Feature:
This amp is a tank, I think it weighs in at 70 odd pounds, at least from the outside the transformers look heavy duty, has a fan, very quiet. The controls are a little awkward until you get the hang of it, the outputs can handle 4,8 and 16 Z. Nice touch. I "wish" it came with the foot pedal for channel changing but, $499.00.. I think I feel lucky that the amp is what it is.
Quality:
I have not as yet looked under the hood, I am waiting for a biasing meter to arrive because the Tung Siols run hot, Love the sound but I think they need to be calmed down a trifle. Very well made, gets kudo's from people on the looks and sound.
Value:
My experience with amps started way back with a tube SUPER BEATLE, in the interim had high end tried miking vintage small tube amps (not bad but after awhile you realize pit falls)
Desirability:
With this amp, I feel very much in control of my guitar, I have found aI am hearing great nuances i didn't know were capable, an example is, 2 cheap guitars I use when playing a roudy joint.. a Squire Strat and an Ibanez Artcore, the Squire in place of my Jag with seymour duncans and the Artcore in place of a heritage jazz box. Well blow me down Olive Oil, The Squire is now a beast and the Artcore has quite a range from fat jazz tomes to grungy distortion and sort of a scooped early blues tone. The Heritage is actually almost as pretty sounding as it was through my "use to own" Fender Twin.
Sound:
I own 2 30's.. My 1st was purchased when they were 1st released, As usuall, changing tubes brought out the sonics amd good bounce, but still was a bit harsh even after I caught on to the very critical and i mean critical settings on all settings, still had ear fatique after awhile and my volumes a low volumes even when gig. As a solo blues (early electric) the sound has to be at least pleasing, bought a pair of GreenBack Celestions and with Tung Sol tubes it is not far from a high end amp with a colorful swirl and pleasing (if that word applies) touch control overdriven sound from Class A as it should have been from go. Now about the second amp, purchased it new, out of the box the amp was pretty close to the amp I had re-tubed and Greenbacked with the stock Lady Luck speakers and now there changing to Sovt. tubes. Sweet, Im not sure what else was tinkered with and/or upgraded but there is a noticable difference out of the box from the 1st one. Why 2 amps, I had my doughts that the new GreenBacks would achieve the fix I needed so I was ready to send it back thinking there was a real problem someplace. Why order the same amp, even with my unfavorable opinion, there was something this amp provided that at the perfect settings reminded me of an Orange tube i once own back in the day. Surprise, the GreenBacks must have been what the doctored ordered. All controlls were now tweaked not to get rid of what was unwanted but rather to enhance what was there. meanwhile the other amp arrived so I have 2 amps, not a big difference as i said, but, the Lady Luck speakers are more aggresive in a good way and the Greenbacks can take higher freq. and still sound mellow. I should have mentioned this earlier, this uses a tube rectifier and for my money there's a very noticable advantage because of the sag when you pull a little more then the rectifier can deliver its a good thing.
Ease of Use:
manual is more of a 3 page flyier, doesn't mention biasing, tube suggestions, has a quick tutorial using images of the tone strip for where dials should point to achieve a half dozen sounds and I think it reminds the owner not to stand in the bath tub when holding your...
Support:
I hope there support is better then there ",manual"
Overall:
How long do i expect to keep this amp is like asking where's the last stop sign. The way to sum this amp up is I feel as if someone made a big mistake when setting the price, but most likely it was made unforetunately by underpaid but very capable underpaid workers from some third world country. I don't know this to be true, but the price is out of line with the all around quality of this amp.
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