Tried a Rebel 20 today...

[tunghaichuan***]

...at Guitar Center.

It's a nice looking little head, 20 watts and has two sets of power tubes, two EL84s and two 6V6s. There is a control on the front that pans between the two sets, called Tube Mix.

There is also a wattage control that goes from 1 watt to 20 watts. It has a master, a gain, and a three band EQ. On the back there are three speaker outs, 4, 8, and 16 ohm and an FX loop.

In clean mode, the amp has a nice sparkly clean sound. Very spanky and lots of tube warmth. To me the amp sounded much better with a single coil equipped guitar than one with humbuckers.

The OD sound was very good as well. With the gain all the way up and the master at about 2-3, the amp sounded fat and squawky even with single coils. The amp did sound much better with humbuckers in the OD mode than with single coils.

Alson on the front panel were two small switches labled Bright and Tight, which seemed to do nothing either in clean or OD when used with a humbucker equiped guitar. When using a single coil equiped guitar, the Bright switch did make the amp a little brighter, but not shrill or piercing.

I did have some reservations about the amp though. The master control is kind of touchy. I goes from no sound to way too much volume and it was kind of scratchy. The Watt control was kind of scratchy as well. Not acceptable in a brand new amp. In fact, this amp is about a week old. I was at GC last week at this time and it was not there.

It may just be me, but $600 +tax seems to be a lot to ask for a Chinese-made amp. I think that the Egnater badge on the front contributes to the cost.

Still, it is very versatile and sounds very good. And it is packed with features.

tung

[cobalt]

I like the watt selector option. Pricey though.

[oldguy]

Thanks for the review, Tung. Your assessment sounds well thought out and fair. My Traynor YCV-40 volume control has always went from "not much" to "a lot" on the dial....never scratchy or noisy, though. It's built in Canada,...........better quality, IMO. Chinese quality is iffy, I think. The Super Champ XD I bought seems solid. The ver. 2 Valve Jr. head I have is holding up well. I'm thinking Egnater may make some changes on this model after they see how well the initial offering does........the Epiphone So-Cal head I have seems cheaply built, but has also held up fine, but from what I gather they've quit making them.

[tunghaichuan***]

I like the watt selector option. Pricey though.

At the low volumes I was playing, I couldn't really tell a difference between 1 watt and 20 watts. It might make a difference if the amp were to be gigged; the 20 watt setting would give you more clean headroom. However, I doubt that the Rebel wil do loud and clean. What struck me was how loud one watt is.

The amp seems pricey to me, being made in China and all. However if the amp were made in the States, it would easily be double in price.

If it were hand-wired it would be at least $2K

tung

[tunghaichuan***]

I didn't have a lot of time to play it, maybe 20 minutes tops. For a real assessment, I would have to buy it and play the heck out of it for a few weeks. I wish I could have cranked it to see how it sounded l loud. I tried the amp through the matchin 1x12" cab and it sounded a little boxy to me even though the cab is fairly decently sized for a 1x12." Come to think of it, the 1x12" cab and head were sitting on a 2x12" Egnater cab, should have tried that out. :

Chinese quality control is kind of sketchy. They make some nice stuff, but every once in a while a real lemon slips through. If I were to buy one of these, I'd want to try a new one out of an unopened box. I'd also want to buy it from a place with a no-hassle return or replacement policy.

If Egnater can get the quality control up to snuff, this will be a killer little amp. I think I'm going to wait a while if I decide to get one. Time will tell if these prove to be reliable or not.

tung

Thanks for the review, Tung. Your assessment sounds well thought out and fair. My Traynor YCV-40 volume control has always went from "not much" to "a lot" on the dial....never scratchy or noisy, though. It's built in Canada,...........better quality, IMO. Chinese quality is iffy, I think. The Super Champ XD I bought seems solid. The ver. 2 Valve Jr. head I have is holding up well. I'm thinking Egnater may make some changes on this model after they see how well the initial offering does........the Epiphone So-Cal head I have seems cheaply built, but has also held up fine, but from what I gather they've quit making them.

[duhvoodooman***]

Guess I'm going to have to make a pilgrimage to my local GC and check one out. Man, I dread going in that place....

[Algonquin]

Man, I dread going in that place....

Sure you do DVM, sure you do!

[duhvoodooman***]

Sure you do DVM, sure you do!

Well, sure, I love the hardware! It's the sales guys and the morons playing death metal licks at 125dB that put me off....

[oldguy]

Well, sure, I love the hardware! It's the sales guys and the morons playing death metal licks at 125dB that put me off....

I know.......same at Musician's Friend in K.C.

[Algonquin]

I've made the same mistake by going over to L&M's when High School lets out... not where you want to be.

At least the sales staff at this shop tend to leave you alone though, and I appreciated that.