New Egnater Tweaker

[Wardpike]

I gotta say, I am totally impressed by this amp.... and that surprises me!
Great amp at a great price!!

[JCSouthpawtele]

Went into the local GC today. Played a MIM tele and an Epi Les Paul through it. My thoughts were cool tones and I got the Vox AC tone's a bit and had fun doing some country bend licks. The bad news is there is no footwitch to go between a clean and overdrive tone. So for a performing player we got to throw some pedals in front. There is an FX loop for the delays and verbs. Compared it to the 333 Jet City (20 watts)and the Vox Nightrain (same 15 watts) I thought it was a good deal. Being less than the Nightrain. The Jet City sounded dryer with less sparkle. I was suprised that the Tweaker had 6v6's when I flipped it around. If I get some extra cash soon i'll get a Tweaker.

[swollen303]

Originally Posted by swollen303

strat56

Which 6L6 tubes did you use?

Strat56,

Thanks but I got the answer from another forum. (JJ6L6 if anyone is interested

[strat56]

Originally Posted by swollen303

strat56

Which 6L6 tubes did you use?

I had a pair of JJ's already that I used in it. I think they made a big difference.

[strat56]

Originally Posted by swollen303

Strat56,

Thanks but I got the answer from another forum. (JJ6L6 if anyone is interested

Sorry, it took so long to get back to you

[swollen303]

Originally Posted by strat56

Sorry, it took so long to get back to you

No worries, all is well.

Besides, I haven't snagged a Tweaker yet, small matter of an unexpected tax bill.

Oh, but my birthday is in June. Dropping hints around here but I am surrounded by the deaf.

[strat56]

Originally Posted by swollen303

No worries, all is well.

Besides, I haven't snagged a Tweaker yet, small matter of an unexpected tax bill.

Oh, but my birthday is in June. Dropping hints around here but I am surrounded by the deaf.

Yeah, I'm surrounded by the deaf too but I think it's in retaliation for my selective hearing.

I still really like mine but it's only been a week, the honeymoon isn't over yet and I haven't played it at a rehearsal or a gig.

[SamuelAdams]

I tried one of these today and loved it. I may not have the best ear for tone, but I thought it sounded much better than the Night Train and Rebel 20. I think I may have to go back and buy it.

I've never had a head/cab, though, and I don't know much about them. Should I get the matching cab, or is there something better in roughly the same price range? The only reason I ask is because I've heard some bad things about the Rebel 20 cab, and I don't know whether that's the case with all Egnaters or not.

[Jubal81]

Found some demo videos that really match my experience with it.
I'm hoping someone will get some sounds recorded with different tubes before i pull the trigger on ordering some.
Thinking Tung Sol el84s and 12ax7s might be in order.

[brookdalebill]

We sell em' where I work.
They sound great, and are so cheap.
Time will tell if they are dependable, but the 20 and 30 watt models have been.

[Wardpike]

I don't want to like them as much as I do. The clean sound is less than desirable. There. That should do it and keep me away from buying one.

[Archaic]

Are any of you that have one using the Egnater cabs with them? I had a chance to play one at a GC while I was in Seattle last week and was thoroughly unimpressed. I'm wondering if the cab was maybe the issue more than the head itself. I just couldn't get a very useable tone out of it no matter how I tweaked things, at least on the clean side. Very attenuated highs, weak mids and boomy bass. It sounded great cranked up with lots of dirt on it though.

[flyingbanana]

I played one today through a nice Two Rock cab at a guitar center. I really like this amp. It's way to soon to be desiring another amp...just bought the holy grail of amps...the Vox Night Train.

Oh well. I will be buying the tweaker anyways. 50 dollar off coupon makes it 349 out the door. Can't go wrong with two holy grails.

My wife is even into my new amps. What's up with that?

[Petero18]

Anyone know if you can get good dirt and crunch at bedroom volumes with the Tweaker?
Thanks

[Jubal81]

Originally Posted by Petero18

Anyone know if you can get good dirt and crunch at bedroom volumes with the Tweaker?
Thanks

Yup.
Probably going to put my Mini Mass attenuator on Craigslist this week.

[Colo Springs E]

Originally Posted by Petero18

Anyone know if you can get good dirt and crunch at bedroom volumes with the Tweaker?
Thanks

This is exactly what an amp like this is designed for.

[boynamedsuse]

FWIW, most of the "less than positive" reviews I have read on this amp have been posted by people who tried one out at GC or someplace similar. That is not an ideal place to audition an amp.

I've had mine for a little over two weeks. My impression (already stated above) is that there is almost no "bad" setting on this amp. The only switch of marginal interest to me is the "hot" switch, which adds some gain at the expense of losing clarity (IMO). It is good to use with the gain knob dimed for metal sounds, but that is about it. All the other switches and settings are more versatile. There are abundant cleans, and the types of cleans can be varied to match your taste. Don't expect to flip a switch and get a specific sound, though. Everything affects everything else. You change switches, EQ settings, volume and gain--along with changing volume and tone on your guitar--to dial in the tone you want. If you know where you want to go, you can get there--it just may not be on the path you originally predicted.

[Ringo]

I've only had my Tweaker for a few days , and I didn't get to try it until we had a reheasal Friday night because I had left my speaker cab at my buddy's house.
I mostly played it on the clean settings which sounded great , I did run up the gain with the Brit setting at the end of the night and it was killer IMO.

I have a Tele w Bardens, and lot's of pedals.

I think the Tweaker is a "keeper"! We got rained out of the gig Sat , so it will be next weekend before I get to try it "live" , I'll let ya'll know how it works out then.

[Jack]

Anyone have a chance to compare this to the Marshall Class-5?

[boynamedsuse]

This is my first tube amp, so I wanted to get some spare tubes in case I lost one. (I know that they can last for years, but you never know when you might get a bad one.) Anyway, I read somewhere that the V1 preamp tube affects the sound the most, so I replaced the stock Sovtek 12AX7WA with the following three tubes. What follows is my opinion and a brief review. YMMV.

JJ ECC83s / 12AX7: I used this tube for five days—approximately 15 hours of playing. I noticed a substantial decrease in volume and the highs dropped off quite a bit. Increasing either the gain or the master volume from (say) 10:00 to 11:00 took care of the volume, and flipping the Normal/Bright switch to Bright brought back the high end.

I liked the tone from this tube clean, but it seemed darker than the Sovtek tube. The tube started to show its strength when cranking the gain past 12:30 to start getting some overdriven tones. It had a very pleasant low-end growl and bumped the bottom end in a satisfying way. Although the OD tone was more pleasing to the ear and less fizzy, it was no better in clarity.

JJ ECC803s / 12AX7: I used this tube for two days—perhaps 3 hours of playing. This tube had about the same gain as the Sovtek and had about the same brightness as well. Unfortunately, although I had read that this tube was supposed to improve bass and midrange detail, there was actually a slight roll-off of bass frequencies, and I needed to increase bass EQ to compensate—for example, from 12:00 to 2:00 or 3:00. Overdriven tones were no better than the Sovtek tube and may have been more fizzy. In any case, I would consider this as a respectable replacement tube, but unless you have one on the shelf already, you are probably better off replacing it with a stock Sovtek tube and saving yourself a few dollars. I planned to audition it for 5 days like the JJ ECC 83s, but just didn't like what I heard from it and rotated it out early.

Tung-Sol 12AX7 New Production: I've been using this tube for three days as I write this—perhaps 8 hours of playing. This tube had about the same gain or perhaps slightly more than the Sovtek. Brightness and bass response was about the same as well. I did not need to change any controls to match the general volume and EQ characteristics of the stock Sovtek. The one big difference I noticed was an improvement in clarity. It was not like having a new amp or anything, but like taking a thin bed sheet from in front of the speaker, moving the tone from "great" to "big smile." It was hard to stop playing—and I think most of you know what I mean. It only took a few minutes before I knew that I was not going to rotate this tube out until it failed. With regard to overdriven tones, it is about the same as the Sovtek.

The bottom line (for me at least) is that the Sovtek tubes are good performers and there is little reason to swap them out unless you like doing that sort of thing. (I suspect tube rolling is very common over at TGP, but not so much here.) Unless you have a NOS tube to try out, I doubt that most of you would find it worth your while to roll tubes in the Tweaker and would be better off spending your time playing.