Siegmund Guitars Midnight Blues Breaker Head

I picked up this Siegmund Head used off of Ebay. The amplifier arrived in pretty good condition and I think it was made in 2003-04. It has a nice flamed maple cab and an effects loop, single channel, bias knob in the rear for biasing tubes with your own volt meter, and what looks like a bias knob for the fist preamp tube. Push-pull knobs and what not.

The layout is nice and the wiring is neat but the look gets spoiled by the stick-on labels that are pasted around in various places, of course this doesn't affect tone, with a piece so well built it seems like a minor detail to look out for. The rest of the control panel is screen printed.

I wish the head had reverb, but no big deal, there are already a few knobs to twiddle with so it is not that big a deal. This one is tube rectified, from what I understand from the previous owner you can get a solid state plug in rectifier for it.

There aren't a lot of features but still a few knobs to mess with. It has a Master Volume (MV) too that has some problems I have not been able to work out, more later. Middle of the road for features, thus a six rating.

I play Stratocasters, and Telecasters for the most part. I have a guitar I set up for slide playing that I use occasionally and a Les Paul copy with Lollar's in it that sounds fabulous.

The amp takes single coils in the Stratocaster and the Les Paul copy well. The Telecaster is my acid test guitar I play with all amps. I find a Telecaster will let you know what you have for an amplifier. The Telecaster is an unforgiving guitar for both player and amplifier and is an exercise in life long patience.

The amp has nice clarity, for sure with a good treble response and base with my 2x12 cabinet. After a couple of months of hard playing and practicing I found myself getting bored with the sounds. It is not bad but I was carving something murkier and warm. I am a fan of the funky country blues players; I like muted bass lines and warm sounds.

The Siegmund head began to sound kind of sterile, to me. At lower volumes the amplifier sounds fine but when you crank something gets lost. I have to bypass the master volume and I keep hearing something with it that I can not figure out what is wrong. I am not sure if there is a design flaw with the MV circuit in this amp or a part is bad. The amplifier has a hum to it, a little louder than the typical tube amp hum when the gain is up. I had to take it in to get it looked at to figure this one out. Buying used is a crap shoot I and I took a chance here. The price was fairly decent, for a used head.

This is neither the best amplifier I have ever heard, nor the worst. I liked the way the notes jumped out and after awhile that feeling wore off. There is a lot competition out there in the boutique market and some damn fine amps being built from the likes of Carr, Germino, Swart Lou Rosano to name a few. I have played all these and am very impressed by the Rosano amps specifically. again, more of a middle of the road amp in a world already flooded with too many choices.

The Siegmund head is built well, a friend who is a player here locally checked it out and said it is neat wiring. It looks nice to me too. Admittedly, I don't know a lot about soldering and what have you but everything looks as it should, in my book.

The only issue I had was with the MV. I ran it bypassed in the end to solve my problems. Below three or four and the MV didn't sound good. Most phone calls to Siegmund only resulted in an answering machine and no returned calls. E-mail a similar experience. He is a tough man to reach.

Well this guy has a serious chip on his shoulder about something. He does not seem interested in anything you didn't buy from him even if it is his own product. This is in stark contrast to other high-end manufactures I have dealt with.

Most small production run items carry a premium price tag, builders turn out low numbers relative to mass production conglomerates and offer transferable warranties in some cases. My expectation was for Siegmund to at least talk about what the problem could be with a unit he personally built. The man seems only interested in before sales pitch and M-O-N-E-Y. Before I could even ask him he told me about his 'cheap' bench rate of 75/hr with a minimum down to look at it. Wow, 75 is cheap?!?

Be careful buying a used unit and expecting it to be looked at without a hassle and a whine. I don't mind paying him for his time but spare me the "poor me, I am so broke speech" and "this is a used unit, don't bother me". Siegmund needs to take some lessons in etiquette, politeness, and customer service; I am glad I didn't buy new. A rating of one reads, "Not helpful at all, basically worthless" I did find some value out of this, I know where not to go in the future and who will stand behind a product.

I have been playing a college circuit for about five years and relocated due to work and I am keeping busy at the moment. I have had a few guitars and amps pass through my hands. I beg and borrowed a lot of things too to get me by. I have found a few keeper items I always rely upon to get me through.

I bought this amplifier on a chance. It is not a bad amp by any means I just felt uninspired in the end after a year with it. Maybe Siegmund was good back when he began and choices were more limited but the times have changed, there are a lot of other choices and the market expects decent customer service.

I would have felt better about Siegmund had he been more polite on the phone, his products look interesting. This is my first review and I have to say had he not been such a whiner with a chip I probably would not have written it.

Custom built, 2006, its a 35w (Mercury Magnetics JTM45 OT, class A/AB switchable into 16ohm only, one of Chris' secret tone weaopns!), reverb with serial effects loop, currently running 12ax7's & 5881's & GZ84. (I have a set of NOS KT66's on the way.) Single channel with 3 gain stages, black leather small head with a 2x12 cabinet loaded with alnico Tone Tubbies. This amp is built like a tank, though the cabinet is quite light, and featers a reovable baffle system that allows you to change speakers quickly. I also HIGHLY recomment the padded covers, they are VERY well made & worth the money. Im toying with the idea of a 4x10 setup now! It's used in small to medium clubs, and in high school auditorium. (I do alot of volunteer work with the local high school music department.)
Don't let the single channel setup deter you! (I never really did see the need for all those channels) I bought one of Chris' Micro-Tube Double Drives with the amp, and in conjunction with the mid boost on my Strat I have more tonal options than I've ever had with a multi-channel amp.

I play a couple of Custom Shop Strats, a Masterbuilt, all with Kinman AvN Blues Pickups & active Mid-Boost.

I feel somewhat inadequate to even be commenting on the amp for a couple of reasons. One being my somewhat narrow exposure to "Vintage" amps, my familiarity lies more towards the mass produced items. The second is my lack of what I refer to as "adequate vocabulary." I read amp reviews & hear things like "Post Attack Bloom" or "Full Bodied Sound with a hint of sag." Dawned on me that I might not be the ONLY person who has no freaking idea what they are saying, to as best I can I want you to know what I think in my own words.

Here's the thing that stands out in my head as the most amazing...the effect of all the controls. In many of the amps I have, there seems to be a narrow range of "alteration" in the controls, or a non-linnear effect whereby dialing in MORE of something doesn't provide me with added results. On certain amps dialing in too much gain seems to drown out the tonal or musical quality of the signal. A lot of the tone controls I have used do the same thing at their higher levels. What blows me away about the MBB is that the controls have an even, predictable WIDE range of effect, but they NEVER EVER saturate or compromise the actual MUSIC. Some amps I have used actually sound like the gain or boost is the signal, and the actual NOTES are just thrown in for good measure. This experience for me is completely the opposite. The sound can be shaped & molded over a HUGE range, but it's always an molding of the sound coming from my fingers. This in & of itself isn't a good thing, because flaws in my technique & laziness in picking & fingering shine through on the MBB. I've probably discovered more about my playing in first 6 or so hours on this amp than the last 6 years!

The drive section alone is amazing. (Here's where my illiteracy really becomes humorous!) The knob in the back I call my Rogaine knob. It effects the amount of hair or fuzz available to the Gain knob. I also discovered that the amount of gain seems to have a marked effect on the reverb. With the gain all the way down, the reverb is VERY slight, one gain comes up reverb has a much more profound effect. In light of this, the reverb footswitch is quite handy. The gain knob seems to work in the traditional manner, yet over such a wide range of effect, putting as much of that hair from the Rogaine knob as I want into the mix. Ah, but the drive knob...that's my ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT knob. I almost want to call it a valve, cause to me it turns up the pressure coming from the speakers with remarkably fluid control. This combined with the Master Knob, which a call my Bad Neighbor knob, gets UNBELEIVEABLE tone at even the lowest volume levels. I don't call it the "good neighbor" knob because the tone just gets better & better the louder I drive those alnico Tubbies!

The speakers are incredible, always providing full tone, with the normal deeper more relaxed sound that you expect from 2x12's. Yet, the sound is still "sparkly" & not muddy at all. At first, playing at lower volume levels, I expected the normal amount of distortion & loss of low to low-mid quality as the volumes rose, but this was never the case! The master is a TRUE master, and tone just gets better as the volume goes up. Many of the new amps I have used give you all of their adjustment at relatively low settings across the board. When you actually open a control up later you find too many shortcomings at higher gain, drive, master, & eq settings. Although I have found a couple of "sweetER spots" for different sounds so far, there are as yet to be found ANY less than sweet spots! Even the Mid-Boost in my Clapton Strat, which has been known in MANY amps to do nothing really other than make the sound muddy & flat, shines through, it's sometimes "negative" effect on tone now gone. In fact, all the controls on my guitars seems to have had their responses upgraded as well!

The 5881's sound incredible in the MBB, and I'm looking forward to trying the 66's. I really don't think I've ever had the opportunity to experiment like that & feel comfortable judging the difference. To be quite frank, I've changed tubes in amps before & been REALLY hard pressed to notice a difference, but the responsiveness of the MBB to shaping tone gives you the ability to hear MUCH more subtleties in the sound than I have ever heard.
If there was 12 for tone, it's give it to the MBB!

So far I've had zero problems with the amp in the month or so that I've had it. The padded covers are great for my usual amount of transport. I use a Furman power conditioner all the time, there's ZERO moise from the amp, and I give it the cleanest power possible. I doubt I'd really be comfortable having only 1 amp at ANY gig, but if I had to, this would be the one I chose.

From the first contact I had with Chris about his amps, I have NEVER experienced the level of servive, patience & response I have had with him. Not only a genius, but a true audiophile/mad professor/philosopher/amp guru! The head, cabinet, covers & tube & speaker upgrades represent a fairly large investment, and Chris realizes this and really makes you feel like you have your own personal amp tech, making sure your expectations are easily exceeded. For what I got for my money, I consider it a value, and there are options & combos that can put you in one of Chris' amps for a LOT less. Chris will work with you every step of the way. I've learned more about amps, tubes & sound shaping in general talking to him through emails than I ever have before. He test his rigs THOUROUGHLY and when he discovered a problem with my old style KT66's redid the rig with 5881's to get it out to me. All through the contruction I badgered him about choices in tubes, power, speakers, and always, instead of imposing his "will", provided me with more than enough information to be able to make my own descision.

My rig currently consits of a Keeley Mellow wah, Siegmund Microtube Double Drive, Analog Man SunFace Fuzz, Analog Man Bi-Chorus for pedals. Other amps include a JTM60, Saldano SLO & Torress Custom Fender Blues Deluxe.

I've been playing for 24 years, mostly classic rock/blues rock, from Allman to ZZ Top.

I'm in the retail automotive industry, and let me say this...being subject to the myriad of rating systems that my dealerships are, I NEVER give out top box scores unless they are earned. If you think this review is taking the rating system lightly, it is in ONE respect. Chris, and his products, need to be rated on their own scale...the complete experience of being one of his customers is that good.