[dtaylorl]

So I just picked up a Garnet Gnome Reverb. Don't know a tonne about it, but it was a good deal so I picked it up. Canadian made all-tube amp from the 80s I believe. All the info I have found online seems to compare them to a Vibro Champ. There seems to be a decent amount of info about the Gnome, but not much on the reverb version which I have. Its been out in my cold car all day so I'm waiting for it to warm up before I plug her in.

[dtaylorl]

Okay, it may actually be from the 70s, not the 80s... not 100% sure on that. Has a built in tremolo as well as reverb. Most specs I see for this say it has a 6V6 and two 12ax7s. This appears to have a 6L6 and three 12ax7s. The 6L6/6V6 difference seems to be pretty normal, but I'm not sure about the extra 12ax7. Could that be for the reverb?

I believe this is a 7 or 8 watt amp, but boy is it loud. I have to have it almost all the way down to play it in my basement. The cleans sound good, but I'm not able to get it anywhere near loud enough for it to break up. My other amp (Crate V58) has a separate gain knob which allows me to play at a quieter volume, but no such luck here. I tried plugging the line out on the Crate into the Garnet and I loved the sound. Is this most likely just because of the speaker (12" - I think - on the Gnome, only 8" on the Crate) or would the amp color the sound in a significant way? Would running a distortion/OD pedal into the Gnome accomplish essentially the same thing? In the long run I'm likely only going to be able to keep one of these amps and I'm not sure if getting a bigger speaker on the Crate or bringing down the volume on the Gnome is going to be a better option.