Koch Twintone Combo

It's a two channel tube amp of convinient size and weight (22kg). Channel one has volume, bass, mids, treble, while channel two has gain, volume, presence, bass, mids and treble. Two inputs, one for passive and one for avtive pick ups. Rear side bears headphone jack, external speaker jack,speaker impedance switch from 4 to 8 ohms, main speaker jack, FX loop in/out (seriell), reverb level mix, channel footswitch jack, clean/gain switch if footswitch is disconnected and lead/rhythm volumelevel control. The Twintone is powered by two EL 34 tubes and host a spring reverb. Via footswitch the user is able to controll the lead/rhythm volume function as well as the clean channel/gain channel function. What's misleading in my opinion is, that concerning the rhythm/lead function the indicator light in "on" when the rhythm function is used. What I would like to have is an "on/off" function switch for the effects loop, like my Tech 21 Trademark 60 has. Contrary to other models my twintone has a custom jensen 12" 90 Watt speaker, which is very loud and sounds comarable to the 75 Watt Celestions, which can be found in todays 4x12" cabinets. There's no DI-out, but thats no problem cause I always mike my amps with a Groove Tubes tubemic if neccesary. All controls go very smooth and work effective. Presence control for channel one would be fine.

First time a heard a Twintone Combo was at the Frankfurt Music Fair in 1998 or 1999 right after I had played a Bogner Shiva, which had been an (unaffordable) dream for me. It was Mr.Koch himself who played and I never forgot the sound of those small amp in all these years. Basically I'm playing a Gibson '61 Reissue SG as well as a custom build Riemer Strat with '54 style vintage pickups. Channel 1 has a very good clean sound, much headroom, fenderish but lacking the crisp treble sound. It compares very well to my '70 Marshall Super Lead Normal Channel, which has at certain setting a warm, full and dynamic sound. I use this channel in combination with a vintage TS 9, an old RAT and a early '70s Fuzzface for the sounds I need when I play AC/DC, Hendrix or Led Zeppelin songs. Channel two has a more modern voicing, which sounds like a recent Marshall, but without those sometimes nasty mids.
Theres a lot of gain (up to 20) if you need it, and setting the bass to 9, mids to 3 and treble/presence to 10 nearly blows the bass player off stage. I'm using the amp in combination with an old ('65) Fender Bandmaster cabinet, what's so far a good sounding combination.
Referring to my other guitars ('72 Les Paul, '80 Flying V, '90 Les Paul Special, '94 Music Man van Halen) you always have to try and hear, to find out where the sweet spot lies. But I suggest, thats unique with every amp and guitar. The only reason, why I don't give a ten for the sound is that in my experiece nothing can beat the dynamics of an amp which is equipped with 4 tubes like my ol' Marshall or an ol' Twin Reverb. The Twintone is very loud, but it's like a modern 6 cylinder engine compared to 8 cylinder big block.
The amp is very quiet at all, even at the highest gain setting and rolling back the volume knob of the guitar displays a high quality sound with medium distortion. Concerning, that I play as well a lot of Metallica, Skid Row Nu Metal stuff its a very versatile amp for those old school//new scholl Hard Rock/Heavy Metal songs.

I purchased the amp several weeks ago and had so far no problems at all. Anyway, hence I would rate that.

There are just 3 or 4 dealers, which sell those Koch products. I purchased the Twintone from Uli's Musik in Koln (Cologne) in Germany, which is a very sophisticated guy and serious dealer. So far I do not expect any problems, if I would have the amp maintained. When I wanted to buy an Twintone, I looked at the Koch homepage www.kochamps.com and found an dealer immediatly. The contact to Uli was via eMail and had been excellent.

I'm playing over 30 years and apart from such (in Germany) rare amps like a Dumble or a Matchless I've played most of the usual amps like VOX, Fender, Marshall, Mesa/Boogie, Hughes & Kettner etc. The Twintone is my first choice when I play on smaller or medium sized stages.

I don't know what year it was built, and the features are listed in the other reviews. I does have a Celestion Vintage 30 speaker, of which I think are the speakers ever. I play rock, blues, rock n roll, jazz, and this amp is great for all types of music! I only wish you could footswitch the reverb function, 'cause i never use the solo/rhythm function. It has plenty of power, I sometimes connect it to a Marshall cab, and blows the hair off my legs!

I mainly use a PRS CE 24, which already sounds great from itself, but comes out much better with this amp! It has factory pickups, which sound superb! I also use a Fender Strat, even with his singlecoils you can get a fat sound out of the amp, no need to buy an extra overdrive pedal.
For effects I use a Boss GT-5 multieffectsprocessor, a Jimi Hendrix Wah and an E-Bow. This setup has been my dream for years, but with this rig i'm ready for life!
The variety of this amp is incredible. The clean channel stays clean up until volume 10. The overdrive channel is crunchy until 5, and rock all the way after that. It really gives me what i need.

A friend of mine has made a flightcase for it, because I travel around a lot with my band SMUCK. I think cases are essential for your equipment. As you all know, tube amps are a little risky, because of the tubes. So I always bring a spare one with me. But you never know. I could break down, but I've gigged a lot with it, and nothing has happened.

I found that the reverbknob was too big, because came out of the amps hood. So I sent Koch a note with that. 5 days later I got a new knob. I've been at the factory once, and the people there were really nice. Koch amps can't be found in every store, you need to check their website for the exact address. The warranty is 1 year.

I've been playing for 8 years now, and this has always been the setup that I wished for. It cost me about $6000, but it got me a great sound! You can check out my bands website www.smuck.nl for results. I used to own a Fender Ultimate Chorus and was glad i got rid of it. It just isn't an amp for gigging.
So to conclude, bring a big wallet, but it's worth every penny!

A 2-channel 50 Watt combo amp. Channel footswitch pedal with boost control. Amp made in the Netherlands. ALL-TUBE. Spring Reverb(Accutronics classic-model). Variable Gain and Presence control. Bass and Mid and Treble controls in Channel 2. Channel 1 (clean channel) just Bass, Mid and Treble controls. Reverb is adjusted from the rear. set it and forget it.

The combo comes with and excellent speaker, CELESTION VINTAGE 30. The best, I feel, for overall tone and distortion. The distortion is pure hot-rod. From a mild gain to over the top(Van Halen). The clean is quite good and very verstalie.

So far, so good

You can e-mail them. And they do respond.

If you are looking for an amp that can do everything well. and pay just a grand, and be all tube. I highly recommend this amp. Nothing in its class. Not Fenders, Riveras, or Carvins or Boogies or Peaveys.
I have been playing for 20 years, and this is an excellent value for the money. Can't beat it at all. You can use for all styles. They are hard to get, but if you find one, I recommend you try it. they have a website (www.koch-amps.com). I own vintage fenders and Marshalls. It is like I got two amps in one(fender and marshall).

This amp has all I need for features. Effects Loop, Solo volumn boost

This is the most versitile amp I've ever played. The clean channel really does sound like a Fender. I have a Blackface deluxe and have used it for years. I have searched for an amp that had Fender clean and Modded marshall lead tone and this one has both.I've had lots of amps and this one is one of the best. I believe this one will stay at my house along time.

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Great Amp

I recently attended a Paul Reed Smith seminar at a local music store and asked him what kind of amps he liked. On that particular night, Paul was playing through a Bogner Shiva which belonged to the store that sponsored the event. Paul started raving about the Koch line of guitar amplifiers and said that they are his favorite amps, that he records with them and plays them live, and that they are very hard to get in the United States. I started looking on the internet for Koch amps and stumbled upon JTM Musics web site. Robb Johnston of JTM had a few Koch's in stock and I had him ship me one on approval. My amp arrived loaded with a Celestion Vintage 30, (which is not my personal favorite....I know that a lot of players swear by them...but I personally prefer the EV12L). The Vintage 30 had a strange buzz and it turns out the speaker was damaged, probably in transit. I called Robb at JTM and he was very helpful and bent over backwards to make sure that I was satisfied. I loaded the amp with a EV speaker and it is still in it.
My amp was purchased by JTM at the Summer NAMM show and was in "as new" condition. The other reviewers have listed all of the specifications on the amp so I will not bore you with the details...see other reviews. However, I will say that the amplifier is extremely versatile and has plenty of power for club gigs. I do not use the auto power soak feature because it is hard on the tubes.

Tom Anderson builds my favorite guitars. I have four of them and they all sound great through the Koch. I also have a couple of PRS's, Brian Moore DC-1, Strats, Teles, Les Pauls. My style is blues oriented and this is the first "high gain" oriented amp that I have owned. This amp has gobbs of gain and will scream if you want it to. I prefer the compressed singing lead tone to the thermal meltdown tones, but everything is in this amp. At extremely high gain settings the amp does get a little noisy. The best comparison that I can give is to a Saldano or a hot rodded Marshall. The clean channel is fantastic and it stays clean at high volumes. The reverb unit is the same unit that is in my Vintage Fender reverb unit and it sounds very good.

Other than the speaker situation that I mentioned above, I have had no problems with the amp. I always have a few amps with me if I am going to play out.

Eden Electronics is the USA distributor at the present time for Koch. You should begin seeing them in your local music store very soon. One of the local dealers in my town has picked up the line and is very excited about having them. The manufacturers warranty from Koch is 1 year. Eden told me to ship the Vintage 30 to them and they will replace it. I have not done it yet, but I do not anticipate any problems. Robb Johnston at JTM Music's service has been excellent and he has always answered any inquiries promptly.

I have been playing for 20+ years. I also own a Mesa Boogie MK1 which has been my number one amp for years. I prefer the clean sounds of the Koch to the Boogie. I also have a Matchless Clubman with a 2-12 cabinent, Victoria Bassman and a Deluxe. If the Koch were lost or stolen, I would probably replace it. It is much more versatile than the other amps that I own and a lot less money than most of them. I am not going to give the amp a overall rating of a 10 because I still have dreams of stumbling upon a Dumble some day. But in the bang for the buck department the Koch definately deserves a 10

Koch Twintonen tube combo is very versatile. You can play allmost anything with it. Personally I use it from country style picking to hard rock. And Koch does all that easily. It has two channels, but you can boost up your solo on both clean and overdrive channels. It's very handy and you can set up the level of that boost as you like. It also has and effect loop, headphone output and line output. It has a power soak which means you can play it without speaker connected. You can also reduce 50 watts to 25 watts by switching the speaker to 4 ohm and changing the plug to the external speaker output. Koch has more power than i need, but it sounds very good even with low volume. Meaning it's also possible to play at home. Only thing that bothers me is the solo/rhytm switch. In my opinion it should be made just the opposite way. Green led on should be solo and green led off rhytm. But I can live with that.

I use Koch with replica 56'model Strat and custom made Tele. Both guitars soud good through it. Single coil is not in shame. You get lot "balls" out of the amp. In overdrive mode you can get everything betveen Rolling Stones and Metallica. Overdrive channel is musical all the way to end.

Have had only couple of weeks so... no opinion yet.

I've been playing for 15 years. Koch is simply the best amp I've ever had. I've had Music Man RD112, Fender Super Sixty (lousy amp by the way), Mesa Boogie Caliber +50 and Fender Blues de Wille. I would definitely buy a new one if this was stolen. In clean channel i can get a prairie kidn of space to the sound. Hope you get what i mean. And in overdrive allmost anything. The rewerb is also good. I tested also Fender Twin, but Koch had much better overdrive. It would be nice if it had tremolo, but I can live with that. I think and hope that my pursuit of good amp has come to an end. Koch is THE AMP for me. And it doesn't need any pedals or so. That's good 'cos I'm a roots man after all.

'97 Twintone. 2-channel, channel switching 50W tube-amp. I don't think it's available in the US but it is avaible in most of the EC. Apart from the obvious features, it has a few more to set it apart from the rest. The important ones for me are a (foot) switchable rythm/lead volume, and a built in power soak. The powersoak can be used for silent recording, but also to eat half of the output power. Another important feature is the filtered line output which in my ears does a very good job in emulating the Celestion Vintage 30 speaker. The standard stuff is a clean channel with 3-band equalizer and a distortion channel with a 3-band equalizer, a drive control and presence control (doesn't work for the clean channel). Another good thing about this thing is a weight approx. 23 kg. Which makes it still portable. The rating reflects my needs. What it misses the most is a second lead channel.

I play in a cover band (blues and rock type of stuff) and I need basically 3 different sounds: clean, crunch and lead readily available. So I have to use a stomp pedal for my 3rd sound. (TS5 for the crunch). However both channels are very good. Specially the lead channel is extremely versatile. It goes from compressed clean smoothly up to JCM 900 on 10. The clean channel is not as crisp as some Fenders but still quite good. I compared it to Marshalls (JTM series) and they sounded dull. I also own a Boogie Mark IV but I don't touch it anymore. The Boogie is good but it takes a lot of tweaking. And every time I use the MkIV, I always have the feeling it sounded better last time. The Koch has controls that are easy to read and memorize, and there are no 'hidden' settings. Apart from that the Koch is heavy but portable, with the MkIV every doorstep becomes an obstacle. I use it mostly with a Carvin LT 60 Koa with a humbucker at the bridge an a single coil at the neck. It is also pretty versatile in a kind of Tele meets SG way. The Koch is not noisy (like any good tube amp). I don't have very high demands on power output. 50 W of tube power (2 X EL34) is more then I require in any situation. We always use our PA and we most of the time play in small places. Even with half of the power soaked our keyboard player complains all the time.

The footswitch had a loose wire. After I soldered that I didn't meet any problems. (I have it now for 9 months.)

I had a single question about the foot switch and they responded quickly.

I'm playing electrics for some 20 years. Yes it has been that long. I've owned a Roland, a Fender Concert 60 black face, a Boogie Call. 22+ and still own a MkIV. There is no perfect gear, but this thing does a good job in supplying enough features and remaining practical. What I like about is (in order of priority) the sound, footswitchable rythm/lead volume (we don't have a sound man), quality of the cabinet simulator and the portability. If I loose it I might go for a Tech 21 amp for a change. Seems to be a nice amp and even more portable. On the other hand I might go for a second hand Koch KC50 (the forefather of this amp, 3 channels and 4 X EL84). For anyone who has become interested, there is a link to the Koch site on the manufacturers page of this site.