Growing up behind the Iron Curtain was a major inconvenience for aspiring rockers and tone-seekers alike. The flood of innovative electrified equipment in the west, and the records that musicians made with it, were subject to strict import regulations and therefore difficult to access. Maybe that’s why Gabriel Bucataru, who moved to the United States from Romania in early 2000, has unleashed such a raw, spirited line of rock-oriented amplifiers. His latest is the Stinger, a point-to-point, seven-watt beast with switchable EL84 and 6V6 power tubes for instant metaphorical leaps across the Atlantic. The Stinger’s unique visuals and funky vibe make it a conspicuous new participant in the low-wattage boutique combo category, and we were eager to discover whether this wasp is docile or primed to attack.
A Bee in Your Bonnet
Like its bigger brothers the V18 and V33, one of the Stinger’s defining features is a black and yellow color scheme, which varies slightly in this case by the addition of a finely applied blond tolex that covers the hand-jointed Baltic birch cabinet. Top it off with a woven natural fiber grill and pulsating green Magic Eye VU Meter, and these elements result in a surprisingly fresh vintage look that is bound to draw double takes on any stage. The main control plate is an uncluttered, user-friendly array of knobs with an irreverent design sensibility. The Stinger offers Hi and Lo inputs labeled Intrusion, a Volume control labeled Rock, a Tone knob labeled Thump, an Accent control that juices the preamp gain, and the Yank/Brit switch for on-the-fly power tube selection.
On the back panel you’ll find a passive effects loop, speaker outs with impedance selection, and, for late-night jams, a power output knob which drops the overall power output via a variable voltage regulator. Our review specimen arrived with a 12" Celestion G12M Greenback, which, combined with a rock-solid cabinet that’s relatively large for such a low wattage amplifier, gives the Stinger a more round-bottomed, three-dimensional disposition than its smaller peers.
Honey Sweet
I got a feel for the amp’s character and headroom capacity by running through some clean settings with my Fender Custom Shop 1960 Stratocaster. Gabriel’s previous offerings are based on classic British combos, so I set the switch first to Brit mode and dimed every knob. The volume was greater than expected, and considerably louder than the similarly powered silverface Champ sitting nearby. It has more gain as well, so to get the headroom I was looking for from the Strat, I dropped the Accent knob to noon and was thrilled by the snappy, ringing cleans that seemed to emanate from a much larger amplifier than the Stinger.
Exploring clean sounds is also a perfect way to hear how a fine cabinet can lessen or eliminate the need for onboard reverb—the tone was already quite three dimensional, exhibiting a wonderful acoustic blend of clean sustain and long note decay. Turning the Accent knob back up to 3 o’clock gave me exactly the textured upper midrange bite I needed for White Album-era Beatles rhythms and burning, bright leads. As can be expected at 7 watts, the Stinger won’t stay clean and remain audible over a drummer in most settings. But for distortion-oriented applications, the un-mic’d Stinger could probably keep up with a fairly nuanced drummer at a small venue. I left the Power Output knob at the maximum throughout my testing, despite it being a terrific feature for practice situations. Dropping it down did little to steal away tone, and only at the lowest end of the knob’s range was there a perceptible loss of presence and body.
The clean Yank represents a bassier blend of traditional tweed and blackface sonic signatures. Here again, the baseline tone was extremely complex and musical, making the Champ sound somewhat boxy and cold in comparison. The output from the 6V6 tube is a bit lower than the Brit mode’s EL84, but no less musical. As I crept up on the Accent knob, the Stinger fattened up, belting out a raunchy tweed-like distortion that was a perfect match for single-coils. The amp is very quiet, a rare quality in single-ended designs. It also works with pedals extremely well—my Cry Baby 535Q, a fairly noisy effect, sounded especially quiet and extra responsive.
I picked up a Les Paul and switched back to Brit mode at near full gain. This amplifier simply dripped with presence and sax-like organic warmth. Peter Green fans take note—the Stinger’s sustain and nuanced vocal nature was perfect for those biting blues tones. Rolling back the Thump knob a bit and diming the Accent control left me impressed with the perceived hugeness of amp’s high gain sounds, a great gift from such a portable piece of equipment. Engaging both tubes at once gave the Stinger its own discreet voice, adding a new dimension to the harmonic content of the tone. It’s such a cool element to find on a relatively simple amp circuit—with little else to muck up the signal purity. And at times I felt I was experiencing the sonic properties of these revered vacuum tubes for the first time in a controlled A/B testing environment.
The Verdict
The Gabriel possesses a bluesy and rocking musical soul. Most everything there is to love about rock and roll is presented to you in this little combo—the irreverence, the fun, and the grit are all there for the taking. It won’t do super-saturated modern sounds, nor is it supposed to. But because it’s got the craftsmanship and essential musicality to compete with boutique amps at twice its price, the Stinger should be shortlisted if you’re hunting for a sweet low wattage screamer.
Buy if...
you need authentic early rock and English blues tones in a boutique quality portable package.
Skip if...
clean headroom is a must.
Rating...
Street $1149 - Gabriel Sound Garage, LLC - gabtone.com |
Silos features six presets, tap tempo, one full second of delay time, and three voices—two of which are styled after bucket-brigade and tape-delay sounds. In the $150 price category, it’s not unusual for a digital delay to leave some number of those functions out. And spending the same money on a true-analog alternative usually means warm, enveloping sounds but limited functionality and delay time. Silos, improbably perhaps, offers a very elegant solution to this can’t-have-it-all dilemma in a U.S.-made effect.
A More Complete Cobbling Together
Silos’ utility is bolstered by a very unintimidating control set, which is streamlined and approachable. Three of those controls are dedicated to the same mix, time, and repeats controls you see on any delay. But saving a preset to one of the six spots on the rotary preset dial is as easy as holding the green/red illuminated button just below the mix and preset knobs. And you certainly won’t get lost in the weeds if you move to the 3-position toggle, which switches between a clear “digital” voice, darker “analog” voice, and a “tape” voice which is darker still.
“The three voices offer discernibly different response to gain devices.”
One might suspect that a tone control for the repeats offers similar functionality as the voice toggle switch. But while it’s true that the most obvious audible differences between digital, BBD, and tape delays are apparent in the relative fidelity and darkness of their echoes, the Silos’ three voices behave differently in ways that are more complex than lighter or duskier tonality. For instance, the digital voice will never exhibit runaway oscillation, even at maximum mix and repeat settings. Instead, repeats fade out after about six seconds (at the fastest time settings) or create sleepy layers of slow-decaying repeats that enhance detail in complex, sprawling, loop-like melodic phrases. The analog voice and tape voice, on the other hand, will happily feed back to psychotic extremes. Both also offer satisfying sensitivity to real-time, on-the-fly adjustments. For example, I was tickled with how I could generate Apocalypse Now helicopter-chop effects and fade them in and out of prominence as if they were approaching or receding in proximity—an effect made easier still if you assign an expression pedal to the mix control. This kind of interactivity is what makes analog machines like the Echoplex, Space Echo, and Memory Man transcend mere delay status, and the sensitivity and just-right resistance make the process of manipulating repeats endlessly engaging.
Doesn't Flinch at Filth
EarthQuaker makes a point of highlighting the Silos’ affinity for dirty and distorted sounds. I did not notice that it behaved light-years better than other delays in this regard. But the three voices most definitely offer discernibly different responses to gain devices. The super-clear first repeat in the digital mode lends clarity and melodic focus, even to hectic, unpredictable, fractured fuzzes. The analog voice, which EQD says is inspired by the tone makeup of a 1980s-vintage, Japan-made KMD bucket brigade echo, handles fuzz forgivingly inasmuch as its repeats fade warmly and evenly, but the strong midrange also keeps many overtones present as the echoes fade. The tape voice, which uses aMaestro Echoplex as its sonic inspiration, is distinctly dirtier and creates more nebulous undercurrents in the repeats. If you want to retain clarity in more melodic settings, it will create a warm glow around repeats at conservative levels. Push it, and it will summon thick, sometimes droning haze that makes a great backdrop for slower, simpler, and hooky psychedelic riffs.
In clean applications, this decay and tone profile lend the tape setting a spooky, foggy aura that suggests the cold vastness of outer space. The analog voice often displays an authentic BBD clickiness in clean repeats that’s sweet for underscoring rhythmic patterns, while the digital voice’s pronounced regularity adds a clockwork quality that supports more up-tempo, driving, electronic rhythms.
The Verdict
Silos’ combination of features seems like a very obvious and appealing one. But bringing it all together at just less than 150 bucks represents a smart, adept threading of the cost/feature needle.
EarthQuaker Devices Silos Multi-generational Time Reflection Delay Pedal
In this episode, we’re celebrating the thrill of guitarmony, sick riffs, and driving 8th-note rhythms by talking about Judas Priest. Before getting ready for this episode, neither of your esteemed hosts had ever delved into the Priest discography beyond the rock-radio hits and Beavis and Butthead—though we’d both spent our time with Heavy Metal Parking Lot. Since so many of the GOATs hold the band in the highest of regard, we knew that K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton belonged on this list, so we embarked on a journey to find out why.
After hours of listening and watching, we’re happy to report that we get it. From their debut, 1974’s Rocka Rolla, through 1980’s British Steel, deep into the ’80s-production era with 1986’s Turbo, and through the speed-metal bravado of 1990’s Painkiller, plus live videos and records—the super-loud US Festival performance and the crushing Unleashed in the East record—we found a lot that we love.
