Gearhead - Reeves Custom 10HG
So I picked up the Reeves amp I could afford - the Custom 10HG. Reeves is named after Dave Reeves, the guy who made the original Hiwatts. Think of Pete Townsand. That’s what they’re about.
The Custom 10 HG (“High Gain”) is what’s called a single-ended Class A design. Class A amps include the aforementioned Hiwatts and Vox - so it’s a subspecies of the British sound (most clearly distinguished from the Marshall sound, which is the other British sound).
I’ve only had a tiny bit of time to play with it, but it seems to very much be a purist amp: it makes a bright high-def crunch along the Hiwatt lines, which lets chords hold together event with a fair amount of gain thrown in. It doesn’t strike me as terribly versatile - the point is that it does what it does very well, not that it’s all amps to all players.
One of the nicest features (optional at $150 extra) is power scaling. Like most modern amps, there’s two basic gain stages - “Gain” which controls input into the pre-amp, and “Drive” which controls input into the power amp. Typically if one wanted to get an overdriven sound at a less than full-on volume, you’d crank the pre-amp gain and tamp down the power amp master “Drive” control. A lot of players feel that a tube power amp, overdriven, sounds nice than the pre-amp tubes - so just using the master means you can’t get power amp distortion.
Power scaling apparently allows you to dial down the actual wattage of the power amp, meaning you can open up the master (drive) volume and get tasty power amp clipping, but still at reasonable volumes. Nice for us that live in NYC apartments.
