Twisteramp Poweramp-Quick Review

[fritzreiser]

I got it back from Pete on Friday and finally had a chance to plug in today. Here is a link to a thread with a picture in it: Twisteramp

I have only plugged into it as a guitar amp. I haven't hooked it up to my Mesa Quad yet......And I may never get that far because the amp is just stunning on its own!

I plugged in a Wolfgang USA Standard first with the preamp volume, poweramp volume and soak/attenuator in the 12:00 postion. Very organic light overdrive with a Marshall JTM45 feel to it. Cranking up the preamp volume gave a very nice overdrive that I couldn't really describe. Kinda Marshally, but darker and lower mid heavy. Jacking up the Poweramp Volume all the way and cranking off the soak turned into a beautiful Marshall/Almost Bogner overdrive that was alot richer than I would have thought possible from 1 EL-34. The volume at full out with no soak was alot lower than I expected, which is great because I wanted to be able to burn some tubes up in my basement w/o pissing off wife/kids/cat/neighbors.

Leaving the settings full up, I plugged in my Stryper Rhoads and the amp sounded quite a bit hotter due to the Duncan Distortion. Still not into Splawn territory, but very nice pushed Marshall.

I had planned to do more with the amp this weekend, but the only power cord that I had for it was the one for the Engl E570 that I just sold and had to pack up. Thus, no power cord for the Twisteramp until I pick one up at a music store.

Pete's build quality is amazing. [img]/images/graemlins/notworthy.gif[/img] No hum, crackles, pops or anything. Just tone. When I asked Pete to build this, I had intended on getting only a low watt poweramp to power my Quad. It was Pete's idea to install the preamp stage. [img]/images/graemlins/toast.gif[/img]

I can't wait to try it out as a poweramp only, and then also as a guitar amp with the Twisteramps modded Boss SD-1 that I have.

I'll try to get Subvamp over here to play it. He's a KILLER player and can give you a lot better write-up than I can.

No need to look at amps like the Zvex Nano when you can get a great amp from Pete.

More to come.........

[Twisteramps]

Re: Twisteramp Poweramp-Quick Review

Fritz, glad you like it, and thanks for your patience. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] One thing you may want to try when using it as a poweramp, is to use the front guitar input jack, and dial it in to taste. The second poweramp input jack on the back bypasses one gain stage, and it has quite a bit less volume than the front. When I made the poweramp input louder, it threw off the tone from the front input in my opinion. I got some great tones just by using the front panel input and keeping the preamp gain to taste.

Another fun trick is to run the volume flat out, pre gain around 1/4 to 1/2, and regulate the volume via the built in power soak. This way you get 'real' power tube overdrive, which is a lot looser than most people expect. It's fun for solos, and also reacts well when you hit it with a boost pedal.

Thanks again for the kind words! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Pete

[fritzreiser]

Re: Twisteramp Poweramp-Quick Review

One thing that I failed to mention is what a nice clean this amp has. Not Fendery clean, but very early Marshall clean. Very sweet.

Almost as nice as the Budda Superdrive that I played this past weekend. I liked that one so much that I just bought a Superdrive 30 combo. What a great amp. It won't do metal, but it will come close. I'll be curious to see how close to metal that I can get with the modded SD-1.

[dinkyjacksonman]

Re: Twisteramp Poweramp-Quick Review

So will this power amp work as an amp(to plug in directly) and also only with a distortion pedal(use it as preamp)?

[fritzreiser]

Re: Twisteramp Poweramp-Quick Review

Hey Toru,

It works extremely well as a small head and will also work well has a poweramp with just a pedal into it. My guess is that this is going to sound much better with an overdrive pedal as opposed to a distortion pedal. I could be wrong though. I don't have any distortion pedals, so I won't be able to compare. I am going to buy the Soldano Pedal, but I don't know if that is a distortion or overdrive pedal.

Pete, question for ya. Can I put in any poweramp tube in it? Specifically a KT-88?

[Twisteramps]

Re: Twisteramp Poweramp-Quick Review

Fritz - the transformers on that amp are beefy as hell - you can run a KT88, 5881, 6L6, EL34, 6V6, 6K6, etc. with no problems. You won't get a huge volume boost with the KT88 though, since the amount of current to drive a KT88 to full potential would fry the 6V6 and other tubes. However, it will work and sound good - you just won't get the full volume that you would if the plate voltage was high like a KT88 likes. On the other end of the spectrum, a 6V6 will give you the most saturation of the power section.

Pete