New FREE Amp Day!
ESchap just gave me this which he was clearing out - for nothing - OK it's not a vintage Marshall, but it's quite brilliant in its own way
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The mighty Leem GA-610D - a whole 10W of raw transistor power through a 6" speaker.
Just needed a pot/jack clean and the back panel supports gluing since they'd split - the screws weren't pre-drilled at the factory, tut tut.
It sounds *great* for what it is - a practice amp which cost about £40 new I think. Surprisingly for such a small thing, it's hugely bassy - even to the point I have to turn it down below full, which is highly unusual for me with small amps - and very loose-sounding, it's easy to make the speaker flap if you want to. The EQ is extremely powerful - especially the Middle, which is actually a backwards 'contour' type control, it's scooped at 10 rather than middy - and it's as easy (or more so) to get dreadful sounds as good ones, but if you persevere it's possible to dial it in to sound genuinely good, especially clean but if you're careful even with the Drive switch engaged. It's not enormously loud but plenty to annoy your family… you might even get away with it for a coffee-house type gig with very quiet drums.
I haven't tried the headphone jack because I value my hearing
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This is actually the second Leem I have - there's also the even more mighty 100W Pro Multiple Amplifier which is a sort of acoustic/keyboard/PA-in-a-box type thing and which has given me a huge amount of valuable use over the years, at everything from radio sessions to childrens' parties...
So if Mr. Leem is reading this - I'd be happy to endorse your products
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"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Comments
Get some clips up - I know you play great!
How much does it weigh?
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"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
My YouTube Channel
But don't get excited - it wouldn't be any good for you. It's probably not quite loud enough, and when it breaks up through running out of clean headroom it doesn't sound all that good. It's also microscopically fussy about settings - literally a millimetre of turn on one knob is enough to take it in or out of the 'sweet spot', all the controls are extremely interactive, and it needs re-adjusting for different sounds. A lot of solid-state amps are like this, which I think is a big part of why players don't get on with them like they do with valve amps - they just don't respond naturally in the same simple and intuitive way.
I just like the challenge of making 'junk' amps like this sound good, and it's nice to find one which does .
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
And ... now I'm a valve convert lol....
My YouTube Channel
I like that a lot - does it sound any good? Reverb too!
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
My YouTube Channel
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
And while neatly getting around being sued by Mesa, opening themselves up to the Doobie Brothers possibly .
I've never seen one, dead or alive, but I will file that away with all the other retentive-memory stuff I have just in case!
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
It was Leo Fender, not Leem Fender.
;-)
LEo fEnder (with an extra M to throw people off the scent)
how easy is it to kill them though?
when turned up it sounds a lot like the speaker is going to rip itself to shreds. Is it in danger of doing so?
what'll likely give up first if I push it: the amp, or the speaker?
Start with the settings in the picture above - those are pretty much the points where the EQ knobs have the greatest effect for the smallest movement, so you can finely balance it… which you need to, it's very easy to go from tolerable to diabolical . (The settings may not be exact, since pot variance could make a big difference.)
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
My YouTube Channel