Epiphone Comet EA-32RVT

1966 Epiphone Comet amp. 25 pounds, 12 Watts, reverb, tremolo. It's basically a Princeton Reverb with a few minor differences. Namely, it costs maybe half as much. People love the Princeton Reverbs because they're the right balance between features and weight-- this amp matches that ideal.

One channel, 3 inputs (why not?!) It has a footswitch for the reverb and tremolo. Any other effects will be sitting on the floor in front of you where they belong.

Once I replace the old speaker it should have all the power I need for recording and small-medium clubs. And I can actually carry the damn thing. Best of all, I can get a nice full overdrive without cranking the thing to 11 and pissing off my neighbors.

It starts to break up at around 7.5. Sounds real nice with my fulltone fulldrive. Because the pre-amp tube is also shared by the reverb and tremolo, when you dime the effects out the thing gets pretty dirty. Keeping the reverb on 3 is about right for Dick Dale. Keeping the reverb at 1.5 sounds perfectly tasteful and nice for most of the time. The tremolo has plenty of depth if needed for a Smiths, Magic Sam, Bo Diddley, or Yo La Tengo cover.

I play a lot of different styles-- everything from blues, soul, and country to wall-of-noise-Sonic-Youth freak outs.

My strat and tele both sound ridiculously evil through this amp. My 60's japanese Decca is fantastic too-- maybe the best match. It's a little noisey, but that's because I'm a single-coil type of guy and the power in my building is garbage.

It's relatively lightweight, has a nice long reverb pan, and sounds very tasty. My wife's exact words were "that sounds really warm".

If you're a metal-head or emo kid this amp is probably useless to you. No offense, you just probably won't get the power, low-end thump, and scooped mid you need.

Anyone else will be in tone heaven- punks, bluesmen, country pickers, rockabilly greasers, indie-rockers, etc... you will covet this amp's sparkling tone and light weight.

Been fine so far. My amp tech checked it out and recommended new tubes and a new speaker. I'm dropping a Weber speaker in tonight because those things sound beautiful and I need a little more headroom than the original speaker is giving me.

Vintage amps can sometimes be a little dodgey, but because the wiring is point-to-point they're a lot easier to troubleshoot and fix.

It was made in 1966, somehow I think the warranty may be expired at this point. Maybe I'll call Epiphone just to see what happens. :)

I've been playing for 13 years- in a lot of different kinds of bands. Don't play arenas, so I don't need a big amp. I wish the amp makers understood that. I just want it to sound great and be reasonably easy to carry.

I own a bunch of pedals. I haven't been won over by amp simulators or direct recording-- I just can never get a good sound with that crap. Maybe one day.

I'm probably selling my fender Champ and Deluxe Reverb-- since the Comet is able to handle both recording and small gigs and doesn't weigh a ton it does the work of both of those amps.

The other nice thing about the Comet is that almost nobody has these. Princetons sound amazing if you can find one and have the budget. The Comet is a working man's Princeton.