chptunes
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..I've had the Decware SE84G (guitar amplifier) for about 1 year now.. so, I figure it's time to post a review. ..just my $0.02.
First, a little background on me, and my gear.. I am not a professional musician. ..just a regular guy who enjoys playing music, with friends or solo. My guitar (the #1) is a self built “one-off” Esquire type.. I used mahogany wood from USA Custom Guitars and hardware from Bill Callaham Guitars.. with a low-output Lindy Fralin pickup in the bridge position. ..very solid rock 'n roller. The other areas of my signal chain with the #1 and the SE84G is; George L’s Vintage instrument cable, Monster 500 series speaker cable, and a 1x12 cabinet loaded with a Weber 12A150 (8 Ohm).
My interest in the SE84G was due to Decware's emphasis on tone, instead of “bells and whistles”. After being intrigued by this amp for a couple of years, I decided to try it. ..have no doubt, the SE84G is exactly what Decware says it is. 12 watts of pure tone.. all ptp, with no circuit/tag boards. And, it is “bulletproof” in more ways than one. In addition to physical stamina, the SE84G operates gracefully with unmatched output tubes, or with only one output tube installed. And it can drive any speaker load, 16 Ohms and downward.
I only use NOS tubes.. and the SE84G loves them. There are lots of compatible tubes [any “12A” preamp type, any 5-pin rectifier, and any 6bq5/EL84 output type (and even some 6P15P output types)]. Currently, the set of tubes that work best for me is; preamp= 5751 (GE, triple mica), power amp= SV83 x2 (Russian Reflector, sold by Decware), rectifier= 5Y3GT (RCA, black-plate). Yes, the SV83 tubes (6P15P type) are compatible with the SE84G and, to me at least, the output seams to be about the same as EL84’s. I prefer the SV83 tubes because they are faster and tighter.. which results in a more ‘focused’, ‘linear’ sound. I choose a 5Y3GT rectifier because it starves the power tubes a little, so they get ‘dirty’ earlier and more gradually. I think a bigger rectifier like a 5AR4 sounds less ‘warm’ in the SE84G. As for preamp tubes, I’ve tried a wide variety. I just rolled tubes until the SE84G told me which level of gain worked best.. then I selected the least noisy tube that was near that level of gain. A standard 12AX7 was very hot, so it sounded a little too ‘obnoxious’ to me. The 12AU7 was not hot enough, so there was not enough ‘edge’ in the sound. The 5751 works great.
Generally, as with any tube guitar amp that I’ve ever owned, the SE84G sounds ‘warmer’ and ‘fatter’ as the volume goes up.. but, there are a couple of “sweet spots”. For full-tilt rock ‘n roll (with no limits on loudness), I set the volume at 3 o’clock and the tone at 1 o’clock.. this yields plenty of overdrive from the preamp and power amp. The #1 is right-at-home with this setting.. easily reaching early ZZ Top, Led Zeppelin, or even The Black Crowes. If I need to keep the loudness a bit lower, I set the volume at 11 o’clock and the tone at 1 o’clock with the Presence switch engaged.. this tone is mainly ‘clean’, with the potential for ‘dirt’ using a harder pick attack.
I am very happy with the SE84G. It’s my main guitar amp now.. ..by far the most user-friendly, toneful, low noise, and low maintenance tube guitar amp that I’ve ever owned. Unless you need coliseum-level output, I highly recommend the Decware SE84G.
-Corey
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