MoonBassAlpha Posted March 14, 2014 Share Posted March 14, 2014 (edited) Just arrived at work! I sent my Sessionette 75 off to have the RetroTone Upgrade, by the originator/designer, Stewart Ward of Award-Session. He has been working on this upgrade to make the amps more valve-like in articulation and tone, without the maintenance issues. I thought I'd give it a go and get the reknowned crackly pots seen to at the same time. Well, we will see when I get it home! Pics and review to follow. Details: [url="http://www.award-session.com/sessionette.html"]http://www.award-session.com/sessionette.html[/url] Edited March 14, 2014 by MoonBassAlpha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skankdelvar Posted March 14, 2014 Share Posted March 14, 2014 I remember seeing Jay Stapley gigging with a Sessionette in the Dublin Castle in the 80's. Absolutely stonking sound and not a valve in sight. Enjoy your amp when it comes home Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoonBassAlpha Posted March 16, 2014 Author Share Posted March 16, 2014 Well it is back in it's cabinet and I've given it a go. Some of this won't mean much to people who don't know the Sessionette 75, but here goes: Clean channel In standard trim, the clean channel is ultra clean and quite glassy. Now it has more bass and more warmth and that slightly "pillowy" articulation that you get with a Fender Twin reverb. The new Presence control does quite a lot but is a bit of a pain as it is on the back in place of the old line-out volume control. More of a global flavour to just set and forget really. Distortion channel The standard distortion, I always found a bit scratchy, but quite usable in a band mix. Now it is smoother and more retro (for want of a better word) sounding, which is exactly the idea. This doesn't mean it is lacking in top-end at all, but it seems to respond really well to the guitar's tone control, and the distortion will clean up nicely as you reduce volume on the guitar, something most solid state amps don't do very well. It seems to me to like single coil pickups better than humbuckers, single notes sounding a bit sweeter. This may have a lot to do with the designer's love of Telecasters! The whole thing is more phat and less boxy than before, i found myself turning the bass down, I'd always run pretty flat before. I'll be interested to hear my guitarist through it at the next practice. He uses a Tele and a Turbo Rat for the noisier bits. It will be interesting to hear that combo through this combo. All in all a very interesting development that makes a lot of difference. It feels a lot more like my old Wem Dominator to play. I haven't tried it out with my SG yet though - that would be the best comparison, as it was what I used when I was gigging on guitar (13 years ago) Any local valve fans are welcome to try it out! Cheers Jules Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skankdelvar Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 (edited) Ta for the review, Jules! Happy Session-ing! If I can stop moving house every 5 minutes I might well investigate one of these puppies - and Mr Ward's upgrades. [color=#ffffff].[/color] Edited March 17, 2014 by skankdelvar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoonBassAlpha Posted March 18, 2014 Author Share Posted March 18, 2014 Well, if Didcot is nearer than Basingstoke to you, you're more than welcome to give it a bash. Anyone in Oxford on Sunday (23rd) can hear it at the Bully (now called the Art Bar) at 3pm, some kind of all-dayer, I think! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skankdelvar Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Thank you, that's very kind. With luck, around the year 2023 I should finally settle down somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoonBassAlpha Posted March 20, 2014 Author Share Posted March 20, 2014 Well, tried it out in practice last night, guitarist using only the clean channel. He LOVED it. He couldn't really articulate it very well but it was along the lines of "still really clean but much richer sounding". Get this - even our drummer noticed, and said it sounded really great. Shame we didn't get to the dirty channel, but he uses his Turbo Rat for that, and that always sounded good before anyhow... This exercise has got me even more interested in Award-Session's new product, the Blues Baby. It uses similar design principles and is sold as chassis only that fits into a Fender Blues Junior cabinet. See here [url="http://www.award-session.com/bluesbaby.html"]http://www.award-session.com/bluesbaby.html[/url] I really don't need another guitar amp, but.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt P Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 this is very interesting to read. our guitarist is about to send his sessionette off for exactly this mod, from your description i think it's going to suit him even better that it was before (and he describes it as his perfect amp) Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoonBassAlpha Posted April 1, 2014 Author Share Posted April 1, 2014 I still haven't played around with it myself all that much, but I will say again that it seemed to work better on the distortion channel with single coil pickups. I only tried it briefly with a humbucker guitar (Eggle Berlin) and it did sound harmonically richer, but with a kind of wolf note on single note lead lines. Chords sounded quite lush though. I really need to try it out with a guitar I know better, as the Eggle is new ish to me. Still to try out my old SG with it. Also, beware the lead-time, mine was nearly 3 months away. I'm not gigging on guit, but make sure he's covered with a backup. Of course, lead time may be shorter now as the Blues Baby launch is now done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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