Got this one back:
Grease Monkey II. Got it in 2018, sold it in 2019, got it back yesterday from the guy that bought it from me. It's one of the few amps that I kind of missed over the years, so I jumped at the chance to get it back.
A quick n ez way to describe it is Vox meets Marshall, but that really doesn't reveal how awesome it is.
I've read that it's a take on the Trainwreck Liverpool. Paraphrasing from Greg or Ossie: if a Liverpool were mixed with a Dumble, but mostly Liverpool.
It's a 30 watt amp with 4xel84s, volume (gain), treble, bass, cut knob, master volume, 3-way low end switch that goes from lean to meaty, and a hi/lo gain switch that takes the gain from sweet cleans-JCM crunch on one setting, to something more like a hot-rodded plexi ala Friedman on the higher setting.
The gain is open and raw, while simultaneously having a sweet amount of compression and sustain.
The amount of touch sensitivity, multi-dimensional movement, and expressiveness is astounding. It's one of those amps that can be as much an instrument as the guitar itself. It reacts almost like a great Fuzz Face pumped through a loud amp, but with tight attack. It can be gnarly, or clean up to a sweet, chimey sound that will get exponentially hairy with stronger attack on the strings. Addictive feel.
The master volume works great for taming the volume without taking too much away from the sound, but the amp wants to be loud.
The bass and treble work together to dial in the overall eq. More bass adds lows while subtracting lower mids. More treble brings the highs while scooping the rest of the mids. So I tend to set those 2 knobs where I want the mids to be, then use the 3-way switch to dial in low end, and the cut switch to eliminate any brittleness.
The low end switch in the meaty setting makes the amp growl. You hit a palm muted chord and let it sustain, and it just growls. It does stuff no other amp I've had can do.
The cut knob can be switched off, which opens the amp up and makes it more responsive, like it has no negative feedback. Clicking the cut knob on immediately reduces the overall volume and brightness, further eliminating brightness as you turn it up. I prefer it off, or just on, depending on how loud I'm playing, and how high the treble knob is.
The amp can be super middy to cut through any mix, or totally Metallica-like AJFA scooped out, with a surprisingly beefy low end for a 30w/el84 amp.
Pretty cool amp. You hardly read much about them, or ever see them around anymore. I highly suggest playing it if you see one. Lots of fun.
Sounds like this, starting at 0:35 seconds:
Sounds not unlike this:
