FUCHS Amps.........

[King Cobra]

You all ever try any of his stuff? I've heard some say they are the next best thing to a dumble...........and I've heard others say its all hype. The sound clips I heard were cool...........but anybody can make a sound clip sound cool. The amp I'm interested in is an Overdrive Supreme 30. DR. Z makes some great stuff as well for a heck of alot cheaper. But in my life if theres anything I've learned its.........you get what you pay for. All thoughts and experiences are appriciated........thanks..........

[tom]

as good as or the next best thing, are hard terms. good for me may not be good for you. i've heard good stuff abou them, but have not played them. best to try yourself. i sold my dumble a year ago. it was a great sound, but way louder than i could use. there are lots of great amps out there, but they have lots of different applications too. what are you looking for?

[Stys]

For the price, the MESA Lonestar Special is a cool amp. But then if you need a lot of volume, try the Lonestar. I recently played through a Guytron that had much to offer. Expensive but the head with the Guytron 2x12 had great tone. I used my Swamp Ash Classic w/m's and every tone I dialed in sounded wonderful.

There's also Top Hat....isn't Fuchs the amp Kenny Wayne Sheppard used on his latest album?

[PaulS]

I had a ODS 30 watt combo for about 6 months...nice amp and did somethings very well. I eventually sold it as it felt just a bit too sterile for my tastes. Probably could have swapped out the speaker. I found I could get a nice clean or a nice OD but never could get both at the same time....I think that's why the triple channel one has been developed and released.

Traded mine for a Victoria Tweed Deluxe which is very warm. Just a nice simple amp but in some cases needed a little more tonal control. Still have it and added a Bogner Metro just recently. Has to be the nicest clean/vintagey amp I've ever played......added OD comes from a Stephensen Stage Hog amp-in-a-pedal. Not a Dumble sound but not meant to be.

[GaryMcT]

For the price, the MESA Lonestar Special is a cool amp. But then if you need a lot of volume, try the Lonestar. I recently played through a Guytron that had much to offer. Expensive but the head with the Guytron 2x12 had great tone. I used my Swamp Ash Classic w/m's and every tone I dialed in sounded wonderful.

There's also Top Hat....isn't Fuchs the amp Kenny Wayne Sheppard used on his latest album?

I have no experience with the Guytrons, but the cool thing with them is that there is an extra poweramp stage to get poweramp distortion at low volumes.

[pluto]

I played a 30 watt ODS head through a Dr Z cab about a year ago. I only played the overdrive channel. Initially, they don't sound a thing like any Dr Z amp (6545, Maz 18 Jr., Rt. 66 and Mazerati) that I've played so even though Dr Z is cheaper, they're not comparable amps. As far as what the ODS sounds like- I've never played a dumble, so I can't say it sounds like that. The OD channel has a real sweet singing high to it with very thick and smooth mids and it has surprisingly to me, a lot of gain on tap. Very nice sound for leads. But, it doesn't get crunchy like a Marshall though. I thought it was a good amp, but it just wasn't my cup of tea, not to mention that it was pretty expensive. I've played two two-rock amps (a emerald pro and some other model that I can't recall off hand) that are similar in tone to the fuchs and also somewhat similar in price with the two rocks being a little bit more expensive. I liked the two rocks better-they sounded fuller and even sweeter to me.

[ShaunzNoiz]

IT is the best amp I have ever played! But you have to work with it.

I bought my ODS 50/100 head sight unseen. I played a few in a couple of stores, and they sounded fairly decent. I kept reading about the internal trim pots that dramatically alter the amp, so I figured I could tweek it.

When I got the amp, I was competely bummed. Great clean, but the overdrive was weak. I thought about getting rid of it after two days. Then, I decided to contact Andy Fuchs about the amp, and he told me to play with the internal trim pots. I did. It is now the amp that I judge all others by. I love the amp so much that I sold my Matchless Chieftain 112, my Matchless Clubman 35 head, my Carr Imperial and my Carr Rambler. All within the last few months.

A friend of mine came to a gig I was doing about a week after I got the amp. He heard the amp in the club, and two weeks later he bought one. Got it home, and he couldn't stand it. I went by his house on a friday evening, took his amp apart, and set the internal pots the way mine were set. He was blown away! I've never played a Fuchs amp that has done it for me straight out of the box, but once I get the internal pots where I like them, I wouldn't trade it for the world.

At the first of the year, I'll be mailing my Deluxe Reverb Reissue to Andy to have it convertrd to one of his amps.

To all you guys that responded to this, did you try any internal pot adjustments? For me, they make or break the amp.

Just my two cents!

[pluto]

IT is the best amp I have ever played! But you have to work with it.

I bought my ODS 50/100 head sight unseen. I played a few in a couple of stores, and they sounded fairly decent. I kept reading about the internal trim pots that dramatically alter the amp, so I figured I could tweek it.

When I got the amp, I was competely bummed. Great clean, but the overdrive was weak. I thought about getting rid of it after two days. Then, I decided to contact Andy Fuchs about the amp, and he told me to play with the internal trim pots. I did. It is now the amp that I judge all others by. I love the amp so much that I sold my Matchless Chieftain 112, my Matchless Clubman 35 head, my Carr Imperial and my Carr Rambler. All within the last few months.

A friend of mine came to a gig I was doing about a week after I got the amp. He heard the amp in the club, and two weeks later he bought one. Got it home, and he couldn't stand it. I went by his house on a friday evening, took his amp apart, and set the internal pots the way mine were set. He was blown away! I've never played a Fuchs amp that has done it for me straight out of the box, but once I get the internal pots where I like them, I wouldn't trade it for the world.

At the first of the year, I'll be mailing my Deluxe Reverb Reissue to Andy to have it convertrd to one of his amps.

To all you guys that responded to this, did you try any internal pot adjustments? For me, they make or break the amp.

Just my two cents!

I didn't even know it had internal adjustments-I just demoed it at the store.

[ShaunzNoiz]

Yeah. Three internal trim pots that you adjust with a small screwdriver. One for High Overdrive, one for Low Overdrive, and the last one is for the overall level of overdrive comming from the first drive stage. The higher the overall level is adjusted, the more overdrive you get, but it has a detrimental effect on the first gain stage, or should I say, the clean channel. Once you get these things dialed in to your likeing, I'm sure you would love the amp. It is a bit of a pain to take the head out of the chassis, but if you can handle this, I think you'd love this thing. I think Andy Fuchs would easily sell five times the amps that he does if he would make these adjustments higher. The trim pots basically go from about 2 o'clock to 10 o'clock. I believe Andy Fuchs told me that he sets them halfway when they leave the factory, but the two amps that I have opened up were all screwy. Of course, they both were used. I have all three post on mine set to about 7 o'clock, and I can't get the gain on mine past halfway on my strat, because there is so much of it available now. Unfortunately, I think you would have to purchase the amp to use this feature.

[pluto]

Yeah. Three internal trim pots that you adjust with a small screwdriver. One for High Overdrive, one for Low Overdrive, and the last one is for the overall level of overdrive comming from the first drive stage. The higher the overall level is adjusted, the more overdrive you get, but it has a detrimental effect on the first gain stage, or should I say, the clean channel. Once you get these things dialed in to your likeing, I'm sure you would love the amp. It is a bit of a pain to take the head out of the chassis, but if you can handle this, I think you'd love this thing. I think Andy Fuchs would easily sell five times the amps that he does if he would make these adjustments higher. The trim pots basically go from about 2 o'clock to 10 o'clock. I believe Andy Fuchs told me that he sets them halfway when they leave the factory, but the two amps that I have opened up were all screwy. Of course, they both were used. I have all three post on mine set to about 7 o'clock, and I can't get the gain on mine past halfway on my strat, because there is so much of it available now. Unfortunately, I think you would have to purchase the amp to use this feature.

thanks for the info-the dealer didn't mention anything about the trims pots, so I didn't know about them. I'm curious as to whether you compared the fuchs to any of the two rocks dum**e clones and if so, what you thought since they are supposedly similar.

[ShaunzNoiz]

No Pluto, I didn't. The Two-Rock stuff does sound great, so I would try them both. I think some of the Two-Rock stuff also has internal pots that you can adjust, but I'm not sure.

[ShaunzNoiz]

thanks for the info-the dealer didn't mention anything about the trims pots, so I didn't know about them. I'm curious as to whether you compared the fuchs to any of the two rocks dum**e clones and if so, what you thought since they are supposedly similar.


Also, I didn't know about the pots either until I read some of the user comments on Harmony Central, and all of the guys were saying that you really need to work the pots inside the amp to get what you need from the amp. Check the reviews out!