Leaderboard

Thanks for all the input, I am looking into making a sticker, I got a line on someone who may be able to cut it out of vinyl maybe. The neck was built from scratch, I mean blocks of wood by Gene Liberty (www.guitarfix.com) Here is what it looked like when I got it.

This amp is outstanding. I’ve had it for a couple of weeks now and gigged with it once. As usual with MB amps, well built and sounds great right out of the box. Easy to dial in, and unlike many MB’s with 1,000 knobs- this one is old school simple. A couple of ‘nice to have’ features- presence control and variable wattage - but other than that it is a pretty straightforward equation. Set the gain between 9-12 and you get a wonderful clean, warm but sweet 6v6 sound, really nice. Bottom end is tight enough and stays in tact (not flabby or distorted) even with the master volume cranked. Can be nice and twang-snappy with the right settings. Raise the gain and it turns creamy. Not harsh or brittle around the edges, just good old 6v6 soul. Pick attack can also generate very controllable breakup. Very player friendly.Definitely different from my MB Fillmore 50. Stays cleaner longer, sweeter tone. The Fillmore is darker and a more complex sound like a 50’s Deluxe. Truly a lot to love about the Fillmore 50 too. The California Tweed is sweeter and more ‘sing’ and sustain than the Fillmore. Very musical. Kind of like a 60’s Deluxe Reverb with more headroom. I have the 40 watt version, so that makes sense, but I did demo the 20 watt version which is similar just not as loud. The 20 watt version was amazing for its size. So portable and full sounding for that little combo in a box. Way better than a PRRI at the same size (maybe smaller). I was kind of shocked at how good that little guy sounded. I opted for the 40 watt model for more headroom, but the 20 is plenty good and loud, especially for its compact size and weight. Fillmore is Amazing at low-moderate volume, and gorgeous breakup louder, but I play 95% clean, so the California Tweed is getting more play these days. Suits my live gigs better. Cali-Tweed is 6lbs heavier but still only 30lbs (head only) and very portable. The Fillmore transformer is pretty light and minimal so I’m guessing that the iron required to keep the Cali-Tweed 4x 6v6 output clean accounts for the extra weight. The vari-watt function is terrific. Sounds full even at 2 watts. I don’t know how they pulled that off. Way better than other vari-watt functions I’ve played in the past. I’ll try to do some A/B sound clips Cali-tweed vs. Fillmore over the holiday weekend. Happy 4th of July to all. Regardless of your politics, we have a lot to be thankful for in this country.

Four wire pickups allow the toggle switch to take you from the standard output, single coil, and out of phase. This vintage sunburst example does this with two SD P- Rails. The advantage of these pickups is that when you split the coils, the open coil can be the hotter one, like a P-90. Standard humbuckers split weakly. Also, you can select the weaker coil, which gives more of a Fender single coil sound.