Any love for the .22+ ??

[Scooterjohn]

Anyone have or have used one of these? I was thinking of something fairly low wattage for my daughter...something that would grow with her, 'cause I don't want to be stuck with a SS POS.

Do they work well driving external cabs, and how good are they for the studio (if I want to hijack it for a session)?

Any thoughts on this amp would be helpful.

 

[archtop]

Great little amp, and when I say little I mean only in size, this baby is very loud for 22 watts. One of the biggest complaints people have about this amp is it's lack of channel switching capabilities. There are 2 channels rhythm/lead but both channels share the same gain control so you can't get a good clean sound and thick distortion when switching channels. There is a mod that was posted for adding a seperate gain for the lead channel that helps fix this problem. I am currently having mine modded as we speak for $75 and should have it back by sunday. I have had this amp since 1990 and would never part with it. And this baby can drive a 4x12 cabinet no problem, I have used it live many times without any problems. This unit was really designed for studio use, that's the reason I'm trying the mod, I love the sound of this so much I want to be able to play live with it more.

 

[Scooterjohn]

I read on the manual that it was deliberately made to sound "spongy". Does this mean that the low end is loose too?

Can you wrest a tight chunky sound out of it if need be?

 

[archtop]

It really tightens up when plugged into a 4x12, I replaced the stock power trubes with some JJ EL84's and the speaker with an eminence wizard and it made a huge difference. Check out the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbKD1wTFkCs

 

[igfraso]

You can also swap the original speaker for an C90.

 

[ramalam]

Great little amp, and when I say little I mean only in size, this baby is very loud for 22 watts. One of the biggest complaints people have about this amp is it's lack of channel switching capabilities. There are 2 channels rhythm/lead but both channels share the same gain control so you can't get a good clean sound and thick distortion when switching channels. There is a mod that was posted for adding a seperate gain for the lead channel that helps fix this problem. I am currently having mine modded as we speak for $75 and should have it back by sunday. I have had this amp since 1990 and would never part with it. And this baby can drive a 4x12 cabinet no problem, I have used it live many times without any problems. This unit was really designed for studio use, that's the reason I'm trying the mod, I love the sound of this so much I want to be able to play live with it more.

I agree with all that but though it was designed for studio use originally, things have changed since then. People have gone to smaller and smaller amps and PAs have gotten much better. I think this makes a great gigging amp. I would strongly suggest the mod though. I could always get really great sounds in either clean or drive mode if I tweaked them each time but after many tube changes to try to get a good balance, I could never find a combination that I liked. Too bad I sold mine before I heard about the mod.

I tries several of my favorite speakers in it and and didn't find that any were significantly better than the stock Eminence.

 

[igfraso]

Has anybody here added a cooling fan to the Studio?
Thanks and regards

 

[Scooterjohn]

Great little amp, and when I say little I mean only in size, this baby is very loud for 22 watts. One of the biggest complaints people have about this amp is it's lack of channel switching capabilities. There are 2 channels rhythm/lead but both channels share the same gain control so you can't get a good clean sound and thick distortion when switching channels. There is a mod that was posted for adding a seperate gain for the lead channel that helps fix this problem. I am currently having mine modded as we speak for $75 and should have it back by sunday. I have had this amp since 1990 and would never part with it. And this baby can drive a 4x12 cabinet no problem, I have used it live many times without any problems. This unit was really designed for studio use, that's the reason I'm trying the mod, I love the sound of this so much I want to be able to play live with it more.

I agree with all that but though it was designed for studio use originally, things have changed since then. People have gone to smaller and smaller amps and PAs have gotten much better. I think this makes a great gigging amp. I would strongly suggest the mod though. I could always get really great sounds in either clean or drive mode if I tweaked them each time but after many tube changes to try to get a good balance, I could never find a combination that I liked. Too bad I sold mine before I heard about the mod.

I tries several of my favorite speakers in it and and didn't find that any were significantly better than the stock Eminence.

Who does the mod?

 

[ramalam]

Boogie will do it, any Boogie tech. can do it. I think most any tech. can do it for that matter. I used to have a schematic or the circuit and it looked very simple. I am sure someone here has a copy of it.

 

[archtop]

You might have better luck having a local tech do the mod, everytime I called Mesa/Boogie I kept getting the run around, some people said they never heard of such a mod then you call back the next day and it's a totally differant story. I finally after about 7 phone calls got someone who was willing to help me. lets face it this unit is 20 years old they could care less about doing a mod on it. plus if you can find a local tech you save on shipping and the chance of it getting damaged in transit. If you scroll down this post you will find a schematic for the mod.

http://forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?t=20415

 

[fantasyl]

Hi to all. New member here, I own the studio 22+ since maybe 15 years. I really like it's sound and it drives a 2x12 with ease.
IMHO the mod is not really needed, if you play around with your pickup-effects-guitar volume knob.
You can make the clean channel stay nicely clean and get great heavy distorsion sound at around 12-13 'o clock on the gain, but you have to crank up the amp (its power tubes) a bit...

Keep master output at 12.30-13 ........at this volume the amp is plenty LOUD (I stay at 15-20 feet from the amp and get a balanced scene, but my drummer hasn't what I'd call a light light touch :wink: ).
If you want more gain or heavier sound, then try higher output bridge pickup and or eq-ing. I use a gmajor and have great results with it (it can nicely balance the channel volume), and get the desired amount of distortion while playing with guitar volume knob....