Koch Twintone II 112 combo

Great features, includes:

25/50w Power soak (0 watts for headphones)
3 channels
Spring reverb
All the ins and outs you need

Let me first clarify some points from reviews I have read about these amps. It's not a vintage amp and you shouldn't expect that from this amp obviously. It's borders on a high-fi tone, but only enough to dissuade total vintage lovers. Then again, those old cracks need to steer clear of this 50w monster and stick with their little 5 watt fenders.

Secondly, the touch sensitivity is great. No problem with dynamics at all. It's just a different amp and you can't expect the same kind of dynamics that you would get out of an overpriced boutique amp. This whole business about hiding mistakes is B.S. You either play right or you don't. You can't write this amp off for lacking dynamics by playing one for 20 minutes at the local music store. Plenty of dynamics.

Third, this amp sounds nothing like a Mesa Boogie. It's definitely more in the Marshall class with that British vibe, but it has it's own unique tone and let me tell you - it sounds awesome. I can see where someone would make that relation, the high-fi quality of Mesa with the sound of a Marshall, a slightly high-fi Marshall tone. Interestingly enough, playing it with vintage types of settings doesn't make you wish it sounded more vintage. It just sounds great.

I have directly compared this amp with a Marshalls, Fenders, and Mesas. This may very likely be the only amp that truly brings the Fender and Marshall thing together this well. The cleans are magnificent. Very clean sounding, sparkly chime, and resonance.

The overdrive channel gets a real nice mild breakup and then into a punchy roar. Great harmonics and palm muting too! Overall a top-notch amp for sure.

Built like a tank, but lightweight and very portable.

There is nothing I can think of to improve this amplifier. The right price, right features, the best sounds you can get.

I'm starting a category for the Twintone II combo, as it is different enough from the TT to deserve it's own entry.

Features: 2-el34, 4-12ax7 all-tube two-channel amp with three footswitchable "tones", using a 5x footswitch (1, 2, 3, reverb and volume-boost). 2 and 3 are OD and OD+ which share all front-panel controls - amounting to a gain-circuit boost/switch, and 5 is strictly a volume boost controlled by a rear-panel trimpot (seems like a trim-pot anyway). Nice longspring reverb.

The TT II differs I think mostly in it's use of added switching for Clean/OD/OD+ and for two volume-levels. The soak may be new, not certain... OD/OD+ modes share all controls, including GAIN (more below)

Controls:
Front: clean/od/od+ switch; clean vol, bass, mid & treb; od/od+ gain, vol, pres, bass, mid, treb.
Rear: f/sw jack, reverb-vol/fx-loop mix single pot, serial & parallel loop jacks, two spkr-outs 4/8ohm with a trick 8ohm attenuator/soak that's only engaged when the main spkr-out is not used (not switchable, ugh), recording and headphone out with speaker-sim filtering voiced for 1x12 sound.

Inconveniences and annoyances popped up with the above features, mainly in the way a couple of them are deployed:

1. While it's nice to have a footswitchable medium/high gain tone, the single GAIN (which is touted as an attribute somehow in sales lit, as though the two gain levels are magically complimentary to each other) is a DRAG. While shared eq is forgiveable-tho-not-ideal as it's a single channel- a shared GAIN really limits the player. e.g. I get a nice gainy-blues vibe with a somewhat high gain setting in "OD", but when switching to the "OD+" for a heavier tune or whatever, the GAIN is WAY-TOO-HIGH for my taste. Likewise, a nice med-gain lead tone leaves me with (IMO) an anemic "OD" setting, lacking sufficient gain to compliment the lead tone. This lack of separate gain for OD+ means that in order to use the amp for both blues-rock and heavier-rock, I must step back and tweak gain at least. An internal or rear trim-pot for setting the variance between OD and OD+ would be a HUGE improvement I think. OK, so it is called a _TWIN_tone - I get it. I'm just stating the fact that getting footswitchable classic-rock/blues and a nice flowing hi-gain lead tone is very, very hindered by the shared GAIN, as the clean channel has so much headroom that it doesn't get in to a crunch-zone. That's not a bad thing, just that it doesn't function as other than clean...

Attenuator: this design might be ideal for tonal reasons, over a separately controlled soak switch, but it limits your options for external cabinets very much. In fact, you cannot even use the soak when using both the internal 12" and an external cab, as it's only in the circuit when the main jack is NOT used. Furthermore - while the 4 and 8 ohm switch implies options for external cabinetry, there are none if you use the single 12 too - you MUST use an 8-ohm external cab if you want to use the combo's speaker too (in parallel, meaning you'll set the switch to 4-ohms). Other mfrs designs that have a separate attenuator switch/toggle seem more versatile to me, but perhaps this is the best way to keep the tone optimal - it's just a little confusing that you must leave the main-out unused to implement the soak, and also must remember that it is an 8-ohm parallel load such that the second-out must use an 8-ohm spkr/cab requiring you to switch to 4-ohm load.

Rythmm/Lead volume on rear - it's a tiny little trim-pot arrangement with no markings for level at all. You must remember to set/check it each time you setup, by ear alone. It would be nice if it was a regular pot with a range like 1-10 or whatever. As is, you can't tell where it is set by looking at it (even internal trims often have some line/ptr so you can tell where they are set). Seems like a total after-thought - could easily have been more user-friendly without much expense on Koch's part).

Overall, high sound quality. The clean is quite Fender-ish, especially considering it's running el34s and not 6L6s. It's a very pleasant and rich clean, slightly squished so it's a little forgiving while perhaps trading some subtle dynamics. Overall a very high-quality, boutique-range clean. Not getting near this quality from a stock Epi combo I think, nope (ref. to axial tranny mods :)

The OD/OD+ is not quite what I expected based on other reviews of the Twintone though, except for those who refer to it's tone as somewhat "Hi-Fi". I have to agree with that. I do not sense much of a british/plexi-vibe as some of said. Yes, EL34s do sound like - well - EL34s. So pushing it to output-stage overdrive does imbue a traditionally "brit" feel.. but it's different. It seems very "controlled" or well-mannered. It never sounds like it's about to melt the tubes or anything (not what it's for), but it does offer a more-than-decent palet of tonal variety. If you seek classic-rock, plexi-like organic tube sound, it may not be for you. It's quite capable of covering the territory, but that's not it's strength. It is a more modern, originally voiced beast. I almost decided to return it because it's gain tone is not what I'd call "organic" sounding. Maybe that's what some would call "low-fi", but I can get that from my Bogner Ecstacy classic (open, not super-compressed, plexi-like distortion). Still - it's a pretty cool gain tone, though for me, even with h/b pups I have to dial out almost all treble. For me, the amp seemed treble-heavy, though it has a massive bottom-end as well (hooking up to a 4x12 REALLY shows this off). But the range of the treble control allows me to tame the highs to where I like 'em... There are a number of nice, sweet spots. Fact is, the tone controls are more responsive than most - meaning that little tweaks have a large overall effect compared to most passive tone stacks. Thus, by tweaking for longer than you are used to with some other amps, you will almost certainly find some sweet spots that you might miss if you just judge the tone with all controls set mid-way. I like this amp's tone - it is way better than most stock production amps, if not all - and it's very "tweakable" as I've said. The clean channel hardly has a bad sound, and while useability of od/od+ could be approved in my subjective opinion, it's tweakability will allow it to cover a wide range of tastes. Hi-Fi it is, with razor-highs and very, very huge lows as well. I played "Crushing Day" (satriani mood I guess), and it sang the melody sweetly and belted the more savage solo-sections with a very nice voice, all it's own - but well-within the song's genre. The 8 I give it is in the boutique class. Call it a production amp and it's 9 or 10 for sure. I may go to my Ecstacy classic a bit more often, and for blues I still love the Carr's tones - but this amp is quite comfortable in their company, if not _slightly_ out-dressed by the twice-as-expensive-at-least Bogner. apples/oranges maybe. VERY SUBJECTIVE matter. It's undeniably compact and portable - very club friendly even if heavy for it's size.

N/A too soon to say. The tubes seem to have survived the long trip from the Netherlands to California :)

n/a unknown. Hopefully won't need much if any.

Playing 30+ years - classic (grew up on Trower, Zep, Clapton & later SRV maybe), hard-rock(UFO/Schenker, EVH, Satriani... et al).
Bogner Ecstacy Classic, Fuchs TDS-50, been through most Mesa stuff still have a Lonestar that I'M KEEPING, Cornford which ROCKS, Marshall JTM-45 with custom trannys and a wonderful old 50-watt Carlsberg that's as plexi as any Marshall)

Not sure if I'd replace if stolen, but keeping for now - I certainly can rock for hours without getting bored or frustrated - TWEAK the tone-stack on the OD/OD+ !!! Takes a little more dialing than many more singularly-voiced amps... tweak-play-tweak-play-tweak-play... you will likely find at least a few very sweet spots.