PRODUCT REVIEW
FUCHS
Clean Machine 150
BY ADAM HUNT
Fuchs Audio Technology may be on the
verge of becoming the next “must have”
amp company. Andy Fuchs has stated that
his early amps were based on preexisting
designs (such as Dumbles and Trainwrecks),
but the new Clean Machine is the first amp
he has designed from the ground up—and he
had several concepts he wanted to explore.
First, he wanted to design an amp that was
based on 6550 tubes, because of their great
low end, wonderful articulation and the musical quality of their midrange. Second, taking
what he had learned from the well-regarded
Tripledrive Supreme and Overdrive Supreme
models, Fuchs wanted a platform to explore
his love of reverb units. Last but not least,
he wanted to design an amp for people who
were overdrive pedal du jour players.
Hey, What Do You Say
The Clean Machine’s look is all business. While
custom Tolex is available for a $125 charge, my
sample came wrapped neatly in a 20″x12″x10″
black and white formal suit. Hidden underneath its classy exterior were four fan-cooled
6550 power tubes, three 12AX7 tubes (input
preamp, FX loop and pre-driver) and a 6FQ7
power tube cathode follower/driver tube,
a couple of massive transformers, and an
Accutronics 6 spring reverb unit.
A quick glance at the 150-Watt version of the
Clean Machine control panel reveals a few
surprises. While some of the amp’s controls
are self-explanatory, such as the 3-band tone
stack and the Dwell and Level settings for the
reverb unit, others, such as the EQ-1/EQ- 2
switch, the two reverb “Tone” knobs, and
“Accent” knob, deserve a little more attention. To further enhance the player’s control,
each of the EQ knobs has a push/pull option.
The EQ-1/EQ- 2 option enables the player to
change the voicing of the amp with the flick
of a switch. In the EQ- 1 position, the regular
tone stack settings are used; activating the
EQ- 2 setting produces a midrange boost and
an increase in gain.
Fuchs says that he’s treated the reverb unit
as if it were an off-board effect being run
through an effects loop, so the first “Tone”
knob affects the signal input, while the second “Tone” affects the output. Last, the
