 Telecaster Guitar Forum |
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Smith Custom Amplifiers CS-25
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Date product posted
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1889
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Tue March 18, 2008
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Description:
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When I stumbled across the CS-25 in my local store, the TDPRI is the first place i went to online to find information.... there was nothing on it... so.... now there will be.
My Smith Custom Amplifier CS-25 is a 4X10 combo.... 25 watts.... basically a Deluxe Reverb with MAJOR balls... They are produced in Montgomery Alabama (about 4-5 hours north of my house), but I acquired the amp in Pensacola Florida.. right across the state line...
Now that I've gigged with it for a week or so, I can offer a little more useful info about it..
This thing seems bullet proof... the finish is a spray on finish applied directly to the plywood cabinet.... Smith no longer uses the spray due to cost (and the guy he was contracting to do it was kind of sloppy... look at the back of the speakers and on the poweramp section.. there's little spatters all over the place... no worries...).... I actually like the coating..... because the shell seems to be MUCH more durable than tolex...
The controls are simple, and VERY well laid out... no more reaching behind the amp for me to turn it on standby... from left to right:
Power, Standby, Red light :), Dwell, Reverb, Bass, Mid, Treble, Boost, Volume, Bright circuit.... the bright circuit is pretty cool... if you're switching guitars from a Les Paul to a Tele you can flick the bright switch to eq the amp brighter or darker depending on the instrument... I've seen this on other amps... but never really liked the implementation until now.
Next... When you turn it on... It's amazingly quiet... that's got to do with Smith separating the power section from the rest of the amp.... The powertransformer can generate as big of an electro magnetic field as it would like to.... you won't hear it... it's actually on the floor of the amp cabinet... connected by two shielded cables that run up the chassis to the top section.... You can't see it in my pictures, but just to the left on the steel chassis of the power amp section, you'll see "B1"..... Just below it (not in the picture) is "B2"... this is the Cathode Bias selector switch.... If you select B1, the amp responds with a compressed feel... it breaks up alot like a tweed amp..... If you have B2 selected, then it's running in Blackface mode... More headroom and a tighter, punchier feel... I like the blackface mode ALOT... Big Boomy feel....
As far as how it responds to my playing... It's VERY easy to dial up usable tones with this amp.... I like being able to control the overdrive with my volume knob... It's got alot more headroom than I expected... rated at 25 watts, I honestly think it's got more headroom than my old ProSonic, which would get LOUD at 30 watts (in class A mode)...... so volume is not an issue with this amp... the "Boost" channel is actually usable (and accessible with a pedal), compared to the useless (imho) drive channel on the ProSonic.... I don't think i'm going to use that though.. I like the way the amp responds to my volume knob...
I've played 3 gigs already with my tele, tuner, and amp... that's it... and it sounds great.... volume down a little for rhythm work... up for soloing.... it's GREAT sounding..
Sammy told me that he's a tele player.. and he designs his amps to be played on by tele players... It is entirely built by hand, even the Reverb circuit.... That's cool...
as far as differences between my amp (2004 model) and today's amps... Sammy said he used IC caps in my amp but he now uses Spragues....
He uses a .047 bass cap on the preamp now... mine has a .1 cap... the newer amps are less "boomy"... He said some people were weird-d out by having to remove bass from the eq... However, I like the boomyness of my amp...
and the last difference is the value of the cathode bias resistor... in mine it's 220 ohms... the newer models it's 300-325 ohms... the 220 ohm load was apparently much harder on the tubes..
I can't say enough about the amp... i like it.. alot... 
There is a youtube video of Sammy demoing the amp... check it out.
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Keywords:
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Smith Custom Amplifiers CS 25 Deluxe Reverb 4X10 watt
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