Fargen Amplifiers, Anyone checked these out in a recording environment? Options

[deaconblue]

Hey Fellow Forum Members,

A buddy of mine recently pointed me to Fargen amplifiers, for recording in a small to medium studio setting. The Plexi II is a .5 to 12 watt (yep, that is one half) all tube amplifier that has some good tone.

I was curious if anyone has checked these out in a studio or other recording environment. The sound clips sound pretty good, but I was hoping to hear some feedback on real world experience with the amps and their tone.

If these can give a really good, high out put sound at low SPLs then I am thinking I might not have to worry about waking the neighbors any longer when I am trying to get a true tube tone without the DI -> amp simulator signal chain. Plus it might be a good choice to use to re-amp as well.

As always, thanks in advance.

peace.

[mortalengines]

Well I just got both the Epi and the Blackheart. Really great amps....each for different reasons. Gotta say though that the Blackheart is really the winner. I got the combo (there is also a head and a cabinet version available) and I was floored by how responsive it is. It actually has a usable midrange (over the years I found myself just turning it all the way down on my other amps) that just made my Les Paul sing when I was fooling around with a slide. It has a decent enough crunch when you turn the amp up but I am partial to using a Boss Metal Zone distortion (which sounds better than the name would imply....it actually has an EQ section and a mid range with a "Q" control as well.....You can sound like Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, or Dethklok and anywhere in between) and again it does the pinched harmonic thing pretty well. Anyway for only 250 bucks, it is a STEAL. Since I now have an extension cabinet (an Epiphone) I am now looking at lower wattage heads that are all the rage right now. THD makes a switchable 20 watt/50 watt "flexi" head that I am currently drooling over. It is actually pretty nifty in the sense that you can swap out the tubes and bias them in about 20 seconds for those tone freaks who can tell the difference. Both of these can be found at www.musiciansfriend.com. I am just sharing this because I have been shopping around for a bit for an alternative to my "Amplitube Jimi Hendrix" software which is pretty cool but, is kind of a CPU hog and you know....sometimes I just like to plug in and play (something I kind of gave up when I became a parent sometime back and it got too hard to get 4 guys in the same room together on the weekends.....a long story to be sure but, I also decided to concentrate on learning how to "sequence and produce" music). It's kind of novel again.

[deaconblue]

Thanks y'all.

Yeah, amps, hum. Kind of a 'joined at the hip' thing. I actually currently have a Tech 21 Trademark 60 with the DI connect to my 828 for my tone. I like it, but I miss the tube sound of my old live rig. I guess I should just be content with what works instead of searching for tone.

mortalengines,

Thanks for all the recommendations. I'll check out the Epi. I think they have a couple local here in Austin, so it'd be an easy check.

Mac Daddy,

you make me blush, hermano mio. Yeah, the last two months have been family (daughter's birthday, son's fencing, remodeling the living room for the wife and Valentines Day too) and work (got extra love slapped on my day gig and I am traveling all next week). But I have to get some stuff finished up. Busier than a one armed paper hanger...

again, thanks for the input. I'll prolly just hang with the Tech 21 and 'crank it to 11 and pull the knobs off'. In my headphones at least.

peace!