by Scott DeVarenne » Thu Jun 07, 2012 1:35 pm
Great looking amp. Heavy, solid. Loud. What? I said "Loud".
Clean channel took 10 seconds of fussin' to get it sounding awesome. Sounded great quiet and cleanish. I enjoyed how it started to bust up when I had the volume at 12-1 o'clock, but by that point it's so loud that the speaker is likely contributing to the raunch. The twang button does something. It changes the sound. I didn't find it to be a dramatic shift. I preferred the the normal/ non-twang mode.
Drive channel has plenty of gain and provided nice sustain even at a moderate setting. I have no complaint about the quality of the overdrive, but I feel a lack of enthusiasm about it. It definitely wasn't the cheapo-fizzy sort of sound. There was a character there. But, other than when Alain cranked it up and did some tweaking (he dialed in a perfect "Rebel,Rebel" tone), I just wasn't feeling a lotta love for the sound. Comparing the overdriven sound of the Statesman to the last couple of amps that we tried (Ironhorse, Lonestar Special), it was less girthy and not as full in the lower mids.
Statesman Quad EL84, you are perfect, don't change- you just aren't the amp for me. Though, I would be interested in meeting your brothers, 6L6 and EL34.
Last edited by
Scott DeVarenne on Thu Jun 07, 2012 2:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.