MusikMesse '99: Guitar Amps
By Brett Ratner
ratocaster@harmony-central.com
Well, those of you who read part one of this series on MusikMesse know that I'm a traditionalist at heart and was skeptical towards anything that is more complex than my trusty 1965 Fender Deluxe Reverb amp and my gig-proven pedalboard. To make a long story short, day 2 of MusikMesse was an eye AND ear-opening experience when it came to amps.
Entering the guitar room at MusikMesse, I turned right, thus to make a NASCAR-esque lap counterclockwise around the room. The first booth to my right turned out to be the Rocktron (www.rocktron.com) booth.
They had a bunch of nifty headphone listening stations set up featuring their latest in rackmount gear, including the new Prophesy modeling preamp. None of the Prophesy stations opened up, so I sat down in front of a Voodoo Valve, put on the headphones, picked up the Ibanez guitar plugged into the station and began to scroll through the presets. Similar to my Alesis Quadraverb GT from days of old, the Rocktron made playing my favorite "fast licks" incredibly easy. Which brings me to a point: some gear can actually make you play better... especially a well set up guitar with powerful pickups and a preamp that is sensitive to your picking attack.
However, the Voodoo Valve still sounded thin and buzzy... though the distortion sounds were clearly an improvement over the Quad GT (which possessed overdrive that could only be described as abysmal). By contrast, I have to fight my Strat and amp to the death for each "fast lick." But the classic, distinctive tone makes it worth it. In defense of the Voodoo Valve, headphones bring out the worst in tone and though headphone stations make sense in a noisy environment like MusikMesse, I don't think they are a viable tool for demonstrating gear. Headphones or not, I was gearing myself up for a day of being unimpressed with the new stuff.
That
was until I got to the Bogner booth. Those who have heard Brad Whitford's recent
efforts with Aerosmith know how positively badass this stuff sounds. Clearly,
Bogner is not a company who thinks it's "worth it" to have to fight
your strat to get the classic strat tone.
An apt description of a Bogner Ecstasy amp, at least to my ears, would be a more refined clean Vox sound and a much more refined dirty Marshall tone. Though the amp sported a lot of knobs, switches, lights, and a multi-function footswitch, in essence, the "Bogner tone" is preset into the amp, only giving you a fine-tuning control of the sound. I like an amp company with the balls to say "this is what I think a guitar should sound like," and Bogner is that company. All and all, the sounds of the Ecstasy sounded like the guitar tone on a record after a highly skilled engineer took time to run it through a parametric EQ. The clean tone had perfect "chime," with no low-end "woof" or high-end harshness. The lead tone was ultra sensitive with tons of sustain, but somehow the "saturation" and other sonic garbage had been removed, just leaving you with the sound of fingers on string. Best of all, the amp completely nailed that "just on the verge of being dirty" rhythm tone, which is important cuz most rock players are going to spend most of their time using this setting.
Now
on to the Diezel (Phone/fax: +49 (0)89-9 30 67 27) booth. This crazy amp (distributed
in the US by Salwender International)
features four channels, each with completely independent gain, volume, and EQ
control. The amp head was also stereo and MIDI compatible. The complexity of
all those knobs was cleverly avoided by an ingenious diagonal arrangement. Also
nailing the elusive sensitive-but-toneful vibe, the Diezel sounded every bit
as good as the Bogner, just different. I'd say it was slightly meaner sounding
but less refined (imagine early Van Halen records, where there's lots of dirt,
but you can still hear each note of the chords Eddie's playing). I'm not entirely
sure what I'd use the 4th channel for, but in tandem with a programmable effects
loop and MIDI implementation, I'd bet most of you could figure something out.
Another
favorite was the Engl (Phone: +49 08683 592) Savage Special Edition. While the
Bogner had my favorite sound (standing in front of the amp, playing all by myself),
I'd venture to guess the Engl would sound best with a band. This is mostly due
to a "smooth/rough" switch. The "smooth" setting adds low
mids and gives the lead tone a liquid, violin quality. And as we all should
know, round, midrangey sounds cut best through a mix. Of all the amps I played,
this one came closest to the tone of my rig, which I know to work well in the
context of a group.
Another Engl product I wish we had in the states is the "Tube Toner." Looking like an overgrown Mesa/Boogie V-twin pedal, this bad boy combines a four-channel tube preamp with a MIDI pedal. Since the unit features a stereo effects loop, stereo recording outs AND separate line outs, it could be a killer recording unit or drive a stereo power amp/speakers. When used in conjunction with a combo amp, you can use the line out to feed the effects loop return or the instrument out to feed the front of the amp. If you want to use it as a practice amp, use the headphone out for headphones OR to drive a two cabinets (1.5 watts per side). The Tube Toner also works great with the "Tube Monitor" wedge-style guitar amp (FOH engineers will love you!).
Koch (www.dsa.nl/koch)of the Netherlands also makes a good amp, though I made the mistake of playing an open-backed combo only. This brings me to the point that birch plywood 4x12" cabinets loaded with Celestion Vintage 30 clearly sounded the best out of anything I played. The Mesa Tremoverb is the only amp I think that sounds better open-backed (it also comes loaded with Vintage 30s in combo form).
Anyway, the Engl combo I played sounded nowhere as good to me as the stack, and my guess is that had I played the Koch stack, I would have been extremely impressed because their combo sounded only slightly worse than the other amps I had played up until this point.
The amp reacted well to my picking and sounded refined. Once I took a minute to figure out the controls (which at first I found confusing), they were easy to use and made sense. The clean and lead sounds were great, but my only beef was that I had trouble dialing in the aforementioned elusive "in between" sound.
The
Italian company Brunetti (Phone: +39 059-24 34 04) made the best-looking amp
(think Ferrari) but with a dizzying array of controls. Unfortunately I didn't
get a chance to play it cuz there was a guy hogging the unit in the isolation
booth. The amp did seem to feature a very powerful "presence" control,
and the guy seemed to like really harsh and bright presence settings, unfortunately.
Had I been able to try it and set it to my own taste, I'd bet I'd get a very cutting (read useful in a gig) crunch tone and transient clean tone. Another cool addition to the amp head was a rack space for adding a processor.
Another
amp I didn't get to play was Hughes
& Kettner's Zentera modeling amp. Used in tandem with a MIDI pedal,
you can summon up a variety of tones as well as effects in real time. Fortunately,
demonstrating these amps were two very skilled players of the Stevie Ray Vaughan
variety. Though I personally shy away from modeling amps, I have to admit that
the SRV tone was basically nailed with this model. In other words, it was bright
but not harsh, it was dirty but not saturated, and it allowed the personality
of the various pickup settings from a Strat to shine through. The Zentera's
two 12" Celestion® speakers allow for stereo effects, powered by dual
100 Watt power amps. Hughes & Kettner says the amp should be released sometime
this summer.
Now would be a good time to note that I had been playing (or hearing) different guitars through all of these amps. Therefore, it must be stated that all the amps mentioned here were well worth looking at, but a more thorough comparison using the same guitar would be necessary before making a real judgment on any of these pieces, let alone a purchase.
It would also be worth noting that all of these amps were quite expensive. Probably expensive enough that they are impractical for most people with families, car payments and real lives to justify. Fortunately, two moderately-priced amps caught my ear in a big way.
The
first was the Crate (www.crateamps.com)
DX-212 combo. This amp featured excellent-sounding modeling technology, MIDI
implementation and very easy programmability. It can store 10 different patches,
presented in two banks of five. When you've edited a patch, a light flashes
so you remember to save any changes you like before switching to a new patch.
It's definitely worth checking out, especially since it has very believable
models of some of your favorite tube amps.
The best value of the day was found when I lapped back to the Rocktron booth. Now featuring "Rampage," a line of solid-state practice amps that start under $200, these things kick ass. The electric guitar models come with either a single 12" speaker with 80 Watts of power, or a pair of 10" speaker with 60 Watts of power per side and stereo chorus. (An acoustic Rampage amp is available as well.) The clean sound sounds don't stand up to a great tube amp, but are completely usable in a gig setting. The dirty sounds are actually better than many tube amps I've heard. You have plenty of sustain, plenty of definition, ample bass, and a very pleasing upper midrange emphasis that makes the guitar almost sound like it's crying. Truth be known, the tone is more geared towards hard rock, however the singing quality could probably suit a blues player too.
All in all, the day has changed the perspective of a traditionally traditional player (when it comes to amps). For those who have the cash, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend a Bogner, Diezel, or Engl amp. For those on a budget, the Crate and Rocktron are both fine choices.
Well, for the next installment of the MusikMesse '99 series, I'm going to focus on some interesting guitar and bass accessories I found, plus I'm going to venture into the other areas to see what else is out there in the world of music.
Brett Ratner is a contributor to Guitar Player, Musician, Electronic Musician and Music & Computers. He also spent two years as the Creative Writer for www.gibson.com. Currently, Brett plays sessions and performs regularly around Nashville with the band Katoorah Jayne. Please email Brett at ratocaster@harmony-central.com with any questions, comments.
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