Doug Myer of Mountan Cat Guitars and Lance Keltner were kind enough to let me borrow the Retro Channel Power Amp for a test drive.
Thank you to you both.
Here is a little background info to know where I am coming from.
I am mainly a tube amp guy for many years, the amp profiling and modeling are new to me as are solid state power amps.
I have no experience with FRFR set ups.
I wanted to see how this Retro Channel power amp would work with my Axe FX II V.7 and my Bob Burt 2x12 loaded with one early 70's Black Back and a Tone Tubby 40/40 Ceramic.
I use this cab with my Komet 60, early 70's 20 watt Marshall PA head, Swart AST and others.
It is a great sounding cab.
My goal was to see if this would this work for me, does it please me, is it fun to play.
I won't go into any technical stuff because I really don't know any.
It is more about the vibe.
I used my old Fender Strat and my Collings all Mahogany CLX.
I plugged in hit a few chords switched around some profiles, my first thought was this sounds good.
It would be more than loud enough for any gig I could think of, I could easily have blown up my speakers, cab and ears.
It sounded a little boomy but I went in and adjusted the Low Res Freq. in the amp/speaker block.
Perfect.
I choose the Blankenship Leeds, I left on the power and speaker sims.
It was fantastic, huge, full and clear.
My Strat sounded like a great start should and the CLX was just classic LP into Marshall 70's glory.
The rig responded very well to my guitar volume knob.
I really liked having the presence control on the front of the Retro, with the Strat I gave it a little boost for some spank on the neck pick up and on the CLD just had this great tearing quality with the presence up a bit.
I can see this being very helpful to tweaking you sound to fit the room and stage.
I did not mess with the resonance control too much but again that being able to fine tune the rig is great.
I then swicthed the power and speaker sims off and on an found it sounded good both ways just different.
I only used factory presets during this test, I have to say they really sounded good.
I kept the effects off most of the time.
I kept switching back and forth between guitars and presets for two hours, I also played at low volumes and was very impressed with the quality and fullness of the sound.
As I said earlier I have tested no other setups so I have no opinion on other power amp and speaker combos or FRFR.
What I do know is that it sounded great, offered me tons of control, I had a blast playing thru it and if felt great.
After awhile I was not thinking about what I was playing thru I was just playing and having fun.
Controlled feedback was easy to get, playing pick or fingers was equally as good the amp and AX responded very well to dynamics.
The low end thunk was just right and the which end was clear and never shrill or fatiguing.
I could 100% use this at a gig with any explanations or apologies.
Lance has come up with a great amp, I can tell a guitar player was behind this design.
It also looks cool as hell.
It would work for me, I am pleased and it was real fun to play.
I hope this was of some interest to you all.
Thanks, Chris
Thank you to you both.
Here is a little background info to know where I am coming from.
I am mainly a tube amp guy for many years, the amp profiling and modeling are new to me as are solid state power amps.
I have no experience with FRFR set ups.
I wanted to see how this Retro Channel power amp would work with my Axe FX II V.7 and my Bob Burt 2x12 loaded with one early 70's Black Back and a Tone Tubby 40/40 Ceramic.
I use this cab with my Komet 60, early 70's 20 watt Marshall PA head, Swart AST and others.
It is a great sounding cab.
My goal was to see if this would this work for me, does it please me, is it fun to play.
I won't go into any technical stuff because I really don't know any.
It is more about the vibe.
I used my old Fender Strat and my Collings all Mahogany CLX.
I plugged in hit a few chords switched around some profiles, my first thought was this sounds good.
It would be more than loud enough for any gig I could think of, I could easily have blown up my speakers, cab and ears.
It sounded a little boomy but I went in and adjusted the Low Res Freq. in the amp/speaker block.
Perfect.
I choose the Blankenship Leeds, I left on the power and speaker sims.
It was fantastic, huge, full and clear.
My Strat sounded like a great start should and the CLX was just classic LP into Marshall 70's glory.
The rig responded very well to my guitar volume knob.
I really liked having the presence control on the front of the Retro, with the Strat I gave it a little boost for some spank on the neck pick up and on the CLD just had this great tearing quality with the presence up a bit.
I can see this being very helpful to tweaking you sound to fit the room and stage.
I did not mess with the resonance control too much but again that being able to fine tune the rig is great.
I then swicthed the power and speaker sims off and on an found it sounded good both ways just different.
I only used factory presets during this test, I have to say they really sounded good.
I kept the effects off most of the time.
I kept switching back and forth between guitars and presets for two hours, I also played at low volumes and was very impressed with the quality and fullness of the sound.
As I said earlier I have tested no other setups so I have no opinion on other power amp and speaker combos or FRFR.
What I do know is that it sounded great, offered me tons of control, I had a blast playing thru it and if felt great.
After awhile I was not thinking about what I was playing thru I was just playing and having fun.
Controlled feedback was easy to get, playing pick or fingers was equally as good the amp and AX responded very well to dynamics.
The low end thunk was just right and the which end was clear and never shrill or fatiguing.
I could 100% use this at a gig with any explanations or apologies.
Lance has come up with a great amp, I can tell a guitar player was behind this design.
It also looks cool as hell.
It would work for me, I am pleased and it was real fun to play.
I hope this was of some interest to you all.
Thanks, Chris
