Epiphone Electar Tube 30

Made in 1999 bought new, always had great tone but never loud enough without being mic'd. Play pretty straight forward rock/blues. usually play the amp dimed has a sudo gain channel via button on control panel or footswitch. Would be nice if it really had a gain stage that was tube driven rather than the solid state drive. I tried selling it on craigs list but everyone who tried it had the same opinion as me, great tone not loud enough.

Nice class A tone, breaks up nice, clean with a strat gritty with an SG. As mentioned before the amp has never been loud enough and after reading the reviews here I decided not to sell it and re-tube and put in a Celestion 10" Vintage 30 60W @ 8 ohm. What a great improvement. In the firt stage I put JJ electronic ECC83S, left the second stage alone becuase the Sovtek 7199 was DOA. For the power stage I put in a matched pair of Electro Harmonix EL 84's IP: 23 Gm: 8100. The amp is now so loud and the tone is greatly improved with more headroom. I paid $125 for the amp and just spent $140 sprucing it up. For $300 it would be hard to find a better sounding amp.

Always worked well

Never needed

Been playing 20+ years, have too much gear, I would replace it the tone is fantastic and now loud enough to bother a neighbor. Could use a standby switch. I use this and a Blues Jr. with a Jensen Green speaker. It's a nice compact and versatile setup.

I have looked at other peoples reviews to try and find out more about the amp, ie how to wire it up for an external speaker extension etc I gather it was available between 1998 and 2000. I think this amp isn't very versatile, in fact it only has 2 sounds... clean blues and distorted blues/rock. Luckily I am a blues player that doesn't go in for racks of digital effects and changing tones for each song, so it's ideal for me in practise and especially recording. Most people have mentioned it's lack of volume... This is a problem if it's your only amp but the line out socket means you put it through a PA and it's loud enough. Don't forget tone is more important than volume!

I use Gibsons with this amp: a es330 Gold crest, Les Paul deluxe and standard and an SG. I also use 2 Squier Strats from the early eighties and the strats sound great( think Buddy Guy & Eric Clapton) and the Gibsons are also lovely ( think BB King, Peter Green and Angus Young, respectively). It suits me down to the ground but for big gigs I use a 70's Marshall 100 watt+ 2x12 cab. Contrary to a lot of reviewers, I like the overdrive sound of the boost 'channel'. To me it's perfect for blues.

Only had it for 2 weeks but the factory valves were still in it and still sounded good after what I assume must be about 5 years of operation.

Never had need to contact 'em.

Overall I think this is everything a practice/recording amp should be, If you want something loud enough to gig with, you know you need more watts than this anyway!

Bought new from MusicYo.com around Y2000. I have made some mods, but here are the stock features: 25W (claimed) Class A (claimed), cathode-biased 1X10 tube combo, 2 EL84s, 2 12AX7s, all Sovtek. Faux channel switching (just a solid state boost circuit between the two 12AX7s), Gain, Volume, Treble, Middle, Bass, Line Out. Black-tolex-meets-narrow-panel-tweed look, with a big retro Epiphone logo in front of the speaker. For the money, can't really expect more features, but that doesn't stop me wishing there was an effects loop and speaker out jack. 25W output from 2 EL84s in Class A is a stretch; I'd guess it's more like 15W-18W. It's loud enough to rehearse with bass and drums, or to be seriously rude to the neighbors for us apartment dwellers.

See below for my exciting mods! Since I am giving it a 10 under Overall Rating for "Fantastic Value," I am rating this category on an absolute basis, not on a "for the money" basis

Right up front, let me just say that for $129, this thing is a steal. Here's true tube amp sound for the price of a cheap solid state practice amp.

For the record, my main guitar is a Ric 620 (solid-maple neck-thru, 2 modern Ric single-coils). I also have a cheap (but decent) 1-1-2 Yamaha strat copy, and a Danelectro Baritone (2 lipstick-tubes).

In stock form, it is capable of some nice, warm, even somewhat dark tube tone, in the mild-to-moderate distortion range. Forget about the Overdrive circuit, unless you really like that harsh, buzzy, tinny transistor distortion sound. With the OD off, the first gain stage is still pretty hot. With the humbucker on the Yamaha, I can't get a clean sound at all; with the Ric I can with the Gain control lingering around 2.5, but the sound is pretty flat and lifeless at this level (other reviewers have called this a good clean amp . . . I think they must mean something different by "clean" than I do). The weaker pups on the Dan-O give me the most dynamic headroom, but it's still not great. If you give up on clean, the 12AX7s are about as saturated as they are going to get by around 6 or 7 on the Gain dial; beyond that, I suppose you can get a little more compression but no real difference in sound. If you like preamp tube distortion, accentuated by the somewhat buzzier-than-normal character of Russian 12AX7s, then you may find a usable sound here. It sounds OK with the humbucker on the Yamaha, but is not kind at all to the Ric or the Dan-O. My favorite sound by far is to dial up the gain until it's just hitting its stride (there's a big jump right around 3 on the dial, depending on how strong the guitar signal is), then crank the volume until the EL84s are breaking up however much or little you want. It's no Vox, but it's glorious nonetheless. The Volume control feels very linear and is useful throughout its range, giving gradually more and more distortion all the way up. There's always a little 12AX7 fuzz in there, but overall you can get a nice range of blues-to-classic-rock sounds.

Now for the mods (note that these are all easy, little-knowledge-and-no-soldering-skill-required mods):

First, I retubed with JJs from Groove Tubes; matched EL84s hardness-rated at 6. This slightly improved things, getting rid of some of the 12AX7 buzziness and giving a slightly later but sweeter breakup to the power stage. This is an extremely easy change and one you will have to do eventually anyway if you use the thing. No re-biasing cuz it's cathode-biased!

I wanted to see if I could get some clean headroom, so I bought a 12AU7 (also Groove Tubes) and tried it in both V2 and V1. In V2 it did make the Gain control more gradual and usable throughout its range, and comes closer to giving a real clean sound at lower Gain settings (around 3-4). No change in the OD channel sound. Most of the stuff I've read recommends not substituting a lower-gain preamp tube in V1, because it's such a critical tone-shaping stage and most 12AU7s, 12AT7s, etc. are built/selected to be reliable and non-microphonic, not to sound good (GT does use their 12AU7 in their tube mics, though, so hmmm . . .). Anyhow, I think the designers of this amp just screwed up and gave the first stage too much gain, so I put this theory to the test and tried the 12AU7 in V1. To my mind, everything works now. I can get all the clean headroom I want, all the way to some mild breakup with the Gain dimed. Power stage breakup behavior is the same as before. I think the OD circuit was intended to be just a clean gain boost to push the V2 stages into overdrive. Anyhow, that's what it does now -- no more ugly transistor distortion, just nice, musical, progressively fuzzy preamp tube distortion. Still not really my cup of joe, but at least it's usable now. I'd rather just run the preamp clean and either crank the power stage or put a pedal distortion (I have a TS-5 Tubescreamer, a Rat 2, and a Dan-O Pastrami -- all nic

Haven't abused it too heavily, but it's held up well to moderate use. I've had it apart, and everything looks cleanly and solidly made. Tube sockets are mounted directly on the PCB, though, and it flexes when you push new tubes in. The cab is made of pretty low-density particle-board: good for controlling resonances, bad for structural strength. Once when I had it laying facedown I tried to lift it by the cross-member across the back and it came right off -- the screws just pulled out. I haven't fixed it, because it serves no useful function and gets in the way when servicing the tubes.

Never needed customer support from either MusicYo or Epiphone, so no rating here

Been playing for 24 years, electric for about 15. Have owned an American Standard Strat and a Peavey Classic 30. Have lots of pedal effects.

If MusicYo were still selling these for $129, I'd buy 3 more right now. I'd be really bummed to lose it now that I've got it sounding so good, but I'd probably go looking for something with an effects loop, and I'd be prepared to pony up a little more cash.

What I like, besides the price, is that it is low-powered enough that I can crank the power stage without damaging my hearing. It's also nicely small and lightweight. The only thing I really hate is the lack of clean tone in stock form.

I did not shop around when I bought this. I wasn't even planning on buying an amp. It was just too good a deal to pass up. Versus any other amp I could have bought for the same money, there is simply no comparison

Since the rating scale equates 10 with "Fantastic Value," I have to give this a 10 overall

I guess it's a 2001 NOS model. Pretty basic: one input, three band EQ and a boost channel that can be activated by a little swicth on the control panel or by a foot pedal (optional). No reverb. Handy output jack to plug it into the PA (no DI-box needed).

My 1962 Les Paul Junior sounds great on it, but my Rickenbacker 370-12 needs a seperate EQ and 1969 Schaller treble booster to produce some sort of Byrds jangle. The name Electar 30 is deceptive as it is rated at 25 watts peak by Epiphone, RMS is surely below 22 watts. The clean channel is not loud, the overdrive channel is, but produces a lot of hiss in the process.

I plug the output into a small Epiphone Electar 40 watts PA to crank it up, so I always have some sort of backup at hand.

I bought it from the shop with the Epiphone importer at the back of the building, so I'm not worried about that.

Cheapest all tube ampn this price range, but a bit flimsy.

2 Channels (Clean/Overdrive). There is a footswitch Jack, but I don't have the footswitch, it sounds like it would be rather useless because of the difference in volume between channels in any case. There is a Line out jack which I have never used. 3 Band EQ. I could do with some reverb on a #200 amp.

Contrary to most people, I really like the overdrive sounds. With a good a bit of drive and some EQ fiddling, I can get a really good tone from my strat for Just Looking and Pick a Part That's New by the Stereophonics. Also, Oasis and the Rolling Stones are not too difficult to impersonate with this amp. My main criticism is that the amp is fairly noisy on drive (but not at all on clean). The clean sounds are also very good. I use a Zoom 707 for my effects, and as I mentioned in my review of that, the two don't really mix. The 707's distortion sounds way better through a s.state amp. If I just use it as an acoustic sim with the amp on clean, I get a really good sound for Sultans of Swing by Dire Straits. Occassionally, after Ive been playing for a while, the amp will start clicking, sounds a bit like heavy rain landing on a slate roof. Rather annoying, though you can't hear it whilst you are playing and resetting the amp gets rid of it.

Never gigged with it. Never let me down apart from that bloody clicking.

If it was stolen, I would buy it again, even though it seems that I've paid too much. I love the sounds, it's fairly light and easy to carry about, its got THE tube sound, it sounds great. If I had the money, I would have a Peavey s. state combo too, I borrowed one for a while and when I got this, I found to my amazement that there were some things that s.states do better than tubes. The way people go on, you would think that once you had a tube amp you would never touch a solid state one again. Infact, the Peavey sounds much brighter and harsher, ideal for the likes of Blink 182, but I suppose overall the tube suits me better.

Made in 1998, This amp doesn't have alot of features, but it really has what I need except for reverb. The built-in overdrive sounds pretty bad. I like the sound of the amp cranked without the overdrive on alot better.

I use an American Strat with 54 pups with which I can get a nice ringing, clear blues tone. This amp is not noisy unless you engage the overdrive switch, but I hate the built in overdrive and never use it anyway. I did switch the speaker to a Jensen which sounds better, but is a really bright sounding speaker. If you want more drive, any good pedal will sound better than that crappy sounding overdrive switch.

I've had it 4 months with no problems. I've used it on gigs...it is a loud little sucker when cranked but no way is it putting out 30 watts, more like 12-15. My main gig amp is an 18 year old 6l6 carvin which sounds better than the Electar, but the electar will gig and I've had several positve comments about the sound. So far so good!

Never had to deal with it. Music-yo service is excellent, it came to me in 3 days.

I've been playing for 30 years. I probably would buy it again if lost or stolen, I love the small size, weight, and decent dimed sound, but again...I despise that fizzy sounding built-in fuzz box crap. This amp was worth every penny considering the low price and good sound it provides. Nice little low volume blues box.

See the following reviews for features etc. Purchased it from MusicYo.

I noticed that the clean channel broke up at relatively low volume. Other than that, it had a warm, tube sound.

Right now, the amp is in the shop. I bought it on 9/4/2000, used it briefly over the next 3 weeks before it died. The authorized service center says it needs a transformer. They have tried numerous times to get one from the manufacturer, to no avail. It has been in the shop for over 5 weeks now.

I've bought several itiems from MusicYo. I had one previous problem with an order that took quite a while to get resolved (they shipped the wrong item).
The warranty for this amp is 5 years. So far it doesn't look like they stand behind this product. I'd be curious to know if anyone has any experience with warranties on MusicYo products.

Bought this amp because of the unbeleivable price. I'll have to see if I can get it repaired before I make a decision on its rating. So far, not very impressive.

Bought one in June, 2000, another in July, 2000, after returning a disappointing electar 10. Features are limited and described well by others. The amp is rated at 25 watts according to the flyer supplied with it, but I think 12 to 15 watts is right about where it's at. The amp is great for practice and the 2 of them are great for small gigs.

I use both humbuckers and singles and both sound good through the amps and I'm playing everything from classic rock to the top 40 of today. My setup is guitar, volume pedal, stereo chorus, and a cord to each amp, hence the cheapest stereo rig I've ever had. The sound is perfect for me. I set the volume to 10, treble at 10, mid to 4, bass to 4, and the gain from 5 to 8 and use the volume pedal to go between clean and overdrive. Granted, the true clean is not all that loud, but oh the sounds in between clean and overdrive.

I've only had these a few months, so I'll keep my mouth shut.

Music yo is good to deal with and very helpful. The only pain is that all business is conducted on-line.

I've been playing about 35 years now and have played everything from 40's right on up through todays, uhh music. My tastes in amps has changed so many times over the years. I've went from 15 watt no name tube amps(which at that time I thought sucked and weren't loud enough), to 100 watt fender combos, to marshall full stacks, back to fender combos, to mesa combos and finally back to 15 watt combos. Funny how things seem to go around in a circle. Anyway, for now these 2 amps are perfect for me, in a year, who knows. The only constant in my music life is my love for tube amps. I refuse to play through anything else, nuff said.

I reviewed this amp before, but a year later, after a new tube job, I think this amp is worthy of a re-listen. It's still the same basic amp it was before, 2 12AX7 tubes and 2 EL84 Tubes, delivers 30 Watts of power... 3 band Equalizer and overdrive... Nothing too fancy, nothing boring. It gets a 7 because it's got the necessities...

As I mentioned I re-tubed mine. When it comes new it has Sovtek 12AX7WB pre amp tubes and Sovtek EL84's. After the first 8 months of use, I was getting a distorted sound even with very low volumes, and I decided it was time for a re-tube. After much research I found that the 12AX7WB tube is described as "not very musical", sound is acceptable, tube is quite durable and not microphonic. This tube's sound was deened "acceptable" but nothing else. The Power Amp EL84 was rated pretty much the same... OK, but nothing exciting. The review even mentioned the 12AX7WB will crackle and pop when driven, and I know that my amp would do so somewhat when the gain was turned up. Some of the other reviews bring this up too, so if your amp crackles, it's probabally the mediocore factory tubes.

I did quite a bit of research on tubes before I bought a new set for this and I settled on Telsa/JJ tubes. They have a 12AX7/ECC83 that has more gain, doesn't pop when driven, good durability, and long life. Although this tube wasn't rated to be super musical, the ones that are tend to be on the fragile side and can be very microphonic, so in a combo like this, they can really go wild if they vibrate enough. There's a Huge selection of 12AX7's out there, so you can find one that suits your needs for gain and harmonics. Your pre-amp tube is where you get your tone. In the power amp stage, I had the option for the same Sovtek's that were in it... A military Grade Sovtek which was said to be quite good, or the Telsa/JJ which was highly reccomended for the Vox AC30's.. which this amp is similar to. Since I had Telsa Pre-amp tubes, I may as well get matching power tubes. The total for my tubes and shipping was 51$ and I requested a medium-high draw power tube for more clean headroom.

After talking to a Gibson rep on the phone... Yes, they really did help. I learned that this amp Selp Biases it's power tubes, so you don't have to pay some tech to do it, and spend a small fortune... plug them in, turn them on, that's it!

The new sound is cleaner and tighter, still nice and warm, and no crackle when driven, or kicked into overdrive. The old tubes were muddy when driven, but the new one's aren't... I must say it was worth the change. There is an issue with microphonics on the new set, I've found that sometimes a sharp power jolt like when plugging in a cable while it's on, can send these tubes into an irritating hum, cycling the power is all it takes to make them stop. I've cranked the amp up high with the new tubes, and they behave, so they pass my inspection. THe new tubes not only have a better sound now, but now I get more volume.

My previous rating was 8... a good sound for the price, the new rating is 9... a good sound all around... WIth the new tubes there's really a nice change for the better.

There's a great tube selection at

http://www.thetubestore.com

So far it's behaved itself. I stays in the studio most of the time, and aside from the factory tubes it's doing well. I've taked a thorough look at the build quality, and it's good, the pot's soldering could be neater, but it should be fine for years to come.

They've helped me when I needed it with Gibson/Epiphone stuff... fixing my guitar for free, and answering all my questions about this amp... but if you have a Kramer, Steinberger, Slingerland... anything not Gibson/Epiphone, they aren't very receptive. They get a 5 because they only decide to service what they want to.

Great value, re-tube it and it'll really sound good!

Volume, gain, 3 band EQ, OD switch, and line out. All the basic features you need in a small practice amp.

Sound fantastic. Definately has that tube sound. Has plenty of bass but can make those high notes ring!

Seems well built, but too early to tell. I've only owned it for a month.

Haven't dealt with them.

I needed a new practice amp because my old solid state piece of junk died. I started looking a the price of tube amps and almost freaked out! Then I came across this one and for $129 I had to give it a try. Best $129 I ever spent!