Diamonds and Rust: April 2010

Friday, April 30, 2010

Blackstar HT Club 40 Amplifier

Equipped with 2 channels and 4 modes the HT Club 40 is the ideal gigging valve amp for club sized venues. The 40W EL34 driven power amplifier has amazing punch and dynamics that will easily cut through in a full band situation. Switching to the amazing ISF equipped overdrive channel accesses a further two modes – ‘classic crunch’ and ‘super saturated lead’.

• 40 Watt valve combo
• 2xECC83, 2xEL34
• Two footswitchable channels
• 12” Celestion speaker
• Enhanced tone controls
• Patent-Applied for Infinite Shape Feature (ISF)
• Clean voice switch

• Overdrive voice switch
• Master volume
• Digital reverb with dark/bright switch
• Speaker emulated output
• Effects loop
• 2-way footswitch included
• Cool vintage styling

http://www.blackstaramps.co.uk/index.html

- street price at all the usual online retailers as of today, April 30, 2010 is $699 - and that's a kick-ass price for a kick-ass product.

Friday, April 23, 2010

gotta love the Muff!

they actually made the Big Muff BETTER!

Bugera reveals Trirec 100W guitar amp

Mesa-Boogie type tones on the cheap? That's Bugera's plan, providing they can get around any legal issues from the guys in Petaluma, CA... Bugera has been ON FIRE with their inexpensive yet killer-sounding amplifiers, after a hiccup with a wire clip shorting out/melting in the first wave of the 333XL product, it was quickly rectified(no pun intended). (I have not heard of this happening with any of their other models, but I could be wrong) People are still howling "not reliable!" despite the problems being 2 years old and long gone... hell, half of those people whining have never even played the amps in question, but simply parrot bullshit they hear/read on online guitar forums. Nearly every verified owner of a Bugera amp I've talked to raves about em. You know how idiots are on teh interwebz...

I don't know what the street price will be on this, but if they can get it down to $699, these things will sell like crack in downtown Las Vegas.

At Musikmesse 2010, Bugera have released news of another boutique style amp, the 100 Watt 3 Channel Trirec head.

The three-channel, 100-Watt Bugera Trirec contains a triple-mode rectifier combined with an onboard Varipower power stage to seamlessly control maxmium output power from 1 to 100 Watts.

Choose solid-state rectification for high-output modern sounds, a valve-based rectifier for lower output vintage tones, or a combination of both.

Each channel features a three-band EQ, Presence, Volume and Gain controls. Channel 1 provides cleans with a drive setting for overdriven tone.

Channels 2 and 3 have three overdrive modes: Classic for rock sounds, Vintage for more gain, and Modern for metal.

The output stage contains 4 x 6L6 valves (convertible to 4 x EL34 valves?not included) whilst five 12AX7 valves power the preamp stage.

A Master Volume knob controls overall output while the Boost knob adjusts the amount of optional volume boost (via the adjoining Boost button or footswitch).

A line out jack with dedicated Level knob sends signal to a slave amp and there are also loudspeaker jacks with switchable impedance (16, 8 or 4 Ohms) making this amplifier compatible with virtually any speaker cabinet.

The Trirec offers intelligent tracking of the onboard Reverb, Boost and FX Loop status for all three channels, plus 6 external switch inputs for remote control and integration to existing setups.

http://www.bugera-amps.com/EN/products/TRIREC.aspx