While searching around for a Fryette/VHT Sig:X amp, I spotted this PWE Amp. I’ve seen these compared to Landry’s, Bogners, and other boutique modded Marshall type designs and heard glowing reviews of them. It was an auction, so I waited until close to the end and just put in the starting bid and figured if I’m lucky, I’ll get it. Boutique amps like this are hard to sell sometimes because their names aren’t as recognizable or searched as often as the big names, and I was lucky and won it for a fair price.
When it first arrived, it sounded great right off the bat and I was enjoying some of the more interesting non-standard controls. However, it popped a a preamp tube and the clean channel died (actually got the tube so hot it physically cracked open and turned white). I put in a brand new tube hoping it would fix the issue, and it did for a while but then the same issue happened again. Maybe Guitar Center has desensitized me to things like this, but the way I see it a tube amp is a complicated device that needs regular maintenance and the occasional tech touch-up to keep running well. I send an email over to Ted Stevenson, the designer and builder of these amps. I received a prompt response with some general troubleshooting directions, and after the first few attempts didn’t fix the issue (I located a run on the PCB leading to that tube that was 400v instead of 200v like the other side), we spoke on the phone for a while and he helped me trace that run and helped me figure out the issue. That really says something to me - as someone who bought a used amp Ted has no obligation whatsoever to help me out and he could’ve just told me to send the amp in for service and that’s it. I was able to touch up a solder joint inside and I was immediately back in business.
The clean channel now is running at the correct voltage - before it was running at a much higher voltage which did result in a marginally cleaner tone, but I’m much happier now using the amp as intended and can get a little hint of grit on the clean channel with the gain maxed, which is my preference.
The drive channel sounds incredible with almost no tweaking - and there is a switch that takes this channel from a normal/classic gain up to a high gain mode. I love both modes on this amp, it gets nice and saturated, and is very full sounding and polite, if anything. Dial in the Hyperon and Tachyon (bright switch) controls, or use the negative feedback control on the back, and you are in aggressive metal territory with extra presence and cut over the same thick core tone - and that’s before even touching the high sensitive 3-band EQ controls, or the presence and depth controls (on the back). This amp has incredible versatility. It also came with a 3-button footswitch, which allows switching channels, turning on/off the effects loop, or switching to the “blow” channnel, which is just channel 2 with an alternate volume control.
My only suggestion to improve this beauty is that if channel 2 is set to the low gain mode, I wish pressing the blow switch also engaged the high gain switch as well. That’d turn it into essentially a 3 channel amp, where a clean, crunch, and lead tone could all be footswitched. The default arrangement only goes from clean to crunch, or clean to high gain modes, though it is still nice to have that second volume level control available for solos and the like. I suppose if it were wired like this from factory, I’d be complaining that it switched for me and I couldn’t have my crunch tone louder for solos instead, so I’m really nitpicking here. Count me a big fan and hugely impressed by this amp.
