You`ve read right folks. This is the famous predecessor of the LC 15R which have been reviewed before. I hope to complement the previous review on this sleeper, and also shed some light on how to unleash its true potential. BTW, the picture on the LC 15R review is actually a LC 15.
FEATURES
It`s a 15 watt amp (DUH!), equipped with 3 chinese 12AX7 valves (2 for the pre-amp, 1 for the phase splitter), and a pair of Sovtek EL84 in the power section (which make this amp on a different league than most Fenders and Marshalls). Furthermore this amp is `Class A`. This means that the EL84 pair is working all the time instead of being idle when you`re not playing. Tone wise, they are believed to have a lot more harmonic complexities than the more common `Class A/B` amps. But, class A amps are less efficient than the class A/B, which explains the low power rating, and why they run hotter.
The particular unit I`m reviewing is apparently an old model, which has a 1x10” HH Invader speaker, in contrast with a Celestion the previous reviewer has. Unfortunately, unlike the LC 15R there is no jack between the amp and the speaker, so it has to be modified if you want hook it up to a 4x12 cab. No impedance selector either.
This amp has a single channel, meaning you don`t get to switch between two different sound, which is typically clean and overdrive. This is somewhat uncomfortable, but there are other ways to do it.
The controls are gain, bright switch, bass, middle, treble, volume, and power switch. The pots are sensitive; meaning small changes in position will affect the sound greatly. Inputs are hi and lo. There is no standby switch. Just in case you don`t know, this switch is used to prevent `cathode stripping`, in which the electrons are forced to fly from a cold cathode. Hence, the tubes won`t last very long. To avoid this, after turning on the power switch, keep the volume at 0 for at least 30 seconds.
There is neither effects loop nor reverb, which I think would be a waste anyway. Why you might ask. Time based effects (delay, chorus, flanger, etc.) need clean amplification to sound best (clear and not mushy). Clean amplification means lots of headroom, which translates to high wattage. High wattage is what this amp doesn`t have. And for you tube snobs, on the LC 15R the reverb driver and effects loop driver is solid state, not tube.
So why buy a low watt tube amp at all, which is inefficient, runs hot, and makes time based effects sound mushy?
SOUND QUALITY
Yup, it`s the sound. The idea of having a low wattage amp is so that you can have the power amp tubes clipping without having to annoy the studio owner with an obnoxiously loud volume. If you don`t know already, turning the volume to 10 is the `Clapton-Hendrix-Van Halen` way to make an old 100 watt Marshall plexi sound good.
Before we get into the overdriven sound, an amp is judged first by its clean sound. To get clean sounds from single channel amps, you have to turn the (pre-amp) gain down. Due to the small wattage this amp has, although warm and smooth, the clean sound lacks punch and shimmer a more powerful amp has. It has a different flavor than a fender clean, more in the line of Vox actually. Still, it`s good and usable. The bright switch may come in handy if you need more sparkle. If you want a punchier clean sound, buy a more powerful cleaner amp; at least 30 watts. Tube amp emulators like SansAmp pedals won`t work very well with this amp also, because the tube nature of the amp would make the sound over compressed. Then again, SansAmp aren`t made to be used with tube amps. Regular overdrive would work well though.
As for the overdrive, most guitarists would intuitively turn the gain to 10 to get maximum overdrive with any volume level. Unfortunately this doesn`t work. Past 12 o`clock, what you`ll get is a lot of mush and undefined sound which to me is unusable. I suspect low quality pre-amp tubes and speakers have something to do with it. I don`t have any JJ ECC83S or Electro Harmonix 12AX7EH (which are the best current production pre-amp tubes) lying around so I can`t tell you how a tube upgrade would affect the sound. Fret not. There is another way.
BOOST IT! Use an overdrive pedal, but use it as a volume boost. I used the Tech 21 XXL, but you can use anything from the overrated Ibanez Tubescreamer to Boss SD-1. Set the gain on the amp to about 3-4, which is the highest it`ll get without clipping. Set the tone control to taste, and set the volume to at least 5. Turn the drive on the pedal to minimum, and turn the level higher than unity, until you get the amount of drive you need.
When overdriven the EL84 tends to emphasize the higher frequency. The trick to control this high frequency buzz comes in four parts. First, use the pedal`s tone control by setting it to lower frequency. Second, use the gain to control the `high` mid or `lower` top end which characterizes the aggressiveness of your sound. Remember that the gain is sensitive; 2 to 4 is a big jump. Third, use the treble on the amp to control the `upper` top end. Lastly, adjust the mid and bass to your taste.
This is tube overdrive at its best. The volume is absolutely perfect for a rehearsal. The sound you`ll get this way is similar to an old school Marshall crunch. The bottom is a bit loose, which is what vintage amp is usually like. A speaker upgrade would fix this. What would be surprising is that you`ll actually have to `play` the amp, instead of just `using` it, because it is touch sensitive and will react to your playing. Use this to your advantage and you`ll be rewarded with soulful and expressive notes, which is what music is really all about. What`s more, you can use your guitar volume control to control the amount of drive you have. In other words, you won`t need two channel amp anymore.
Lastly, the tone control circuitry is of the cathode follower type, which is very interactive. How to use this bizarre passive tone control anyway? Use it in this order: gain > treble > middle > bass. In the pre-amp, gain is the most powerful tone shaping control. The higher it gets, the more it`ll emphasize the higher frequency. But like I said, past 12 o`clock it`ll just get mushy. If you`re using a booster, keep it around 2-3. The treble is next. If you turn it to zero, you`ll notice that the volume will jump up, but then the middle and bass controls won`t be as effective as before. I think the sweetest spot is around 2-4. The bass control isn`t controlling the typical thump you`d expect from a Mesa amp, but more of a low-mid, which typifies the British sound. But hooking this to a 4x12 cab would definitely rock the floors.
Again, if you have the patience and money, it`s good to invest in better speaker and tubes.
RELIABILITY
As good the sound may be, this amp has shortcomings. This amp uses PCB and the tube sockets are directly placed on the PCB. This is not so good, because being a hot running amp, the heat is transferred directly to the PCB. The fact that the tube is upside down only aggravate the heat problem even more. I guess this is what you`ll get for a relatively low priced amp. I never have any problems, but adding a fan would be very smart, especially if you plan to `play` it for a prolonged period.
CONCLUSION
At first glance, most people would think this amp as a simple-bedside-practice amp. But by knowing how to properly use it you would get a beast that roars. The fact that it`s simple shouldn`t fool you, as the SOUND is what really matters. The low price tag is simply a nice bonus. I won`t give it a perfect score because of the shortcomings I mentioned though. Good luck on your tone quest!!
FEATURES
It`s a 15 watt amp (DUH!), equipped with 3 chinese 12AX7 valves (2 for the pre-amp, 1 for the phase splitter), and a pair of Sovtek EL84 in the power section (which make this amp on a different league than most Fenders and Marshalls). Furthermore this amp is `Class A`. This means that the EL84 pair is working all the time instead of being idle when you`re not playing. Tone wise, they are believed to have a lot more harmonic complexities than the more common `Class A/B` amps. But, class A amps are less efficient than the class A/B, which explains the low power rating, and why they run hotter.
The particular unit I`m reviewing is apparently an old model, which has a 1x10” HH Invader speaker, in contrast with a Celestion the previous reviewer has. Unfortunately, unlike the LC 15R there is no jack between the amp and the speaker, so it has to be modified if you want hook it up to a 4x12 cab. No impedance selector either.
This amp has a single channel, meaning you don`t get to switch between two different sound, which is typically clean and overdrive. This is somewhat uncomfortable, but there are other ways to do it.
The controls are gain, bright switch, bass, middle, treble, volume, and power switch. The pots are sensitive; meaning small changes in position will affect the sound greatly. Inputs are hi and lo. There is no standby switch. Just in case you don`t know, this switch is used to prevent `cathode stripping`, in which the electrons are forced to fly from a cold cathode. Hence, the tubes won`t last very long. To avoid this, after turning on the power switch, keep the volume at 0 for at least 30 seconds.
There is neither effects loop nor reverb, which I think would be a waste anyway. Why you might ask. Time based effects (delay, chorus, flanger, etc.) need clean amplification to sound best (clear and not mushy). Clean amplification means lots of headroom, which translates to high wattage. High wattage is what this amp doesn`t have. And for you tube snobs, on the LC 15R the reverb driver and effects loop driver is solid state, not tube.
So why buy a low watt tube amp at all, which is inefficient, runs hot, and makes time based effects sound mushy?
SOUND QUALITY
Yup, it`s the sound. The idea of having a low wattage amp is so that you can have the power amp tubes clipping without having to annoy the studio owner with an obnoxiously loud volume. If you don`t know already, turning the volume to 10 is the `Clapton-Hendrix-Van Halen` way to make an old 100 watt Marshall plexi sound good.
Before we get into the overdriven sound, an amp is judged first by its clean sound. To get clean sounds from single channel amps, you have to turn the (pre-amp) gain down. Due to the small wattage this amp has, although warm and smooth, the clean sound lacks punch and shimmer a more powerful amp has. It has a different flavor than a fender clean, more in the line of Vox actually. Still, it`s good and usable. The bright switch may come in handy if you need more sparkle. If you want a punchier clean sound, buy a more powerful cleaner amp; at least 30 watts. Tube amp emulators like SansAmp pedals won`t work very well with this amp also, because the tube nature of the amp would make the sound over compressed. Then again, SansAmp aren`t made to be used with tube amps. Regular overdrive would work well though.
As for the overdrive, most guitarists would intuitively turn the gain to 10 to get maximum overdrive with any volume level. Unfortunately this doesn`t work. Past 12 o`clock, what you`ll get is a lot of mush and undefined sound which to me is unusable. I suspect low quality pre-amp tubes and speakers have something to do with it. I don`t have any JJ ECC83S or Electro Harmonix 12AX7EH (which are the best current production pre-amp tubes) lying around so I can`t tell you how a tube upgrade would affect the sound. Fret not. There is another way.
BOOST IT! Use an overdrive pedal, but use it as a volume boost. I used the Tech 21 XXL, but you can use anything from the overrated Ibanez Tubescreamer to Boss SD-1. Set the gain on the amp to about 3-4, which is the highest it`ll get without clipping. Set the tone control to taste, and set the volume to at least 5. Turn the drive on the pedal to minimum, and turn the level higher than unity, until you get the amount of drive you need.
When overdriven the EL84 tends to emphasize the higher frequency. The trick to control this high frequency buzz comes in four parts. First, use the pedal`s tone control by setting it to lower frequency. Second, use the gain to control the `high` mid or `lower` top end which characterizes the aggressiveness of your sound. Remember that the gain is sensitive; 2 to 4 is a big jump. Third, use the treble on the amp to control the `upper` top end. Lastly, adjust the mid and bass to your taste.
This is tube overdrive at its best. The volume is absolutely perfect for a rehearsal. The sound you`ll get this way is similar to an old school Marshall crunch. The bottom is a bit loose, which is what vintage amp is usually like. A speaker upgrade would fix this. What would be surprising is that you`ll actually have to `play` the amp, instead of just `using` it, because it is touch sensitive and will react to your playing. Use this to your advantage and you`ll be rewarded with soulful and expressive notes, which is what music is really all about. What`s more, you can use your guitar volume control to control the amount of drive you have. In other words, you won`t need two channel amp anymore.
Lastly, the tone control circuitry is of the cathode follower type, which is very interactive. How to use this bizarre passive tone control anyway? Use it in this order: gain > treble > middle > bass. In the pre-amp, gain is the most powerful tone shaping control. The higher it gets, the more it`ll emphasize the higher frequency. But like I said, past 12 o`clock it`ll just get mushy. If you`re using a booster, keep it around 2-3. The treble is next. If you turn it to zero, you`ll notice that the volume will jump up, but then the middle and bass controls won`t be as effective as before. I think the sweetest spot is around 2-4. The bass control isn`t controlling the typical thump you`d expect from a Mesa amp, but more of a low-mid, which typifies the British sound. But hooking this to a 4x12 cab would definitely rock the floors.
Again, if you have the patience and money, it`s good to invest in better speaker and tubes.
RELIABILITY
As good the sound may be, this amp has shortcomings. This amp uses PCB and the tube sockets are directly placed on the PCB. This is not so good, because being a hot running amp, the heat is transferred directly to the PCB. The fact that the tube is upside down only aggravate the heat problem even more. I guess this is what you`ll get for a relatively low priced amp. I never have any problems, but adding a fan would be very smart, especially if you plan to `play` it for a prolonged period.
CONCLUSION
At first glance, most people would think this amp as a simple-bedside-practice amp. But by knowing how to properly use it you would get a beast that roars. The fact that it`s simple shouldn`t fool you, as the SOUND is what really matters. The low price tag is simply a nice bonus. I won`t give it a perfect score because of the shortcomings I mentioned though. Good luck on your tone quest!!
