Show us your amps

Have you used their amps?

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Sorry, no. I sure haven’t. I did look them up to see what you are referring to.

Did you have any specific questions about it?
I can see what I can find out.

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Here’s mine - given to me by a friend. It’s a chonk but sounds great :blush:

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I am trying to find out about build quality, fan noise, overall likeability… things like that.

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There isn’t a whole lot out there, but I’ll try and give a fair assessment of what I could find.

Came out in 2009 as a budget Hybrid tube amp head. Tube for the preamp and Class D Ice power module for the power amp.

Listed for around $400 but frequently sold for $250-300. Which was a great deal for a tube front end.

300 watts at 4 Ohms and 180 watts at 8 Ohms.

It is said to have a nice warm sound, as you would expect from tubes.

The fan does make noise and people have said it produces a slight hum. Neither of which are noticeable in a band situation.

Opening up the head seems to show how they got the price so low. With some sub standard build quality, like surfaces that needed to be treated against rust and were not. Along with pots that seem to get scratchy pretty quickly and some pieces that were poorly secured.

From a personal perspective, given the fan noise and hum, probably good for playing with others, but not so much for playing at home. Like with most things, what you save in money may very well come back to bite you.

I would buy something used over buying one of these new.

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Thank you so much for your research on this amp. I really, really appreciate it. Since I am basically a bedroom bassist, this probably won’t work for me. I think I’ll go with an EBS Valve Drive DI preamp.
Many thanks Eric!

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Anytime Jerry! :+1:

Glad I could help.

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I found this:
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ReVoltBass--two-notes-revolt-bass-preamp-pedal

Anyone know anything about this pedal and company? The reviews are very positive. Maybe more than I need right now but it is interesting.

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It’s nice equipment. I’ve never seen a bad word about it. @Zeverynth has one he gigs with.

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Of the reviews I’ve read, I’ve not seen anything bad, but I’d rather hear from more trusted sources (such as you guys). :grinning:

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two notes is one of the original amp sim designers. pricey but very highly regarded.

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Two Notes makes really high quality stuff but TBH the stuff I have heard didn’t really stand out tone-wise compared to some peers. It was great but considering the price and competition I would say it might pay to try and look at some of the other options too. For a similar preamp I went with the EBS ValveDrive, for example.

I was comparing the EBS to their earlier preamp though, the Le Bass. The ReVolt might be better. They are clearly going after a SVT-like thing so that’s a good sign.

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I just took a listen online and my takeaway was the same - it sounds really good but is much more refined and subtle on its clean channel than some peers. Still, it’s also way better than Le Bass was and especially it overdrives and breaks up much more nicely.

Another thing I just noticed - it’s not clear to me that it is easy to replace the tube. This is critical for me for tube preamps - not only can tubes burn out, but also being able to swap out the tube and try different ones for different tones is like half the fun of owning one. I saw some videos online of people who had done it but not sure about how convenient it is.

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@JerryP

I’m selling my SGT-DI preamp but can’t remember if you tried that and didn’t like it?

I’m only selling it to keep my pedal board small.
It sounds great. The built in compressor though is not that good.

If you want I’ll give you a good deal on it :sunglasses:

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@JerryP for the classic tones you like this is probably a good path, unless you really want to play with tubes - which I do recommend but is definitely kind of a hobby on its own :slight_smile:

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I absolutely want to play with tubes so it’s going to be the EBS or the Two Notes. Thank s for your offer @Barney .

How is the tube replacement on the EBS?

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Very easy, the tube shield comes right off

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All right, so I pulled the trigger on the EBS Valve Drive Di. I found it on Reverb from a seller in Queens, NY which is close to my house in Jersey. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to enjoy it until I get back from my current business trip in late July. I’ll will post something more at that time.

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Nice!

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Might also be a good time to start searching tubes. I really liked a JJ5751 in it.

You can find old Russian tubes on ebay too. I bought some from a Ukrainian guy who claimed he pulled them out of Russian tanks :rofl:

The tubes are all kind of tonally different and have different gain. The 12AX7 it comes will with be pretty high gain; a 5751 will be slightly lower than it. The other 12xx7’s like the 12AU7 will usually be lower gain than those.

Fun to play around. Be careful with making sure it’s unplugged and discharged before swapping the tubes, it’s a reasonably high voltage, usually 240.

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