a global Reverb knob. Standard Standby and
Power toggles round out the front panel. The
Clean channel’s Thin/Fat is a full-bandwidth tone
control and is highly effective at tailoring just the
right amount of body for various pickup and guitar types. The Voicing control is where the 2040
HG stands out: Positions one, two, and three
offer varying degrees of mid-frequency dips,
while position four engages just the tone control,
and position five completely eliminates the tone
stack. The DynaLink control, which is engaged
with the Channel A/B/DL switch, combines the
A and B channels in series to offer endless gain
and voicing options. Very cool!
DynaLicous!
With all these options, switches, and nonstandard controls, you might think that it could be
tricky to dial in good tones on the 2040 HG.
Not so. In fact, I found it surprisingly intuitive
and was immediately able to pull up a very wide
variety of great sounds. For those who are gun
shy, the amp includes a sample settings sheet
that covers some serious tonal territory. Because
the sample sheet was so helpful, I’ll use the
three sample settings included and go over how
they fared with various guitars.
Setting 1, “Blackface/Plexi/Bluesbreaker,”
goes for a Blackface-like clean on Channel A,
plexi-style grit for B, and Bluesbreaker-inspired
tone on DL. With my Gibson Custom Shop
1958 Les Paul reissue, Channel A sounded
shimmery and clean, with just a hint of breakup. While I wouldn’t exactly call it Fendery,
it was an inspired tone that was easy to play,
with just enough headroom to bark a bit when
you lean into it. Channel B stepped into Bad
Company and AC/DC territory and held its
own very well. There wasn’t a ton of gain, but
as I got more aggressive it gave it up happily
and let my notes sing and scream. The DL
function added harmonic complexity and more
chime, though it sounded slightly darker to my
ears—like a Bluesbreaker. What’s really nice
about the A/B/DL design is that it logically
moves the tone from clean to crunch to lead
while maintaining a single sonic footprint. You
can hear the DNA in the progression.
Setting 2 is labeled “Hot/Clean Crunch/
Dumbleford.” Using my Epiphone Sheraton with
Tom Holmes PAFs, Channel A was much hotter
than I expected, despite the label. It had more
chime and sparkle than setting 1’s Channel-B
plexi setting, and it lit up like a bonfire when I
pushed the dynamics of the guitar. The more
aggressive I got, the bigger the sound got,—and
backing off the volume cleaned up the sound
to a tone Tom Petty would use in a heartbeat.
The Clean Crunch tone was a little darker and
not too gainy, but again it felt comfortable and
familiar. One of the most exciting sounds in the
batch was the Dumbleford, which was beautifully saturated and nearly out of control with
the Epiphone (in a good way). Notes instantly
bloomed into harmonic feedback that I could
control and alter with just a slight movement of
the guitar. I loved this tone, and if it’s anything
close to what people like about Dumbles, it all
makes sense to me. Throughout the tone experiment, I toggled the bright switch to various
settings and found that it swung very wide and
could easily accommodate a variety of pickups.
With the Epiphone, I preferred it in the middle
position, but with a Strat it sounded best either
in the middle or in the darkest position. The
Les Paul seemed to like the brightest setting,
which made sense because its humbucker has
a relatively low output. Another bonus was flipping through the PowerStep switch. Although it
technically reduced the volume, it didn’t seem as
apparent as you might think. It actually changed
the feel and tone more (at least in the half-power
setting). You could tell in the lowest setting that
it didn’t have quite the headroom and that it
wouldn’t project as far as the half- and full-power
settings, but it did let me push the amp a bit farther without going ridiculously loud. That switch
alone added another three tones to the amp.
Using a Hamer Korina Special with two Lollar
P90s, I found that the “Clean and Fat” portion
of Setting 3, “Clean and Fat/Old JCM/Fat, Old
JCM,” was exactly that. I hate the term 3-D, but
that’s just what this tone was: Clear, big, rich,
and expressive. Usually clean tones aren’t my
preference for soloing, but there was something
about this sound that was so evocative that
I couldn’t put down the guitar. It was almost
liquid in feel, and notes just slipped right out of
my hands and through the amp. Beautiful. The
“Old JCM” setting was a low-gain, Marshall-like
tone that did a good job of that in-between
sound that a nonmaster Marshall gets at about
9 o’clock on the volume. This would be a perfect platform for an overdrive pedal because of
the amount of gain and the mid-favored voicing. But of course that’s unnecessary, because
the DL was set for “Fat, Old JCM”—another
winner. It had enough gain to really crank up
the leads but wasn’t so over-the-top that it felt
squashed or overly compressed. I never felt that
the low end was too flubby, but it didn’t have
PRODUCT REVIEW
that uncomfortable stiffness that other amps I’ve
played exhibit when set up this way.
How about that reverb? It held its own nicely and
complemented clean sounds with its full, robust
quality. It tended toward the wet side, so I found
myself setting it conservatively but that’s more
of a preference than a problem. The lack of an
effects loop seemed a little strange until I noticed
that Dynamic offers it—as well as other speakers,
output tube choices, wattages, and footswitch-es—as options. Even so, the 2040 HG takes pedals well, and the Thin/Fat control enabled me to
pull away any woofiness or unwanted thickness
without losing the essence of the original tone.
The Final Mojo
The 2040 HG DynaLead delivers, plain and
simple—everything from great American- and
British-sounding cleans to classic rock tones and
modern, boutique luxury sounds. I can’t think of
another amp that can cover such a wide range.
And I’ve only scratched the surface of the 2040
HG’s capabilities. I threw just about every guitar
possible at it, and was always pleased with the
results. Being able to switch between three different sounds that all feel congruous was a real
treat. If you can’t dial in an inspiring sound with
this many options, it may be time to look for a
new career or hobby.
Rating:
you’re looking for one amp to
deliver many amps’ worth of
killer tones.
Buy If...
Skip If...
you like tradition and aren’t one to
try new things.
Dynamic Music Technologies
MSRP $2370
dynamicamps.com
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