Half the reason one becomes a guitarist is the thrill of plugging into some crazy-cool-sexy amp and blowing everybody away. From the looks of things, the Tourmaster 4100 by Egnater Products is one such amp.
The governing principle behind this 100-watt, all-tube guitar amp head is that it's four amps in one box, which makes it serious bang for the buck. Each of the Tourmaster 4100 amp head's channels has an identical set of controls, but they operate drastically different. Clean/Vintage 1 is the cleanest of the four. Within this channel lives a range of classic tones ranging from pristine sparkle (with the voicing switch set to "Modern") to a punchy, aggressive drive in the "Classic" mode. Pressing the button to activate the contour control opens an entire new range of clean, almost acoustic tones not often found in a tube amplifier.
Clean/Vintage 2 has a very similar voicing to the Clean/Vintage 1 channel. However, this channel has more gain, so it can be pushed into mild overdrive, designed to deliver sweet blues and classic rock tones.
Overdrive 1: From AC/DC crunch to modern rock, this channel covers a lot of bases. Dial down the gain and the feel is pure classic rock. Push the gain and enter into more modern, saturated territory. Scoop the mids with the contour control for monstrous metal or set it for classic British rhythm.
Overdrive 2: Or the Tourmaster's most intense channel, in which you'll find intense find intense gain with a wide range of tones to suit the most discriminating shredder. Scoop the mids with the contour control for massive crunch or push the midrange for a solo tone that cuts through with serious authority.
The power grid seems well thought-out: Using a group of five slide switches on the rear panel, a guitarist can set the power output for each channel individually. There is a 3-position slide switch corresponding to each of the four channels and a single Full Power/ Half Power slide switch. In Full Power model, the options are 100w, 50w or 25w per channel. In the Half Power mode, the options are choose 50w, 25w or 10w per channel.
It's the kind of amp one could spend weeks, even months, exploring. For more information, such as pricing and ordering, visit the official Egnater Products website.
