Reviewed by:
Tomaz24, on november 10, 2007
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Purchased from: Local Music Store
Features: Today is a strangely downbeat day for me. Even though a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe arrived this morning and I blew off college just to jam with it all day. It’s probably because I’m saying goodbye to this trust worthy little companion of mine. I may not be selling him but I won’t be getting much usage out of him anymore. Maybe the occasional band practice when our gear is already on location, but it’ll must probably collect dust for several years before some idiot stumbles upon it and hooks it up to their TV in a desperately moronic act, consequently proving that person is a jackass. Moving swiftly on, I figured what better way to bid farewell than writing my impressions of it. Yup a review based on at least three years worth of gigs, licks and jams. This is not one of those annoying reviews from someone who’s literally just opened up the box. Of course you’re going to love it. You’ve just spent lots of money it. You’re wallet will condemn you to a lifetime of hell if you don’t. Lets go through the features of this 50 watt solid state amp. It has two channels, the clean with a three band equalizer and crunch switch, the drive with a four band equalizer with gain and level control. It has a 12 inch speaker, reverb, an FX loop and headphone socket. Around the back there’s a “universal audio input” with level control, quite what the use of this is I’ve never understood. For those of you Who care, the power lead is removable and replicable, I lost mine several times but you can replace it easily preferably with a much longer cable. // 7
Sound: I play a Vintage VRS100 and a Fender Squire Strat VII through this amp, both with stock pickups. I play funk, jazz and ska with my band and a little rock and blues on the side. The clean channel can be very versatile. I did eventually start using pedals but you can definitely nail decent tones for almost any kind of light genre without splashing more cash. The cleans are pleasant and warm until you hit about the ¾ mark in volume, at which point they combust into a ball of flames. This won’t be a problem if you’re looking for a practice amp or even something for small gigs. But if you’re needs go beyond that I’d probably advice you to find something more powerful. I’ve had to push the gain up to contemplate for a lack of volume many a time and it ruins my tone. I’ll have to mention that although the clean channel is overall very good (and I‘m especially impressed at the lack of hum), after sampling many other amps I have no doubts it's tone is what I’d describe a bit damp. Lacking in depth perhaps, very slightly. For a beginner I wouldn’t say it matters. But someone Who’s has experience and is starting to care much more about tone, this might be a discouraging niggle for you. Stupid "Valve Emulation" never quite works unfortuently. And if that was a discouraging niggle, here’s an atomic bomb to the face. For metal heads at least. The Drive channel is horrible. You don’t need to know anything else about this. There’s nothing I can say that’ll make you any better informed. If you need a Drive channel. // 7
Reliability & Durability: This amp has travelled the country with me, during which it’s fallen out of a mini bus, fallen down stairs (although a drummer broke it's fall) and had beer spilt over it on many occasion. It still works flawlessly and I’ve never felt the need to bring backup at all. Can’t fault it at all. We even had to run a bass through it once and there was no speaker damage at all. // 9
Impression: I have to admit, I bought the GLX50 knowing very little about it which was pretty careless of me. However, I don’t think I could have stumbled upon a more versatile or practical amp for beginners at all. It has its faults, most obviously the Drive channel. But for the price it's going for now, it’s excellent value for money, as long as you have a broad musical taste, excluding metal. I paid £250 which was far too much. But I’ve seen it for £125 in a few places which is amazing. So to conclude, this is a decent beginner amp with some decent cleans. It can do home practicing, band practicing and small gigging with no trouble at all. I urge guitarists on a budget to at least check it out. It might not be to you’re taste, but it was a loyal servant to me. // 7
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