Guitarists all around the world are on a constant quest to find “that” sound. And from the many guitars, effects, speakers, and amps to choose from, it shouldn’t be too difficult to find the perfect match right? Wrong. While I was searching for an amp, I found the amount and variety of gear available to be overwhelming and I became absolutely frustrated at times during my search. Finally I found this little half stack called the Rebel 20 and I bought it. I can’t tell you if the Egnater Rebel 20 is right for you but it was certainly right for me and I’ll tell you why. I bought the Egnater Rebel 20 Half-Stack because I wanted a high class, versatile tube amp that would sound good for just about any type of music. The Rebel 20 is an all-tube head with a variety of interesting parameters: It has two sets of blendable power tubes – 6V6s and EL84s. The tone differences are pretty subtle but the 6V6s are a little bit chimier and the EL84s are slightly more aggressive. You can mix them to get any combination you want. Still, I tend to use one set or the other since the tone differences are quite subtle. It also has a wattage control so you can adjust the wattage of the amp to any point between 1 and 20 watts. This is a neat feature because, by turning down the wattage, you can keep the volume and gain up to get a very power tube-driven sound at a relatively low volume. The amp also has two small switches – Tight and Bright – which allow you to adjust the amp’s… well, tightness and brightness. The “Tight” switch cleans up the overall sound a little bit and takes some of the fatness away from the tone. The “Bright” switch gives the amp’s sound a ringing high end. A good way to use this switch is in collaboration with the treble knob, (if the bright switch is on, the treble should be lower than normal). As I’ve experimented with this amplifier I’ve found myself using these switches about half the time. They don’t make the sound better; they just change it. Apart from all those interesting knobs and switches are the usual things you’d expect to find on an amp: master volume, treble, mid, and bass. The equalizer controls are active so if you turn the bass, mid, and treble knobs all the way down, you won’t get any sound at all. The speaker is a 12 inch, 80 watt Celestion in a closed-backed cabinet with a port in the front. It’s got a nice tight bass, clear mids and highs and it sounds amazing with the Rebel 20. It doesn’t have the reverb an open-backed cabinet would have and if you like using open-backed cabinets, the closed-back Egnater might not be your cup of tea. With all these parameters, you can get loads of different sounds with this amp and it is impossible to make it sound bad, I’ve tried! There are several things I don’t like about this amp: For one thing, it has no reverb. I don’t use reverb too often but it would be nice to have, especially with the closed-back speaker cabinet, (which has all the reverb of a fat pillow). Also, if you use it on stage you may want a distortion pedal. It’s only a one-channel amp you can’t easily change from a clean to a distorted sound between songs. There are several points that I think are very impressive about this little half stack: For one, it sounds amazing with a variety of guitars. I tried two Telecasters, a Strat, a Les Paul, a Yamaha SG, two Carvins, a Jazzmaster, a Danelectro, and a Guild Bluesbird – they all sounded excellent in their own ways. The Rebel 20 head and speaker have nice piping between the differently colored vinyls. The head also has two metal vents to help keep the tubes cool – one on the back and one on the top. Interestingly enough, my Rebel 20 doesn’t have Groove Tubes. Instead, it came with JJ power tubes and Sovtek preamp tubes. I’m not complaining, the JJ and Sovtek tubes sound great and I’m sure Egnater’s idea to change them was for the better. To sum up, I’ve played many excellent amps with top-notch effects and guitars and I’m willing to say that this little bugger could hold its own against the best Fender combos and Marshall stacks available. It can be used to play anything from Glen Phillips to Radiohead to Red Hot Chili Peppers to The Beatles – and play it well! Also, the Rebel 20 sounds good even at low volumes so you can get good sounds in your bedroom or living room. If you’re looking for a small, versatile amp for recording, practicing, or gigging you could do worse than to consider the Rebel 20.

I bought the combo as a scratch & dent special for a song ($475). The only damage was a small dent on the front, and the chrome cover on one side of the handle was dented, otherwise it functioned perfect. One 12ax7 tube was popped out of the socket appon arrival, and the other 4 were partially out. Maybe the shipping carrier got a bit rough with it during the Christmas rush??? I reinstalled all the tubes and made sure they were snug before powering up the amp.

I checked and rebiased the output tubes before the initial use. The bias did need adjusting. I only recomend doing this IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING!

The amp sounds very good with all the guitars I run through it, with more than enough overdrive on tap, and pristine/chimey cleans, especially with the "bright" switch enabled. The preamp needs to be backed down a bit when running it hard or the amp gets a bit farty, especially at high volume. Enabling the tight switch helps with this problem quite well, and reducing the bass knob does also. Bringing the "watts" control up to 30w tightens the bass and makes for better touch sensitivity, with the 1w setting very spongy and better for low volume hard rock and midnight practice. At high volume I run the preamp at about 1-3 o'clock on the knob, and the master volume at 12 o'clock or higher. The combo is a VERY LOUD 30w when the watt knob is mixing the EL84 and the 6V6 together, and is still quite loud when either type of tube is running by themselves. The "clean" channel running the 6V6 tubes sounds more Fender than many Fender amps :)

There is a lot of range with the tone controls, so it takes a bit of time to set them correctly when changing guitars or speaker cabs if you are critical about your tone balance. For recording I run the Rebel 30 through an old '79 Marshall slant cab with 30w "Black Sticker" Celestions, and it really opens up this amp. I have an old Rola-Celestion G12-85 I may throw in the combo just to see how it compares with the stock speaker.

The design of the amp is well layed out, with all of the tubes easily accessible, and biasing the output tubes also a snap (with a *GOOD* quality digital meter). Biasing my Marshall amp is a pain in the arse' in comparison.

All in all, I highly recomend this all-tube (9 tubes total!) 30w combo to anyone that wants an amp with a lot of control of their tone, and a modern or classic tube sound in one small box.

This is quite the amp, if you're looking for all around great tone. The cleans are sparkly, and sound great no matter what guitar I use. The distortions are pretty good, but seem just a tad harsh with single coils. Rolling off the treble remedies this nicely though. Has tons of great features, including fx loop, XLR out (great by the way), silent record, and of course the tube mix and wattage knobs. Just like any tube amp though, it needs to be cranked to get to the tube deliciosness, but it sounds pretty good even at low volumes. I only wish the price was a little lower, but honestly that's my only gripe. Great amp!

Loved the chimey clean channel. Really special. Lots of depth and very rich tone.

Overdrive channel is nothing special. Can sound boxy and indistinct. Doesn't clean up when you roll off guitar volume. You're better off keeping the gain down and using your favorite overdrive pedal on this channel.

I gave up on Egnater after my third (yes third) Rebel-30 exhibited problems. Three amps, three different problems. If you get a Rebel-30 with no manufacturing issues, you'll have a nice amp.

Went to my local Guitar Center to look for a good, versitle low-wattage tube amp to use in my cover band. I compared this amp side by side with a Bogner Alchemist and actually ended up walking out with the Bogner. However after a week of playing on the Bogner I was dissappointed with its tone at higher volumes.

Took the Bogner back and tried this little amp again, but at a higer volume and lower wattage (about 10w or so). All I can say is WOW...just a little more volume made this amp come alive, and the great thing was that it really wasn't all that much louder than when I tried it the first time!

The features on this amp make it incredibly versitle. I use an Ibanez loaded with Dimarzio's and a Les Paul with an EMG 81/85 combo. I run my delay though the fx loop and toss a cry baby and MXR Wylde overdrive though the front. In all gear combinations it sounds great.

The cleans are prestine, but you will need to tweak the overdrive to your taste. I found that if you crank the gain all the way up the sound gets a little muddy, but if you back it off to about 3 o'clock it really tightens up. If you add a little more wattage it will continue to tighten, back off the wattage and the distortion becomes more spongy.

Overall one of the best amps on the market! Very satisfied.