Trying to pick a new amp!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter geraci89
  • Start date Start date
G

geraci89

New member
Hi all, my name is Mike. This is my first post and am very happy to have found this site!

I'm currently looking to switch from my Mesa Rectoverb to a head/2x12 setup hopefully with the Egnater name on it!

I've chatted with Keith Howland (awesome guitarist and SUPER nice guy too) about the topic and he kinda steered me into Egnater land (duh) based off of my criteria:

-Bang for your buck (ofcourse, and probably why I'm looking at Egnaters as opposed to Allesandro's or whatever.)
-Takes pedals very well, ESPECIALLY with borderline broken up gain levels on the clean channel ****probably my biggest concern
-Can dial in spanky in your face cleans and Marshall/Mesa-ish crunch and lead tones.
-Use for at home playing/recording and jamming/gigging

As per Keith, I tried out the tweaker 88 and I seemed to find pretty good tones but I could never quite get that deep Mesa depth I love from their modern channel. For example it just didn't sound big and deep when palm muting and it didn't seem to accentuate the chords, regardless of settings. I feel that a combination of presence, density, and contour knobs might have solved that problem for me rather than the switches.

I've also demo'd a Rebel 20 and totally got those deep and crisp tones from it, but ofcourse it's only a 20 watt one channel and I would prefer at least 2 (I realize that I stress the importance of the clean channel but hey, a good amp distortion is always clutch to have!). I haven't played the Rebel 30 yet but I know its got the 2 channels but still might fall just a bit short on features, but I still plan to plug in to one.

This leads me to what I understand to be the Rebel's older sibling..the Renegade. 2 channels, independant eq, i guess kiiiiinda similar to the tweaker with the tube bias vs the tweakers USA/AC/BRIT, verb, density, presence, and the 18w switch down. I'm currently looking for one in the Toronto area to plug into (They're not easy to come by over here).

Sorry to ramble on but for anyone that actually read all this and maybe understands what I'm going for, would you say I'm heading in the right direction? Any other suggestions? Does the cab I choose make THAT much an impact on the tone I'm trying to achieve as well??

EDIT: My main guitars are a Strat and 335. Pedals like ds 2, dunlop 595q, mm4, dl4. I play lots of Chili Peppers/ Foo Fighters into modern alternative and also love to go back to the 60's and 70's via Chicago, Deep Purple, Hendrix. Really looking for the closest thing to a jack of all trades I guess.

As a side note, while on the phone with a guitar shop, they told me that there were plans to "revamp" the Renegade line for sometime this year. Does anyone know anything about this? Hopefully I'm not starting a conversation that wasn't meant to be started yet, as I've seen some of the thoughts regarding announcements on the Egnater webpage.

But back to the main question, any input is much appreciated for another dude just trying to find his way in toneland! Thanks! :rock:
 
You never mentioned venue size or guitars or pedal board. Impossible to advise. What kind of music do you play???

Lacking the above, look closely for quality & support. Sadly an Egnater short suit. Good hunting..
 
daviedog":1i1u42k9 said:
You never mentioned venue size or guitars or pedal board. Impossible to advise. What kind of music do you play???

Lacking the above, look closely for quality & support. Sadly an Egnater short suit. Good hunting..
Click to expand...

Good point, post was edited.

Yeah I've heard about the quality issues which doesn't get me TOO excited. With assembly looking to maybe start transferring back to the US, does that mean the price points are gonna explode higher??
 
Have you considered the tweaker line? Lots of setting choices. I have the 40watt head and 2x12 cabinet for only about 9 months now and haven't had any quality issues. It is far and away the best sounding amp I've ever owned with what I consider to be a huge tone palet. I'm not that familiar with Mesa amps so I'm unable to offer a comparison. The tweaker 88, which may be more your speed, looks like a lot of fun.
 
Consider all Amp builders. Many good ones to choose from here.

Search for posts on the builder you are thinking about. Lots of comments out there.
 
Thanks for the replies. I have tried the 88 a bit but wasn't overly enthused. I'm starting to wonder whether I should even aim for a 2+ channel amp or maybe just go for a good 1 channel. Only problem there is that I usually find that amp distortion has always been better than pedals in my experience.

This tone quest thing is a real freakin drag ain't it?
 
Since you're looking at a head-cab configuration, that adds another variable for you: which speaker cab has the voice you're looking for?

I've had a Renegade 212 combo for almost 3 years now and I love it. It's a bit of a beast to carry around, but the removable casters help with that. Had one small issue with the Reverb, but Egnater CS took care of it with no complaints from me. I say this because I too have read the unhappy posts on this forum. Bad Egnater CS simply has NOT been my experience (in fact, just the opposite. At no other time with any other product have I been able to communicate directly to the owner of the company and designer of the product in question when trying to solve a problem. CS problems or not, I truly believe Bruce is personally invested in his products and wants people to be happy with them.) And my amp has worked perfectly in every other way during the years I've used it.

The Renegade will cover the genres/styles you're describing. If Metal was your thing I'd recommend the Armageddon instead. Ultimately, the Renegade isn't a Metal amp. It will do some high gain Hard Rock, but probably wouldn't be that player's go-to amp.

The clean channel is really impressive: pristine clean to Bluesy and gritty. Some players wouldn't even need the lead channel. A Renegade head with the cab of your choice could be what you're looking for. Too bad you can't audition one near you.

There are a lot of different products out there that might fit your needs. More now than ever. Phaez is a brand I hear good things about. The 5150 III mini head and 112 or 212 cab look really nice to me. I sure can't complain about my Renegade though.

Good luck.
 
Thanks for the detail hbucker. Feature wise, I think the renegade is for me, and the separate head and cab can add extra customization. I just hope it can perform the way I am anticipating it to. I really need to find out first hand if I can push the clean channel a fair bit and have it still allow my distortion pedals to have full dynamics. From what I'm reading the chances are good that it'll cooperate but there's only 1 way to know for sure I guess. But since it IS 2 channels I'd probably search for that huge crisp chugga chugga rectifier sound from the gain channel. I find usually amp distortion will get you closer to that huge sound than pedals.

When the Detroit 40 comes out that might also be a strong contender as well.
 
Tone quest a drag????
I think it's as much fun as a post show groupie!!
 
daviedog":2u9fbwuh said:
Tone quest a drag????
I think it's as much fun as a post show groupie!!
Click to expand...

post show groupies tend to find me! I would love for my ideal amp to find me as well!!!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top