Fab Amp CM8 Head

Iam no amp expert or professional guitar player, just a dude who wants a good tube amp tone, at a very reasonible price, and what I especially wanted was a headphone socket so I could play in the night without disturbing the neighbours.

I got all this and more from Rob Franklins 8 watt FAB amp he made for me a while ago this year.

So what can I tell you, a clean channel and a dirty channel with gain, bass and treble controls, and most importantly that headphone socket but rather than just a resister network to drive the headphone outlet, Rob installed an extra tube just to drive the headphone.

So its got the two pre-amps, Pentode/Triode switching, clipper, MUD circuit, current limiter, not sure what it all means etc that I get that beautifull overdriven tube amp sound without blowing out my eardrums.

All this in a beautifull wooden cabinet, all hand made, point to point wiring, delivery from Canada to UK and all for 900 Canadian Dollars about ?400 at the time.
Amazing

Rob will build your amp for whatever type of sound you want, I told him I like English Electric Blues and early Rock so he gave me a Marshall JCM800 sound and a Vox ac15 for the clean.

Now that clean channel sounds absolutly gorgeous, I say that because to be honest I never bothered much with the clean sounds, but I do know. The lead channel goes without saying and you can get more of that overdrive sound than you need.

Another thing I like about this amp is it is completely quite and I dont get that buzzing when I put a metal slide near the strings. Rob takes your amp out for one practise gig, (hows that for personal service), he said he detected a ghost note on mine, so took it all apart and fixed it)

I am only giving this a nine because I havnt got the experience to compare it with other tube amps, it could well warrent a 10.

Havnt had it long and it wont be going much further than my bedroom so I wont coment on this aspect at the moment

Well, you gain a friend when you buy one of Robs amps, he e-mails you everyday to let you know how your baby is coming along and even sends photographs of it.
I would be very surprised if the aftersales service is not the same.
Robs an enthusiast and musician rather than an impersonnal manufacturing company.

Ive nad a guitar since about 1990 but only got serious a couple of years back, I have a Gibson Les Paul Studio, a Gibson SG and Richwood Les Paul artist series, all of which sound differant and better on this amp. Funny I said on my rating of the Richwood that the pickups get muddy when you play cords rather than picking, well that doesnt seem to be the case with this amp!

I have a solid-state amp, a boss ME50, a Line 6 Guitar-port thingy, but Ive now found "the tone" now I have this FAB amp.

Its quality hand-made, including the cabinet, so it doesnt look as clinically perfect as a factory assembled thing, some my view this as an advantage, some as a disadvantage. I like it.