Any thoughts on Egnater amps?

[Worthless Willie]

Share them here.

Just curious.

[Hemisaurus]

Egnater is an anagram of Garnet

[Worthless Willie]

Not enough "e"s.

[Hemisaurus]

Not atall. Buy a Garnet, take the extra E, play your Garnet 

[Worthless Willie]

Oh, you!

But, really, any useful info?   

[Hemisaurus]

Never had one on the bench, I always confuse 'em with Engl anyways.

[Worthless Willie]

I suppose that's a fairly decent sign.  Thanks, Hemi!

[bitter]

To preface, I have never played any US Egnater models, only some of the newer Chinese stuff.

The first amp I played was a tour master stack back when they first came out. I think that model was exclusively made for guitarcenter/musiciansfriend retailers. Could be wrong on that though. The amp didn't sound bad, but had a lot of bells and whistles. 4 channels and some rear panel stuff that I cant recall at the moment. I do remember the amp being fairly boring and most of the channels sounded similar. Would have been better with 2 channel imo, but wasn't fancy overall.

The other amp was a tweak combo [40 watts?]. I demo'd one at a shop when trying out a few fuzz pedals. The employee just set it up clean so I could compare the pedals. I didn't even fuss with the settings but it took pedals pretty well.

The cabs seem alright but there are a lot of cheap cabs out there...

[Hemisaurus]

I suppose that's a fairly decent sign.  Thanks, Hemi!

No, I think it's more that they are too new a brand, and too expensive, for folks I know. Or too non-traditional. If I was going to reliability stamp them, I'd be looking for the usual, no large components, like tubes, mounted on the PCB, no components mounted on the PCB and the chassis at the same time, like pots and jacks.



This is the inside of a Renegade, looks kind of like a Peavey, for $1000 (or $999) I'm not impressed

[clockwork green]

I got to play one of their smaller ampsin a guitar center and I thought it was pretty decent. It had the pot on there that I've always wanted to see. You could blend two different power amps (this one was 6V6 and EL84). Good crunch and clean tones for just a few hundred dollars.

[Baltar]

Bruce Egnater used to teach a class in Royal Oak, MI a few years ago.  For $2100 he teaches you how to build a 100 Watt Plexi point to point.  Then you get to keep the amp.  He stopped offering it.  Basically a boutique guy who sold out to GC.

[bitter]

His earlier stuff [US made], like the TOL series were always regarded as being good quality. Egnater was in the same vain but a less popular modder than say M. Soldano or Lee Jackson. The overseas stuff is... well, to be expected.

[Hemisaurus]

Bruce Egnater used to teach a class in Royal Oak, MI a few years ago.  For $2100 he teaches you how to build a 100 Watt Plexi point to point.  Then you get to keep the amp.  He stopped offering it.  Basically a boutique guy who sold out to GC.

I hope it was a decent kit, you can buy a plexi kit from Weber for $490, and he probably got bulk discount from wherever he sourced his kits. so $1600 markup per student, and they do the work for you, nice

[SpaceTrucker]

^Knowledge is worth alot of money these days, and to teach someone about outdated technology is rare therefore the price. Now, if you were to do the same thing. How could you teach a bunch of guitarists how to build their favorite amp? I think that was why he charged so much.

[Baltar]

I guess Tom Jones' guitar player flew in to take the class.  And there was only 6 open spots.  I never got to see the amp or test it out.  I know that it was better parts than the Asian stuff.

[clockwork green]

I'd take that class if they were high end parts and he'd guide you on tuning/modifying your amp to fit your needs.

[Hemisaurus]

You have to ask, how long was the class, it doesn't take too long to assemble a turretboard wire up a front panel etc. but if you're paying $2100 it's probably a labour of love, and you'll be wanting to spend your time and think about it, not just knock it out in a couple of evenings.

I think Weber, Ceriatone, and probably others all have it laid out for you.



so simple, even Danny G. can do it.

Add in Tom Mitchell's book, or any reputable online guide to modding Marshalls and away you go.

Hang on, Tom Jones has a guitar tech

[Baltar]

I'd take that class if they were high end parts and he'd guide you on tuning/modifying your amp to fit your needs.

That's exactly what it was, he walked you through it and told all the mods you could do to it.

[Necromancer]

I like my little Tweaker head. Gets surprisingly loud for 15 watts through a 4x12.

[Danny G]

Ty Tabor and Dug Pinnick use Egnater tube preamps in their rigs, and Ty plays 2 Egnater V30-loaded full stacks.


Sounds fucking awesome.

[chille01]

Bringing this old thread back to life, rather than posting a new one.  Wondering if the consensus now is the same as it was when last discussed: decent, not great.  Kinda cool tweakable features, but with suspect build quality?  I've been window shopping, and saw one of these models on the local Craigslist:
http://www.egnateramps.com/EgnaterProducts/Renegade/Renegade112/Renegade112.html

Also saw a 5 year old Orange AD140, but I hear Orange ain't what it used to be either?

[Hemisaurus]

Looked at some info on the Tweaker after the recent request in the Amp mod thread. Build quality still looks suspicious, and the tweaker switches are like the dipswitches you can get on a Peavey VTM.





Looks a lot like the Bugera's I've worked on.

[hayseed]

I love the Rebel 20 with the matching cab. The tweeker 15 is cool too. I recommend going and trying out a Rebel....I was really amazed.

[bass sic]

Aside from the tube issue I had last night, I really like my tweaker15. I'm not too thrilled about it being Chinese made or where ever it's from, and I know better than to look under the hood. But it def suits my needs at the moment.

[themusketking]

I didn't like them to start(for no real reason), but I've come to really like them for the price.  I would be more than proud to own a Tweaker 88.  We don't get a lot of them back for repair. Surprisingly well made for being Chinese.