$180 smarvo amp
- Thread starter nitrovo
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Mobius
New member
The shop u mention that is opposite davis, is actually a branch of ranking sports, which carries the smarvo amps. Smarvo amps are supposedly made in the same factories as marshall, but it is not affliated to marshall. Tried the amp before, the cleans are pretty decent but the od/dist are not to my liking.
jeremyrozario
New member
Mobius said:
for me 50watts is still not loud enough...
haha hey watts isnt even proportionate to loudness! To put things into perspective, my yamaha ga10 7 watter on volume 5 is around the same as volume 3 on the smarvo. 40 watts is only slightly louder but sounds much better because of the 12" speaker cone, more power for an especially nice bass as well as overall sound..
i have it at home (HDB), no problems at volumes 3-5 actually. The distortion gain knob is super sensitive, just move up 1 unit like from gain 1 to 2 and there's a big jump in volume. 1.5-2 is the max my hdb flat can take thank you very much =D
the distortion channel sounds good to me actually, since i use it as an overdrive solely, can obtain a relatively fat and interesting singing tones for melodic rock by eqing the presence and shape on neck humbucker and reducing tone knob on guitar for an airy open feeling.. for punk rock/full out distortion i think it just isnt saturated enough.. cant get the right-in-ur-face blast
on clean, there's where it shines. very crisp and balanced sound - very full. i use digital efx for distortion on this channel thru my korg 1500.. however i'm mostly just guitar to amp now becoz the korg tends to deaden the clean somehow..
overall realli great value for money ^^ great clean tone for a 40 watter solid state amp in this price range, all this just in my honest opinion of course =)
i have it at home (HDB), no problems at volumes 3-5 actually. The distortion gain knob is super sensitive, just move up 1 unit like from gain 1 to 2 and there's a big jump in volume. 1.5-2 is the max my hdb flat can take thank you very much =D
the distortion channel sounds good to me actually, since i use it as an overdrive solely, can obtain a relatively fat and interesting singing tones for melodic rock by eqing the presence and shape on neck humbucker and reducing tone knob on guitar for an airy open feeling.. for punk rock/full out distortion i think it just isnt saturated enough.. cant get the right-in-ur-face blast
on clean, there's where it shines. very crisp and balanced sound - very full. i use digital efx for distortion on this channel thru my korg 1500.. however i'm mostly just guitar to amp now becoz the korg tends to deaden the clean somehow..
overall realli great value for money ^^ great clean tone for a 40 watter solid state amp in this price range, all this just in my honest opinion of course =)
Hey mikemann has a mod for the overdrive channel and seriously it sounds better. What he did was to switch the frequency range of the mid control higher so that it sounds more marshally, it sounds much better than the onboard overdrive which is thin and harsh and unusable to me. Get it from mikemann with the mod and see whether you can get discount 
Pier.
Pier.
gargamelesp
New member
i always thought fender was famed for its clean sounds and marshall for its rock distortion. My marshall rig does ok in cleans, but rules for rock.
Tubes do not contribute to the cleaness or dirtyness of the tone. They vary with the amps construction. Line6 is tubeless and yet can get very dirty. Roland amps are predominantly solid state, yet they have fabulous cleans. Different amp manufacturers are famed for different kinds of tones, so your best bet would be to see what kind of tone you are after, then look for the particular brand.
Tubes do not contribute to the cleaness or dirtyness of the tone. They vary with the amps construction. Line6 is tubeless and yet can get very dirty. Roland amps are predominantly solid state, yet they have fabulous cleans. Different amp manufacturers are famed for different kinds of tones, so your best bet would be to see what kind of tone you are after, then look for the particular brand.
pl, look at this video. His clean sound is what im after..
also alot of you say the Od ont he smarvo sucks, i've got a pedal so would it matter to me that the od sucks?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=h5nAVjkctdM&search=happy jam
also alot of you say the Od ont he smarvo sucks, i've got a pedal so would it matter to me that the od sucks?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=h5nAVjkctdM&search=happy jam
First thing abt volume, a 30 watt solid state amp is no where half as loud a full tube 30 watt combo, tube amps are loud. Even a 15 watt tube amp cranked is very very loud if your playing in your room.
IMO nothign beats the tone of a proper tube combo, alot of ppl say thie emulator of modeler sounds fantastic blah blah yes a lot of the new modelers sound very good but go play a proper tube amp you will hear the differnece between a modeler and tube amp, not to mention if u have a chance to crank a tube amp tru a 4 x12 stack.. oooo now that is fun.
Of course the above is just my opinion. Try not to flame me. Thank you 8)
IMO nothign beats the tone of a proper tube combo, alot of ppl say thie emulator of modeler sounds fantastic blah blah yes a lot of the new modelers sound very good but go play a proper tube amp you will hear the differnece between a modeler and tube amp, not to mention if u have a chance to crank a tube amp tru a 4 x12 stack.. oooo now that is fun.
Of course the above is just my opinion. Try not to flame me. Thank you 8)
The smarvo amp is a gem I tell you. It's damn cheap and damn good. It's really clean, it isn't that kind of tube amp clean where you boost it and it breaks up, it doesn't break up at all. It's good for use with amp modelers, multi-efx, etc, and it's LOUD.
http://s4.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2SR9VHNDUC0C11KDE3FXH6LMQM
Here's a little something I cooked up. Doesn't sound too good on the recording tho cos my mic up isn't good :?
http://s4.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2SR9VHNDUC0C11KDE3FXH6LMQM
Here's a little something I cooked up. Doesn't sound too good on the recording tho cos my mic up isn't good :?
sanXp said:
i concur!
i personally own a smarvo, and love the cleans available from her. especially with some of the inbuilt chorus and reverb thrown in. she doesn't sound shabby at all with pedals supplying the distortion/overdrive, personally i've never liked the OD channels. but if you're into pedals, then it won't be a problem.
