GearDump

The Line 6 Flextone III XL was somewhat the bastard child of their guitar amplifiers when it was introduced about 7 years ago. It had great features including built-in digital effects and tuners and modelled many of the worlds most sought after amplifiers.

I got one years ago as my first gig/practice amp and though I have gone through periods of frustration I often find myself remembering how great the amp is. At the time of the amps release, line 6 was shifting it’s focus from professional Musicians to bedroom metal addicts and frankly this and the Vetta II were the last amps that IMO appeal to professionals.

Let me start by saying this is not a tube amp nor will it replace tube amps for sound quality but I have played plenty of gigs and gotten many compliments. the effects are typically top notch for line 6. This amp really shines where most digital amps fall short and that’s getting the feel and tone of amps whose gain is set somewhere between 3 and 8.

The amps real weakness is in the budget celestion speakers loaded in the cab. They have very little bass response and force the amp to loose bass not clarity at high volumes. However in most live band engagements the amp is perfect.

Bitmo Modded Valve Junior

The Epiphone Valve Junior is one example of an amplifier with a rabid modification community. Players typically modify the circuit, speakers, and even the output transformers to get what some call boutique tone on the cheap.

When I came into possession of my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe I had no idea the difference the custom baffle and two 10″ Eminence Legend Speakers would have. I had never been that big a fan of the stock Hot Rod Deluxe sound but wanted one for the fender clean tones. The thing was monstrous, it could roar with overdrive or sing with a fuzz. I couldn’t help but wonder why the original owner parted with it.

Anyway, I’ve owned my fair share of modifiable amps–particularly the Valve Junior. I have been less then happy with most of those amps with basic circuit mods but I think if you have some major amplifier surgery done you could probably see a noticeable increase in performance. (continue reading…)

After last nights roundup and the article on Alexander Dumble’s supposedly fantastic amplifiers I thought it only appropriate to revisit that subject matter with a look at two of the great dumble clones on the market.

Fuchs Audio ODS

The first examination is pointed at Fuchs Audio. Fuchs makes a range of other amplifiers and pedals but among them is the ODS or Overdrive Supreme (not to be confused with Dumbles Over Drive Special). This unabashed clone of a Dumble sounds fairly tasty too based on the clips I gathered on youtube. The Fuchs ODS actually comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. When I say a variety I mean it, the amp can vary from 20 watts all the way to 140 watts and comes in either a combo or stack version. It’s not clear what Dumble Fuchs got his hands on, but those guys have sure made a lucrative business out of it. Many discussion forums have been spent lampooning his handy work, but as they say, the proof is in the pudding.

Kind of like the Fulltone OCD, this amp has undergone some revisions over time. Several years ago they went into production on the SLX version of the ODS. The SLX changed some of the internals to modify the tonality of the amp. Fuchs offers conversion for pre SLX ODS amplifiers. There is also now an HRM Variant of the amp which allows for Post Pre-Amp EQ. Many Modern amps incorporate this kind of preamp for wider tonal shaping.

The Fuchs has some interesting options that may or may not be related to the actual dumble. For one it can come with an optional power supply to run pedals on your board. This little option costs an extra $200, but in some clubs where you only have a few outlets it could be a life saver. Fuchs also uses a fancy DC power supply scheme that apparantly reduces the background noise of the amplifier. That is certainly a nice feature that High Gain amps should really have! There is also a Triple Drive Supreme which is loosely based on the ODS SLX version. This is a 3 channel monster that incorporates Dumble tones into it’s channels. I have not heard any of these three amps except in clips and I must say, compared to a Dumble they are very close.

Overall it looks as if Fuchs has become interested in developing a product that goes beyond the standard Dumble design to incorporate more modern & luxurious appointments.

TWO-ROCK

If FUCHS is the king of ODS clones then Two-Rock is not a clone at all but something unique and different. Alexander Dumble crafts his amps by hand and takes many months to do it. Two-Rock offers handbuilt amps with about 1/12th the lead time. Finding a Two-Rock demo, or clips that don’t have John Mayer in them, can be difficult. Overal the amplifier does the Fender on steroids sound very well.

In the clip you can see how bell like and clear the clean tones on this amp can be. When cranked the amp never gets to gainy or saturated. SRV did use a Dumble just not an ODS. He had what he called “king tone consul” which was a Dumble SSS. The SSS is basically an attempt to make an amp with pure headroom right up until ten. SRV would often mix this with his overdriven amps to get more clarity. Anyway, This amp accomplishes the drive sound that SRV used a lot of the time with some clarity and snap that simply couldn’t be accomplished with only a Vibroverb. If anyone knows of better Two-Rock clips I’d be happy to post them up here (and get you some exposure!) because frankly there are hardly any of decent quality.

The biggest problem with Two-Rock is since they are still all hand made amps by a handfull of skilled artisans they are incredibly expensive. I have seen Two-Rocks go for upwards of $3,000 on Ebay. I know they do go for less at times, but that is an incredible price to pay to get a piece of Dumble’s designs. Also, almost everything in the Two-Rock line bares some Dumble resemblence, so even their tiniest amp which for a time was around 20 Watts is very Dumble-esque.

Two-Rock has some hefty endorsers. Joe Bonomassa has played through one and allegedly thinks the Fuchs is less forgiving. He has even gone as far to mention that his two-rock may be broken since it has very little clean headroom. John Mayer is the most obvious Two-Rock endorser though he also owns at least one Dumble amplifier too. He has interchangeably used Two-Rock and Dumble amps on stage, likely because he doesn’t want his Dumbles to be damaged during touring.

If what Bonomassa believes is true, the Two-Rock is the hard-rock version of a Dumble where the Fuchs is more versatile. Either way both amps are filled with Tasty tone and are at price points that induce mortgages.

Edit: I just found some great information on Bonamassa’s Boards. He explicitly says don’t bother spending $40,000 on a dumble and talks about some of the clones he’s used:

I like the Two rock amps for a very direct tone. I prefer the custom signature reverb 1 with the presence knob over the CSR 2 with the contour. I dont know why but I do. They do a very good ^ type of tone. Not a lot of lows or highs but great mids that blend well with the Marshall Jubilee. I have two of them and I actually like the European one better. Its a little cleaner. Joe and the guys over there are really nice and helpful. A very honest amp. You hear your good days and you hear your bad days very clearly. The VanWeelden is a bit more true to a Overdrive Special I think. Its rounder and has less gain, although Peter makes this pre amp called a gainland which is so great. Peter’s amp is top notch and built like a tank.. You must get the Twinklelator though. The compression that the outboard tube effects loop creates is beautiful and so Robben Ford ish.. The Carol Ann is the same situation a most expertly built Dumble style amp that is does the full saturation with high articulation thing. The main difference between Alan’s amp is that he uses EL 34s instead of 6L6s. The Red one with the Eric Johnson tweak is my favorite of the two I have. Its all what you like. The amps that I have described are not cheap but do that thing very well. I will say that “Thing” is not for everybody. Some people prefer less articulation and more compression, some dont like all that midrange that you get. I hope this helps… I will say this. I just played a gig with Robben Ford and he had his Dumble ODS and TC 2290. I also saw him with two reissue twins and he sounded the same. Great!! Save $40,000 on a real Dumble that may or may not be authentic and buy yourself a nice 3 series BMW. Girls will dig the car better than the black box with Vox grille on it.
Just my thoughts
Thanks Joe Bonamassa

You can view the post at: Joe Bonomassa’s Official Forums

Vox AC4TV

The Vox AC4TV features a switch for ¼ watt, 1 watt and 4 watts. The amp is modeled on early Vox TV cabinet designs. The amp churns out tons of grit. The Head Cabinet version gives you a warmer and fuller sound then the 10 inch speaker combo version.  Either way the AC4TV is authentically Vox.  Vox fans who admire them for their wonderful clean tones should probably look elsewhere though since this amp doesn’t have as much head room as an AC15 or AC30. It is great for nailing those gained out AC-30 tones ALA Brian May & Mike Campbell.

Blackheart BH5H

The Blackheart BH5H is a simple small amp with a 3 watt or 5 watt output. It has a 3 band EQ and features a closed back cabinet with a 12” eminence speaker. It has just enough low end girth to get out of Fender territory and closer to early British tones. This amp can get quite fizzy when pushed hard but that is one of the caveat’s of any amp using EL84 tubes. These amps are very similar to the Epiphone Valve Junior which started the budget tiny amp phenomenon. Do not confuse this amp with the more expensive Blackstar HT-5, really different animal entirely.

If you didn’t know this already Blackheart is actually owned by Crate Amplification and Made in China like the other Amps we are looking at. Their website may have you believe otherwise but that’s just the way it is these days, designed in the U.S. and built in China.

Epiphone Valve Junior

Epiphone Valve Junior. (Disclaimer: I will be lampooned for this article and before anyone asks yes I owned a Valve Junior for a long time and actually performed mods on it) The Valve Junior is allegedly the amp that started the Tiny tube amp craze that all manufacturers seem to be plunging themselves into. To be perfectly honest I do not understand what all the fuss is about. I had the combo version for over a year and never got a sound I liked from it. I did some circuit mods to it before finally selling it on Ebay and still never found a sound I really enjoyed from this amplifier. That being said there must be some truth to all the players who love this amp. To be fair I did not upgrade the transformers, I only did basic resistor and cap changes. There are three versions of this amp in the wild so far. The first two have some noise issues but the third has seemingly eliminated that problem. If I were to purchase another I think I would have to get the Head/Cabinet version just because I always wondered how much the speaker contributed towards the bad tone. I really tried to like this amp because I was sucked into the hype, but honestly it just wasn’t for me.

Fender Superchamp XD

Ironically the most unorthodox of the Tiny Amps I am reviewing is also my favorite—and I own it. Fender’s Superchamp XD is actually a two channel amp, somewhat akin to the original Superchamp in that it is designed for practice but might be able to handle gigs or rehearsals given the right speakers and/or a microphone. The amplifier’s clean channel sounds something similar to a Champ or Princeton. The second channel features a unique Voice control that lets you choose what you want it to sound like. Unlike other Modeling amps, this one features a Tube power amp. For those of us able to crank up a pair of 6V6 tubes, this amp can really warm up with the power amp gain turned above 4. Unfortunately this amp doesn’t really have a real low volume for bedroom usage. As soon as you turn the control to where it is audible there is a noticeable jump in volume. The voicing control offers voices of many different types of amp, notably tweed, blackface, A-class, British, hi-gain and boutique flavors. Many of these sounds are good enough to cut demo recordings with.

Their are only a few things I don’t like about this amp. For one, the amp doesn’t take pedals very well until it’s turned up pretty loud. It has a strange high-frequencing shrillness till the power tubes start saturating, I can overlook this most of the time, but it makes many Fuzz pedals unusable. If they released a version featuring a real front panel & jewel light rather than the stick on plastic piece and led that mine has then Fender might create a contemporary classic like the early champs have become. For those of us who do play professionally once in a while this amplifier can be a real breath of fresh air for practice and jam sessions. I highly recommend it for anyone willing to drop a bit of money on a nice practice amplifier.

The Fender Superchamp is one of those rare Fender Amplifiers that given the right endorsee may become as popular as the Vibroverb. The Superchamp was the first in Fender’s redesigned early eighties line. The designer was Paul Rivera, who at the time had been well known as a custom guitar equipment designer and top notch amp technician.

Paul Rivera had just gotten back from working with Yamaha on a complete design of their amplifier line in the late seventies. Fender was looking to re-invigorate their line. At the time no one knew that CBS was planning on selling off Fender, and bringing in Paul Rivera was sort of a last ditch effort to make the company look more viable.

Anyway, this thing is a little two channel monster. This amp was in a lot of ways, Fender’s definitive answer to the Mesa Boogie lineup. It featured a 10 inch speaker, which was made by Eminence or EV depending on the model you purchased. It featured 2 7025 tubes (12ax7)  a 12at7 rectifier tube, and 2 6l6 output tubes along with an additional 6c10 in the pre-amp. The 6c10 was basically three halves of a 7025 in a single tube.  If you see one of these for sale, consider buying it even though the 6C10 is not a current production tube MANY of them exist, and there are mods available that will allow you to use 2 12ax7’s in it’s place.  As with all Fender amplifiers until the mid eighties, these were hand made in the U.S..

The first thing that many people mention about this amp compared to the standard Fender Champ is that it is a really loud amplifier and easily gig-worthy. The tones that the superchamp generated were quite warm. The clean channel was very blackfaceish and the overdrive was extremely usable as well. The usable overdrive was a first for Fender at the time since during the CBS reign their goals were predominately to be loud and clean. On the few Superchamp amplifiers I have heard the overdrive sounded somewhat Mesa like. This is due in part to the 6L6 output tubes. The footswitch on these amplifiers is something of a rare commodity as well. It features an led based switching as I understand it, and there simply aren’t any modern footswtiches available that can be used with this amplifier. Unlike the 6c10, there are a few people who are custom building these footswitches.

Ironically, this amp has gained a cult following due to it’s portability. The SuperChamp at max weight only weighed 30lbs and was in a tiny cabinet. Paul Rivera has never lived this Amplifier down either. In fact in some of his marketing materials for his grab and go Clubster and Pubster amplifiers, he mentions that they contain the heart and soul of a Fender Champ. Those amps are a forced to be reckoned with in their own right.

Perhaps most interesting about the Superchamp was it’s unique cabinet design which depending on which model you locate was either a natural cabinet with woodgrain on prominent display (think Mesa MK I without the basketweave) or the standard blackface appointments.

Fender was really making some great stuff prior to the CBS sale. These amps were definitely proof of Fender’s longevity even during their alleged dark age. Though Leo Fender had left the company prior to their design I’m sure he was pleased to see these little bastards in clubs everywhere. If you ever get the chance to check one out, I highly reccomend it. Their prices seem to increase daily on Ebay so if you really want to snag one of these rare gems I suggest you do it now because at this point it looks unlikely that Fender will be making a period faithful reissue of these amps.