Egnater Renegade Designed by Bruce Egnater, the Renegadeis armed
with independent controls andcomes with a four-button footswitch
forselecting channels and activating the reverb,effects loop, and
secondary master volumeon either or both channels. The power
stagehas two EL34s and two 6L6s, which can beused separately or
blended together via theTube Mix control on both channels. The
ideais to give the player the ability to use theglassier sounding
6L6s or the more muscu-lar EL34s, or any combination of the two.The
Renegade’s flexible control arrange-ment also provides the ability
to configureeach channel for 65-watt or 18-watt opera-tion, set the
low-end response for “tight”or “deep,” and the high-frequency
responsefor “bright” or “normal.” In addition to allthis is a
Master section, which has reverband secondary master-volume
controls foreach channel, as well as global Density andPresence
controls.
On the Renegade’s rear panel we finddual speaker outs, a
balanced line out, a serieseffects loop, and meter test-points and
adjust-ment screws for setting the bias on the twopairs of output
tubes. The manual detailshow to adjust the bias for optimum
perform-ance, and also provides recommended biassettings for other
types of power tubes thatcan be used in the Renegade, such as
the6550, 6V6, KT66, and KT77.
The Chinese-made Renegade is an easyamp to get comfy with thanks
to its dis-tinctly voiced channels, which serve up abroad
assortment of American- and British-style sounds. Channel 1 is the
more Fendersounding, and with the Tube Mix knob inthe full 6L6
position it can deliver every-thing from pristine clean to
mildlyoverdriven tones. This channel easily cov-ers the bases from
jazz to blues to country,but the timbral difference between the
full6L6 and full EL34 positions is surprisinglysubtle—even at
higher volumes—and evenmore so when blending different ratios ofthe
tubes. (Bruce Egnater responds, “Thedifferences can be more
noticeable at highervolumes where the distortion characteris-tics
of the tubes become most apparent.
The 5881s may also make for a bit tighterfeel, while the EL34s
may tend to have amore focused midrange. Of course, userscan
install any variety of tubes to createsome interesting effects. For
example,blending a pair of high voltage 6V6s witha pair of 6550s
creates an interesting andunique combination of tones.)
The digital reverb sounds good on thischannel, and the
“spillover” function keepsthe sound consistent when you
switchbetween channels. However, if you’re a hard-core ’verb freak
you’ll probably wish for asmoother decay than it provides.
Switching to channel 2 uncorks the
Renegade’s distortion side, and this chan-nel can elicit
everything from grinding,JTM-45-inflected blues tones to
full-boreshred mayhem. The gain range was veryaccommodating to
single-coil and humbuckerguitars, and the Tight/Deep switch and
Den-sity control make it easy to dial in thelow-end response to
suit your needs. Again,I found the Tube Mix control to be more
sub-tle than salvational, though the 18-wattsetting proved very
handy for situationswhere you want to run the amp hard, butvolume
is an issue. The Renegade has a lotgoing for it, and in terms of
bang-for-the-buck, it’s a tough act to follow.
R O U N D U PGear
100 J U L Y 2 0 1 0 G U I T A R P L AY E R . C O M
