Modeling amp: Rocktron Taboo Twin
Greg D
Twin. Sporting twin 12" 75W Eminence speakers, 100WRMS, loads of
effects, MIDI hookups, and PA hookups, the amp listed at $1,700.
In 1998 or so, the TT handily won Guitar Player's showdown against the
ART RulesBreaker and the PV Transfex Pro.
By 2001, the TT was gone, replaced with the much cheaper
Rampage/Replitone line of amps. I suppose Rocktron felt like they priced
themselves out of the market.
In all the hoopla of modeling/digital amps, does anyone out there in AGA
land own a Taboo Twin? Do you use it professionally? Gig with it? What
do you think about it? What MIDI pedal did you choose and does it have
an expression pedal attached?
I know the TT has only a single 12AX7 and is not a vintage tube amp, but
at gig levels with a full band and processed tone, it's hard to
differentiate between a good sounding amp and a vintage Fender tube amp
anyways.
Thanks,
Greg
Kevin Morrison
have a knee jerk reaction to 'schmengulators' of any sort, whether on the
floor, in a rack or posing as an amp.
That said, I was coerced just last week by the owner of my very local indy
used shop to plug into a Taboo Twin that was on consignment. I had brought
my newly purchased RI Gretsch Double Anniversary for show and tell so this
is what we used.
He likes 'real' amps, as do I. He was raving on and on about this thing....
how it was really dynamic and easy to program on the fly. I absolutely
hated it. It suffers from the same flaws all of these amps do... it's
incredibly noisy, especially on cleaner patches. It's very un-dynamic.
Hard or soft playing in = about the same thing out. It excelled at heavier
tones and did a passable JCM 800 Cult Crunch with all fx disabled and a bit
of eq tweaking. That tone would get lost in a band quickly as it had no
real nuts, though. It had plenty of cartoony shred patches with endless,
ping pong delay. Honestly, I heard the same thing out of this amp that I
heard out of the first generation 198X era Digitech shit.... GSP Legend and
all of that rot. Bad A/D conversion, shitty digital algorithms, poor
dynamics, awful noise specs and lame noise gates built in to hopefully hide
all of this.
It was fairly easy to program on the fly. It looked like a big subwoofer
assembly you'd see in a kid's tricked out Ghetto Civic. It could be bought
for less than 1/4 it's original list price. It will not be repairable in a
couple of years, if that long, I would guess.
So there you have it. I said up front I dont like these type amps but I
give them a fair shot to impress every time I bump into them, which is when
curiosity gets the better of me every 5 years or so.
I'll try again in 2007, or so.
good luck
Kevin Morrison
Greg D wrote in message <3CF5A95B...@cox.net>...
PvO
Peter
( also curious about that stuff but stills get a hell of a kick out of
analog boxes and good old tube amps)
"Kevin Morrison" <ultr...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1MpJ8.62119$Bo3.5...@e3500-atl2.usenetserver.com...
Greg D
Thanks for your reply. You certainly were honest and I do appreciate
that.
I plan to review this amp as well and will be looking at the following
criteria:
1. naked (no FX) clean tone
2. naked (no FX) OD tone
3. processed tone (chorus/delay/etc)
4. ease of programming
5. effectiveness of EQ controls
6. direct out sound vs amp sound (for recording or PA use)
7. low volume tone vs high volume tone
8. quality of jazz tone
9. quality of blues tone (clean and overdriven)
10. quality of rock tone (clean and overdriven)
11. feasability of using a flattop with the amp
In the digital/modeling arena, I have owned and/or played a Yamaha
DG80-112, Fender CyberTwin, Behringer multi-FX amps, Fender's
Princeton Chorus DSP (great little amp even if it is SS), Fender's
Ultimate Chorus DSP, Fender's Acoustasonic Pro and a few others that I
can't recall right this second.
Granted most of those amps are not programmable like the DG80 or Twin
Taboo, but they share like capabilities, though some I liked and some
I didn't.
Thanks again,
Greg
Miles O'Neal
|That said, I was coerced just last week by the owner of my very local indy
Which shop is that?
Miles O'Neal
|I plan to review this amp as well and will be looking at the following
|criteria:
|
TMI
Kevin Morrison
Guitars'. We're both in Tucker, about 2 miles out of Atlanta city limits
and about 5 miles from Decatur.
The owner is a guy called Kerry Marchman. He does great repair work and his
shop specializes in used gear.... some vintage, some late model. Always a
good selection of inexpensive player grade gear, some nice vintage pieces,
plenty of amps, an acoustic room and a very relaxed, classy vibe. Great
guy, great little store. I bring him as much business as I possibly can.
Kevin
Miles O'Neal wrote in message
Kevin Morrison
where a schmengulator amp/rack/floor unit does anything in a more pleasing
fashion than a traditional amp. Period. Granted, I'm not usually looking
for a cathedral reverb setting with 20 seconds of decay or stereo panning
1000 ms delays that pitch shift down to 'SATAN!' range with each repeat. I
like the tone, feel and vibe of classic guitars into classic amps....
sometimes with classic effects. I'm no luddite but a stock Deluxe Reverb
or a 50 watt 4 input Marshall half stack are about the pinnacle of amp
technology ,as far as I'm concerned.
good luck with your search...
Kevin
Greg D wrote in message <293e6062.02053...@posting.google.com>...