Members mctallica1 Posted January 6, 2007 Members Share Posted January 6, 2007 As some of you know, Josh sent me the Mr. Hector he had on a trial basis and I agreed to give a review of it. The amp is a basic 2 channel design with shared EQ. It also has an effects send return and 2 master volumes. From a tone perspective, the amp sounds quite good for high gain and clean applications. I do not think the mid gain tones are very good. High gain tones are Ultra heavy and can get very compressed. There is a mid cut switch that sounds very good in either position (unlike the Framus Cobra, who's mid cut switch is pretty bad IMHO). There is also a bright switch on the gain channel. The bright switch really acts as a NOISY boost. I could do similar boosting with either my Power Screamer or OD808 without the hiss added with the bright switch. The voicing of the amp is somewhat Mesaish, but the mids are focused a tad higher. The clean channel also has a bright switch which does a noce job and the clean channel sounds good with it on or off.... the shared EQ does not cause any problems. There is not a volume for the clean channel, but rather a gain knob. I found it to be pretty useless past about 10 oclock... you start to clip after that and it isnt a nice sounding clip....very digitalish and yuck sounding. I slapped an EQ in the loop and it worked fine... I did not, however try any other effects, I am not an effects loop guy. Going just on tone and features, I think it is a nice amp, but not worth the price they are selling for. Now for build quality: I think the amp is built sub par at best. The jack for the guitar is not mounted very well and can be wiggled quite a bit...I could easily see it getting ripped out if you step on the cord, etc. The power tube sockets are mounted above the chasis and are plastic with 2 screws holding each one in. I pulled a couple power tubes and was actually nervous that the sockets were going to come out!!! I also do not, at all, like the preamp tube layout. they are scattered all over the chasis and other than v1, I am not certain which is which. Another thing I found odd about the preamp tube sockets is that the pin opening on each one faced a different direction. The vast majority of the amps I have messed with have had all the pin openings facing the same direction...which makes it substantially easier to replace preamp tubes without pulling everythng or using a flashlight. The preamp tube sockets apear to be direct mounted on the board (which I normally don't really care about) and 2 of the 4 felt like they would break pretty easily...kinda mushy feeling when I got teh tube seated. The tolex or whatever is covering the head case looks pretty thin and when I flipped the amp over, there was a visible crease (I could see the wood) that was stapled to the bottom of the chasis. All in all, I was VERY disapointed with the build quality of an amp in this price range. Peavey's (which are substantially less expensive in the US) are built quite a bit better IMHO. I spoke with Josh before posting this review because I wanted him to know exactly what I thought. I try to be fair and really don't like bashing a company or product, but I just really don't want to see anyone buy this amp expecting quality commensurate with a piece of gear in this price range. If they straighten out the quality and find a way to sell the amp for several hundred dollars less, it does sound damn good. Needless to say, the amp is on its way back and I would not consider buying one as they are now. Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members guitarman967 Posted January 6, 2007 Members Share Posted January 6, 2007 Josh is certainly the man. What other dealers would do that? Send an amp for there Customers to Demo in exchange for their opinions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mctallica1 Posted January 6, 2007 Author Members Share Posted January 6, 2007 Originally posted by guitarman967 Josh is certainly the man. What other dealers would do that? Send an amp for there Customers to Demo in exchange for their opinions? Josh has my respect in a big way...and not because of this. He is a stand up dealer in every way as far as I am concerned. I will do a lot of business with him;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mctallica1 Posted January 6, 2007 Author Members Share Posted January 6, 2007 One bump for anyone who may be interested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cobrahead1030 Posted January 6, 2007 Members Share Posted January 6, 2007 Originally posted by guitarman967 Josh is certainly the man. What other dealers would do that? Send an amp for there Customers to Demo in exchange for their opinions? +1 especially if he's not expecting anyone to praise the amp just to get him more business Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mctallica1 Posted January 6, 2007 Author Members Share Posted January 6, 2007 Originally posted by cobrahead1030 +1especially if he's not expecting anyone to praise the amp just to get him more business I agree 100%. Every time I talk with him about an amp I have played he REALLY wants to know what I think... the good and the bad. In this particular case, he wanted my feedback (in a public way) to help him decide wether to carry the line and to provide feedback to the company. I don't want to speak wfor Josh, btu he has decided not to carry the line. I tried to be as objective as possible in my review. Sad thing is, I really do like the tone of the amp, but the build quality is not what I woudl be comfortable with. Maybe with feedback like this, they will make some adjustments and come back with a better quality product. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JorisBlack Posted January 6, 2007 Members Share Posted January 6, 2007 wel untill a while ago "Fame" sold Laboga amps under their name (exactly the same amps but with a different logo) for a LOT cheaper... nice review man, have you reviewed your ENGL Blackmore too? If not, could you please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members guitarman967 Posted January 6, 2007 Members Share Posted January 6, 2007 When Josh sent me out a Framus Dragon he told me to write a review and tell it like it is. I wouldn't say I gave it a glowing review but I was as objective as possible and of course my personal tastes came into play. I'm more of a Cobra guy.He was really happy about the review. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JorisBlack Posted January 6, 2007 Members Share Posted January 6, 2007 ^another ENGL Blackmore-owner! How's yours? : Have you reviewed it? Which sounds can you get out of it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members joshsage Posted January 6, 2007 Members Share Posted January 6, 2007 I'm bummed, I loved the tone, but if build quality's not there, I wouldn't want all the folks here and home pissed at me...I am going to drop and recommend changes. If they change and lower the price, I'll deal, until then Laboga is not in my arsenel. BTW didn't something like this go down w/ madison too, seems familiar... Hey DerekB if you are out there chime in and see if the madison deal was similar... I know you were in on them, or so I thought. Oh well, Elmwood is next on my list and I am ordering them next week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members guitarman967 Posted January 6, 2007 Members Share Posted January 6, 2007 Originally posted by joshsage I'm bummed, I loved the tone, but if build quality's not there, I wouldn't want all the folks here and home pissed at me...I am going to drop and recommend changes. If they change and lower the price, I'll deal, until then Laboga is not in my arsenel.BTW didn't something like this go down w/ madison too, seems familiar...Hey DerekB if you are out there chime in and see if the madison deal was similar... I know you were in on them, or so I thought.Oh well, Elmwood is next on my list and I am ordering them next week. Yeah I think you're right expect the Madison thing wasn't as clear cut as this one I assume. I think Madison has some internal issues but by all accounts the build quality looked good externally.I remember it had a hell of a buzz issue that is Similar to the Laboga so maybe that's a sign of some poor wiring or grounding:thu: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LowandLoudx97 Posted January 6, 2007 Members Share Posted January 6, 2007 Interesting, good review man. and another +1 for Josh, he has been nothing short of amazing to deal with! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.