Koch Studiotone 112 Combo

2004 amp. EL-84 powered. Features extensively explained by other users.

Crystal clear in the clean channel. Nice reverb also. Silent and quiet.
Sweet and warm distortion in the other channels. More noisy.
Excellent for both single coils and humbuckers in all channels.
Loud with excellent note definition.
I try to play blues and classic rock. Perfect for that purposes.
I decided to upgrade it with buggle boys in the pre-amp and telefunkens in the power section. Even better than before.

I had a problem with the transformer. It was changed and the problem dissapeared.

Tech amp told me about the tranformer. Get in touch with Koch and they replied inmediately and sent to me a new tranformer for free (shipping on their side). The amp was out of the warranty period and they obviously knew it.
Excellent.

I have been playing for four years and I am 44, so I can not give advise to the more experienced people. I am currently playing with a custom strat and a heritage 150. Too loud for home practising. Excellent for small gigs.
I can say that I am really satisfied with the amp and in my opinion It sounds really good. If it was stolen I do not know would it be the next amp but for sure the candidates would have a powerful rival in the studiotone.
Two points less for the transformer, otherwise an overall 10.

I bought the amp from a store that had it on display for over two years. I found it out when it was necessary to have a repair done...still a great giging machine

The Studiotone is unlike anything I've used before (40 yrs of playing)...it does whtever its asked

I only had an output transformer go

Best service I EVER had...Period! A factory defective output transformer was replaced by overnight express...at no cost!

I'll never give it up

This is an update of my previous review.

I forgot to mention the speaker emulation feature through the headphone jack and the direct recording out. I think the speaker emulation sucks. I don't think it sounds anything like the sound actually coming out of the speaker. My hats off to Koch though for including this. I think that it does make the amp more flexible, and it's a great practice tool when you want to play the amp through headphones. But, I don't think I would ever use the direct recording out to actually record in the studio. But, I haven't used the direct recording out yet. If it sounds anything like the speaker emulation does through headphones, I won't. In my opinion, the speaker of an amp needs to push some air to get a good sound, otherwise it sounds like some cheap digital modeling amp.

I got to take the studiotone out to a jam session in a small club recently, and damn, this little baby rocks! I used it with a fender american deluxe v-neck strat with maple neck, through the following signal chain: guitar---AYA r-comp---Fulltone Clyde Standard Wah---Fulltone Soul Bender---Maxon OD-9 Pro+---amp, and a Maxon AD-999 analog delay through the effects loop. WOW!!! First off, I was able to play over a drummer and other guitar players with the volume of both channels on 4 or 5!!! This amp sounds great when you open it up louder. Seriously, I was very surprised. Much like any tube amp, if you crank the volume up more, it's going to push the tubes harder and make the amp sound better. Luckily enough, being that this amp is 20 watts, you don't have to push the volume too hard to get that great tube saturation. The mids on this puppy rock. It really cut through the mix. There was no hum from the amp and no noticeable popping from the footswitch, so now I'm sure that the reason I experienced hum at my apartment is because the wiring at my apartment isn't grounded correctly. Once again, I am going to say that this is such a great amp for the price and features. If you are looking for an amp in the $1000 or more price range, seriously, check this out. I have not heard or seen an amp any better for $1325 new from musiciansfriend that sounds like it. You want this one! Get on the Koch bandwagon! They are a quality manufacturer and their business needs to grow because of it!

As far as features go, Dolf Koch really put some work in designing this guitar for guitar players. Well done Mr.Koch! Two channels: clean and overdrive, with overdrive and overdrive+ modes. It has an effects loop, headphone jack, direct out, recording out, speaker emulation for headphones/direct recording, mid shift switch, 3-way bright switch, speaker on/off switch for silent recording/headphone playing, output to clean channel of another amp, spring reverb. This is not a metal amp, however, rock and blues aficionados will be very pleased by this amp. Very loud for 20 watts. No amp is perfect, so I do have 3 bones to pick. 1) the knobs are somewhat loose, meaning that they can be adjusted in advertently. Just brushing up against your pant-leg while moving the amp is enough to change your settings. 2) When switching from overdrive to clean there is a very audible popping sound from the footswitch. 3) With the overdrive+ setting selected, the clean sound's tone is noticably sucked away. That being said, still a great amp. Lightweight too. For features, gets a 10.

This is the most flexible amp for its size I have ever come across. The mid shift switch and bright switch really, really add to the flexibility of this amp. The clean channel has a lot of headroom, even at high volumes, for 20 watts. It doesn`t have the deep bass and rich, round sound of a fender twin reverb clean, but it is a usuable clean that has more of a vox type of sparkle. The distortion has a british voicing, with great midrange. The distortion maintains its clarity even with the gain wide open in the overdrive+ mode, with some hum, but not a lot of hum. I had a marshall tsl some years back that was the lousiest, noisiest lemon of an amp ever. This amp runs practically dead silent compared to that p.o.s. Still, not enough gain on this amp for metal, but very flexible nonetheless. This fits my musical style perfectly: rock and blues via a 2006 fender american deluxe maple v-neck strat. I have experienced hum with the amp, but only at my apartment, so I`m fairly sure that this is due to a grounding problem in my apartment, rather than due to the amp itself. If you get to open up the volume a bit on the amp in a large room, it sounds very sweet. I like to use a maxon OD-9 pro+ or a fulltone soul bender with the amp in overdrive mode to get some incredible sustain and thickness. Great sounds, but not perfect. I think the jensen design koch speaker is good, but not the best. I think that more clarity and better sound is still available to give this amp its optimum sound. The amp design itself is absolutely superb, and Dolf Koch is a genius for making this amp so loaded with features and boutique quality for such an affordable price. I would like to buy a 12' brown soun tone-tubby hempcone alnico blue speaker to replace the jensen koch.

This amp is built solid as a rock. I would use it without a backup, but bring a pair of matched koch tubes, and maybe even some preamp tubes. You don`t have to rebias your amp if you use the matched koch EL84s. Yet, no problems so far. But, tube amps are always finicky. Having a tube amp is like taking care of a living thing. You have to care for it properly, and it will most always act according to certain perameters, yet you never know when it will behave erratically. That being said, a better quality amp is always more reliable than mass-produced junk. Koch amps are high quality, and I expect this amp to be nothing less than reliable as long as I take care of it properly.

I have yet to deal with Koch, but that's primarily because I haven`t had needed their assistance. People often forget that the most basic part of customer support is making a product that needs very little customer service to begin with! So, until I actually interact with them, I`ll give them the benefit of the doubt and go with 10 here.

I've been playing since I was 15. I am an unrelenting gear freak. I am always checking out new guitars, amps, and effects. As such, if this were ever stolen, I would probably try another high quality amp, but, it would definitely be difficult to replace an amp so flexible in this price range. I currently live in Japan and I got this amp for a steal, because some shop in Tokyo needed to move this amp to pay the rent. So far, I have been very pleased. It is everything that I needed, and, it sounds great with pedals. Currently, I use a fulltone clyde standard wah, a maxon overdrive pro+, fulltone soul bender, and maxon AD-999 analog delay with all George L's .155 classic red cable with brass plugs. However, I plan on adding several more pedals as time and money see fit.


WORDS TO THE WISE: As a matter of preference, I feel that no amp is perfect and that good effects can make a huge difference in your sound. Buy true-bypass effects, unless you are buying effects that have high tech buffer circuitry that doesn`t suck tone (pete cornish, klon, moollon). Potted volume pedals do alter tone. Get the Buzz Feiten tuning system and use a Peterson strobostomp tuner for the most accurate intonation. You need a boost/line driver if you are using over 5 meters of cable with true bypass effects to maintain your signal integrity. You can't go wrong with Keeley, Maxon 9 and vintage series (post 2004), Fulltone, Xotic, Moollon, or Analogman. A good compressor will change your life and do wonders for your clean tone. The keeley is amazing, as well as analogman's comprosser, and AYA Tokyo Japan's r-comp. I currently have an r-comp on the way in the mail, and it may make enough difference in the sound of this amp that I will have to update this review. There are so many boutique amps around that you should do a ton of searching before you buy. Nowadays you can literally find any type of tone your a looking for, if you search hard enough. The internet is a brilliant tool for researching tone and learning how to be a better musician. Jimi Hendrix is god because he taught himself and changed rock music forever without the aid of the internet...unbelievable. Ciao, and happy tone hunting!

The studiotone is a flexable piece of equipment. I use it for giging and for recording, both with unbelievable results; Do I realy sound THIS GOOD ??????? WOW !.

OH man, read the rest of the reviews and you get a little bit of a feeling we (the owners) have everytime we flip the stand-by switch,......Awsome tone (if you have a good guitar !). The overdrive + mode is perfect ! Beter than a Marshall ! And the clean channel is bright like a VOX. It's a 20 watt amp, so if you need more headroom for the clean channel, just link it to an other amp ( like a fender twin ) and you can't believe your ears. Pure stereo tone !!! I don't need any effects no more, it sound awsome if you plug in a great guitar.

Well I've had a little problem with it. I'm dutch so I don't know the englisch word for it but for the ducth :" de transformator" broke down. The warrenty period expired, so I took it to the local repairman. He called Koch and they said they've made a mistake, so they replaced the parts FOR FREE !!!!! FOR FREE MAN !!!! I know that they have a great reputation for quality, so I think I just was unlucky !

Super !!!

This amp is the new version of Studiotone, built in 2005 in the Netherlands. Compared to the older model it has three gain settings for OD+ Channel. Others have covered the features thoroughly, so won't go into details here... but I must say it's really packed for such a small combo. Very versatile indeed!

Sound quality is where the Studiotone really shines. I play a custom made set-neck guitar with humbuckers and the combination is just fantastic. The clean channel sounds warm and breaks up nicely at higher volumes. It's kind of a mixture of Vox and Fender - shimmery on the top and round at the bottom. Onboard spring reverb is perhaps a bit lacking in depth, but still extremely usefull. Also the shared EQ is not a big deal since the amp is so incredibly well balanced.

While the Clean channel is great, the OD / OD+ channel is even better. It can deliver everything from a slightly overdriven rhythm sound to a full hot rodded Brittish crunch. And adjust the Mid-Shift and Bright swithes and you've got a sweet saturated California style lead. Just amazing harmonics and the overdrive never gets muddy - not even with the high gain settings. Very impressive.

Overall the Studiotone has an airy character and at times the amp feels almost transparent. It really let's your guitar sing through, but at the same time is unforgiving to bad guitars and especially crappy pickups. Plug in a decent instrument and the Studiotone becomes a small tone monster.

The amp is really well build and feels sturdy. Parts are top notch and for example the front panel knobs turn just silky smooth. For a tube amp it's also very quiet with minimal hum and hiss. It also has a nifty auto-bias feature, so you can throw in a matched EL84 pair when in need of change.

As others have pointed out, there is a "pop" when switching from OD/OD+ to Clean. According to Koch this is by design and it was a tradeoff they made for better tone. A bit of a bummer, but it's easy enough to get around. Just mute the strings before stepping on the footswitch.

It does run a bit hot, but that's nothing unusual for a small tube amp. And compared to a cranked Vox AC-30 it's still cool as ice.

I had a question concerning the effects loop level and e-mailed Koch. They replied within a couple of days and were very helpfull indeed. I'm sure they give fine customer support if you ever need it. And as a Dutch company, Koch is well represented in the EU.

I replaced my trusty Mesa/Boogie combo with the Studiotone and it almost feels like a fog or a blanket has been lifted. For the first time I'm truly hearing the sound of my guitar.

I'm amazed ever time I play this little big amp. Soundwise the Studiotone is nothing less than breathtaking! For a small 20 Watt combo it's also loud and can handle everything from bedroom practice to studiowork and even club gigs. The price is very reasonable too, considering the sound / build quality and features.

This amp was made in 2005. It is a very versatile little amp. Two channels plus an overdrivemode for channel two. 20 watts rms class A.
20 watts goes a very long way. All channels share the same eq. This may make one or two of you to hesitate considering buying or try this amp out. Dont!! You can get allmost any kind of sound out of this thing.
It's got a ton of features. 4, 8 and 16 ohm speakeroutputs. Effectloop, micsimulated lineout; four settings: mic on- or off axis, 1*12 or 4*12 loudspeaker. This is however the only beef I have with this thing. An amp lined to a PA sounds really crappy. I don't care what you say. I have tried every thing on the market; pod 2, pod xt live, vamp 2,
koch loadbox with lineout, yamaha dgstomp, and a bunch of amps with built in speakersimulators. They all sound crap, at least in a livesituation. Buy a 57 and smile all the way instead.

I play Fender standard strat, lonestar strat, Gibson Les Paul standard and a Gibson Les Paul with p-90 pu's. This amp handles them all. It is a little bassy whith the Les Paul's but souds great whith the strats.
The amp sound even better with a 2*12 celestion vintage loaded loudspeaker underneath it. The onboard speaker kind of farts out on louder settings.
The amp itself is very quiet. No hiss or splonges here.
I play in a coverband covering alot of music and i'm very pleased with the amount of diffrent sounds this amp produces.
The clean channel breaks up realy nice, but not too soon.
The dirty channel can get really dirty. Maybe not nu-metal but really close.

Is built really sturdy, but you should handle everything with care or it will break.

I've been playing for 27 years and I have plyed Marshalls, Voxes, Oranges and a lot of moddelingamps. If you give it time you can get som really good tones out off allmost any amp, tubes or solidstate but this thing sound great right away. Plug a deasent guitar into it and it will deliver the tone you want.

new model, built in 2005, three channels: clean - overdive - overdive plus (with 3-mode-switch: high, middle, low);
controls: volume clean, gain, od volume, bass, mid, treble, reverb, 2 voicing-switches (midshift, 3-mode bright switch: + o -), 12" jensen-speaker, 20 W rms, 3 preamp-tubes (12AX7) 2 power-tubes (EL84)class a;
footswitch, recording outputs with dummy-load and voicing-switches, headphone-output, speaker output: 4, 8 or 16 Ohm

I'm using an american-strat with seymour duncan PUs (bridge: JB jr & neck: Little59) & a Ibanez SA1260 prestige, my styles: from blues to classic rock with a little bit of punk & hard rock;
a very good sounding boutique-amp for all styles, very quit in OD-channels, clean channel near the classic fender-sound;
but there is one problem: if you switch from od to clean you've to damp the strings otherwise a crack will beat your ears;
in toto: little amp but great sound

I use this amp on gigs without a backup, very good quality like all Koch-amps

that's the point: no replies to my questions (via e-mail & fax)concerning the noisy channel switching; at last (with a little help of the dealer) I've got an answer (circuit arrangement) and the tip to damp the strings

I've been playing for over 25 year, I've owned a lot of gear like Fender (Twinamp, Blues Jr, Prosonic), Kitty Hawk Junior, Groove Tubes Solo45, Peavey Classic; I think it's one of the best little amps you can get, not so expensive like a Mesa Boogie, but you have the switching noise

Features of this amp were revealed in previous submissions by others.
All of these work fine.
Can be used for all music styles.

I use this amplifier with a Gibson Les Paul double cut and an Ibanez
520 QM GAB. The pickups of the Ibanez were replaced with DiMarzio Paff's.
Apart from the reverb, evrything sounds nice. I will nor compare it with other brands such as Mesa or Fender but with a little tweaking
one many a suitable sound.
The clean channel is crystal clear but get bluesier when turning the volume up higher. The two overdrives are great, nice tone and can be
pushed fron subttle tones to extremely dirty.
This amp has an output to a clean input of anothe amplifier. I do this with a Mesa Boogi. When both amps are set at the same loudness but with different sound colouring, the effect is really great.

Don't know, only have it a few months.

Never needed it

I have been playing for over 30 years.
Owned many differend amplifiers, now I only have a Mesa Boogi, a couple of practice amps and this Studiotone.
What I don't like about this amp is the changing of the tubes. Unlike a Mesa - where one can simply change the tubes in a couple of minutes - it wille take a little while to change the preamp tubes. They are, however, extremely well protected and I believe that this amp can take a lot of hard wear.
This amp does not sound like the Mesa - although I can get it close enough - the amps are different. The Mesa has a slightly better preamp (4 instead of three 12AX7 tubes gives the Mesa a slightly richer tone) but I think that the Studiotone is stronger.
Would I buy it again? Why not, it is great value.

Feature set has been well described already, however, don't allow the 20 Watt rating to confuse you that this product will deliver a little amp's sound. I haven't come across an amplifer as feature rich as this one for the price. The primary driver to purchase this product was the silent operation for recording. I don't know of another tube amp that has a built in amp simulator featuring two mic positions and two different cabinet types. Initially I was looking to buy a rack speaker simulator, but for the extra $500 you get a significantly better package that delivers more without the fear of having too high of an impedance that will damage your head or combo amp. I haven't seen too many product that will allow for all of this versatility as well as 4, 8, and 16 ohm speaker connections.

Very bright on the clean channel, very quiet when idling and the standby switch is disengaged. This unit runs almost as silently as a solid state amp. Very easy to fine-tune for the sound from a classic Fender to a dirty British overdriven amp. This unit wakes up through the cabinet speaker at #2 (8 o'clock) on the dial where the sound has depth and dimension. A great deal of sound and volume at the 9 o'clock position certainly more than ample for most small venues.
This amp sounds great when plugged into a Celestion-equipped extension cabinet and changes the sound versus the stock Jensen that the combo amp is supplied with. Very good spring reverb unit.

Too early to tell whether or not this is going to be a positive experience. The product appears to be very well constructed with a heavy stamped metal cage screwed in to protect the power tubes. The foot swtich controller is made from heavy gauge stamped metal with a very well insultated cord that is permanently attached. This is much better than those I have owned from Fender, Marshall and one Mesa I borrowed with their associated amps. There is no noise evident when switching channels whether through the foot switch or the front panel. This is not been my experience with Fender, Traynor or Marshall.

I have received quick and prompt responses from their pre-sales team. Web site is well layed out. No post sales experience to report

Right now I can fairly say I would have purchased this unit again and wouldn't have bothered with the Traynor Custom Valve 40 I purchased 12 months ago. There isn't anything that this amp can't deliver for the type of playing I do. The sound floored me when I tried it. It can deliver great sound through an ES335, Les Paul or an American Deluxe Strat. This is a workhorse product well aligned with its mission which is studios and small venues. The multiple output options lend itself to going through other amps and using this one as a preamp or into a PA for flexibility and additional power