highs that brought out the twangy tendencies of the Tele’s bridge pickup for country
fingerpicking. The Tight/Deep switch yielded
some of my favorite tones from the amp,
keeping me in a Chet Atkins-inspired thrall
of smooth, lead work with soft, but present,
moving basslines over the top.
Kicked in the Teeth Again
Egnater amps are known for their copious
amounts of overdrive, and the Tweaker- 88
is no exception. The amp’s Lead channel has
loads of gain on hand. But because of the
open and clean nature of the KT88-fueled
power section, the overdrive tones rarely got
congested—which I found to be an issue
with the Tweaker and Tweaker- 40 amps at
extremely high-gain settings.
With a Les Paul in the chain, the
Tweaker- 88’s Lead channel stayed firm and
solid in the low end and maintained a crisp,
high end no matter how much I pum-
meled the strings. And the fierce-sounding,
midrange grind I first heard in Egnater’s
Tourmaster and Renegade amps ripped
through a Marshall JCM800 4x12 without
harshness. Egnater could have voiced the
highs and mids to have more of a razor-
sharp, modern bite, but in passing over that
temptation, Egnater gives the amp a very
balanced personality—even with the master
volume’s voicing switch set to Modern. As
a result, I was able to hear every note in a
fat, Malcom Young-esque open chord, while
individual notes sang with body and richness.
The Verdict
Egnater’s new multi-faceted powerhouse
is an anomaly in the Tweaker line. It certainly doesn’t fall under the small wattage,
bedroom-amp category, nor was it built
with low-volume recording as a top priority.
Its super-clean power amp creates a more
honest representation of the preamp’s tone
and does a great job of preserving a guitar’s
character, rather than exuding the raunchy and rude attitude of its little brothers.
If you love the tone of Egnater’s punchy,
small-watt workhorses and crave the power
needed to project that tone across a club or
barroom floor, you simply cannot pass up
trying this amp out.
Rating:
Buy If...
you’ve loved the thick, smooth tones
of the Tweaker amps, but have
always wanted more power.
Skip If...
you need onboard effects like reverb.
Egnater
Amplification
Street $899
egnateramps.com
or use a mobile device to watch
a video review of the amp at
CLICKHere…
premierguitar.com/dec2011
