Guitar Gear Enthusiast    |   Reviews   |   DIY Projects   |   Links Library   |   Site Seeing   |   GGE Blog   |   Contact Me

 
GuitarGearEnthusiast.comHome.htmlshapeimage_2_link_0
   2009 D’Lite44 ODE If you haven’t heard of Brown Note amps yet, you are in for a real treat. These amps are simply amazing tone machines! My amp is still being made but I hope to receive it in the next few weeks. Each amp is made to order point-to-point, hand-wired, tube, 2-channel, 44Watt-ish, channel switching and boost. I ordered the optional effects loop too. This amp brings out the best qualities in both single coil and humbucker-equipped guitars. The clean channel is sparkling Black-face Fender-like. Each note is individually articulated and has a nice warm bloom and blossom to it, with a natural sounding decay, which you would swear is a natural reverb. The distortion channel is in a word, phenomenal. This amp possesses one of the best distortion tones I have ever heard and I love playing this amp!   2002 Overdrive Supreme (S/N 0035) Simply stated, The Fuchs Overdrive Supreme is the finest guitar amp I have ever played. It is warm but articulate. It’s not just an amp, its an instrument all on its own. At times, it can be very unforgiving, however, this forces me to be a better player. There are comparisons made to the Dumble Overdrive Special. I personally prefer the ODS. The sweet overdrive tones I get from this amp are “musically pleasing” to my ear. Also, the clean channel is very musical. I set this channel to breakup as I push the amp harder. With my guitar volume, I can stay very clean and then break up as I turn up the volume pot. I almost exclusively use this amp for all my gigs these days. Andy Fuchs is a talented designer who brought his years of experience (both guitar playing and as a pro audio equipment designer) to this guitar amp. Check out Jason Barker’s Steelbender.com or the IndoorStorm.com website (Eddie Berman) for great reviews and sound samples. I purchased mine from Andy Brauer in North Hollywood. Andy was incredibly influential in my education on Fuchs Amplifiers. Check out Andy Brauer’s site for very cool guitars and amps. My Fuchs ODS is a 1-12 100w model with 4 6L6 power tubes. It includes a single input with 2 channels: Clean and Overdrive. There are foot-switchable features for gain-boost, mid-boost, reverb and channel selection. What’s cool about this amp is that Ch. 1 is used to drive Ch. 2. This allows you to get some unique overdrive tones that are simply not possible with other amps. This amp includes an all-tube effects loop as well. UPDATE FEB-07 I recently updated up system by switching to a head and cabinet solution. Although I absolutely love the 1-12 combo solution and it does create a very big sound, I needed to “broaden” my sound a bit and smooth out that very direct sound you get with a 1-12 combo. After a few months of research, I finally chose the 2-12 Two Rock cabinet to match my Fuchs head. It is loaded with two 65w custom speakers made by Eminence for Two Rock. This is one of the warmest and tone pleasing cabinets I have ever played. I tried several 2-12 cabinets including Orange, Genz-Benz, Tone Tubby, Fuchs and THD and the Two Rock was the perfect match for my Fuchs ODS. Although the fuchs 2-12 cabinet sounded great , the Two Rock cabinet possessed and “Openness” and Warmth that was very attractive. Click to my Gear Profile page for an exclusive review of this amp.   1997 Decatone In the 90s, I was playing heavy rock (not metal) which required my sound to be high-gain with lots of crunch and stinging lead tones. After seeing Steve Lukather at the Whiskey (around 1990), I couldn’t get over his power-house high-gain sound. At the time, he was using a Soldano Super Lead Overdrive (SLO). I did my research and ended up buying this Soldano Decatone. This is a 3 channel 100 watt head with no reverb. I also used a full rack of effects (reverbs, delays, chorus, etc...) to give me that big 90s high-gain “wet” sound. My influences at the time were obviously Luke, Dan Huff, Mike Landau and Joe Satriani. This is an awesome power-house amp, big, full and mean! It cuts through like a knife! This amp uses 4 6L6 power tubes and has 5 12AX7 preamp stages. I also love the Mesa 2-12 cabinet I use with it which includes 2 12” Vintage 30s.   1971 Deluxe Reverb As the 90s wrapped up, my playing and guitar sound began to loosen up. I got away from the giant rolling rack, switching gear and high-gain “Soldano” sound (no offense Mike, I love your amps!). Instead, I started listening to and was influenced by more natural “guitar wood” sounds and that “sagging” tube-amp sounds. I pulled out my old 1971 Silver Face Fender Deluxe Reverb. This was an amp that my Brother and I both started out on. It was a mess! We had a neighbor (Gabe Kallos) who was a dentist and a part-time TV repair man (go figure). Whenever blue smoke would appear from this amp, we’d take it to Gabe and he would “fix” the amp. I didn’t realize what his “fixes” were until I took it apart years later. It looked like Frankenstein! The tube rectifier was converted to solid state using diodes from an old TV set, the output transformer was replaced by an old RCA TV transformer and the main power supply transformer came from an old TV as well (Zenith I think). I’m sure if I put rabbit ears on it I could tune in to “I Dream of Jeannie”. Many things were “bypassed” by Gabe just to make the damn thing work. Best of all, it now weighed about 300lbs! It took me weeks to rebuild it. Included in my complete renovation was a conversion back to the Black Face specification (cap job included). It was like having a new (old) amp. This is a very cool little amp, very bluesy, not a whole lot of power but enough to keep up with a small trio. This little amp uses 2 6V6 power tubes and 4 12AX7s. For a “Silver Face” amp, it screams like a Black Face beauty! I’m very proud of this conversion. Check out the entire project on my “Gear Modifications” page.   1958 M-11 Now here is a cool little amp. This is a Rickenbacker Model M-11. It was built (I think) in 1955. There is very little information available on these amps (if you have any information, please email me). When I rebuilt it, I could not find the M-11 schematic. I actually transcribed this amp component-by-component and drew my own schematic. It didn’t make a sound when I got it. I replaced all the parts with lemony-fresh components and it worked like a charm! It’s a cool little “champ sounding” amp. I use it to record and play with friends. It sounds the best with my Strat. Check out this site for some interesting history on Rickenbacker.  http://www.brownnote.net/http://www.fuchsaudiotechnology.com/products-overdrive-supreme.phphttp://www.steelbender.comhttp://www.indoorstorm.com/store.php?cPath=4&osCsid=4707f940e919627c864900bc2d0ecddehttp://www.andybrauer.com/GGE_Review_-_Fuchs_ODS.htmlhttp://www.stevelukather.net/Homepage.aspxhttp://www.soldano.com/http://www.ampwares.com/ffg/deluxe_reverb_sf.htmlhttp://jzu.free.fr/rick/amp/MB.htmlhttp://www.rickenbacker.com/history_early.aspshapeimage_4_link_0shapeimage_4_link_1shapeimage_4_link_2shapeimage_4_link_3shapeimage_4_link_4shapeimage_4_link_5shapeimage_4_link_6shapeimage_4_link_7shapeimage_4_link_8shapeimage_4_link_9shapeimage_4_link_10

Chris Conte  |   Gear  |   Band  |   Music