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Jonathan0996 and I got together today to jam and we each had a chance to play the other's amplifier.
It was an interesting test. They both sound great. The evans is a bit more middy which is characteristic of it's preamp and it also has a much wider range of tones. The mambo pretty much gets one sound which is the Joe Pass Joy Spring sound. I didn't fool around a whole lot with the evans to see if it could get that sound but it definitely had more high frequency content and for octaves with my Heritage Eagle it had a more velvety top end. The mambo seems to particularly shine with plywood guitars because it emphasizes the thunky tone that a plywood guitar gets.
The evans was also quite a bit heavier and seemed to have a lot more power.
Maybe Jonathan could pipe in with his thoughts. We'll both have more thoughts after the next time we play...
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10-31-2015 06:44 PM
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Agreed. The Evans is a lot heavier. Now I want a Mambo!
I also agree that the Evans can get a wider range of tones, but lots of players just want one sound and if the Mambo is what lights your fire then that's the amp for you. It really does sound beautiful. The Evans can get you a brighter, edgier, more tube-like sound, but the Mambo nails that dark Joe Pass sound nicely. The Evans can get plenty of low end, but it never quite loses that upper midrange edge. It cuts through a rhythm section nicely, and I'm not sure how a Mambo would do in that regard. That works for me, but every player is different.
The EQ is much different on the two amps, and I think the sealed cabinet vs. the open back accounts for much of the sound difference. But it's really all about which sound appeals to you. I'm not sure what the power rating is on the Mambo, but the Evans is 150 watts into 8 ohms. It may be that the open back makes it seem a lot more powerful. A small sealed cabinet will often only push so much sound out. I do know that the Evans maintains the character of it's low-volume sound when you take it out on a gig and crank it up. I've owned a lot of amps that couldn't do that.
I also noticed that the Mambo lets Jack play much faster and better than I can with the Evans. There's gotta be a mod for that...
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great to hear two such able players talk about significant bits of jazz-kit
thanks guys
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I am jealous. I wish I was there. it really is priceless to be able to have real guitar players/forum members test out equipment and then report the finding to the rest of us. I love it. Thanks guys for doing that. That is awesome. Damn I wish I was there. I'd love to sprint with Jack. It would make me get 50 times better instantly.
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Playing music with Jack is quite an experience. It really forces you to elevate your game. Jack way outclasses me musically, but he's very gracious about the disparity. I'll be spending serious time in the woodshed before we get together again.
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Did you guys happen compare your amps up close and with some distance? I have an Evans AH200 Hybrid that I play through a Raezer's Edge Twin 8 Tower. It sounds pretty middy if I'm sitting next to it. However, if I back up about 10 feet it seems to lose the mids and has more of a full sound. Not sure if that's the design or just a characteristic of 8" speakers.
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yes, we had some distance. The middyness is present in all the evans amps I've ever played. I think it's the preamp design.
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by the way, most of the RE cabs themselves are middy. I felt the T8T was the least middy of any of their cabs.
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The middiness is what I like about Evans. I think jazz archtops sound good that way.
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I agree, Greentone.
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IMO the thing about Evans is that - via the body ( high mid) and depth ( low mid) controls- you have more control over the midrange than almost any other amp, from very fat to thinned-out....far more range than the mambo 10, much as I love it.
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i don't like the extra midrange and don't find it to be useful or part of the tonal lexicon i draw from such as farlow, wes, benson, martino, kreisberg, etc. None of them use a harsh midrange component to their sound. Basically I want an (apparently) flat tone out of the mids and bass and then want a useful treble control. The mambo has the bass and mids I want and is just missing some top end though truth be told, some of it is probably the 3.8k speaker.
But, he is shipping out a new version to me that has the fender tonestack option so i'm hoping it'll be even better. I like the reverb better and of course, the mambo is insanely more portable.
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Are there any US dealers for Mambo?
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No US dealers.
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My Evans doesn't have a harsh midrange.
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Are you saying the amp will be switchable: (1) usual mambo tone stack (Baxandall?) to, flip, (2) Fender? That would be cool!
Originally Posted by jzucker
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yes, one 'tone switch' position is modelled from an AB763 fender tone stack Originally Posted by BigDaddyLoveHandles
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I've owned every era of evans and they all have a somewhat harsh midrange. This may be pleasing in the same way as a raezer's edge middy cab can be pleasing on a loud bandstand but they are not flat sounding amps. Originally Posted by Klatu
My guess is that your ear probably has equalized this out. This is something rarely discussed but there are psychoacoustics involved with the perception of tone. Guitarists usually attribute this phenomenon to speaker break in but in reality your ear will normalize sounds to be more acceptable over time and your brain changes the way tones are perceived so that they appear in your mind's ear as normalized. I have proven this to myself on many occasions when I thought an amp had warmed up but when you record it and do an aural palette cleanse or play another amp for a couple weeks and come back you will hear the original sound more clearly.
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Perhaps, but I love it.
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it's a great amp. Not invalidating your love for it. Just that it's middy sounding. So is the mambo but it's more transparent than the evans. Frankly the kemper smokes them both though. Originally Posted by Klatu
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