160 PREMIER GUITAR NOVEMBER 2009 www.premierguitar.com
beaucoup de headroom and a true high-fidelity
platform. You just aren’t going to overdrive
anything here (more on that later). Additional
cool features for the singer/guitarist are the
feedback-controlling notch filter and a high-pass
filter that are selectable on each channel. Some
high-end instrument pickups utilize a small mic
inside the guitar as well as a piezo or magnetic
element—easy to accommodate with the Ten2.
Alternatively, use an external mic along with your
built-in piezo. The Ten2 is ready for that, too.
Onboard effects are yet another set of bullets
in the gunbelt of this singing cowboy. Although
only one effect can be selected at a time, they
may be routed to one or both channels or, of
course, neither. In addition, each channel has
its own Effect Level control. If you need more,
don’t forget there’s a blendable effects loop on
each channel, too. I found the onboards to be
very sweet in their preset format, though I must
admit I had trouble finding a use for the flanger.
An additional, and rather unique, function adding to an already versatile platform is the Ten2’s
“Channel 2” switch. In the off position, this little
button disconnects the output of the channel
2 preamp from the combo’s power amp, yet it
retains its output at the Effect Send jack. You
can then connect this output to an outboard
power amp to create a true stereo mode.
For example, place a powered PA speaker on
a stand and run voice on channel 2 to put your
voice up and above the crowd, with full control
from the preamp. Another way is to Y-cord the
two preamp inputs together and put a delay in
line with the output of the send to the input jack
of a second guitar amp, which creates a huge
sonic stage panorama for your instrument. And
there are many more variations on this theme,
limited only by your imagination and equipment.
Earlier, I mentioned this is not really an amp
for use on rock and blues gigs. While true
for the amp by itself, you can put the Ten2
to this task. Take an A/B/Y box and input the
same instrument to both channels. Then use
the Ten2’s Channel 2 switch to separate the
two channels, sending channel 2 to overdrive
a blues amp. I tried this re-amp feature with
my SF Champ, Tweed Deluxe, and Boogie
. 22. In each trial I was able to produce tone
and volume that integrated seamlessly with
the “rhythm” channel 1 sound, and yet
delivered a very sweet tube crunch merely
by switching channels. The amount of over-
drive is controlled by the channel 2 preamp
Volume, and the overall volume of the blues
machine is controlled by its Gain control.
I then switched to the “Y” input mode and
used the two amps together. I gave this
arrangement a couple of tweaks, turning
off the Ten2’s tweeter and dialing down the
highs. Everything seemed in phase and created a composite sound with strong, tight
lows and sweet, crunchy mids and highs.
Okay, time to get back to the sound
of the amp itself.
For this segment, I called on a few friends with
nice instrument setups and better voices than
mine, although I did put my two cents worth
in for a few tracks. First, we tried acoustic
guitar with a piezo pickup. The sound was luscious with tight, authoritative lows and clear,
sweet highs. The mids were musical without a
hint of nasality. We then added vox to channel 2 and, once again, after a bit of feedback
notching for the small studio room, the sound
was authoritative yet as neutral as the RE 20
dynamic mic we were using.
Next came dobro in C tuning. The highs
again were sweet without the stridency sometimes associated with a metal slide. The low
C string growled with Rottweiler-like authority and Muhammad Ali punch. Removing the
’verb added a bit more to this gut-rattling
attack. We then plugged in an electric guitar.
Using the bridge humbucker produced some
superbly clean “chicken pickin’” with all the
snap and pluck you might want—no feather
left on that bird! Jazz sounds came next, and
what a treat that was. Turning off the tweeter
and rounding the sound a bit made for a Joe
Pass-like tone to die for. Turning the tweeter
back on and playing some tight interval
chord-melodies really brought out each inter-
val, along with the total harmonic structure of
each chord. (Did I mention that Pat Martino
uses AI amps?)
While you can use the Ten2 in straight-ahead
plug ‘n’play, placing all of its features, power
and dynamic range requires some knowledge
of signal routing and levels. It is possible to
harm the amp, making this more of a pro-audio product than most guitar amps. But all
this versatility and tonal nirvana—combined
with a five-year warranty and AI’s legendary
customer service—make it very difficult to
find any fault whatsoever with the Ten2.
A Bassist’s Perspective
By Dan Berkowitz
I first tried the Ten2 with my trusty G&L
L-2500 five-string bass. The result? A solid
bottom end that easily hung in, clear down
to the low B. The Ten2 doesn’t have the zing
of a typical amp designed strictly for electric bass, but its focus, warmth and lack of
boominess create a pleasant bass sound that
will fit a lot of your small gig settings. I also
tried the Ten2 with a fretless bass—the bottom was once again solid, with the focus of
its notes beautifully defined.
I then gave the Ten2 a try with my Azola
BugBass electric upright, a beefy axe with a
fat bottom end that has challenged many a
little amp and walked away laughing. As you
might expect, at a blues trio rehearsal the
Ten2 provided a pillow of bottom end from
its down-firing speaker, while the forward-facing speaker did a great job of maintaining
presence. At a small wine bar gig with this
group, I kept the controls nearly flat and
turned down the Room Coupling Control a
notch. The extremely quick and focused low
end got through the mix on the merits of its
clean note definition—instead of pushing the
mids—keeping the sound smooth and round.
In one last go-round, I plugged the
Revolution Solo piezo pickup on my old
American Standard upright into the Ten2, and
that’s where the high-pass filter and notch
filter proved valuable. The variable frequency
high-pass (aka “low cut”) filter was great for
taming the low end and eliminating those
sub-range frequencies that make a speaker
cone flop around. The notch filter, in contrast,
zeroes in on a narrow frequency band and
cuts out instrument resonance that produces
feedback on one or two notes. In all, I got
a nicely detailed sound with a well-defined,
natural-sounding bottom end.
Ten2 Combo
