Evans AE100
vze3...@mail.verizon.net
I went to the Long Island Guitar show on Saturday and tried out the
AE100 at the Evans booth. It was tough to check out given the din
around me. But from what I could gather it was a fabulous little amp.
Just what I need ... small ... great sounding. I found the lack of a
notch filter somewhat curious though. Any experiences with this little
guy out there? I"m that close to buying one. Thanks,
Marty
Dan Adler
Make sure you also check out the Polytone mega-brute. That's my choice
for a small amp (guitar + amp + me in the back of a cab, nothing in
the trunk!).
vze3...@mail.verizon.net
reliablility and service, though. What's your opinion?
Marty
Nick Carver
Nick
vze3...@mail.verizon.net
Could be interesting. Why are you selling it? How's it sound? Has Polytone been helpful to
you with your service stuff?
Thanks,
Marty
Lawren Daltroy
Marty, I've been playing an AE100 for about two months now. I've had a
JE120 for 4-5 years. The AE100 (like the JE120) takes a lot of
tinkering, because all the controls are so interactive. However, I'm
discovering how to get the sound I want, which is surprisingly
balanced and powerful. Look up ae100 in the google search and see what
you find (including a few earlier posts of mine). All in all, I'm
pretty happy with it so far, and getting happier (slowly) as I learn
how it reacts to each of my guitars (Heritage Eagle and Epiphone
Sheraton) at different volume levels (living room vs gigging).
Lawren.
EHHackney
Polytone and I are going to part company.
My Polytone started making noise a couple of months ago. (Yeah, it's pretty
old.) I live near Albuquerque, NM, and couldn't get any help locally getting
it fixed. When I called Polytone, long distance on my nickel, they essentially
told me it was my problem. (I have heard from others that Polytone was
difficult to deal with.) I finally found someone in Santa Fe to work on it.
$75 later it was working, and 3 weeks later it was making a different noise. I
had seriously considered a Minibrute V, but for me that means buying it mail
order, and probably having to sell it myself if it doesn't work out.
I love Polytone's power to weight ratio, and like their sound pretty well, but
I HATE hassles. I'm done with them.
Hack
--//--
vze3...@mail.verizon.net
I'll go to google and see what's what. The Harmony Central venue is somewhat helpful.
People are either very positive or negative about their newly acquired toys.
Thanks for the input.
Marty
Dan Adler
> Thanks for the feedback, Dan. I've heard nothing but horror stories about Polytone
> reliablility and service, though. What's your opinion?
>
Marty,
Personally, I have never had a problem. I had an MBII for 15 years and
now a Mega Brute for a few months and never had anything resembling a
problem (knock wood), and you can imagine that riding in the trunk of
a NY cab is not the healthiest environment for an amp... I have never
tried Evans amps though, so I can't compare.
Carey Russ
(velvet-Elvis covered) Polytone about the same size (Mini Brute, I think).
The old Polytone sounded better than a new one, and the Evans sounded better
than both. Cost a lot more, too, but Size and (lack of) weight are what got
my interest, along with sound. When I bought it, I had to carry it between
1/3 and 1/2 mile to my car (Berkeley, CA when Cal students were moving
in...) - don't even think of trying that with a Twin Reverb!
The Evans is remarkably versatile in sound, but takes *a lot* of
experimentation. The controls actually do something.... And for as small as
it is, it has plenty of volume. The "scruff" control adds distortion, I
leave it off. The AE100 is a solid-state amp, and doesn't do a vintage
Fender sound at all. Still, I get classic jazz tones out of it, with an L7
with a suspended Bartolini, and the sweet funky 50's Kenny Burrell sound
from an old Epi with P90s. Great sound, low weight.
Carey Russ
<vze3...@mail.verizon.net> wrote in message
news:3CD67EB0...@mail.verizon.net...
Lawren Daltroy
> I've had an AE100 for a couple of years. Before that, I had an older
> (velvet-Elvis covered) Polytone about the same size (Mini Brute, I think).
> The old Polytone sounded better than a new one, and the Evans sounded better
> than both. Cost a lot more, too, but Size and (lack of) weight are what got
> my interest, along with sound. When I bought it, I had to carry it between
> 1/3 and 1/2 mile to my car (Berkeley, CA when Cal students were moving
> in...) - don't even think of trying that with a Twin Reverb!
>
> The Evans is remarkably versatile in sound, but takes *a lot* of
> experimentation. The controls actually do something.... And for as small as
> it is, it has plenty of volume. The "scruff" control adds distortion, I
> leave it off. The AE100 is a solid-state amp, and doesn't do a vintage
> Fender sound at all. Still, I get classic jazz tones out of it, with an L7
> with a suspended Bartolini, and the sweet funky 50's Kenny Burrell sound
> from an old Epi with P90s. Great sound, low weight.
>
> Carey Russ
Carey,
I've also found that it takes a lot of experimentation to get the
controls riht for the AE100. Can you tell me what are your gigging
settings (for playing reasonably loud)? At this point, I'm using 2-3
bass, 2 scruff, 2-3 reverb, 2-3 treble, depth on, enhance off, preamp
volume 6-7, with an archtop (Heritage Eagle).
Thanks,
Lawren.
LarryV
wrote, with Evans amps you have to expreiment a bit because the controls really
do affect the sound dramatically. I've had mine almost 1.5 yrs with no issues,
and I still love it.