Product: Garnet Swinger
Price Paid: $100 (Canadian) used
Submitted
07/30/2000
at
08:54pm
by
Anonymous
Features
:
7
The amp was made in the late sixties or early seventies. It has a very clean sound and the maker of the amp (Gar Gillies) has told me that is was intended for jazz guitarists. It is a 30 watt tube amp combo with a 15 inch speaker.
From left to right the front controls are as follows: Volume (pull brite), bass, treble, 2 inputs (1 a bit louder than 2), tremolo, input for tremolo foot switch, reverb, on/off toggle switch, 3A fuse, neon A.C. power indicator.
When the tremolo foot switch is plugged in, the reverb is disabled, even if you have the tremolo switched off. The tremolo control adjusts the rate from slow to moderately fast. There is no way to control the 'depth' of the tremolo. When the footswitch is unplugged, the reverb is enabled, and you can adjust the amount of reverb to your liking. It would be nice if you could have tremolo and reverb at the same time and it would be nice if you could have control over the depth of the tremolo. It's not the best tremolo I've ever heard, but it's still a nice touch.
Sound Quality
:
9
This amp sounds great for blues and jazz. It's clean, and the reverb sounds great! It sounds great with both single coils and humbuckers, and can be turned quite loud without distortion. It isn't exactly a rock and roll amp with overdrive and distortion, but with my tubescreamer it sounds great. The tremolo is fun to play around with, and can create some different sounds, but as far as I'm concerned this amp is a one trick pony: Clean sound, excellent reverb, and a warm tube tone that can't be matched by any solid state amp or pedal effect.
Reliability
:
10
I would absolutely depend on this amp! I am in Winnipeg, and I have had Gar Gillies, the maker of the amp, check it out for me and he gave it a clean bill of health. It's in perfect shape after thirty years and it's built like a tank! I would not hesitate to use this amp on a gig without backup.
Customer Support
:
10
As I said, I live in Winnipeg, and I can have the very man who made the amp perform regular maintenence and work on it. However, this amp is not under warranty and this category is really irrelavent.
Overall Rating
:
8
I have been playing guitar for about 11 years. This is one of the best amps I have played through, and I am very happy with it. It would be nice to have a clean channel AND an overdriven channel, and it would be nice if the tremolo was a bit better and could be used in tandem with the reverb, but overall it is a good little amp for the money I paid. I played through other tube amps (and garnets in particular) and this one is not the top of the line, but it's good for practicing at home and I'm sure it would be good for playing in small venues. I love the reverb and the tube tone in particular, as well as the vintange look of the unit.
