shimmilou
Well-known member
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2013
- Messages
- 162
- Reaction score
- 2
Hi all,
Just joined after getting my new TA-15, and wanted to say that this little amp is awesome. I have played a few MB amps, and have friends that use them, and while they all have great sound, they were never really "my thing"......until I tried the TA-15. This amp has an excellent combination of clean and drive sounds that suit my tastes, and has a simple panel which I appreciate a lot. A friend and Boogie Board forum member recommended this amp awhile back, and I dismissed it because I wanted a small 6L6 head, and thought that the EL84s wouldn't do it for me.....I was wrong, this is perfect for what I wanted. I wanted a small, two-channel amp that had great cleans, and great drive sounds at decent volumes, and this amp delivers in spades. I won't go into my horrible experiences with certain well-known Chinese-made amps, except to say that the TA blows away the "Eglayers" that I owned, and the fact that MB are Made in USA means a lot to me. After much experimenting and knob twisting on the TA-15, I found the two sounds that I wanted/liked most, and the included foot switch allows me to easily switch between the two types of sounds on-the-fly.
For the clean sound, channel 1, 25 watt, normal, volume at about two-o'clock, treble and bass about in the middle, with the master pulled out and fully CW. This gives me a very clean, sparkly sound with lots of harmonic content when using a single coil or hum-bucker bridge pup, and gets nice, warm and rich with some great chirpy sounds when using two pups, especially two hum-buckers together. Very sweet!
For the drive sound, channel 2, 25 watt, H1, Gain about three-o'clock, treble and bass about in the middle, with the master about ten-o'clock. This sounds a lot like a Marshall-type sound, very crisp/crunchy and touch sensitive with killer sustain and great controllable feedback with plenty of gain for terrific hard-rock style. Again, very sweet!
The descriptions were perfect for the five different sounds that this amp can produce. Channel one normal and Top Boost are definitely very Vox-like, and Channel 2 Tweed is very vintage Fender-like, H1 is very Marshall-like, with H2 just like a MB should sound, very chunky and distinctive. Such great versatility is nice and unexpected in such a small and simple amp, and yes it can get very loud using the 25 watt setting, a very surprising amount of volume.
I initially dialed in my tone using an 8-ohm, 1x12, closed-back cab and thought that it was great, I was very satisfied. Then I plugged into a 4-ohm, 2x12, closed-back cab with V30s and was really wowed! I tried several guitars, with various pups, everything from hum-buckers to P90s to single coils, and all sound great, but my favorite was a semi-hollow body with hum-buckers, as the clean sound is beautiful, and the drive sound and feedback on channel 2 was absolutely wonderful and very controllable. I bet that Uncle Ted would be proud.
I can't say enough good about this amp, and so-far I have no serious criticism. I have played this amp for about 24 of the last 48 hrs and still only stop when I have to do normal life stuff. :lol: If you get the chance, definitely put this amp on your "must try" list. I am extremely pleased with my purchase, and would recommend it. Only time will tell about the reliability, but based on the MB reputation, I'm confident that it will be a great amp for years to come.
Just joined after getting my new TA-15, and wanted to say that this little amp is awesome. I have played a few MB amps, and have friends that use them, and while they all have great sound, they were never really "my thing"......until I tried the TA-15. This amp has an excellent combination of clean and drive sounds that suit my tastes, and has a simple panel which I appreciate a lot. A friend and Boogie Board forum member recommended this amp awhile back, and I dismissed it because I wanted a small 6L6 head, and thought that the EL84s wouldn't do it for me.....I was wrong, this is perfect for what I wanted. I wanted a small, two-channel amp that had great cleans, and great drive sounds at decent volumes, and this amp delivers in spades. I won't go into my horrible experiences with certain well-known Chinese-made amps, except to say that the TA blows away the "Eglayers" that I owned, and the fact that MB are Made in USA means a lot to me. After much experimenting and knob twisting on the TA-15, I found the two sounds that I wanted/liked most, and the included foot switch allows me to easily switch between the two types of sounds on-the-fly.
For the clean sound, channel 1, 25 watt, normal, volume at about two-o'clock, treble and bass about in the middle, with the master pulled out and fully CW. This gives me a very clean, sparkly sound with lots of harmonic content when using a single coil or hum-bucker bridge pup, and gets nice, warm and rich with some great chirpy sounds when using two pups, especially two hum-buckers together. Very sweet!
For the drive sound, channel 2, 25 watt, H1, Gain about three-o'clock, treble and bass about in the middle, with the master about ten-o'clock. This sounds a lot like a Marshall-type sound, very crisp/crunchy and touch sensitive with killer sustain and great controllable feedback with plenty of gain for terrific hard-rock style. Again, very sweet!
The descriptions were perfect for the five different sounds that this amp can produce. Channel one normal and Top Boost are definitely very Vox-like, and Channel 2 Tweed is very vintage Fender-like, H1 is very Marshall-like, with H2 just like a MB should sound, very chunky and distinctive. Such great versatility is nice and unexpected in such a small and simple amp, and yes it can get very loud using the 25 watt setting, a very surprising amount of volume.
I initially dialed in my tone using an 8-ohm, 1x12, closed-back cab and thought that it was great, I was very satisfied. Then I plugged into a 4-ohm, 2x12, closed-back cab with V30s and was really wowed! I tried several guitars, with various pups, everything from hum-buckers to P90s to single coils, and all sound great, but my favorite was a semi-hollow body with hum-buckers, as the clean sound is beautiful, and the drive sound and feedback on channel 2 was absolutely wonderful and very controllable. I bet that Uncle Ted would be proud.
I can't say enough good about this amp, and so-far I have no serious criticism. I have played this amp for about 24 of the last 48 hrs and still only stop when I have to do normal life stuff. :lol: If you get the chance, definitely put this amp on your "must try" list. I am extremely pleased with my purchase, and would recommend it. Only time will tell about the reliability, but based on the MB reputation, I'm confident that it will be a great amp for years to come.
