?

Customer support is very weak for these. If you bought a handbuilt from Bruce he will take care of you. It will not be long before he see's he created a repair nightmare. When lots of guys start sending these things in, that might give them the clue that "going on the cheap" was not such a good idea.

I bought this AMP new. I am music hobbyist. I just love playing guitar. I like to play mostly rock songs and funk some times. Sometimes I try to shred. About this amp cause of the features. You get 4 channels. Each channel can create a variety of tones. Ch1 can give you some clean tones. Some of the tones on Ch1 give you a kind of tubless sound but they are good for doing some fast strumming like on an acoustic. CH2 is a clean channel, My favorite one. Ch3 makes a bunch of rythmn sounds which are good. Ch4 gives from Ch3 leaves of in gain to a higher gain. The max gain on it sounds like it would be good for puck or some chunky chugging. Each channel has the same adjustments, EQ, countor, volume -gain. Modern/Classic switch and on the back you can select the Watts for each channel. There is master volume, reverb, density and presence. You can really get alot of good sounds with this, its really hard to choose. I really like the instruction book that came with it, It got me started right away messing with the tones without alot of reading. I play in my condo in which i cant get too loud, It has a half power/full power switch for the output section which works out great for me. 2 things I dont like. One, the amp is freagin heavy. Its nice that they put some good wheels an heavy duty handles on it. The amp should have came with a forklift. 2. Why not go all the way and have more options for effects loops. Like an effects loop for each channel would be good since the amp has 4 channels. The quality of the construction on this amp is awsome. Every detail, every corner every screw, molding, its pristine. The amp looks great. All the nobs feel real nice.

I have a newer strat deluxe with SCN pickups. I tried many amps before I bought i decided one. I really like the clean sounds this amp produces. I play alot of chords and aprregiating, I don't do alot of the hot gutiar stuff although i wish I could. The amp sounds very tight on the low end. I like it. The reverb adds a nice touch, i like how they made the reverb. It doesnt go all out like other verbs and you can really dial in the amount you want. You can get a variety of great sounding clean sounds. I don't really play it cranked up all the time. at the lower volumes I usually play at in my condo the amp sound is great. The distortion in CH4 would only have a couple of applications. Its pretty thick. I just play a metal zone pedal with. With this amp, that pedal sounds great for solos. Why not give it a 10? If i can mix the clean of the bogner I tried with the distortions of the Vetta Juice i would probably give that amp a 10. I am very pleased with the sound of this amp, but there is always room for improvment.

I havent had any issues with this amp yet. But it has been sitting in one spot in my house for a while so I can't really comment on this.

havent called them yet.

I love this amp. It looks great. Has the sound I like. Its unique in its look and sound. If it got lost or stolen it would be a consideration for my next amp. There are so many great amps out there, if I had the money I would try to have as many as possible. I tried about 10-15 other amps in the 1000-2000$ price range. This amp had a good marraige of sound and features.

Read below all have been covered

Here is my input, I have had too many amps as most of us have and am no longer gigging. I wanted to like this combo but just seemed congested sounding at first when I demoed it. Tried the head for kicks thru a Marshall 1960av cab, HUGE difference. SO plugged the combo into the cab and same results. Realized that those Elite 80's are totally wrong for this amp. Not sure why companies or Celestion keep putting the Classic 80's in amps. SO found a great deal on a used combo, bought a pair of G12H's and vola instant tone! I also changed out the first two tubes to New Production Tung Sol's these also made a huge difference in clarity and tone. Did not do as much for the overdrive channels so for now the stock GT's will stay.
With these simple changes I really feel that I have an amp that covers pretty much all the tone bases for me. Power Grid is cool and works well, you have to turn down the gains and get the output tubes cooking to get that great OD tone. Good luck!

So far so good, they are a great company!

Not had to call yet so not sure...

I bought it about about 4 months ago and didn't want to write a review until i explore it enough so here it is.

It has more features than other amps out there. Most useful features i come to like is channel specific gain/tone/volume control combined with power grid. I really can't complaint about the features =T

I have two guitars, Fender American Vintage Telecaster '52 Reissue and a Gibson LP Studio with all original pickups. The songs i play range from blues to 70's rock to modern rock with heavy distortion. To be a fair critic, i hooked up my guitars with a few pedals i use normally to Fender SuperSonic combo and Mesa Boogie 30W amps.

Clean Tone: Pretty darn close to Fender. I originally wanted to get a SuperSonic combo and had a tough time deciding between the two.

Overdrive Channel: Mesa offered a little more fuller and thicker distortion sound. I am sure Marshall will give you a little better overdrive sound as well.

I haven't had a problem yet.

Hope i don't have to contact their customer service.

After 4 months of playing, I am pretty satisfied with the amp.

Pros:
- Can't beat the price for what you get.
- Features
- Versitality (it's like having 4 amps in one)


Two things that i wished that this amp can have is...
- a little fuller sound on overdrive channel --> but then again, Marshalls and Mesas will cost you ALOT more. I found that this amp combined with a Keeley modded Tube Screamer and a Keeley Compressor will give you a pretty impressive distortion.
- Light weight... this thing weighs 100 lbs.

Hope this helps!

I'm going to divide this section in two. I'll list the useful features and the useLESS features

Useful features:

effects loop - it's noisy but better than most amps
rear bias adjustment - these should be installed on all amps
six-button foot switch - useful but WAY too big

UseLESS features:

four channels - Uh I don't think so. It's two channels with two different highly processed voices
classic/modern switch - this might be useful if you could switch between two decent sounding voices
contour button - as everyone else has said this is a tone sucker
power grid - as everyone else has said it doesn't actually seem to work
reverb - I've heard better on cheap solid state amps
master presence/density controls - doesn't really make a noticeable difference

I find it interesting that in the combo reviews and the head reviews for the Tourmaster amps someone will come along and post a less than glowing review and not long after that someone comes along and posts a glowing review with straight 10s across the board. Even if they mention something negative the category still gets a 10. Hmmm... I see now those reviews are just a bit too unrealistically glowing. I KNOW this now since I purchased and returned one of these amps. I ordered one online based on the first reviews that were all singing the praises of these "great" new Tourmaster amps. I got excited by the feature list and thought wow I want one of those. When you wait for something to arrive and spend a good bit of money on it and when you know it's going to cost you some money to return it you're going to try as hard as you can to like it. And I did. But the problem is just what other negative reviews are saying. You go from one "channel" to the other and your ears are polluted with this processed sounding oddball voicing. I've never come across an amp yet that takes an original tube signal and turns it into something sounding so solid state. Take the 4 channel thing. It's NOT 4 channels. It's two channels with different voicing. And that gives them a processed sound. Then you have the classic/modern switch in each "channel" that adds even more processed sound to it. Then you have the "contour" switch which processes the sound even more. Your signal comes out of this amp sounding like something out of a really awful modeler. I can get that for a FRACTION of what I paid for this amp! One thing I know for sure is the people who are posting glowing reviews with 10s across the board are delusional. These are one of the absolute WORST sounding amps I've EVER heard bar none. It's also one of the noisiest amps I've ever played. The power grid "feature" to me is false advertising. I wasn't able to detect any change moving through the different power grid settings. It's insulting that they would try to foist off this kind of bogus garbage as if people aren't going to know it doesn't work. I think the term "snake oil" applies here.

It's made China so it's a crap shoot. The power on light was flickering which was a bad sign. That fact that's it's so noisy points to cheap components. You're not likely to keep one of this long enough to find out whether it's reliable or not.

Have no idea.

Egnater is making a number of false claims with this product like saying it has "4 channels" and the "power grid" that allegedly gives you a range from 10 to 100 watts. These claims are downright fraudulent! And the thing is they're charging big bucks for these amps. They should be priced at no more than $800. The noise levels are totally unacceptable. I lost some money finding out how lame this amp sounds. I had to pay to ship it back which wasn't cheap. So I got burned on this one big time. Like the reviewer said below it's better just to stick with the amps that are tried and proven and avoid the budget boutique snake oil.

I believe this amp was made in 08'. Yes, it is manufactured in China, but don't let that deture you. It is designed by Bruce Egnater, and I am sure that they have American supervision at the plant where they make them.

This amp is the most versatile amp I have ever owned. I play anything thing from finger picked classical to 80s metal to thrash, and it covers it all with ease.

It has four channels, all with their own eq knobs. Each channel is switchable either by the fromt panel or the included foot switch.
It also has a switchable effects loop which can either be in parallel or series.
The only thing that I think could be better is the reverb. It is rather weak.

I actually use every feature it has. Especially the power grid. At home in the living room I have it set to half power and the power grid set to 10 watts! Yes I said 10 watts. With the voluem and master voluem set to about 3/4. With the the two overdrive channels the tone is amazing. Playing with friends in a garage all that was needed was half power with the power grid set to 20 watts.

I am playing a Heritage H150 20th anniversary, more Gibson Les Paul than the new Gibsons IMHO, (made at the old Gibson plant in Kalamazoo Michigan). It has a Dimarzio Tone Zone in the bridge and a Dimarzio PAF Pro in the neck. It also has a vintage electronic upgrade kit in it from RS Guitar Works. Makes a huge difference, check them out.

This amp suits my style to a T. I play a lot of Bucketheads music. Some of it is more mellow stuff like whats on his Colma and Electric Tears CDs. This amps Clean/Vintage channels are awesome for this.

For the heavier stuff that I play, like 80s metal, Metallica, Ozzy, Dio, ect, and more modern stuff like Buckethead, Slipknot, Megadeth, ect. This amp nails it whitout problem.

I can't figure out why the guy below me can't get a good sound out of his. If he would have actuall read the manual, he would have learned how to get a great tone. And I don't mean the sample knob settings.

For example, when using the effects loop. When using a delay pedal the manual tells you that the best way to do it, the pedals mix knob MUST be all the way up, and run the loop in parallel, which mixes your dry signal with the pedals wet signal.
This does NOT affect your tone. You then mix in the desired amount of the effect with the Return/Level/Mix knob on the back of the amp. When using the effects loop set to series, it totally makes my tone sound like crap.
What the manual tells you is, that when using the loop in parallel, your whole signal is not going through the pedal, rather it is mixed with it. It says that if you don't have the mix knob on the pedal all the way up, it causes the wet signal to become out of phase and it mixes that out of phase wet signal with your dry signal.

People are saying that the Contour feature on this amp is useless. I have to disagree here. It really gives you way more varitey in tone.

This amp is a little noisy in high gain setting, but what amp isn't. Nothing an ISP Decimator can't tame. But as long as you are not standing to close to it with your guitar, it isn't noisy.
Whan I play at home, I am 8 to 10 feet away from it. I need the Decimator to keep it quite. But when playing with a band 20 feet away with my back to the amp its quiet.

This amp can make any type of tone I want and do it better than any amp I have ever owned. I have been playing guitar for 25 years, and I have owned many Marshalls, Peaveys, Diezels, Mesas and Bogners.
I would say that this amp is more versitle and sounds better to my ears then any of them. I would have to say that the abilty to run this amp at 10 and 20 watts makes all the difference. At 10 watts, playing in the living room, there is more voluem that I need, and its loud as hell. Playing with a band, 20 watts is all I need.
I think the problem with most other amps, is that when you play them in these situations, you really cant crank them, because its just to loud. We all know that a 100 or 120 watt amp needs to be cranked up to get the best sound out of it. These wattages are really meant to be used at a stadium. For playing in a garge band or in your living room, they are just over kill and you can't get good tone out of them at reasonable voluems.

The clean channels on this amp only distorts at high voluems if you crank the gain knob. The manual tells you to turn the master voluem and channel voluem up high and adjust the voluem using the gain knob.
This, in my opinion get you the best clean sound.

The distortion on the two overdrive channels can be very brutal.
I run a BBE Green Screamer in front of the amp to boots it a little.
For a real heavy tones the Green Screamer really thickens the tone.

I have only had it a couple of weeks. No problems yet.

As I said above, I haven't had any problems yet.
I did talk with John in California, Egnaters amp tech.
I was on the fence about buying this amp, but after speaking with John, my mind was made up.
He did recommend that you don't want to have the voluem past 2 o'clock, as you may have power tube problems.

Been playing 25 years. I also own a Peavey JSX combo.

If it was lost or stolen, I would definatley buy another.

I love it's versatility, and the power grid.

I am not so fond of the reverb. But I don't think I have ever been fond of any reverb of any amp. I usually use a reverb pedal or a rack unit.

I was thinking of buying a Marshall JVM combo before I bought this amp. I chose this amp because of the power grid, and the fact that it was about $500.00 cheaper. I once owned a Marshall JVM 410H 100 watt head, and to be honest, it sounded good, but seemed to sound somewhat sterile compared to the Egnater.

It really is a botique amp at an affordable price.

Tons of features and knobs to tweak. Not that it's all necessarily useful. I found the contour switches seemed to make the amp sound muddy. The "power grid" is just a gimmick as far as I'm concerned. Doesn't work as advertised. It is a nice LOOKING amp.

This amp can be compared directly against a Fender Twin Amp. Both are 100 amp 2 x 12 and both are currently selling for $1500. And when you make that direct comparison you'll find this amp is the loser. Marshall also has amps in the same $1500 range that will blow this Egnater completely out of the water. It's VERY hard to dial in any good sounds on this amp. To me this amp is loaded with hype and sexy looks but it just doesn't deliver in the sound department. With the Fender Twin you can't NOT get a good sound out of it. Same with Marshall amps. That's the way it should be. And the switch that drops it to 25 watts on the Fender actually WORKS! Fender Twins actually have useful features unlike this amp. Some people in the earlier reviews were a bit "irrationally exuberant" about this amp if you ask me. I think it was excitement about a new product coming out. I personally found more arse coming out of this amp than anything else. And I don't feel I should have to "hunt" for tone by endlessly twisting knobs. The settings shown in the manual are supposed to be the "good" sounds? Others have mentioned the noise levels with these amps. I can confirm that these are excessively noisy amps. Do yourself a favor and look into another amp.

It seems solidly built. Those toroidal transformers are known to be very reliable. It's made in China though. And it has a slew of tubes in it that WILL be needing replacing.

Egnater's support is notoriously unreliable. It's the typical case of a small, over-scheduled, understaffed company.

I spent fair amount of time in the store with this amp TRYING to coax some good sound out of it. I read through the manual and tested the recommended settings. You see this amp across the room and you say "Ooooh I gotta go check that out!" And at first you feel like a kid in a candy store with all those knobs and switches thinking there must be an endless variety of sounds. But then you go to one channel after another and come to the conclusion there's nothing worth hearing there and move on. And then you run out of channels and walk away in disgust. Disappointment with this amp seems to be a common experience. People have been getting excited and buying these amps only to return them within 30 days out of frustration. The guy in my local Guitar Center told me they are having that problem. For the exact same money you can get an industry standard and FAR better sounding amp from Fender or Marshall that actually sounds good and is easy to dial in killer tone. "Boutique?" I don't think so. Look past the hype and marketing gimmicks and see that this amp just doesn't cut it.