GEAR REVIEW
WAMPLER BRAVADO 40WATT COMBO AMP | Michael Hodge
OUT OF THE BOX: cream/grey with white piping. The top controls
There’s something beautiful about American include Volume, Bass, Mid, a 6 position Treble
• 6L6 pedal platform amp made products. Weighing in at 55 lbs, the knob and a Fat switch for more beef. There is
• Friedman Buffered FX loop Bravado looks like it will last a lifetime. There a cool “W” shaped power light, with adjacent
are two models, a combo 1-12 version and power & standby switches. Underneath the
head version. Separate 1X12 and 2X12 chassis is a 3-way impedance switch for 4-8-
KEY FEATURES
• 6 Position Bright Control
• Point-to-Point Hand wiring
extension cabinets are also available. His 1-12 16 Ohm and main/aux speaker outputs. There’s
• Custom USA Transformer extension cabinet weighs 37 lbs, so the amp also a Freedman design mos-fet solid state EFX
• Celestion G-12 65 watt chassis probably weighs about 18 lbs due to loop in and out.
Brian Wampler’s quest for the perfect pedal great tube amp. Bravado is an all-tube design IN USE:
platform amplifier has led him to create the 40 with 6L6 power tubes providing 40 watts. I had the perfect opportunity to check this
watt all tube Bravado. His pedals are some There are a 12AX7 preamp tube and a 12AT7 amp in the studio. We had a pile of songs
of the most popular, and best-loved in the phase inverter. The rectifier tube is a 5AR4. The to cut guitars on, and this producer likes a
marketplace. His YouTube channel is top-rated cabinet is tongue and groove multi-ply Baltic combination of many different guitars layered.
among guitar pedal geeks and tone chasers. Birch. It comes loaded with a Celestion G12M- First, though I plugged a Strat straight in to
I’ve been a fan for years and was excited to 65 Creamback 16 Ohm speaker, with heavy- hear how the amp sounded. The 6-position
take this amp for a test drive. duty 12-gauge wire. The grill cloth is a fresh treble knob sounded best in the second
94
the massive power transformer- a sign of a
January 2019
Subscribe for Free...