Product: Polytone Fusion 112 Combo
Price Paid: US $600
Submitted
02/07/2004
at
11:44pm
by
guitarcomet
Email: lespaulemail at yahoo<dot>com
Features
:
9
1985 Polytone Fusion.
This amp was designed after the idea of the Seymour Duncan amps of the early 80s. Instead of having tubes that you could physically switch in & out of the amp, this design used a knob to switch between 5 tubes internally. (there are 11 tubes in this amp)
It has a seperate distortion curcuit that is nothing more than a built in stomp box (but a good one)
The distortion, along with the reverb, tube selector, and channel selector (it's got two channels) are all footswitchable.
It has 100 watts and an external speaker out with an ohms switch to go down to 2 ohms. Plenty of power for most situations.
Both channels have bright switches and switches to put it in the effects loop or not.
Sound Quality
:
10
Strats, Les Pauls mostly.
The most versitle amp I've ever owned!!
With the "Dial-A-Sound" feature (tube switching knob) you can get nearly any sound you want. The distortion has a gain & a level, so getting a good blend is easy.
Channel 1 is very Fender (tweed) sounding, and channel 2 is more Mesa sounding. (great for lead)
The pregain on each channel was enough to get some mild distortion out of, which was a nice option. The master volume was appropiately at the end of the chain and controlled the main level of everything.
Reliability
:
7
This amp was run at 2ohms (wrongly) for several months until the speaker blew. (oops!) Then lasted 4 years until it was used at top volume (everything on 10) by a fellow player that borrowed it. (it blewout the next time I used it)
Spent $500 trying to fix it. Gave up. The Polytone company couldn't garrantee their work so the local guy did it. It never returned to 100%.
I'd give "Reliability" a 7, because if given proper treatment, this unit would'a lasted a while longer.
Customer Support
:
3
Shoddy! The people didn't even know their parts lists well, nor were they helpful in repair work.
Proof that they really didn't design this unit, but bought the rights from some guy to make it. (He's on some island somewhere now, baking clams & drinking beer)
1 year warranty
Overall Rating
:
9
How long have you been playing? 26 years
What other gear do you own? People call my house "The Music Store" (nuff said?)
If it were stolen or lost, would you buy it again or get something else? I'd buy it again, but they lost the rights to make it three years after and it has never been available since.
What do you love about it? Everything!
What do you hate? Nothing!
Did you compare it to other products? Multitudes
Which ones? Mesa/Fender/Marshall/Soldano/Seymour Duncan
Why did you choose this one? The Price of $600 was the killer! With all those features, it was a steal!
Anything you wish it had? Digital delay & Chorus
Anything else you'd like to share? This cold I have?
