Gave the amp a quick run through this evening.
Fit and finish are what you would expect form an amp of this calibre; all first rate. The amp ships with the valves in place; all that's left to do is plug it in, fire it up, plug in your guitar and have at it.
It also includes a pretty informative owner's manual, printed on standard copy paper and bound in a presentation folder. It covers all of the basic operation of the amp.
Tonally, the amp is definitely
rock. It really does not want to be played dead clean. It has a master volume, but if you've maxed that out, the only way to get more volume is to increase the volume, which adds a lot of crunch to your tone.
The amp will make sound just fine with the gain all the way down. As you increase the gain, it doesn't really add crunch like the Volume control does, but it adds a mean grit that creates some delightfully wicked overdriven tones with them both turned up.
ALL of the controls are highly interactive depending on your playing dynamics, guitar, and cabinet you are using. You could spend a lot of time dialing in variations on any number of great tones after you get the basic gain and volume set up.
This amp has the nicest traveling pots I've encountered on an amp, save maybe the Diezel VH4. They are silky smooth, very interactive with each other and your overall tone, and the amp just has a great, tactile feel that invites knob-tweaking.
I made a clip using one of my Agile LP clones fitted with a very low output Bare Knuckle Riff Raff pickup in the bridge position.
http://soundcloud.com/bena/studio-2-test-bI have the clip commented as to my gain settings.
I didn't have a chance to try the amp in "Mean" mode yet, just "Clean".
Did I mention that the Studio 2 also loves pedals? Using the Xoctic BB Preamp set to unity gain on the volume and just adding a few dB of gain, I was able to dial in a tightly focused tone with near infinite sustain.
The amp is just dripping with harmonic overtones and goes right into harmonic feedback. Lovely!
