It is currently Tue Mar 17, 2020 12:04 am

All times are UTC - 7 hours



Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 15 posts ] 
Author Message
Post subject: Variable Wattage & Tube Mix Control
Posted: Sun May 05, 2013 5:02 pm
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician

Joined: Fri Mar 16, 2012 12:49 pm
Posts: 838
Looking at things from the guitar side of the amp, I would say that having the option to dial in the wattage - 1W to 20W - is a good thing. The same goes for having a Tube Mix control knob. Hard left the output goes to a pair of 6V6 power tubes, hard right to a pair of EL84s and a varying blend of both everything in between. For those who haven't guessed already, I'm looking at Egnater Rebel-20 and wondering if there is a trade off or downside.

Beside not being able to switch from clean to dirty with a press of a pedal - something which could be a factor for a live setting - is there any inherent design flaw or limitation in having variable wattage and tube mix control?

Thanks & Cheers!
BM

_________________
This is the Blues. Are you listening?


Top
Profile
Fender Play Winter Sale 2020
Post subject: Re: Variable Wattage & Tube Mix Control
Posted: Sun May 05, 2013 5:30 pm
Offline
Rock Star
Rock Star

Joined: Mon Apr 05, 2010 2:37 pm
Posts: 8708
Location: Natural Bridge, Virginia
Bluer Monkey wrote:
I'm looking at Egnater Rebel-20 and wondering if there is a trade off or downside.

Thanks & Cheers!
BM


Complexity is design and manufacture. Expense and difficulty in making repairs in the event of a failure. More spare tubes to be carried to a gig.

Since I have started to mod and build my own amps, I have become a big advocate of the KISS principle. :lol:

_________________
Bill

Image


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Variable Wattage & Tube Mix Control
Posted: Sun May 05, 2013 5:34 pm
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Tue Jun 29, 2010 1:20 pm
Posts: 9640
Location: Indiana
+1 bluesky636

KISS and MIA. Skip the overpriced Chinese crap. :wink:

_________________
---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Variable Wattage & Tube Mix Control
Posted: Sun May 05, 2013 6:22 pm
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician

Joined: Fri Mar 16, 2012 12:49 pm
Posts: 838
Gentlemen, thanks very much for the feedback and for confirming my hunch.

Carrying an extra set of tubes in the gig bag - actually mine is an aluminium case - is not a big deal but what Bill says about complexity in design and expense in making repairs is definitely a big deal.

Cheers!
BM

_________________
This is the Blues. Are you listening?


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Variable Wattage & Tube Mix Control
Posted: Mon May 13, 2013 10:34 am
Offline
Rock Star
Rock Star
User avatar

Joined: Tue Aug 07, 2007 2:19 pm
Posts: 8827
My Rebel 20 is going on three years old, gigged and rehearsed weekly and has had zero problems. I always have a plan B on stage. I've never attempted to repair an amp on stage. Bring a second amp.

Here's the thing with the Rebel 20, the one I have is an earlier version, so the QC was probably on point on the initial release. It's been a great amp for me, sounds great and has been rock solid. Complexity in an amp doesn't bother me. Fender has some pretty complex amps as well as Mesa, and countless others. I find the circuitry under the hood of an SF Twin scary. I didn't find the Rebel overpriced at all. Made in China made me nervous at first but it worked out for me. No worse than made in Mexico.

Now for the real scoop. As far as Egnater goes, the Rebel 20 is the only Egnater I have experience with. It's actually one of the more reliable amps they make. Egnater is supposedly moving production back to the states because of quality issues. I'm not getting into a pissing contest with Shimmy. He has a Tweaker he's had problems with, I had a HRDlx I had problems with. Nuff said. I've had the chassis out of my Rebel to check the bias and it was very neat and tidy inside with decent solder joints throughout.

The watts control is not an attenuator. What it actually does is lessen the headroom. Bruce explains it on his website. The tube mix is subtle, not night and day until you get the volume up. There is a nice volume bump at 12:00 on the tube mix dial. It's a pretty cool feature. The bright and tight switches work great. It had a little more gain than I like so I run a NOS JAN Phillips 5751 in V1. I also run two 112 cabs.

I've started building my own amps as well as effect pedals. On stage I run the Rebel and a Tweed 5e3 Deluxe clone and run both amps either separately or together at the same time. I depends on the venue. I've been playing guitar for over 45 years and have played countless gigs, and been through a ton of gear.

If you like the sound of the amp I wouldn't worry about it. What I do is if it doesn't work out, I dump it. There are many happy Egnater owners just like there are Fender owners and just as many haters. I play what I like. If you're good at soldering, you might want to consider building one. I'm planning on building another one. It's a little complex but I think it will be pretty cool. The amps I build are made in America, use good components and are built to my own meticulous standards. Bill is in the same boat. :lol:

_________________
Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Variable Wattage & Tube Mix Control
Posted: Mon May 13, 2013 10:50 am
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Wed Mar 31, 2010 12:48 am
Posts: 26417
Location: Tombstone Territory
63supro wrote:
I've never attempted to repair an amp on stage. Bring a second amp.


+1!

Sage advice.

Arjay

_________________
"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Variable Wattage & Tube Mix Control
Posted: Mon May 13, 2013 12:16 pm
Offline
Rock Star
Rock Star
User avatar

Joined: Tue Aug 07, 2007 2:19 pm
Posts: 8827
The way I look at it Arjay, and you've done a ton of gigs yourself, if you want to loose a client, try to fix your amp on stage. :lol:
If you're playing for money, you're supposed to be a professional. Bring backup equipment.

_________________
Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Variable Wattage & Tube Mix Control
Posted: Mon May 13, 2013 12:22 pm
Offline
Rock Star
Rock Star
User avatar

Joined: Tue Aug 07, 2007 2:19 pm
Posts: 8827
In some instances with the Rebel 20, if a power tube like for instance an EL84 fails, as long as it didn't take out the fuse, you can just move to the 6V6 side. If it blows a fuse, all bets are off without a backup. Like I've said, I've never had a problem with in hundreds of hours. Not a tube, fuse nothing. I run it pretty hard too.

_________________
Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Variable Wattage & Tube Mix Control
Posted: Mon May 13, 2013 3:38 pm
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Tue Jun 29, 2010 1:20 pm
Posts: 9640
Location: Indiana
Bluer Monkey wrote:
...what Bill says about complexity in design and expense in making repairs is definitely a big deal...


It's even a bigger deal when the warranty support is difficult at best, and non-existent at worst. My Twkr 40 crapped out twice, both times it was the PT. The first time was after less than 6 months of use and it took several emails and phone calls to Egnater and about a month just to get an RA number from them to get my amp repaired. Then it was another month, shipping the amp at my expense to the factory authorized repair center, before I got my amp back. The second time that it crapped out, they refused to repair it under warranty. :x

Like a sucker, I then tried a new Rebel 20 that had a volume dropping issue after less than 24 hrs of use. Luckily GC had a 30 day return policy, so I returned the 20 and exchanged it for a MIA MB TA-15.

Check out the Egnater forum, they have transformer issues and customer support issues across the entire line of Chinese made amps. 63supro makes a good point about the quality issues that Egnater has been having, and why the rumor is that they are moving production back to the States. :wink:

No pissing contest, just stating the facts, and as far as I'm concerned, Chinese Egnater amps suck-ass, and you couldn't give me another one. Retroverbial's signature line says it all. :wink:

_________________
---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Variable Wattage & Tube Mix Control
Posted: Mon May 13, 2013 3:51 pm
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Wed Mar 31, 2010 12:48 am
Posts: 26417
Location: Tombstone Territory
I'll eat egg rolls and flied lice all day long but own a chicom-made guitar amp?

NEVER!

:mrgreen:

Arjay

_________________
"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Variable Wattage & Tube Mix Control
Posted: Mon May 13, 2013 7:08 pm
Offline
Rock Star
Rock Star
User avatar

Joined: Tue Aug 07, 2007 2:19 pm
Posts: 8827
That's why I've been building my own. :wink: I've had great luck with my Egnater and I know many others who have to, but the growing pains of Egnater have taken their toll. Like I said mine was a pretty early sample.

After seeing the BYOC Tweed a royal, I found a Supro Thunderbolt clone that looks pretty sweet and not too expensive. It seems like everybody is turning out pretty bad stuff lately including Fender and it's not just the Mexican stuff either. Mesa's have their share of weird stuff too. If I was gigging like I used to, I would be using either my home built amps or Victoria or another boutique amp. The Egnater is fun i hope they got the tranny stuff taken care of. the warranty is three years. Lou, why did they shoot down the warranty? A buddy of mine has a hand wired 18 watt Marshall he paid a fortune for and he also had tranny problems. My Egnater wasn't that expensive of a rig and it paid for itself and the ones I built in a couple of months.

_________________
Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Variable Wattage & Tube Mix Control
Posted: Mon May 13, 2013 8:11 pm
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Tue Jun 29, 2010 1:20 pm
Posts: 9640
Location: Indiana
I'm not sure, other than the second request was done with the on-line form, from a different computer and email address, instead of going through all of the phone calls and emails. They already had a copy of the original receipt from the first time. :? I sold it, with full disclosure, and got about half of what I paid for it, recommending that the new owner go with a MM tranny. I thought about getting a MM tranny myself, but couldn't get the rid of the bad taste. I really liked the sound, but..... :(

_________________
---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Variable Wattage & Tube Mix Control
Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 3:24 pm
Offline
Rock Star
Rock Star
User avatar

Joined: Tue Aug 07, 2007 2:19 pm
Posts: 8827
Lou, That's exactly what my buddy did with his Marshall and couldn't be happier. Put a Merc in it.
The Classic Tone transformers are nice too. That's what's in my 5e3 clone. Egnater needs to really improve on it's customer service and QC. Great sounding and innovative designs are great, but reliability is next in line. I think the company grew way faster than it could afford to. I'll hang onto my Rebel as long as it's reliable. When it's not it's gone. I really like the speaker cabs. It's one of the best sounding versatile rigs I've had in a while, but now I use my 5e3 clone with a little 5 watter el84 amp I built and together they sound incredible so the Rebel sits a little more than it used to.
The funny thing is the Classic Tone trannies come stock with a lot of clone kits and they aren't that expensive and are manufactured in America. Go figure.

_________________
Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Variable Wattage & Tube Mix Control
Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 5:09 pm
Offline
Rock Star
Rock Star

Joined: Mon Apr 05, 2010 2:37 pm
Posts: 8708
Location: Natural Bridge, Virginia
63supro wrote:
That's why I've been building my own. :wink:


+1 8) :D

_________________
Bill

Image


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Variable Wattage & Tube Mix Control
Posted: Wed May 15, 2013 7:14 am
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Tue Jun 29, 2010 1:20 pm
Posts: 9640
Location: Indiana
63supro wrote:
...The Classic Tone transformers are nice too...


Yes, I have used them, and they offer replacements made to the same specs as the originals. I put one in my HRDlx just to test it and it was the same, sound and mounting. I've been too lazy/tired lately to put the original back in. The price is certainly very reasonable, especially for MIA. :D

_________________
---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.


Top
Profile
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 15 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 7 hours

Fender Play Winter Sale 2020

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Search for:
Jump to: