Amplifier Woes #1

About 15 months ago, I wrote about my quest to find an amplifier that suited me. At the time I thought the quest was over. Ha.

I wrote that entry while still in the first flush of love with the Mesa F-30. As always happens, sooner or later, that started to wear off and I had to admit a few things about the amp.

The problem with that is that every amp has a "sweet spot" where it sounds its best.

First, it was too loud. Yes, it has a volume knob and, yes, it does turn down. The problem with that is that every amp has a "sweet spot" (or several) where it sounds its best. For the F-30, that was too loud for me. I tried an attenuator (THD Hotplate) and hated it. Maybe I'm too picky. Stop snickering.

Second -- and perhaps a bigger problem -- the overdrive channel got too dirty too quickly. It's okay with single coils, but with humbuckers... too dirty for me.

A couple other things happened during this time that helped accelerate my waning affection for the F-30. First, I replaced the tubes and speaker in my old Crate GT-50. Surprise! It's like a whole new amp. Second, I bought a mid-70's Fender Champ on eBay for about $200. You wanna talk about Fendery? Man.

So, all things considered, the F-30 was redundant. Next stop was a Fender Blues Jr. I like the clean sound of this a lot. Sounds fantastic with a Tele, less so with my Les Paul. I've had it for about 6 months and I like it... but I don't love it. Things don't look good for the Blues Jr.

So I finally broke down and ordered a Reverend Goblin. I'd been looking at them ever since they were first announced, but I was reluctant to drop $500 on an amp that I couldn't play first. Sure, they have a 14-day money-back trial period. But after waiting 4 weeks for an amp are you really going to say "Hey I don't like this" and send it back? Read on.

After I ordered my Goblin -- but before it arrived -- I went to a jam session with a bunch of guys I "met" online. They're all Reverend fanatics; the three who live in this area own something like 10 Reverend guitars between them and at least three amps. Hearing the amp I felt alot better about having dropped $500 on one sight unseen. I could hardly wait for it to arrive.

I could tell something was wrong right away.

And then it did. I could tell something was wrong right away. There was a noticeable rattling (or buzzing, or fizzing) sound on many of the notes. I did my best to troubleshoot it: swapping tubes, tightening screws, looking for sources of vibration. Nothing. So I sent it back. (That's a whole other story.)

The entire time I was waiting for it to come back I was really worried that they would tell me that they couldn't find anything wrong with the amp. (It wouldn't be the first time that a tech tried to convince me I didn't hear something that I absolutely heard.) When I got it back there was a note with it saying they had swapped the speaker. I rejoiced! Briefly. Read on.

I had already kind figured that it had to be a problem with either the cabinet or the speaker; I was leaning towards the speaker. I ran a line from the speaker jack of the Goblin to a speaker on another amp: no buzzing. I ran a line from another amp to the speaker on the Goblin: buzzing. Seems like changing the speaker would help. Ha.

It still buzzes like crazy. I talked to the owner of the company (who also designed the amp and was the one who worked on mine when I sent it back) and he says there's nothing wrong with the amp. He said there was some buzzing when it came in but changing the speaker solved it. His exact words were: "It was negligible when I played it." Further, he suggested that it must be fret buzz (string vibrating against the fret) due to either low action or my particular playing style and technique. This kinda pissed me off a little. I know I'm a no-talent hack, but I've been one for a very long time. I've played the guitar (poorly) for 25 years; if my technique were such to inspire that kind of buzzing I'm sure I would have heard it by now.

Good news and bad news, and they're both the same.

Today I took the amp to the house of one of the guys I met at the jam session. He's got 2 Reverend amps (including an older version of the Goblin), a Reverend bass and 4 Reverend guitars. I was a little concerned that I'd get the amp there and either it wouldn't make the noise at all or it would make it when I played but not when he did. There was good news and bad news, and they're both the same. The amp has a problem. I'm hard pressed to see how anyone looking for it could miss it. It's really quite easy to hear.

So Monday I ship it back. That makes me sad; I've really been looking forward to this amp for a long time. Apart from the rattle I really, really like it.

There's more woe where that came from, but I'll save it for later.

Posted by John at August 13, 2005 9:59 PM | TrackBack