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Ashton "Viper-30" 30-Watt
All Valve Combo Guitar Amplifier. |
Ashton "Viper-30" 30-Watt All Valve Combo Guitar Amplifier
This edition I am reviewing another new 'all-valve' combo amplifier, the "Viper-30" from 'Ashton'. You might have read my other review of its bigger brother, the "Viper-50" a few editions ago, and recall that I was very impressed with that model. Well 'Ashton' have decided to add this new 30 watt model to the very popular 'Viper' range for those of you who don't need such a high output amp or you just like to work those valves a little harder to get your sound. We all know how good these smaller valve amps sound when they are pushed, so take a look at this model.Again, this amp was designed Australia, and looks almost identical to it's bigger brother, the 50 watt model, just shrunken a bit and with a few less features, but this is offset by the lower price tag of course. It has the same solid build quality that I have seen from all 'Ashton' products that I have received, with a solid metal grill on the front protecting the single 12" 'Celestion 70' speaker, as well as another very solid grill on the rear protecting the exposed valves from being knocked about. The back of the combo is half closed, and the grill takes over from there.
The "Viper" comes with heavy-duty black covering, metal corner protectors are fitted, rubber feet pads on the bottom, a single handle on the top and the total weight of the unit is quite reasonable for an 'all-valve' amp. I could easily imagine lugging this amp up the stairs into a few smoky blues clubs without too much trouble.
The main control panel is quite basic but all that is really required. Keeping with the 'Viper' theme the control knobs for each channel are cool looking 'chicken-head' style. It has a master 3-band EQ adjustment for both channels, output level adjustment only for the 'clean' channel and gain and output level adjustment for the 'mean' channel. This EQ set up can be a bit limiting, but with a bit of careful tweaking, you can dial up a nice clean vintage tone and a good crunch sound as well without too much trouble. There is also a master volume and reverb control as well.
On the rear panel the foot-switch jacks allow you to switch between both channels and reverb. The foot-switch is not supplied with the unit and must be purchased separately. There are also optional jacks for running additional speaker cabinets. I thought the overall finish was of an excellent standard, and as far as the built in spring reverb goes, I was extremely impressed with its sound, from subtle room decay sounds right up to huge arena sounds, and always very usable.
The "Viper-30" is advertised as being a 'compact valve amp perfect for recording or playing small live gigs' and I reckon that is a pretty good description from 'Ashton'. As mentioned above, it has two foot-switchable channels - 'clean' and 'mean'. The 'clean' channel is just that, very mild sounding, I wouldn't say 'sparkling' like a "Twin", but still very clean, warm and just starting to break up to a light crunch once you have the output level just over half. A very useable tone and very nice with a splash of that awesome reverb.
The 'mean' channel delivers a large spectrum of sounds from British rock to heavy rock, grunge and fat blues. I would say it has a real "classic rock-blues" sound to it and was very responsive with a gradual gain curve. Obviously, with all valve amps, the 'Viper-30' really started to sing as I wound up the power amp. I thought it was very loud for it's size and output.
For players needing extra distortion levels, a tube screamer or other foot-pedal could be added for that extra grunt. I found with my tube screamer in the line, it helped out a lot when needing that extra gain boost at times, and I would assume most guitarists would be using this amp that way. With the optional 'Ashton' footswitch and another pedal in the line as an extra, this amp would become virtually a three-channel amp with many uses, studio or gigging live with a band. This little combo really does rock, and you have to remember that we are talking about an 'all-valve' amp here - great value for money!!
The single 12" 'Celestion 70' speaker sounds solid with plenty of punch for it's size and the amp's output, it even handled some extra heavy low palm muted chugging from my seven string without too much trouble. Running the external speaker output into my 'Marshall' quad box really pumped the sound projection and bottom end up a fair bit, all in all it was sounding very impressive from a small 30 watt amp.
The Viper I road tested was actually a proto-type, with stock not available in stores until early 2005. The "VP30" comes only as a 30-watt combo, but as discussed above, there are many more models in the 'Viper' range to choose from if you required more power output, or a head and quad-box set-up.
At a retail price of only $595.00 for this 'all-valve' combo, I reckon you are getting excellent value for money and all the warmth and character you would expect from a more expensive valve amp in this quality unit.