CICOGNANI
Brutus Live and 2x12 DP Cab
pos-sible, while the middle position (W?)
it brightened up and began showing some
teeth. All the way to the right it brought a
crispy fried bacon tone to the foreground,
which could best be described as “Sizzlean!”
Over time, I found myself drawn back to the
left position for that dark/bright combo with
the Les Paul. Switching the sound switch
(clean/crunch/sexy) to the clean setting and
bringing the volume up to full opened up a
whole range of cleans that went from dark
and buttery to swampy and thin, depending
on the guitar plugged in. I spent a good deal
of time here chewing on the variety and really
enjoying the amp’s ability to meld nicely to
the accompanying guitar. The last setting on
Channel 1 was the “sexy” setting. Switching
over, I noticed a volume drop from the crunch
setting which was a bit unexpected, considering where it was placed in the throw of
the switch. However, this setting is meant to
have a more compressed tone suitable for
singing sustain without overly saturating the
tone. The “sexy” tone isn’t necessarily what
I’d call sexy, but it does in fact do what it set
out to accomplish. It was clear that the sound
became more compressed and extended out
the decay of notes to allow for longer-held
lines with a rounder front-end attack. Butter?
No. Margarine? Perhaps!
During the time I spent playing through the
amp, it became clear to me that this amp
really loves single coil pickups on Channel 2.
With a 2008 Fender Strat plugged in there
was more than enough saturation and sustain
in the “Lead 1” position to stand up to most
amps in the high gain category. Again, the
tone of the Strat really came through and the
Brutus highlighted the beauty and sweetness
of the single coils, offering a snap and swirl
that can only be appreciated by playing this
amp live. Switching over to “Lead 2” stepped
things up considerably and offered a thickening and slight buzziness to the sound that
reminded me of a higher gain setting on a
Mesa Dual Rectifier. Channel 2 is much more
aggressive and tends to erase some of the
personality of the guitar due to the higher
gain settings, which is a tradeoff that may
or may not appeal to some players. It just
depends on what your purpose is with the
amp. The fact that you have Channel 2 as an
option to footswitch over to is more than a
bonus, considering Channel 1 has options that
rival most two-channel amps in the first place.
Overall, the Brutus delivers a very wide range
of tones from beautiful cleans to aggressive
distortion. The width of coverage from the
three tone knobs yielded much more control over the voice shaping than any vintage
Marshall or Fender could boast, while still
being usable in just about every setting,
depending on the guitar. The bonus of having mini-switches to change the voicing of
each of the channels really adds a lot of versatility to the sound as well. One thing that
came back no matter what guitar I played
through it was the tightness in the feel of the
amp. This is not an amp with a lot of sag to
it, which limited me to playing a little more
on the safe side than I’d like.
That said, I checked out Donato Begotti’s
MySpace page ( myspace.com/donatobe-gotti), and if he is using the Brutus, which
it sounds like to me, he is clearly more than
able to pull off masterful chops regardless
of the type of feel this amp has. Cicognani
has certainly put together a unique and
very usable amp setup with the Brutus Live
head and 2× 12 cab. In any studio or live
situation it will deliver a cool new color to
your tonal palate.
Buy If...
You want a portable yet powerful
and unique sounding amp perfect
for recording or live use.
Skip If...
You like a lot of sag
in your lead tone.
Rating...
4.0
ONTHEWeb
Head online to read more about
the Cicognani Brutus Live and
2x12 DP Cab and hear sound
samples of the amp in action at
premierguitar.com
Cicognani Head: Street $1699
Cabinet: Street $524.99
cicognaniamps.com
