[Harp-L] Avenger Pt.1

[Michael Easton <diachrome@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

After much anticipation my Sonny Jr. Avenger arrived yesterday. Even  
though I said I may have to settle for
the Cruncher, Sonny and my wife helped make it possible to get the  
Avenger. Serial #22.

So now I have my 3 perfect amps until I put the Avenger through a  
workout then someone might be out of work.
Early 60's Blonde GA-5 for recording, 1948 Ampower amp custom fitted  
to a Weber Tweed cab for low to mid volume gigs,
and the Avenger for mid and high volume gigs.  Space and convenience  
will determine which amp I use on medium gigs.

There is so much too comment on I don't know where to start.  Just  
this year alone we've traded 48 emails from the time I first considered
the Cruncher to 2 emails this morning about buying a tube bias meter.

Sonny works hard to make the sale but he doesn't push you to buy. I  
think pretty much anyone that has bought a Sonny Jr. amp has
done their homework first.

I can't give a full review yet. That may come in a month or so after  
using it on different gigs and getting band and audience feedback.

The first thing I noticed after unpacking it is it has a longgg power  
cord.  I'm use to short cords that require the amp to be very close to  
an outlet.  The second thing I noticed is when I turned the amp on and  
plugged a SM57 mic in was that there was no hum. Virtually non. Not  
even with the amp cranked up.  It wasn't until turned on the mic and  
cranked the amp that I heard  pure raw tone of the harp and nothing  
else.  The good thing about the amp being so quiet is that now I know  
if my cables are bad or connections are improperly grounded. The only  
hum you hear is from the mic or pedal being plugged in and not the  
amp. Several nearly new cables are headed for the trash.

The amp comes with a copper rectifier installed. I played it a little  
bit with the copper rectifier then switched over to the spare glass  
tube rec.
The tube rec. is too clean IMHO so I switched back to the copper  
rectifier which is what the amp is bias for to begin with.

The owners manual make some recommendations as well as the set up  
card.  I haven't been too happy using my biscuit w/ hot crystal on my  
other amp or the DR that I sold. It just didn't sound right. Loud but  
that's it.  Using one of the Avenger setups I can reproduce either a  
warm or bright sound for the crystal.  After about a 1/2 hour of  
playing with different setups I pulled the biscuit out of retirement.
Great crunch and thunderous tongue slaps and rich tone.

I also pulled a couple more mics out of retirement since there are a  
lot of choices in finding the right settings to bring out the best in  
good mics. I logged my favorite settings for each mic as a starting  
point then adjust to the room at gigs.   Like I've said in the past I  
use at least 2 different mics per gig depending on the songs we're  
playing. Now my gig bag is packed with 5 mics.  I'll probably narrow  
it down to 3 over time.

After 24 hours I can honestly say I have no buyers remorse purchasing  
this amp.

IT won't give you tone if you don't have it. It won't give you punch  
if you are a weak player and it won't give you chops.
But what it will do is allow you to take full benefit of all those  
things if you put your time in.

The most helpful feature for me is the high amount of headroom I have  
to dial in volume and brightness.
I can only crank the GA-5 and DR up to 2 1/2 before they feedback.   
I'm able to sit in a bedroom with an SM57 or 545 plugged in, cranked  
to 7 and blow the walls out.  Now that's an amp built for harp  
players. Not a rip off of some guitar amp.


Michael Easton
www.harmonicarepair.com