Ibanez Wholetone HT80 in the house!

[coyote-1]

Backstory: some years ago I picked up a ‘DRIVE’ combo amp for $20 at a garage sale. 35 watts, 10” speaker, built-in digital effects. Better amp than I expected and suitable for jazz guitar in the Clean channel, but not optimal.

Today I got to swap it plus a hundred bucks for an Ibanez HT80 WholeTone amp. 80 watts, 15” speaker. Built in reverb and chorus. Works far better than the Drive amp with my Eastman carved 810 archtop and with an Ibanez laminated archtop. Not a Polytone, but definitely catches the vibe! Has versatility in tone with both an overall Tone control and a 3 band EQ. It can get much louder cleans than the Drive amp.

In a couple weeks, I’ll get to hear it with a Telecaster when my guys come over to jam. It definitely scratches my itch for a real jazz amp.

EDIT: I’ve found the “sweet spot” for this amp with the Eastman archtop. Gain at @ 3:30; master volume to taste or need. The tone knob is around 12:00. Bass EQ 9:00, mid 10:00, treble 1:00. It sounds like the guitar, only louder.

The reverb definitely needs a steady hand. Everything beyond 9:00 is too much. The chorus? I can see where, if you were simply providing rhythm guitar for a jazz band, it could be very useful. But if you’re also the soloist, you’d want the amp right next to you so you could dial it down. Might even be worth some sort of mechanical foot controller to move the potentiometer.

[Jthompson48]

Never heard of that, had to look it up. Sounds like a great match for your Eastman!

[jim777]

I wasn't aware of this one either, but thrilled you're happy with it

For the curious: Just a moment...

[Sigmund451]

Nice review. Enjoy.

Given the name of your prior amp (It sounds like it was made for rockers) I imagine there is quite a difference.

[mr. beaumont]

I forgot about those. Don't think they sold very well, but I also don't think I heard anything bad about them. Probably just too niche a market...

Ibanez is making some great stuff.

[coyote-1]

Nice review. Enjoy.

Given the name of your prior amp (It sounds like it was made for rockers) I imagine there is quite a difference.

Most amps are made “for rockers”. They can still function as jazz amps. I have a Marshall DSL40c that has an “ultra gain” channel as well as a classic gain channel, and in the classic channel it has a selector for clean / crunch. When set to Clean - as long as it’s configured correctly - while it still has the Marshall sound, it functions very well as a jazz amp with a solidbody guitar. Plug a Tele or Strat into it and use the neck pickup, and you’re there.

My old Princeton Reverb II, despite its ‘Rivera’ design pedigree, also functions fairly well for jazz. As does my Katana! You just have to be willing to do the requisite “dial in”.

But the Polytone amps, though originally designed for accordion, had a ‘thing’ in their voicing that worked incredibly well for the hollowbody jazz players. They were clearly voiced to work with the 15” speaker. I’ve found the 15” to impart a bit of magic to acoustic instruments. I have a Crate BX100 that does not work well for rock bass, but is perfect for upright. And is also a decent jazz guitar amp.

So I’m thinking that Ibanez, with this Wholetone amp, did likewise. The name and configuration show they were obviously looking to hit a similar mark to the Polytone. I tried one of these back in the day in a local music store, and was not excited. I’m guessing that at the time, I - like others (look back some years on this very site) - simply did not know how to use the amp. I just played the Ibanez laminate hollowbody through it for a few minutes, and the settings I used for the Eastman are perfect for it.

[coyote-1]

I’m beginning to think out a pedal control for the chorus knob. Got a bicycle control cable. Will be soldering the bare ends after I get my length and attachment specs complete, to stiffen those ends.

The pedal itself will be wood. Simple rocker pedal, pivoting in the middle. The heel will pull/push the cable. Where the cable housing ends will also be a pivot, to keep it always pushing straight.

On the amp may be a simple “lever knob” like you might find on a lawn mower for the throttle. Pull the cable, pot turns in one direction; push the cable it turns in the other direction. OR it might be a rack and pinion. Pull the cable, the rack turns the pinion gear that’s attached to the potientometer. That might need custom gearing.

I guess it depends on how easy the knob moves in relation to cable movement.

[coyote-1]

I’ve already decided not to pursue the manual chorus foot control. Easy choice. I have a Boss GT-1B multieffect. So both chorus and reverb on the amp itself will remain off.

I’ve read that the Wholetone does not take distortion well. But in testing the GT-1B, I’ve found that the Wholetone takes the chorus and reverb just fine. And my archtop’s mini humbucker is not the highest output device, so there’s headroom on the amp input. So I can boost the input and change the tone a bit using the GT-1B compressor if I want a more biting and sustain-y lead sound, without doing any injustice to the tone of the amp.

I also deployed the GT-1B para EQ to tame a slight boominess on the lowest string. Yeah, no need to mess with amp knobs. Set and forget.

[Jim Soloway]

I forgot about those. Don't think they sold very well, but I also don't think I heard anything bad about them. Probably just too niche a market...

Ibanez is making some great stuff.

And very heavy given the target market.

[StormyMonday]

I do the same with my Loudbox mini but with an old zoom unit. I used a friend's Fishman Tonedeq same way and it worked great with my Tacoma but I already own the Zoom so it's fine for my limited use.

[coyote-1]

And very heavy given the target market.

It’s 38 pounds. For a solid state amp from that time period and 15” speaker, and a cabinet to contain them properly, that’s not terribly heavy.

I’m over 60, and this is still very manageable for me to carry. Strap it into a lightweight folding luggage cart, and even that is mostly ameliorated.

[Jim Soloway]

It’s 38 pounds. For a solid state amp from that time period and 15” speaker, and a cabinet to contain them properly, that’s not terribly heavy.

I’m over 60, and this is still very manageable for me to carry. Strap it into a lightweight folding luggage cart, and even that is mostly ameliorated.

Each to their own. I've been trying to keep the weight much lower since my 40's (and I'm now well into my 70's). My gig amp in the early 90's was a Polytone Megabrute that weighed 22 lbs.

[coyote-1]

Each to their own. I've been trying to keep the weight much lower since my 40's (and I'm now well into my 70's). My gig amp in the early 90's was a Polytone Megabrute that weighed 22 lbs.

Cant blame you for that. I used to haul a Marshall Major with a pair of 4x12 cabinets; there’s no way I’d do that anymore. While C4 and C5 in my spine are deteriorating, I’m still relatively young in my 60s. I’ll be happy to move a 38 pound amp until I no longer can.

The HT80 amp is fantastic. At low volume it fills the room. At high volume it remains clear, and all I need do to adjust for that is reduce the bass knob a bit.

[coyote-1]

I love experimenting. First off, indeed there’s an active limiter in this amp. At higher volumes, there are audio artifacts. Desirable? Not at all.

But…. There are always workarounds. Some of which yield surprising results.

I’m using a Boss GT-1B effect processor for foot-controllable chorus and for reverb. So why not use it for some other things? It has two FX modules and an OD module - all of which provide two bands of customizable parametric EQ. Put ‘em together, and that’s six available para EQ controls!

I don’t need that many, but they are there. Delay can be configured to provide chorus. The preamp section can be set to provide a boost.

And then all of that goes into the amp’s Aux In, which hits the power amp directly. And bypasses the limiter, thus availing me of the entire power and range of the power amp.


So this amp becomes a 15” 80 watt powered speaker. Voiced for jazz guitar.

EDIT 2 days later: I think I know why this came to me so inexpensively. There was a 120hz hum. Not terrible, but present. So I took it apart and ensured every connection was solid. And stuck to the speaker were two tee-nuts! Some previous owner had changed the carrying handle. In the process they obviously lost track of two of the four tee-nuts, because there they were. So along with the connectors I removed those and reassembled the amp.

It is now whisper quiet. Dunno whether the tee nuts or some connector were at issue, but the hum is now gone.

But the process was almost a disaster. Had my fancy Eastman in hand when the drum stool on which I was sitting broke. The guitar did hit the carpeted floor on edge as I fell. Not hard; thankfully no body damage done. My upright bass was also impacted - again, not enough to do any damage. So now I have to repair the drum stool tomorrow.

[coyote-1]

There’s a cabinet resonance. Particularly if I play E on the G string 9th fret, the cabinet resonates at the same frequency as open D.

For the time being, I used old socks to plug the two ports (front facing). This seriously reduces the resonance. But it also changes the overall sound slightly; it becomes far more precise. The Eastman is already a highly sensitive instrument. You can’t touch the strings without it being audible! So the current configuration is revealing every detail in my less than awesome playing lol

I’m going to insert a 1” dowel between the sides to stiffen the cabinet. Perhaps that will reduce the resonance a bit. I’m also going to procure a gasket ring; the metal frame of the speaker has no isolation whatsoever from the MDF.

When using the GT-1B instead of the amp controls, the sound with the ports plugged is great. The resonance becomes less apparent as other tones come to the fore. I’m using only four of six available para EQs, leaving chorus available. Two para EQs in permanent use (via OD module), two click on/off for ‘boost’.

[coyote-1]

Dowel helps. It’s now wedged/glued in.

Socks will remain in place. Because they also help. The cabinet sound is now ‘deep’ in general tone as I wish, but without audible resonance notes.

Boss GT-1B is definitely the winning “front end”. Didn’t anticipate that when I bought the amp, but it just works.

[coyote-1]

The enhancements continue. Because the Eastman’s mini-humbucker output is relatively low compared to, say, my PRS, I turned up the input on the GT-1B. Can’t run it too hot because I also use it for bass. In any event, we’re getting to where it’s a very good sounding amp configuration for archtop.