UPDATE: Supro Amulet...small, versatile, low noise, low watt/master volume, effects loop focused amp

stylesforfree · June 2023

UPDATE. I pulled the trigger on a Supro Amulet. No FX loop but it ticks all the other boxes....or at least I thought it did.

FIrst one was dead on arrival so I sent it back and asked for it to be exchanged for another, no problem, swift and quick.

The second one arrived today, I plugged it in and upon warm up it crackled, reached under the chassis and checked for any loose tubes, turned it off and let it cool down, then fired it back up again...snap crackle and pop.

Second issue is the speaker buzzes/rattles on certain notes, I plugged in an external cab to confirm this and it sounds fine, so it's definitely the stock Celestion G10 Creamback. I tightened up the screws and checked the chassis and back panel screws, played some notes while pressing the back of the speaker. No joy, buzzes and rattles on the G and B string around the 5th/6th fret.

So the second Supro Amulet is going back. I emailed Supro to let them know that there seems to be some QC issues with the Amulet.

This is the 3rd problem i've had with supro amps, the first was with a 5 watt 64 reverb that had some weird ghosting/fizzy buzzing on certain notes when the reverb was turned up. I figured I might as well stretch a bit more cash out and go for the Amulet.

Alas, this has put a very sour damper on the beginning of the week.

TimmyO · June 2023

That sucks :-(

If you’ve dropped the fx loop requirement, you could do a lot worse than audition a Tone Master Deluxe Reverb for the sound you describe

digitalkettle · June 2023

I think I’ve chipped-in on a previous thread of yours…so, sorry if I’m being a broken record: I’d outlay around 5-10% of your apparent budget (amp, mic, mic-preamp, etc) and get the Neural DSP Tone King Imperial plugin.

DI-tastic…no more pissing in the wind trying to capture noiseless, small valve amp tonez in one’s studio. Opens up a whole new world of sneaky edits too

stylesforfree · June 2023

digitalkettle said:

I think I’ve chipped-in on a previous thread of yours…so, sorry if I’m being a broken record: I’d outlay around 5-10% of your apparent budget (amp, mic, mic-preamp, etc) and get the Neural DSP Tone King Imperial plugin.

DI-tastic…no more pissing in the wind trying to capture noiseless, small valve amp tonez in one’s studio. Opens up a whole new world of sneaky edits too

Thanks, appreciate the input. I already have the Neural DSP Cory Wong and demo'd the Tone King Imperial, alas, the gain staging with my over drive pedals and attaining the sound I want isn't really there with the plugins.

I bought a Superlux mic for £34 and im having fun so far recording with it, getting some pretty crisp and clear sounds. Real amps take overdrive pedals better. especially when you're hitting it hard and cranking it. Plus im also having even more fun trying out different speakers now.

digitalkettle · June 2023

stylesforfree said:

digitalkettle said:

I think I’ve chipped-in on a previous thread of yours…so, sorry if I’m being a broken record: I’d outlay around 5-10% of your apparent budget (amp, mic, mic-preamp, etc) and get the Neural DSP Tone King Imperial plugin.

DI-tastic…no more pissing in the wind trying to capture noiseless, small valve amp tonez in one’s studio. Opens up a whole new world of sneaky edits too

Thanks, appreciate the input. I already have the Neural DSP Cory Wong and demo'd the Tone King Imperial, alas, the gain staging with my over drive pedals and attaining the sound I want isn't really there with the plugins.

I bought a Superlux mic for £34 and im having fun so far recording with it, getting some pretty crisp and clear sounds. Real amps take overdrive pedals better. especially when you're hitting it hard and cranking it. Plus im also having even more fun trying out different speakers now.

That’s cool…yep, certainty is a slight compromise with a 100% digital approach…but I’m happy with that right now.

Will be watching to see how your journey progresses

stylesforfree · June 2023

Cool.

I'm still wondering about Hughes and kettener amps. Extremely affordable on the used market, they offer a wide variety of models that utilise different feature sets but the general consensus is that they are very high fidelity and pristine sounding, which isn't something I go for. But maybe I've built up a bias and have a mildly head strong view point.

Obvious if a wack a warbly lo fi pedal in the loop then that's the sound I'm gonna get, so is it just silly that I have this pre-conceived notion built upon purely anecdotal evidence.

I guess it's just the way of the internet...ha.

drpbier · June 2023

Hi stylesforfree. I was on a similar quest to you and went for an Orange Rocker 15 Terror head (exclusively for home use). I'm very happy with it and use my Helix LT in 4CM, and a Zilla cab with a Neo Creamback. I went to Peach and tried the Marshall Origin 20 head vs the Orange. Easy choice, for me.

stylesforfree · June 2023

drpbier said:

Hi stylesforfree. I was on a similar quest to you and went for an Orange Rocker 15 Terror head (exclusively for home use). I'm very happy with it and use my Helix LT in 4CM, and a Zilla cab with a Neo Creamback. I went to Peach and tried the Marshall Origin 20 head vs the Orange. Easy choice, for me.

Awesome, this is now on the radar, thanks.

markv · June 2023

I've got a H&K Tubemeister 18 (combo, with 10" speaker, in my case) and I've been very happy with it for several years - sounds good, very versatile, attenuator, XLR out for recording at zero volume. No headphone out though, which is a bit annoying - but you can achieve that via an audio interface. Clean sounds are a little bland, in my opinion, but add a few pedals and you can get a load of different gainy sounds.

They aren't well loved around here for some reason though - I had mine up for sale in the classifieds for quite a while and only got a couple of mild queries (partly due to pandemic etc though). I've given up trying to sell it now and have donated it to my youngest, who has decided to learn guitar over the summer!

My suggestion? I've just bought a Quilter Superblock US and, yes, it's still shiny and new to me, but I think it would also do what you want - and it sounds brilliant! There's a Superblock UK for more Marshall/Vox type sounds as well.

dazzajl · June 2023

That’s a very sad read about the Amulet and what a way to leave to a bitter taste on the whole thing.

TheBigDipper · June 2023

markv said:

I've got a H&K Tubemeister 18 (combo, with 10" speaker, in my case) and I've been very happy with it for several years - sounds good, very versatile, attenuator, XLR out for recording at zero volume. No headphone out though, which is a bit annoying - but you can achieve that via an audio interface. Clean sounds are a little bland, in my opinion, but add a few pedals and you can get a load of different gainy sounds.

They aren't well loved around here for some reason though - I had mine up for sale in the classifieds for quite a while and only got a couple of mild queries (partly due to pandemic etc though). I've given up trying to sell it now and have donated it to my youngest, who has decided to learn guitar over the summer!

My suggestion? I've just bought a Quilter Superblock US and, yes, it's still shiny and new to me, but I think it would also do what you want - and it sounds brilliant! There's a Superblock UK for more Marshall/Vox type sounds as well.

Me too. My band has decided to be a "go direct" band for practice and small gigs. The SBUS on my pedalboard seems to have fixed my problems in easily getting a decent sound straight into the PA without using a modeller. (It's me and my workflow, not the modellers fault). Unlike modellers, it accepts different input signal levels (distortions, overdrives and boosts, mainly) and responds like an amp (coz it is one). Doesn't need a speaker load to run and the cab emulation is pretty decent - but I'm using a Torpedo CAB M at the end of the chain at the mo as it offers a bit more. Using the supplied 24V DC power supply it puts out the equivalent of a 25w valve amp. If you use 9V DC from your pedalboard, it puts out 1W and that's still pretty loud at home.

@Markv - I'm running the '65 voice when it's just the amp, the '61 with pedals and the '57 when I'm feeling like Neil Young... :-)

stylesforfree · June 2023

3rd Supro Amulet arrived and it is working A-OK.

TheBigDipper said:

markv said:

I've got a H&K Tubemeister 18 (combo, with 10" speaker, in my case) and I've been very happy with it for several years - sounds good, very versatile, attenuator, XLR out for recording at zero volume. No headphone out though, which is a bit annoying - but you can achieve that via an audio interface. Clean sounds are a little bland, in my opinion, but add a few pedals and you can get a load of different gainy sounds.

They aren't well loved around here for some reason though - I had mine up for sale in the classifieds for quite a while and only got a couple of mild queries (partly due to pandemic etc though). I've given up trying to sell it now and have donated it to my youngest, who has decided to learn guitar over the summer!

My suggestion? I've just bought a Quilter Superblock US and, yes, it's still shiny and new to me, but I think it would also do what you want - and it sounds brilliant! There's a Superblock UK for more Marshall/Vox type sounds as well.

Me too. My band has decided to be a "go direct" band for practice and small gigs. The SBUS on my pedalboard seems to have fixed my problems in easily getting a decent sound straight into the PA without using a modeller. (It's me and my workflow, not the modellers fault). Unlike modellers, it accepts different input signal levels (distortions, overdrives and boosts, mainly) and responds like an amp (coz it is one). Doesn't need a speaker load to run and the cab emulation is pretty decent - but I'm using a Torpedo CAB M at the end of the chain at the mo as it offers a bit more. Using the supplied 24V DC power supply it puts out the equivalent of a 25w valve amp. If you use 9V DC from your pedalboard, it puts out 1W and that's still pretty loud at home.

@Markv - I'm running the '65 voice when it's just the amp, the '61 with pedals and the '57 when I'm feeling like Neil Young... :-)

A superblock has been on my radar for quite some time. I would love a supro voiced solid state amp though. I know there's pedals for that, but a whole preamp and power amp stage voiced like a vintage thunderbolt.

dazzajl · June 2023

I’m really hoping you liking it after all this.

stylesforfree · June 2023

dazzajl said:

I’m really hoping you liking it after all this.

Third Amulet arrived and working fine. It's a cool amp for sure, the tremolo is incredible.

So everything seems to be ok. Still GASing for a nifty amp head with all the bells and whistles though haha.

I may just purge the pedals and forget about effects loops.

TheBigDipper · June 2023

Just as an update for anyone who's had their interest in a Quilter SuperBlock pinged by myself and Markv above... I'm returning the CAB M+. It's actually pretty good, with lots of features, but I started hearing some artefacts on higher gain tones. There was definitely no clipping, just something unpleasant. They are not present on the amp itself when feeding a real speaker or using the analogue emulated speaker output. The emulated output is more robust and less faff, so I'm reverting to that and just getting on with it.

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UPDATE: Supro Amulet...small, versatile, low noise, low watt/master volume, effects loop focused amp

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