Blue Collared Tweaker!

[BradWorld]

Hey all. Got a Tweaker about a month ago or so. What a great amp! The tones are really killer for such an inexpensive amp. I played a gig and a couple of studio sessions with it already, and I am very pleased. I havent sold an amp for years and years, and I have amassed quite a stock pile. But I was never really able to say "I dont need this one anymore". But now with all the great tones in the Tweaker, I think I can get rid of a couple. I think when the 40 comes out, I am gonna have to get one.

I truely believe that if I had purchased a mega dollar boutique 15 watter, and it sounded like this Tweaker does, I would be perfectly happy! The fact that this amp is under $400 is amazing.

 

[jamme61]

agree 1000% loved my tweaker, miss it but, had to get the renegade. I will be first on line for the tweaker 40. I'm old (have had many amps) can't belieave what you get, for the price you pay. Love Egnaters ears! Great time to be a guitar player. You Kiddies have no idea how lucky we are.

 

[ramblin390]

I'll probably grab a tweaker 40 myself, I need 2 channels to cut down my tweaking

 

[bubs_42]

First Brand New Amp I bought in 15 years. Got even better after the first tube change. I don't care much for the tubes that are in the Tweaker Stock. I put a tone of hours on them but the amp could hardly get past 12 o'clock with out going nuts. Tube Swap with JJ 6v6's and Mesa 12ax7's and I can go where ever my knobs take me. COME ON 40!!

 

[BradWorld]

First Brand New Amp I bought in 15 years. Got even better after the first tube change. I don't care much for the tubes that are in the Tweaker Stock. I put a tone of hours on them but the amp could hardly get past 12 o'clock with out going nuts. Tube Swap with JJ 6v6's and Mesa 12ax7's and I can go where ever my knobs take me. COME ON 40!!

I actually like the way mine sounds with the stock tubes. I looked inside, and the 6v6's look to be Ruby's. Not sure what the 12ax7's are, but they do sound good. What kind of tubes were in yours? I will order a new set when I get a chance. I usually dont like JJ tubes too much, but Patrick from Krank recommended I swap the stock 5881's for some JJ 6v6's in my Rev Jr., and they sound incredible in that amp. I have been using it that way for about 2 years or more. Awesome tone. So I was thinking about trying a set of JJ 6v6's in the Tweaker just based on that experience. Your comment on the improvement seals the deal. I will have to place a tube order next week.

 

[3 Mile Stone]

Hey all. Got a Tweaker about a month ago or so. What a great amp! The tones are really killer for such an inexpensive amp. I played a gig and a couple of studio sessions with it already, and I am very pleased. I havent sold an amp for years and years, and I have amassed quite a stock pile. But I was never really able to say "I dont need this one anymore". But now with all the great tones in the Tweaker, I think I can get rid of a couple. I think when the 40 comes out, I am gonna have to get one.

I truely believe that if I had purchased a mega dollar boutique 15 watter, and it sounded like this Tweaker does, I would be perfectly happy! The fact that this amp is under $400 is amazing.

Great post, I agree 100%. I have a MOD50 and a Rebel 30 but have been posting frequently about my lust for the Tweaker 40. It may end up being my only amp after I buy it. Well I suppose I should keep the Rebel 30 as a back up.

Question, what kind of pedals did you like into it in the studio and on the gig?
What type of music do you play?

agree 1000% loved my tweaker, miss it but, had to get the renegade. I will be first on line for the tweaker 40. I'm old (have had many amps) can't belieave what you get, for the price you pay. Love Egnaters ears! Great time to be a guitar player. You Kiddies have no idea how lucky we are.

My Brotha! ... tells the truth. In '73 I was a freshman in high school. My amp? I had a 15 watt solid state Univox bass amp through 15" cab. About the only pedal you could buy was either a Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face or a EH LB Booster. Although Egnater amps are typically a little on the heavy side, based on the size I've seen in the pictures next to the other amps in the line up, I think the 40 is going to have the best feature to weight ratio in the line up. If it weighs in about 10 to 15 lbs lighter than my MOD50 we are in business!

First Brand New Amp I bought in 15 years. Got even better after the first tube change. I don't care much for the tubes that are in the Tweaker Stock. I put a tone of hours on them but the amp could hardly get past 12 o'clock with out going nuts. Tube Swap with JJ 6v6's and Mesa 12ax7's and I can go where ever my knobs take me. COME ON 40!!

You know, I don't care much for the stock tubes either. I pulled my Rebel 30 tubes right away. But I might agree with Brad World a little in that I've found the BIGGEST change in tubes is to get a solid 12AX7 in V1 position. For me it's the JJ. Fantastic tube for V1, try it.

 

[BradWorld]

Question, what kind of pedals did you like into it in the studio and on the gig?
What type of music do you play?

I play hard rock, and use a good solid overdrive sound directly from the Tweaker as a base. Then I have the following pedal chain going into the front input. I am a overly active guitar volume knob twiddler, so I ride that to continuously tweak the amount of gain I am using. I do this whether or not I am play straight to the amp, or have one of my drive pedals going.

Guitar with hot humbuckers >> Artec Whish Wah >> Korg Pitch Black Tuner >> home built RAT pedal >>
home build OCD clone >> home made booster pedal >> Vintage Boss OC-2 Octave (on true bypass loop) >> home built chorus >> Boss DD-3 (on true bypass loop) >> Amp.

I have also used my home made fuzz pedals, and a home made envelope filter with this amp.

Everything I have thrown at this amp sounds great. No I dont have any recordings with this amp. Nothing worth posting anyway.

 

[guitarslinger]

Primus?

 

[3 Mile Stone]

Question, what kind of pedals did you like into it in the studio and on the gig?
What type of music do you play?

I play hard rock, and use a good solid overdrive sound directly from the Tweaker as a base. Then I have the following pedal chain going into the front input. I am a overly active guitar volume knob twiddler, so I ride that to continuously tweak the amount of gain I am using. I do this whether or not I am play straight to the amp, or have one of my drive pedals going.

Guitar with hot humbuckers >> Artec Whish Wah >> Korg Pitch Black Tuner >> home built RAT pedal >>
home build OCD clone >> home made booster pedal >> Vintage Boss OC-2 Octave (on true bypass loop) >> home built chorus >> Boss DD-3 (on true bypass loop) >> Amp.

I have also used my home made fuzz pedals, and a home made envelope filter with this amp.

Everything I have thrown at this amp sounds great. No I dont have any recordings with this amp. Nothing worth posting anyway.

When you hit it with the Rat or OCD does the low end get kinda smushy or doe sit hold up pretty well?

Primus?

Yea, Gene, they're beloved in this town!

 

[BradWorld]

When you hit it with the Rat or OCD does the low end get kinda smushy or doe sit hold up pretty well?

I know my tone requirements really well. And I know my pedals really well because I built them myself, and have tailored all the values to my exact needs. So I set the amp for my hard rock rhythm sound, and set my pedals for my lead tones, and a more metal type of rhythm sound for songs that require it. And I use my volume on the guitar to control it from there. That way I can get sorta clean sounds all the way to high gain without too many pedals, and without too much tap dancing. Saying that, I find the Tweaker able to take all that a pedal like the OCD or a Tubescreamer can throw at it, without getting mushy or muddy. Nice and tight. I use good speakers and good cabs, and that goes a long way too. If I run a RAT into the Tweaker, it stays tight as long as the filter control (read RAT tone knob) is kept at the far right of the control range. If you start turning the filter too much to the left, it will get kind of muddy, but that is by design with that type of pedal. And if I run one of my Muff clones into the Tweaker, it does get quite mushy... again by design with that type of pedal circuit. So I am very happy with the Tweaker, and its ability to stay tight with variety of pedals.

I have a Krank Rev Jr, and a Jet City 20 watt, which are both in the same 15 to 20 watt small amp category, and the tweaker holds up to those amps very well. I think I like the Tweaker better than the Jet City so far. And I have had the Jet City for more than a year, and gigged with it a lot. I bought the Krank Rev Jr from the first run a few years back (the serial number is under 25), and that is just a different kind of beasty. It is super raw in-your-face metal tone, mixed with a bit of JCM800 Classic metal on the Kleen channel. Its made in the USA, and built like a tank. It is quite a bit more expensive than the other two "import" amps. It does the face-melting Krank thing at a lower volume than their full size heads, and that is all it really does. So its a keeper, but it has a limited range. But so far, I am really loving the tones I get with the Tweaker. I keep it in my practice room, and play through it every day since I received it.

Primus?

Yea, Gene, they're beloved in this town!

They are beloved in my town too!

 

[3 Mile Stone]

Very good info ... thanks for that. I ask because I have been assembling a collection of dirt pedals lately. I have done so for several reasons.

1) I have a problem ... at least I can admit it and and pay for my house and home first, so it's all good.

2) Trying to get a reliable way of taking myself to the next step, which is a two channel amp with dirt/boost pedals to replace what I do with the (4 CH) MOD50.

3) I have on occasion had reason to put together an extremely portable light weight rig, that is commercial flight, shipping to location friendly & gig worthy. Attempted to achieve this by buying a Rebel 30.

Problem is, the Rebel 30 is a cool amp on it's own, CH1 is very clean, CH2 is fairly high gain (for me) but in my experience CH1 is clean, but doesn't take some pedals well for high gain. Several of them get pretty squishy and compress too much down in the low end frequencies. Dirt pedals that were great when I demoed them with other amps (ones I don't own like the Suhr Badger 30 for example) don't sound that great in CH1 of the Rebel. CH 2 of the Rebel is just a bit too dirty to try to ride over the top with another dirt pedal, gets to be too much, squeals. The only pedal up to that job has been the Xotic BB which just seems to sound good no matter with you do with it. Sitting on a shelf waiting for duty in the new Tweaker 40 are ...

Fulltone OCD - sounds good, but if you venture off into high gain, it gets soft underneath
Rock Box Boiling Point - out of the solar system through the Suhr, again low end issues with the Rebel. That sound made me want to buy the Badger 30.
Fulltone Plimsole - killing distortion through most amps, too mushy with the 30
Sex Drive - more of a Klonish clean boost. Don't know how useful it will be yet.

etc ...

That's kinda why I asked.

 

[dan desy]

Interesting...

These days, I play through a Renegade for my cover band, and a rebel 30 with an original band. I use the same pedal board with both of them which consists of:

Vox wah, fulldrive 2, tonebone hot British, into the amp.
Then I have a volume pedal into a Line 6 M9 in the loop.

I have definitely noticed that both amps react quite differently to my overdrives.
The hot british pedal sounds awesome in the Renegade's clean channel. The FD sounds nice too, but kinda bright, and not very gainy.

On the other hand, the FD sound pretty amazing in the Rebel.
That's probably because the rebel's input is easier to overdrive, and compresses more.
I'm betting that a cleaner tube in V1 (like an AT7) would change the behavior of it, although I'm fine with the differences, otherwise I'd just play one amp.

 

[jamme61]

I just started using a modded Boss cs-3 compressor with my renegade and it's made all the difference. It gives my clean channel another voice and feels great to play. Always hated comps but this works. always was trying to do this with overdrive pedals but this works 100 times better

 

[3 Mile Stone]

I just started using a modded Boss cs-3 compressor with my renegade and it's made all the difference. It gives my clean channel another voice and feels great to play. Always hated comps but this works. always was trying to do this with overdrive pedals but this works 100 times better

That's your video on TGP that I dug up this morning right? I was asking over there, did you use the compressor on the gain channel also, and it looks like the delay and EQ were in the loop. What's going with that EQ?

 

[ramblin390]

sounds like you need a eq in the loop

 

[3 Mile Stone]

sounds like you need a eq in the loop

Would that help what I'm hearing???

Please elaborate!

 

[jamme61]

I just started using a modded Boss cs-3 compressor with my renegade and it's made all the difference. It gives my clean channel another voice and feels great to play. Always hated comps but this works. always was trying to do this with overdrive pedals but this works 100 times better

That's your video on TGP that I dug up this morning right? I was asking over there, did you use the compressor on the gain channel also, and it looks like the delay and EQ were in the loop. What's going with that EQ?

no that's not me but, that's the video that made me dig up my old boss cs-3 to use with my renegade. I'm just using a cs-3 and ts 808 with the renegade now. The cs-3 works great on the clean and the crunch channel IMHO. I was watching the video to check out the OCD and got turned on the the compressor instead.

 

[3 Mile Stone]

I just started using a modded Boss cs-3 compressor with my renegade and it's made all the difference. It gives my clean channel another voice and feels great to play. Always hated comps but this works. always was trying to do this with overdrive pedals but this works 100 times better

That's your video on TGP that I dug up this morning right? I was asking over there, did you use the compressor on the gain channel also, and it looks like the delay and EQ were in the loop. What's going with that EQ?

no that's not me but, that's the video that made me dig up my old boss cs-3 to use with my renegade. I'm just using a cs-3 and ts 808 with the renegade now. The cs-3 works great on the clean and the crunch channel IMHO. I was watching the video to check out the OCD and got turned on the the compressor instead.

The OCD sounded really good in that video to me. Funny how the same pedal can be great in one situation and then not in another.

 

[jamme61]

[/quote]

The OCD sounded really good in that video to me. Funny how the same pedal can be great in one situation and then not in another.[/quote]


yea agree, I had an OCD when they first came out, didn't like it to much but, that was then, different time, different amp, different me LOL