G
GRK
New member
So after all the Egnater Tourmaster talk, I decided to go to Guitar Center and see if they got any. I didn't see any at first and was bummed but then I decided to make another lap and saw a had/cab sitting in the corner. I grabbed a Gibson Les Paul Vintage Mahogany (same as my current main guitar) and sat down. So here goes.
Egnater Tourmaster Head & Matching Cab
Amp was already powered on and warmed up for me.I started with lowest watt settings for all channels and made another round through all channels with full power. I started with the clean channel.
Clean : One word. Amazing. It was pretty much what I was expecting though. This amp can do cleans IMO. All the channels have a modern and a vintage setting. Vintage setting was amazing. I could get very chimey or tweed like cleans. Vintage mode is more like a tweed amp and modern takes a little bit of that mid-body away and has more bite and lowend to it. You can still sweeten it up a bit buy rolling off treble and bass and boosting mids though. Very versatile channel. I could get cleans similar to my Roadster and as some of you may know, Roadster cleans are pretty spectacular. Oh and reverb (this goes for all channels) is WOOOOWW. I loved it. Especially reverb on clean channel ruined my pants to say the least.
Crunch: This channel was probably my least favorite. Not to say that it wasn't good. I liked how the single notes sounded. You can get great blues sounds out of it. But chords didn't do it for me. You can get very warm sounds and I love that but something bothered me that is hard to explain in words. It was just the character of the channel. Neither of the modes helped (vintage or modern). But again, some people will still dig this channel a lot. It has a very vintage vibe indeed in vintage mode. Loved it for bluesy single note stuff.
OD1: I had VERY high expectations from this channel. It mostly satisfied. I still prefer the Mesa mid-high gain rhythm sounds but this one was pretty sweet too. It's nothing like Mesa btw. The sound is TOTALLY different. More brit for sure. It wasn't like a Marshall at all either though. Had a boutique quality great sound to it. Vintage mode was my favorite. One complaint is though that the lowend gets pretty ridiculous pretty fast. And another thing is that the amp might be too loose sounding for some people. When you go balls to the walls high gain, the amp gets pretty flubby. 100 watt setting helped this a little but didn't quite cleaned it up completely. Lower gain settings that I like though are pretty amazing. Totally different vibe than Roadster but I started digging it as I played more and more. One thing I should mention here. The amp can sound MONSTROUS. There's a knob that reads "Density" and when you turn it up, lowend really shakes things up. I'm not much of a low end chug person but some may dig it. One thing I should mention though, Lowend isn't tight speed metal lowend by any means. I don't really see how, say, ENGL guys can dig it. Even the modern mode isn't that tight. I love it cause I love loose tones but it isn't for everyone IMO. Actually, I'm gonna go ahead and say that Roadster can get tighter in modern mode. Problem with Roadster's modern is that it's tight as hell (for a recto) but it has this crazy presence going on that I hate. Hence, I never use the modern on Roadster. Well with Tourmaster, modern does similar things to the EQ (take away middles, add some bass and a little treble) but the lowend added isn't heavy chug tight low end. It's still on the loose sight which can sound GREAT with open chords I should say.
OD2: Only channel I would like to have instead of my Roadster's channel 4. I didn't use the channel to play rhythms. I preffered the lead sounds. On vintage mode, you can get sweet as hell lead sounds out of the amp. The loose character let's you roll of the gain a little and you have just enough sustain to play fluid smooth leads. I loved this channel. I wouldn't compare it to a Mark series amp's lead at all. I'd still take triaxis or Mark lead sound over this one but that's an extreme example given that those 2 are my favorite for leads. But I could personally live happily with the lead that comes out of the Tour Master too. It's definitely not PERFECT but it's still very good IMO.
I should mention that I wasn't playing quietly either. I was playing at a good volume (more than bedroom) and even then, at some point an employee came by and said "Dude I can't let you play that amp quietly. Turn that shit up". So I laughed and turned it up. He was like "that's better. thanks" and left. The store was pretty empty.
So before I go on, one final note on Egnater. DO NOT PURCHASE BEFORE TRYING. To be honest, the character of the amp was NOTHING like I expected. It definitely has it's own thing going on. I suspect that I can dig it more the more I play. But I assure you that it's not for everyone. Do yourself a favor and see for yourself. For me though, I think I'll still go with an Orange Rockerverb for my 2nd amp but I do think that Egnater Tourmaster is A BARGAIN, A STEAL, A BANG FOR THE BUCK for it's tag. Great amp over all. Not a 10/10 by any means but at least it's not just a copy (tonewise. I still think it's too much like a roadster/road king concept) of other amps.
Marshall VM (head) & a Marshall 4x12 cab. It had that 100 sign on low left corner. Don't know the exact model name.
Didn't spend that much time on this one. It seems that you have to turn it up pretty ridiculously to get good sounds out of it. Which, I did for a few minutes and creamed my pants with the slightly overdriven warm sounds coming out of it. If you're a mid-hi gain rhythm guy or a metalhead, I'm pretty sure you can find many amps that will suit you much better for the job.
Marshall JVM (4 channel head) & matching 2*4x12 full stack:
Clean:
I started with the clean channel which suprisingly is my favorite channel on the amp. I've never played a Marshall that impressed me as far as clean channel goes but this one did. The amp overall is VERY versatile and this channel wasn't any different. Cleans go pristine clean to a more tweed clean (like Egnater) to slightly overdriven (veeery little) "dirty" clean sound. I loved them all to be honest.
Crunch:
Not blown away by it but I gotta say it can get nice and warm. Again, I use my Roadster channel 2 for very slightly overdriven vintage sounds (think bluesy tone but with non-ear piercing highs. Instead, lots of mids for a fatter tone) so I set the JVM similarly for channel 2. While I enjoyed it, There are better amps for the job. I did like it more than Egnater's channel 2 though that's for sure.
OD1:
Let down for me. I found great JVM clips on youtube and on several forums that sounded better. I tried lots of things. Rolled off the Presence, rolled of treble... Still too bright for my taste. I BET the amp would've sounded 39948 times better through my CL80 loaded Avatar 2x12 though. I'm pretty sure of that. Still though, having to roll off the treble that much to get a warm sound out of it pisses me off a little. Once again I found out that Marshall for mid-high gain stuff isn't for me. Some guys might LOVE it but I'll pass. As far as tightness goes. It was tighter than Egnater or Rectos but again, not ENGL tight. Gain available is beyond ridiculous and anyone who says "this can't do metal" should be banned from playing the guitar
OD2:
I didn't bother going through all the modes to be honest for this channel. It was similar to OD1 although more directed towards lead playing. I don't like the high end response so I kinda gave up after 2-3 mins on this channel.
SLO100 & Peavey JSX cab
I should summarize by "not my thing at all" but I gotta add... HOLY SHIT! That's some gain MONSTER.
I don't wanna cut it short by not my thing though. Let me explain. When I set the Preamp gain on something ridiculously low like 2-3 out of 10 on the OD channel, that's the maximum amount of gain you'll hear on stuff I play. And when I set it to 2-3, the sounds I got were pretty sweet to be honest. I enjoyed it. I'd never get a SLO 100 though cause it's pretty ridiculous and I'd be using like 10% of gain available and rest is insane for my taste. I can see why so many people like this amp though. You can get pretty great lead sounds especially if you're 80's type of person too. Not sure if I'd use it for Modern Metal (not that I play that genre) but you know, for people who are wondering.
PRS Custom 22 10-top & Peavey JSX combo
I've heard what the JSX can do in my previous visits. So I played through it just to check out the PRS.
Looks: 10/10
Playability: Pretty much plays itself. It's ridiculous. This was probably the easiest played guitars I've laid my hands in my life. While the action can be set to your taste I guess, it was VERY low. Not for everyone in that sense. I could live with that but a little higher might have been better. You don't even feel the strings on this one it's pretty crazy. I love it overall but I think if I was to get a PRS, I'd go for something like SC245 with a more vintage wibe.
Sound: Wow. The guitar SCREAMS. I had to use much less gain with the JSX than the time I played through it with other guitars. It's good in a sense that you can roll of your amps gain and tigten up the sound since guitar is hot as hell. But then if you're into more vintage vibe, I think you should look at other guitars. I mean, I'm sure you can make this work but why pay that much money to change pickups to something with lower outputs right? There are several PRS guitars out there for more vintage tones. Modern metalheads or hardrockers might dig it big time though. It really screams.
So. That's pretty much it. It was a good day. I checked out lots of stuff for the first time. And the best part is, I guess D'addario started a package deal thing for strings (maybe it's always been like that) but I got 10 packs of 0.10's for 30 bucks. It made my day.
LnTh out.
Egnater Tourmaster Head & Matching Cab
Amp was already powered on and warmed up for me.I started with lowest watt settings for all channels and made another round through all channels with full power. I started with the clean channel.
Clean : One word. Amazing. It was pretty much what I was expecting though. This amp can do cleans IMO. All the channels have a modern and a vintage setting. Vintage setting was amazing. I could get very chimey or tweed like cleans. Vintage mode is more like a tweed amp and modern takes a little bit of that mid-body away and has more bite and lowend to it. You can still sweeten it up a bit buy rolling off treble and bass and boosting mids though. Very versatile channel. I could get cleans similar to my Roadster and as some of you may know, Roadster cleans are pretty spectacular. Oh and reverb (this goes for all channels) is WOOOOWW. I loved it. Especially reverb on clean channel ruined my pants to say the least.
Crunch: This channel was probably my least favorite. Not to say that it wasn't good. I liked how the single notes sounded. You can get great blues sounds out of it. But chords didn't do it for me. You can get very warm sounds and I love that but something bothered me that is hard to explain in words. It was just the character of the channel. Neither of the modes helped (vintage or modern). But again, some people will still dig this channel a lot. It has a very vintage vibe indeed in vintage mode. Loved it for bluesy single note stuff.
OD1: I had VERY high expectations from this channel. It mostly satisfied. I still prefer the Mesa mid-high gain rhythm sounds but this one was pretty sweet too. It's nothing like Mesa btw. The sound is TOTALLY different. More brit for sure. It wasn't like a Marshall at all either though. Had a boutique quality great sound to it. Vintage mode was my favorite. One complaint is though that the lowend gets pretty ridiculous pretty fast. And another thing is that the amp might be too loose sounding for some people. When you go balls to the walls high gain, the amp gets pretty flubby. 100 watt setting helped this a little but didn't quite cleaned it up completely. Lower gain settings that I like though are pretty amazing. Totally different vibe than Roadster but I started digging it as I played more and more. One thing I should mention here. The amp can sound MONSTROUS. There's a knob that reads "Density" and when you turn it up, lowend really shakes things up. I'm not much of a low end chug person but some may dig it. One thing I should mention though, Lowend isn't tight speed metal lowend by any means. I don't really see how, say, ENGL guys can dig it. Even the modern mode isn't that tight. I love it cause I love loose tones but it isn't for everyone IMO. Actually, I'm gonna go ahead and say that Roadster can get tighter in modern mode. Problem with Roadster's modern is that it's tight as hell (for a recto) but it has this crazy presence going on that I hate. Hence, I never use the modern on Roadster. Well with Tourmaster, modern does similar things to the EQ (take away middles, add some bass and a little treble) but the lowend added isn't heavy chug tight low end. It's still on the loose sight which can sound GREAT with open chords I should say.
OD2: Only channel I would like to have instead of my Roadster's channel 4. I didn't use the channel to play rhythms. I preffered the lead sounds. On vintage mode, you can get sweet as hell lead sounds out of the amp. The loose character let's you roll of the gain a little and you have just enough sustain to play fluid smooth leads. I loved this channel. I wouldn't compare it to a Mark series amp's lead at all. I'd still take triaxis or Mark lead sound over this one but that's an extreme example given that those 2 are my favorite for leads. But I could personally live happily with the lead that comes out of the Tour Master too. It's definitely not PERFECT but it's still very good IMO.
I should mention that I wasn't playing quietly either. I was playing at a good volume (more than bedroom) and even then, at some point an employee came by and said "Dude I can't let you play that amp quietly. Turn that shit up". So I laughed and turned it up. He was like "that's better. thanks" and left. The store was pretty empty.
So before I go on, one final note on Egnater. DO NOT PURCHASE BEFORE TRYING. To be honest, the character of the amp was NOTHING like I expected. It definitely has it's own thing going on. I suspect that I can dig it more the more I play. But I assure you that it's not for everyone. Do yourself a favor and see for yourself. For me though, I think I'll still go with an Orange Rockerverb for my 2nd amp but I do think that Egnater Tourmaster is A BARGAIN, A STEAL, A BANG FOR THE BUCK for it's tag. Great amp over all. Not a 10/10 by any means but at least it's not just a copy (tonewise. I still think it's too much like a roadster/road king concept) of other amps.
Marshall VM (head) & a Marshall 4x12 cab. It had that 100 sign on low left corner. Don't know the exact model name.
Didn't spend that much time on this one. It seems that you have to turn it up pretty ridiculously to get good sounds out of it. Which, I did for a few minutes and creamed my pants with the slightly overdriven warm sounds coming out of it. If you're a mid-hi gain rhythm guy or a metalhead, I'm pretty sure you can find many amps that will suit you much better for the job.
Marshall JVM (4 channel head) & matching 2*4x12 full stack:
Clean:
I started with the clean channel which suprisingly is my favorite channel on the amp. I've never played a Marshall that impressed me as far as clean channel goes but this one did. The amp overall is VERY versatile and this channel wasn't any different. Cleans go pristine clean to a more tweed clean (like Egnater) to slightly overdriven (veeery little) "dirty" clean sound. I loved them all to be honest.
Crunch:
Not blown away by it but I gotta say it can get nice and warm. Again, I use my Roadster channel 2 for very slightly overdriven vintage sounds (think bluesy tone but with non-ear piercing highs. Instead, lots of mids for a fatter tone) so I set the JVM similarly for channel 2. While I enjoyed it, There are better amps for the job. I did like it more than Egnater's channel 2 though that's for sure.
OD1:
Let down for me. I found great JVM clips on youtube and on several forums that sounded better. I tried lots of things. Rolled off the Presence, rolled of treble... Still too bright for my taste. I BET the amp would've sounded 39948 times better through my CL80 loaded Avatar 2x12 though. I'm pretty sure of that. Still though, having to roll off the treble that much to get a warm sound out of it pisses me off a little. Once again I found out that Marshall for mid-high gain stuff isn't for me. Some guys might LOVE it but I'll pass. As far as tightness goes. It was tighter than Egnater or Rectos but again, not ENGL tight. Gain available is beyond ridiculous and anyone who says "this can't do metal" should be banned from playing the guitar
OD2:
I didn't bother going through all the modes to be honest for this channel. It was similar to OD1 although more directed towards lead playing. I don't like the high end response so I kinda gave up after 2-3 mins on this channel.
SLO100 & Peavey JSX cab
I should summarize by "not my thing at all" but I gotta add... HOLY SHIT! That's some gain MONSTER.
I don't wanna cut it short by not my thing though. Let me explain. When I set the Preamp gain on something ridiculously low like 2-3 out of 10 on the OD channel, that's the maximum amount of gain you'll hear on stuff I play. And when I set it to 2-3, the sounds I got were pretty sweet to be honest. I enjoyed it. I'd never get a SLO 100 though cause it's pretty ridiculous and I'd be using like 10% of gain available and rest is insane for my taste. I can see why so many people like this amp though. You can get pretty great lead sounds especially if you're 80's type of person too. Not sure if I'd use it for Modern Metal (not that I play that genre) but you know, for people who are wondering.
PRS Custom 22 10-top & Peavey JSX combo
I've heard what the JSX can do in my previous visits. So I played through it just to check out the PRS.
Looks: 10/10
Playability: Pretty much plays itself. It's ridiculous. This was probably the easiest played guitars I've laid my hands in my life. While the action can be set to your taste I guess, it was VERY low. Not for everyone in that sense. I could live with that but a little higher might have been better. You don't even feel the strings on this one it's pretty crazy. I love it overall but I think if I was to get a PRS, I'd go for something like SC245 with a more vintage wibe.
Sound: Wow. The guitar SCREAMS. I had to use much less gain with the JSX than the time I played through it with other guitars. It's good in a sense that you can roll of your amps gain and tigten up the sound since guitar is hot as hell. But then if you're into more vintage vibe, I think you should look at other guitars. I mean, I'm sure you can make this work but why pay that much money to change pickups to something with lower outputs right? There are several PRS guitars out there for more vintage tones. Modern metalheads or hardrockers might dig it big time though. It really screams.
So. That's pretty much it. It was a good day. I checked out lots of stuff for the first time. And the best part is, I guess D'addario started a package deal thing for strings (maybe it's always been like that) but I got 10 packs of 0.10's for 30 bucks. It made my day.
LnTh out.
