Renegade? Or ULTIMATE Renegade?

[Improbable Joe]

Great, and now a second issue. The reverb makes a weird "splash" noise, most noticeable on channel 2. I wonder if the issues are related...

 

[just42dave]

v30s will make it bright as hell also with the junk stock tubes..
I have what ya need pm me

 

[Ian Egnater]

You haven't answered the question above. Is the amp bright and having background noise without any pedals plugged in? That is absolutely the first test that needs to be done here, before you change tubes and speakers and crazy things like that.

 

[Improbable Joe]

You haven't answered the question above. Is the amp bright and having background noise without any pedals plugged in? That is absolutely the first test that needs to be done here, before you change tubes and speakers and crazy things like that.

Sorry. Yes, I unplugged my board. I also swapped guitars, swapped cables a few times, swapped the power cord, and even moved the amp to another spot in my house. Same problem.

 

[srinivassa]

Great, and now a second issue. The reverb makes a weird "splash" noise, most noticeable on channel 2. I wonder if the issues are related...

I think there is already a thread on the reverb over-reverberating. I think Bruce may have been coming up with a gate-type mod. I find my verb to be fine, but I don't dial it over about 5, and that could still be considered a bit splashy. It have never been clear on whether it was a matter of taste or if some units really have a verbtank-kick kind of splash to them. We'll have to help Ian and Bruce out with some clips or something.

 

[Improbable Joe]

Great, and now a second issue. The reverb makes a weird "splash" noise, most noticeable on channel 2. I wonder if the issues are related...

I think there is already a thread on the reverb over-reverberating. I think Bruce may have been coming up with a gate-type mod. I find my verb to be fine, but I don't dial it over about 5, and that could still be considered a bit splashy. It have never been clear on whether it was a matter of taste or if some units really have a verbtank-kick kind of splash to them. We'll have to help Ian and Bruce out with some clips or something.

Yeah, I found those threads. Apparently the reverb's place in the circuit makes it overload if you turn up the channel volume too high. No biggie, I just wanted to make sure that wasn't part of the overall issue I'm having.

 

[Ian Egnater]

You haven't answered the question above. Is the amp bright and having background noise without any pedals plugged in? That is absolutely the first test that needs to be done here, before you change tubes and speakers and crazy things like that.

Sorry. Yes, I unplugged my board. I also swapped guitars, swapped cables a few times, swapped the power cord, and even moved the amp to another spot in my house. Same problem.

Like others have said, nobody ever really says the Renegade is too bright, which leads me to believe there is either something wrong, or it's just personal taste. If you get a chance at Guitar Center or something, perhaps you should plug into another Renegade and see if it sounds the same to you. If you try that, and they sound different, then I would shoot an e-mail to nate@egnateramps.com, and arrange some troubleshooting/repair for the amp. If you've got any questions, just let me know.

 

[Improbable Joe]

Like others have said, nobody ever really says the Renegade is too bright, which leads me to believe there is either something wrong, or it's just personal taste. If you get a chance at Guitar Center or something, perhaps you should plug into another Renegade and see if it sounds the same to you. If you try that, and they sound different, then I would shoot an e-mail to nate@egnateramps.com, and arrange some troubleshooting/repair for the amp. If you've got any questions, just let me know.

Yeah, that's my plan. I've got a local Egnater dealer I'm going to visit this weekend, and see if there's something inherent in the amp, or if my particular one has a problem.

Thanks for the advice. Thanks to everyone, actually. It is much appreciated.

 

[Anolin]

Like others have said, nobody ever really says the Renegade is too bright, which leads me to believe there is either something wrong, or it's just personal taste. If you get a chance at Guitar Center or something, perhaps you should plug into another Renegade and see if it sounds the same to you. If you try that, and they sound different, then I would shoot an e-mail to nate@egnateramps.com, and arrange some troubleshooting/repair for the amp. If you've got any questions, just let me know.

Yeah, that's my plan. I've got a local Egnater dealer I'm going to visit this weekend, and see if there's something inherent in the amp, or if my particular one has a problem.

Thanks for the advice. Thanks to everyone, actually. It is much appreciated.

Hell, take yours with you and A/B yours and the stores amps with one of your guitars and the same cord, then you'll know for sure if it's the amp or your ears.

 

[Improbable Joe]

Hell, take yours with you and A/B yours and the stores amps with one of your guitars and the same cord, then you'll know for sure if it's the amp or your ears.

Good plan.

I also ordered some new preamp tubes, just because what the hell. I don't consider it crazy, because it makes sense to have some spare tubes on hand for emergencies anyways.

 

[Improbable Joe]

Hmmmm... interesting outcome from the guitar shop experiment. The amp at the store sounded slightly less bright, which I attribute to the 4X10 Egnater cab. The big difference was when I cranked the power tubes and backed off of the preamp volume, which is what the shop owner suggested. Still a little hiss from the treble, but less pronounced and more in the "normal range" of amp noise, and overall a much warmer tone. I guess I'll go through tubes more often, but it is a small price to pay for tone. I might even buy the 4X10, it sure was sweet sounding. I also tried a guitar with flat-wound strings, and that is something else I'm going to try to rein in the treble.

Anyways, crisis averted. Thanks for all the advice and such. I'm much happier working with this amp, versus hunting around in the hopes of maybe someday finding something better and paying double or triple what the Renegade cost me. There's not really a better amp anywhere near this price that I've seen, even with the minor issues I've been working through in this thread.

 

[Keith Johns]

I'm going to start to sound dull, but it sounds to me like your playing your amp with to too much pre amp signal and not enough master volume. If your amp's too bright it's because your not warming your tone with the power amp valves, for that you need to turn up the master volume and turned down the pre amp volume.

 

[Improbable Joe]

I'm going to start to sound dull, but it sounds to me like your playing your amp with to too much pre amp signal and not enough master volume. If your amp's too bright it's because your not warming your tone with the power amp valves, for that you need to turn up the master volume and turned down the pre amp volume.

Yeah, that's what I said.

It wasn't obvious to me since I was already running the MV at 4-6, now I'm running it full out and it warms up some. I also swapped out all the preamp tubes, and that also helps. I'm a bunch happier with the amp now.

 

[Keith Johns]

Hi Joe, I'm glad you didn't take my post the wrong way, I think most of the moans on the forum about Egnater amps are by people that haven't figured out how to get a good tone from them. It must have taken me about 5 years before I found TONE. Valve amps seem so simple, anyone can do clean, but the overdrive doesn't work the same and that's why so many people buy so many bloody overdrive pedals trying to find Tone. The Renegade is not the easiest amp to use because it does so much. The manual sends people the wrong way, the manual shows you how to use a amp that is being played loud, it's a 65 watt amp it's made to be played loud, if your sat in a bedroom trying to play at wife friendly volumes the Renegade is just going to be a pain in the ass, until that great day dawns, you find tone and nothing is ever the same again and you never buy another overdrive pedal. LOL.

 

[Improbable Joe]

Hi Joe, I'm glad you didn't take my post the wrong way, I think most of the moans on the forum about Egnater amps are by people that haven't figured out how to get a good tone from them. It must have taken me about 5 years before I found TONE. Valve amps seem so simple, anyone can do clean, but the overdrive doesn't work the same and that's why so many people buy so many bloody overdrive pedals trying to find Tone. The Renegade is not the easiest amp to use because it does so much. The manual sends people the wrong way, the manual shows you how to use a amp that is being played loud, it's a 65 watt amp it's made to be played loud, if your sat in a bedroom trying to play at wife friendly volumes the Renegade is just going to be a pain in the ass, until that great day dawns, you find tone and nothing is ever the same again and you never buy another overdrive pedal. LOL.

I have a nicer/deafer wife than most, she lets me crank the amp a bit. I think most of the advice I got assumes I play low volume. I play pretty loud all the time, my "bedroom volume" is pretty ridiculous compared to what I think most people are doing. I didn't have any issues at normal bedroom volume, it was just when I started cranking the amp it seemed like the treble got brighter and brighter. My first thought was that I had done my normal bonehead move, which is to accidentally step on my wah pedal... but after a few embarrassing situations involving tearing apart my entire board, I've learned to check that first.

BTW, I like overdrive pedals, and even distortion pedals. So sue me!

 

[Keith Johns]

don't get me wrong I like overdrive pedals but you see some boards with 7 or 8 of them, most of them tube screamer clones and never any better than the original one. I too have an understanding wife, it's often commented on when she's on the phone "what's the hell is that noise.....that's just Keith playing guitar....OMG how do you put up with that"....funny thing is I never think I'm playing that loud.....it's loud to me when the windows start rattling, now that's just plain annoying....F*****g Bill Gates.