Egnater Rebel 20

[Mr. Air]

So I went to my local guitar shop today and the frist thing that caught my eye was an egnater rebel 20 head. Since I first heard about the Egnater rebel and renegade I've always wanted to try one out so I took a ride with this one through a dr. Z 1x12 cab (don't know which one or which speaker).

I have to say that it's a nice little amp with the ability to play very loud! I'm quite sensitive when it comes to volume so it might just be me who's a bit of a sissy and others might not find the rebel as loud as i did. To get cleans I had to run the amp at it's full 20W or else it was too low, but when I cranked up the gain to get some distorted sounds going I had to bump it down to almost 1W or my ears would have started bleeding.

I think the rebel is able to handle small club gigs, but not if you're going for a clean basic sound. You'd have to crank it up and use your volume to cleaqn up the tone for cleanish parts. The amp reacted quite well when the volume was rolled back, but I noticed that the tone tended to get a bit blurred or blunt (not muddy) on some settings. I don't know if this is a general thing with the amp or it was caused by the pickups. I was playing a Tokai LP which I think was a MIJ model. Actually a quite nice guitar. I didn't try the amp with other guitars (doh!).

One thing I like about the amp is the possibility of going from 6v6's to el84's. That gives you a great variety of tones and to my supprise I realized that I was more into the el84s than the 6v6s. So I guess a learnt something today  :)

Anybody else who have had encounters with the rebel 20? I would like to hear some oppinions. Or some oppinions on the rebel 30 or renegade model

[38thBeatle]

I saw the review in Guitarist and I thought it looked interesting.

[MrBump]

Not tried the Rebel, but as some of you will know I'm the proud owner of a spanking new Renegade head!!!

I'm still getting used to it, but have gigged and rehearsed with it a few times.  Awesome.  Awesome cleans, Awsome break up on the clean channel, awesome drive channel.

I keep mine switched to 18 watts - waaaay loud.  Not a great deal of difference in volume really though between that and the 60 watt side.  And I LOVE the EL34/6V6 control! 

Yeah.  I'm a fan.  Like I said, never played the Rebel.  But I'm willing to bet it's just as awesome!

Awesome!!!

[Philly Q]

I've said before that I love the look of these Egnater amps, and they seem just about simple enough for me to get my head round.  I'll probably never actually try one though.

[FELINEGUITARS]

Welcome to the Egnater family !
I actually haven't tried the Rebel 20, 30 or Renegade but am a fully signed up user of the Modular system and love it to death.

I read that the Rebel 20 sounds a bit like the SL and SL2 modules - with more variation courtesy of the valve mix

[shagga]

The Rebel 20 is an awesome little amp, very versatile!
You are right about the clean volume, in a smallish setting (trio band), it is definitely more than loud enough clean for any gig, but if you are "competing" against another guitarist and / or a really loud drummer, you have to set the rebel for a slightly crunchier sound to achieve the loudness levels needed, and then use your guitars volume to adjust the "cleaness" of your sound. Well, that's how the old folks did it too anyways, and i really like a little bit of hair even on my clean sounds.. :)

What makes the Rebel 20 a real killer amp that can hang with even the priciest of boutique-style amps is having it modded by the incredible Ben Fargen though!
I had him do his "Fargen Hot Mod" on my Rebel 20, and as i said, this thing is really killer now, truely amazing!
A very stable sound, very dynamic, warm and oozing with harmonics, even the slightest fizzyness is gone.

Check it out: http://www.fargenamps.com/hot-mods

[viking]

Like most of you already know  :),i own a Rebel20.It has become my main amp.I use it with my old Marshall 4X12 and it's a great combination!The Rebel is super-sensitive to picking techniques and full of harmonics;so expressive!With the Tube knob (6V6 to EL84) & the Watts knob (1W to 20W),you have a large panel of sounds at your disposal and it sounds very good at any volume,even very low.I would like a Reverb but it has a Loop,so...With the stock tubes,the high gain sounds are not that good (gain after 3 o'clock) without a pedal.It looks like,with the Renegade,you can get a very nice & creamy distortion,without any pedal?Would love to try one (and the Rebel30)!

[ralvarezguitar]

Hi, can someone tell me if I need to re-bias if changing a power tube on my Egnater Rebel 20 amp? is it mandatory? If so, what would be the result if I no re-biasing is performed?
Thanks in advance!

[viking]

Hi, can someone tell me if I need to re-bias if changing a power tube on my Egnater Rebel 20 amp? is it mandatory? If so, what would be the result if I no re-biasing is performed?
Thanks in advance!

Yes,you have to re-bias if changing a power tube.It's not difficult to do yourself  but you need a multimeter.The bias points are inside the amp (easy to open ),on the pc board.Just go on Egnater.com and you will find a description.It's absolutely mandatory if you change a single power tube:you better buy a matched pair in any case.If you swap a pair of GT power tubes,for exemple (or M&B),you can get away without re-biasing if you follow the color code but it won't be as precise as a re-bias...

[froglord]

I was on an amp quest recently and tried the Rebel 30, Tweaker 15 and Tweaker 40 (all combos), comparing them with some other amps, like a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe III and ... something else I can't remember (that one obviously left a good impression).

I think the design and controls on the Rebel are near-perfect for me: a clean channel 1 with two band EQ; a dirty channel 2 with 3-band EQ and master volume; a reverb control and watts knob for each channel; plus the master tube mix knob and an effects loop. Just what I needed!

I found the watts and tube mix knobs didn't make as much difference as I expected, and would have required more playing with to get the best out of them.

But it's all about the sound, and although I was tempted by the Rebel, eventually I ended up with the Tweaker 15 - it sounded clearer to me. The Rebel has a thicker tone. Depends what sort of sound you're after. I tend to start with a Fendery clean tone and work my way towards a Marshally crunch with pedals. The nice thing about the Tweaker is that I can start with a Fendery tone, or a Voxy tone, or a Marshally tone. I've got a lot of knob-tweaking to do in the next few weeks...

Interestingly, the Tweaker 15 (with 6V6s) sounded much clearer to me than the Tweaker 40 (with 6L6s) with exactly the same settings. I always thought of 6L6s as giving you the glassy Fender Blackface tone, but the Tweaker 15 did it far better. So much for received wisdom off the internet! The other thing that may have had an effect is the speakers: the 15 has a Celestion G12H30, while the 40 has a Celestion Custom Elite GH50. Also, I knew from the guy in the shop that the 15 had been thrashed for months as a demo unit, so maybe it was a case of speaker break-in too.

The whole experience reinforced my belief that you can read as much as you like on the interwebs, but there's no substitute for trying things yourself.

[TheyCallMeVolume]

I've tried one or two for a little while, I thought they were pretty good amps, I was actually quite surprised.