I tried one in a shop and it sounded quite nice, but indeed it was very noisy, so I didn't buy it. It was dirt cheap, but unusable due to the noise. Had Epiphone spent a little bit more on it, it might actually have been a nice little amp.
altonKeene, NH✭✭2000 Dell'Arte Long Scale Anouman, Gadjo Modele Francais, Gitane DG-330 John Jorgensen Tuxedo
Posts: 109
Would a better matched set of tubes cure the hum? I have a Winfield amp that I bought years ago and i had it shipped without tubes (the seller had NOS US-made tubes and wanted several hundred dollars more for those, and I just didn't need those, as I bought the amp for gigging). I bought tubes from a local guitar shop and man, did it have a bad hum. I was surprised because the amp was handmade point-to-point with quality parts on the inside. A friend of mine who is an amp collector suggested buying tubes from a place that specializes in tubes, as the sets would be better matched. I bought a set from TubeDepot, and it worked. The hum quieted down.
I imagine that a company like epiphone pumps out a bunch of amps and will cut corners wherever they can, tubes included. The price on those amps is nice, and they do look awesome. Maybe with a little tweaking, they can be something special.
I've seen the amp taken apart and the quality of the chassis and components is excellent. The hum, which appears to vary from amp to amp, is caused by the proximity of two wires to another component and can be reduced or stopped by carefully moving them away from it.
Comments
I imagine that a company like epiphone pumps out a bunch of amps and will cut corners wherever they can, tubes included. The price on those amps is nice, and they do look awesome. Maybe with a little tweaking, they can be something special.