Considering A Used Archon or Sonzera
- Thread starter Mark Ray
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toothace
Zombie Thirteen, DFZ
Try them and pick the one you like best.
dmatthews
Dave's not here
What are you going to/wanting to do with these beauties?
Band? Bedroom? Jamming?
Band? Bedroom? Jamming?
sergiodeblanc
New Member
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Archon 50 and a really nice reverb pedal.
dmatthews
Dave's not here
Yup, lots of Archon love all over the place here, but... no built-in reverb.
So... you have a pedal board, or need one?
Tucson Thump
Mint Heavy Relic
Even if you are doing only bedroom playing do yourself a favor and get the 50 watt version of what you decide. Having more clean headroom is an option you may wish now if not eventually.
bodia
Authorities said.....best leave it.....unsolved
This. Totally this.
Mark Ray
The RockTrain
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My band plays 60-70 times a year. I've been making do with a one channel amp (I won't say which, heh heh, but it is all tube). I miss a channel switcher, as we don't have a sound person and I'm not satisfied with anything I've tried to make sure my leads sit in the mix where I think they should be (as in HEARD). Yes, I have a loaded pedalboard that changes as needed, depending on certain situations.
The 50 waters scare me, volume wise. We play some places that won't tolerate too much volume. I am an EL34 fan, and the Sonzera50 is listed as running those I think.
Anyway, I have too many amps, so what's another, right?
The 50 waters scare me, volume wise. We play some places that won't tolerate too much volume. I am an EL34 fan, and the Sonzera50 is listed as running those I think.
Anyway, I have too many amps, so what's another, right?
andy474x
Knows the Drill
The Archon May be your better pick, I would also look at the Custom 20 combo if you can find one, as they’re discontinued. Both have great clean and lead channels. The Custom is slightly fatter and warmer on both channels, the lead is less compressed and more touch reactive, due to fewer gain stages, the Archon is the more modern high gain thing. The Custom is also warmer on the top end, less bite and sizzle. Really, I would pick between them depending on how your drummer plays and if you have a second guitarist. If your drummer doesn’t get into his cymbals excessively and/or you’re the only guitar, the Custom will fill a mix nicely. If you need more bite to compete with the sizzle of cymbals and another guitar, the Archon is the better pick, IMO.
The Sonzera is a very different amp from much of what’s out there. It seems to play best with single coils and keeping the gain very low on the lead channel, and any time
I hear one and like it on the gain channel, it’s someone using it as a slight or moderately pushed amp to play blues leads on. Don’t care for it as a high gain lead or riffy distorted rhythm machine, the frequencies aren’t filtered enough to trim out unwanted extra meat in lows and highs. That being said, it does sound awesome for bluesy stuff. Just something to consider.
The Sonzera is a very different amp from much of what’s out there. It seems to play best with single coils and keeping the gain very low on the lead channel, and any time
I hear one and like it on the gain channel, it’s someone using it as a slight or moderately pushed amp to play blues leads on. Don’t care for it as a high gain lead or riffy distorted rhythm machine, the frequencies aren’t filtered enough to trim out unwanted extra meat in lows and highs. That being said, it does sound awesome for bluesy stuff. Just something to consider.
sergiodeblanc
New Member
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The Archon has more range in it than I initially assumed it would.
My buddy has the 25 watt combo and was nice enough to let me fool around on it. The gain channel can do less distorted stuff, it’s just everyone who uses it seems to be rockin’ on it.
Good to know!
All I seem to hear on its gain channel in demos are metal tones, but I haven’t played through one yet.
alantig
Zombie Four, DFZ
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Yeah, the gain channel has a lot of range. You can push the preamp on the clean channel and get a sort of edge-of-breakup sound. It's been a while since I went through the full range of things, but I seem to recall there was a bit of a gap between the highest gain on the clean channel and the lowest gain on the lead channel. Just a bit of the gain spectrum missing in there. That said, I didn't really try to see if I could hit that gap with the guitar's volume control - or, for that matter, pushing the output stage into distortion.
Nice to know the clean channel can be pushed to edge-of-breakup. Maybe the gap you mention could be filled in with a pedal?
I think of single channel amps as kind of specializing in those in-between tones, which is why they appeal to me, and as a result I have three of them. But I also have that Lone Star that’s got two channels, and I would guess that two channel amps have more appeal to most players (which is why they’re more popular!).
Black Plaid
Other Alan!
Just did some testing, and my experience with the Archon's clean channel, is that you have to wind up the master volume to get any breakup out of it, unless you put a particularly stout boost in front of it. Then you can get some quite respectable edge-of-overdrive tones out of it.
The gain channel (at least on mine), can be wound down enough to get them as well, but as the channel is very much voiced to take into account all the harmonic content of mid to high gain, you need to reduce the low and mid, and crank the treble to 11. Putting the same boost in front as the clean channel (in my case, the Chase Audio "Brothers") gets you some rather glorious touch reactive edge of overdrive biteyness that you might not expect.
I was wondering about how an amp voiced for Metal was going to also give a player saturated, warm breakup like a Bassman or Plexi.
Being the picky sort, I’m sticking with the idea of horses for courses.
Black Plaid
Other Alan!
Oh gods, yeah. I would never recommend an Archon for someone looking for vintage Bassman tones.
Just saying you *can* get some really nice low gain sounds out of it.
bodia
Authorities said.....best leave it.....unsolved
I always refer to this video Aristotle posted a couple of years ago when people ask if the Archon is a one trick pony.
The gain channel in that video is good, but as with most metal amps, the bottom end seems a bit stiff.
BolinTrucks
New Member
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The Sonzera is a very different amp from much of what’s out there. It seems to play best with single coils and keeping the gain very low on the lead channel, and any time
I hear one and like it on the gain channel, it’s someone using it as a slight or moderately pushed amp to play blues leads on. Don’t care for it as a high gain lead or riffy distorted rhythm machine, the frequencies aren’t filtered enough to trim out unwanted extra meat in lows and highs. That being said, it does sound awesome for bluesy stuff. Just something to consider.
totally agree with the above take. I use the clean channel pushed pretty hard, and the gain channel as described above. It is a unique and pleasing sound. Never played an Archon to compare.
I hear one and like it on the gain channel, it’s someone using it as a slight or moderately pushed amp to play blues leads on. Don’t care for it as a high gain lead or riffy distorted rhythm machine, the frequencies aren’t filtered enough to trim out unwanted extra meat in lows and highs. That being said, it does sound awesome for bluesy stuff. Just something to consider.
totally agree with the above take. I use the clean channel pushed pretty hard, and the gain channel as described above. It is a unique and pleasing sound. Never played an Archon to compare.
