My take...
Awesome tone and massive amounts of headroom... best cleans you will ever have. Very deep, dimensional and warm.
It has 2 switchable channels per side and the two sides are totally independant of each other in case one fails (it won't fail!!). Use the switching for a bit more grind and a volume boost if you want.
Speaking of volume... I use two quad boxes with mine (yes... this rig is heavy...) and it has such a great volume taper that I can play in my apartment at an acceptable level or crank it up half way and drown out the snare of my bands drummer if I wish to do so :twisted: Let's put it this way... I only use two quad boxes when this beast can run up to eight of them!
Reliable? 200% reliable! Never failed on me since I purchased it in the early 90's... The tubes last forever... mine was last re-tubed in 1999 and they have plenty of life left in them. Of course a re-tube is quite an investment though!
Bottom line... I love mine and will never part with it... the perfect compliment to my Quad pre or my Rocktron Pirahana or even my Behringer v-amp pro. In fact, I have even played a gig using my strategy with just a little TC integrated preamp and the original korg pandoras box... crunchy but it worked ok!
Stephen, buy one if you get the chance as they are a bit hard to come by... and all else will seem small and futile afterwards... haha :mrgreen: It will put life and juice into anything really but make sure to get a case for it with some wheels on it!