Fab Amp Fab Fox 110 Combo

This amp was built custom for me in 2005. Its preamp is based on a Hiwatt DR103, but without the massive power. Basically it's a DR103 for your house. It is a simple one channel amp, with two inputs (one for "brill", one for normal). there's a single 10 inch eminence which all the sounds go through. There are three output jack, one for the internal speaker, one for external speakers and a headphone jack. There is no effects loop, because I didn't want one. there are a number of knobs (volume, bass, mid, treb, gain for brill, gain for normal and cut). The amp puts out 12 watts. It has three input tubes and one output. The tube layout is as follows: V1 - NOS GEC 12ax7, V2 Sovtek 12ax7, V3 EH 12ax7, and V4 EH EL34. Is it a fully featured hotrod amp with 8 different drive channels, on board effects, bells, whistles and video screen? No and that's because I wanted a simple, straight-forward amp, and that's what I got. I play a lot of Floyd and a lot of blues, but i do venture into different styles from time to time and I have to say that the amp has never disappointed me. Like its bigger cousin, it has a very clean sound which is a good starting palate from which you can coax all sorts of tones out of. Is it versatile enough for Steve Vai? probably not, but I am not that versatile either. It's as versatile as i need it to be.

I play a Fender Standard Series strat with the stock three single coils. From there my signal goes through any number of pedals, but at the most it will go through this: Dunlop Crybaby-MXR Dynacomp-Boss SD1 set as a booster-Russian-made EHX Big Muff Pi-MXR Phase 90 (with the R28 mod)-Boss DD3. Through this pedal chain anything sounds noisy, so I generally only play through 2-3 at a time. I play with the volume at 10, bass 4, mid 10, treb 6, gain around 5-6 depending on my mood and cut maxed (which tightens up the bass, because of the open-backed cabinet of this combo). The sound coming out of this is purely what is coming through my fingers. It has managed to point out a lot of weak points in my playing that's for sure. After playing it for 3 months, I'm hearing less and less of these mistakes. With my guitar at 7 i get a nice clean, bassy Hiwatt-type sound. If it turn the volume up to 10 i get a crunchy OD perfect for chords. When i step on the booster, all hell breaks loose. Loud, snarling and tight distortion is the result. Just perfect. For 12 watts, it can even shake the floor above as i have been told. this is not a flaw, but the direct result of me asking the builder to make it a true mini-Hiwatt. This thing, because of its "Hiwattness" will not suit death-metal, but is perfect for everything else, since it does not colour your tone. I think it's perfect.

I can definetly rely on it for what i do (which is play at home and jam with friends). I'm pretty negligent when it comes to upkeep of tubes and things, mainly because i don't know what I'm doing, but I will try my best to take good care of it. I think it would be a great studio amp for anyone. As for the road, I'm not so sure because i have yet to throw the thing around the room. It looks and feels pretty solid and it's very well built. The builder told me that this amp had a chassis buzz when you played an A5 which he worked on getting rid of. Once i took it out of the box, i played around and struck an A5. It was there, so i looked around back, couldn't detect anything odd. I decided to not worry about it and kept playing. Soon, i wasn't hearing it anymore. It has been 3 months and i have yet to hear it again. Maybe it was just a matter of things "settling" in to place, but it has not concerned me, nor have i heard it since then.

This is the best part of the Fab Fox combo. When you order a fab fox, you are in DIRECT contact with the amp builder. Rob builds anything you went to spec. He seems to have an encyclopediac knowledge of old amps. I think we may have sent 100 emails back and forth to one another discussing what i wanted on the amp, and what he recommended. He never gets impatient with your questions no matter how stupid they are. That is something to keep in mind though, because it is one man building the amplifier, you will not get it in a week. it may take him some time to build the product, but he will make it worth your while. I changed my spec on him probably a thousand times. It may be hard to get things fixed should i drop it off a roof, but i think that is a worthy trade off for getting a well built tube amp, at a good price. He has a good warranty for his products (sorry I can't remember the exact details of it) but he does tell you all that up front before payment is received. As i said, if the amp were somehow to get damaged or things broke down, Rob has told me that he will fix (either himself, or one of his contacts throughout the world). honestly though, because it is such a straightforward design, I'm sure that any guy with the proper tools could fix it up easily. That would be the only reason i don't give the amp a ten here, but that is to be expected from a small company.

Overall, i would give this a very strong 9. The reason I don't give it a ten is the fact that there is one guy doing all the work himself. The service was great, the tone is beyond fantastic, the features are exactly what i wanted. If it were stolen or lost, i would search for it because it is unique. I'd beat the person who stole it and take something of theirs as punishment! I would buy again from Rob if i lost this amp. I may even buy a larger gig amp if i ever need one from him. I had been searching for used Hiwatts/Sound City amps for 3 years when i fell upon this product. The price was in my range, and so I placed an order, and I haven't been disappointed since. I thought about buying some off the rack type tube amp. Maybe a Fender Deluxe reissue, or a Blues Junior, maybe even a low wattage Marshall, but none of these had the right tone. The Hiwatts were 1) too powerful and 2) balls-out expensive, so I chose this one and i don't regret it. I haven't plugged into an authentic DR103 from the 70s, but i have heard them in concert and on recordings and I am not disappointed. I hope Rob keeps building these beauties because they are pretty well hidden gem!

The amp is an AC-15 clone, 12 Watts/5.2 Watts pentode/triode amp. It has a Top Cut, Low Boost, Thick Boost, Brill, Driver (limits current?), Tone knob, and VAC, which is a diode clipper in the pre and post amp stage. The Low and Thick boosts are great, and should always be left on. The amp really doesn't sound good without the Thick Boost.

As for the other options, i don't really use them. The Brill doesn't sound too good, and the VACS (both stages) are a bit weak. I can't really get any good sounds with them. Driver and Top Cut i leave in the default position. I think the most necessary feature for me is the pentode/triode mode. Other than that, I think it is just a good basic amp that doesn't need too many features.

I am using an American Standard Strat with single coil seymour duncan pickups. This amp sounds great (when it is working... more on that later). It fit me needs perfectly, in terms of volume, clean sound, breakup, etc... The 5.2 watts is signicantly lower than the 12 watt mode, and I can pretty much dime the amp during the afternoon in my apartment. It is a very quiet amp even with the gain up.

Pedals work very well through it. I have tried germanium and silicon fuzzes, various distortions, and all sorts of modulation, delays, and reverbs. I tend to play this amp with my guitar directly plugged in, to get maximum tone out of it. I have never played an AC15, but I think this amp sounds the way I expected it to, based on recordings I have heard of that amp.

Well, here is where things take a major turn. I would NEVER take it to a gig (even with a backup!). I have been unable to play this amp for more than 20 minutes without the signal cutting out. Also, the switches that Rob used were really cheap, and one of them broke. It broke with the BRILL switch always on, which is horrible. I had to disable the function.

I have to smack the amp to get the signal to come back. It truly is disappointing. I waited a long time for this amp, and even had to sell a lot of gear (for less than they were worth) just to afford this amp. Now I am stuck with an unusable amp, and I just want my old gear back.

I have tried to get this rectified, so I sent the chassis back to Rob. I spent 30 bucks on shipping. When I sent it, the signal was cutting out all the time. He said he fixed it. When I got it back, the signal was STILL cutting out. Plus, now the Brill switch is broken. Imagine spending 30 bucks for shipping, taking the time to pack it up, fill out the custom forms, send it back, wait two weeks. And the only thing you gained was MORE problems! The original problem wasn't fixed.

I am unsure how Rob will rectify this issue, but whatever happens, the Reliability rating is going to have to be low here.

Well, Rob is a very nice guy, and I like him. He was very kind to me during the time we were getting the details straight. He gave me a free Woody finish on it.

But at the same time, I think he could have spent some more time with this amp to get it fixed. I think he just thought he had a remedy for it, and sent it back in a haste. And now i am stuck with even more problems. He means well, but has left me as the customer very unhappy.

He even has an authorized service center located about 15 miles from me, but didn't want me to take it there to get fixed locally. He preferred for me to go out and buy the Robertson screwdriver to take the chassis apart, and ship it to him using money out of my own pocket. I really don't know what the point of having a local service center is, if he still makes his customers go through that hassle and spend extra money.

Additionally, I asked for a favor upon shipping the chassis back to him to have the switches upgraded to higher quality. He didn't do it. And now I am stuch with a broken Brill switch.

Can't blame him for some of these issues, but I definitely was expecting a little more concern from him.

I will have to see how he will rectify this issue. He sent me a bum amp, and unless I get a full refund, including all the shipping costs I had to pay to get it fixed, I will not be happy. If he can't deliver the goods, he should be prepared to eat some cost, and not let the customer suffer. Especially if he wasn't prepared to allow me to even take it to the local service center. In fact, he only has ONE service center in the whole world, and it is in San Diego, CA, where I live. If even I can't take it there, what is the point of this service center?!

I will add another review as an update later. I hope it to be a good one!

I am sorry. This amp is a hunk of junk. It doesn't work, and I can't rely on it. I can't play it for more than 20 minutes without needing to smack it or turn it off. It is a good sound, and other people have had good success with him, but this was a very bad experience. I really regret doing this. I truly just wish I had my old gear that I sold off, and that I never got referred to Fab. He is a nice guy, and I wish him the best. But I hope he will start using better parts, start allowing his customers to bring their amps to a local service center for repair, and truly be able to stand by his products.

If this amp worked, it would get a very high rating, because the tone is great for the price.