Reußenzehn, Reu-O-Grande Combo Leo 112, 2000

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Specifications
Builder: 
Reußenzehn
Model: 
Reu-O-Grande Combo Leo 112
Year: 
2000
The Story Behind

 

About the Amp:

This is a 100W EL34 boutique handwired combo with a 100/50/25 Watt switch and a 1x12" Reussenzehn designed Emminence Legend Speaker. It is a limited edition of the Chicage Model No. 2 similar to the one which was built for Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top).

Excerpts from reviews of "Guitar & Bass":

The Rio Gran­de is a ri­ver in the Lo­ne Star Sta­te (Texas) and a Reu-o-Gran­de-amp can sound so au­then­tic that the con­jec­tu­re is clo­se, that this am­pli­fier would be closely associated with the land the Rhythm and the Blues are at ho­me.

But theho­me of the Reu-o-Gran­de amps is the town of Of­fen­bach, Germany that has so much clas­sic rock and roll ap­peal as my grand­ma; this is whe­re Tho­mas Reu­ßen­zehn has its pro­duc­tion work­shop sin­ce 1968, in which he builts next tio the gui­tar amps ma­ny other pro­ducts such as ste­reo pre and power am­pli­fiers, head­pho­nes, etc. One thing that all the­se pro­ducts ha­ve in com­mon: they are dri­ven by con­ven­tio­nal tu­be tech­ni­que.

With Reu-o Gran­de Tho­mas Reu­ßen­zehn re­fers to a small li­mi­ted se­ries of am­pli­fiers, whe­re all his ye­ars of ac­cu­mu­la­ted know-how on tu­be amps and their mo­di­fi­ca­ti­ons co­me to­ge­ther. The first Reu-o-Gran­de amps, then still hea­vi­ly mo­di­fied Mar­shall 1959 mo­dels, we­re built for the Rod­gau mo­no­to­nes in 1979, fol­lo­wed by spo­ra­dic small se­ries such as the top Chi­ca­go Mod 2 with built-in ex­er­cise spea­kers or 4x 10 "- ste­reo com­bo.

Mi­no­ri­ties of­ten ha­ve an unusu­al ap­pearan­ce, and so Reu­ßen­zehn has ne­ver shied away from of­fe­ring spec­ta­cu­lar de­signs. The Reu-o-Gran­de head for ex­amp­le, had a bright red fa­bric co­ver, Sna­ke Skin immitation, a so-cal­led Spi­der­top with en­gra­ved alu­mi­num front pa­nel etc. And for his la­test crea­ti­on, the 112 Leo com­bo, the Mas­ter has even go­ne on sa­fa­ri.

Construction

The al­most squa­re ca­se of the com­bo is covered with leo­pard skin (immitation) - hence "Leo" as Thought­ful! - Re­spect!Stay calm, her ani­mal rights ac­tivists he­re any re­al leo­pard was pul­led the wool over my eyes, of cour­se it is an imi­ta­ti­on, a fa­bric that ap­pears de­cep­tive­ly re­al and is al­so ex­cep­tio­nal­ly sta­ble. Rug­ged me­tal cor­ners are fi­xed with a litt­le clun­ky-loo­king wood screws, al­so pro­tect the eight cor­ners of the re­ar half-open com­bos. Four rub­ber feet pro­vi­de a se­cu­re grip, as well as the du­ty lea­ther hand­le on top of the hou­sing.

Reu-o-Gran­de amps al­ways pre­sent, so the ma­nu­fac­tu­rer, the "pu­re" rock and roll sound - equip­ped and are the­re­fo­re so spar­tan than any other am­pli­fier on the mar­ket. Fea­tures such as Hall, a se­cond chan­nel or even EQ see­king man the­re­fo­re vain. Other le­gen­da­ry amps such as the Vox AC30, ha­ve no to­ne con­trol in the strict sen­se. The gui­tar si­gnal is high­ly am­pli­fied re­la­tive­ly "short" on the fe­west pos­si­ble steps and pha­se shifts, ef­fec­tive sound in­flu­en­ces are not ma­de in the preli­mi­na­ry sta­ge, but in the fi­nal sta­ge through ac­tive pre­sence and cut fil­ter.

A con­ven­tio­nal to­ne con­trol, which usual­ly con­sists of ca­pa­ci­tor fil­ters, af­fect the pu­re sound dra­ma­tic, it then has a re­la­tive­ly lar­ge tech­ni­cal ef­fort will be ope­ra­ted to gi­ve the sound the old fresh­ness. Howe­ver, with in­cre­a­sing vo­lu­me by the co­m­ing in­to sa­tu­ra­ti­on out­put trans­for­mer sound cha­rac­te­ri­zes the cru­ci­al sta­ge of the am­pli­fier, the to­ne con­trol was sim­ply omit­ted!

Ano­ther spe­cial fea­ture is the built-in the pre­cur­sor so-cal­led ca­tho­de fol­lo­wer cir­cuit in the Tu­be­Boos­ter avail­able as foot ap­p­li­an­ce Da­ni­el D from the sa­me hou­se al­so sits and al­re­a­dy a num­ber of gui­ta­rists should be known. The pre­cur­sor is the­re­fo­re equip­ped with three 12 AX7 tu­bes, the first - this very re­s­pon­si­ble for Da­ni­el D. cir­cuit, has be­en trea­ted to mi­cro­pho­nics by a spe­cial me­cha­ni­cal dam­ping ac­tion.The Da­ni­el D. cir­cuit va­ri­ant gi­ves the Vert­stär­ker a gre­at dy­na­mics and sen­si­ti­vi­ty that ma­ke a chan­nel swit­ching al­most red­un­dant - as the pre­cur­sor re­acts sen­si­tive­ly to the in­co­m­ing gui­tar si­gnal.

The rec­tifier func­tion is not rea­li­zed as with ma­ny other vin­ta­ge-ori­en­ted am­pli­fiers through a tu­be but by a di­ode cir­cuit. This gi­ves the am­pli­fier a grea­ter as­ser­tiven­ess and a slight­ly mo­re cen­tral, mo­re di­rect punch. The na­tu­ral com­pres­si­on that cau­ses a tu­be rec­tifier is in the Reu-o-Gran­de re­ached in the 25-watt po­si­ti­on, in Po­ti­form (100,50 and 25 watts) can be ad­jus­ted by me­ans of a triple switch.

The fi­nal sta­ge is klas­sich: 1x 12 AX7 and 4x EL34 Bri­tish style to en­han­ce the worked-in the preamp si­gnal. All tu­bes are sup­por­ted by an in­te­gra­ted fan at ope­ra­ting tem­per, even if you li­ke it a bit hot­ter ap­proa­ching.As an out­put trans­for­mer, a high qua­li­ty trans­for­mer se­ries PM-95 is used, the thanks 12X nes­ting of the win­ding lay­ers gua­ran­tees a high de­gree of fre­quen­cy trans­for­ma­ti­on and ope­ra­tio­nal safe­ty - as hap­pens so fast no one in the knee. He­re Reu­ßen­zehn con­ti­nues the tra­di­ti­on am­pli­fier at the end of the 50s, which con­sti­tu­ted with such so-cal­led ul­tra-li­ne­ar cir­cuits with com­plex out­put trans­for­mers in his opi­ni­on, the cul­mi­na­ti­on of old tu­be cir­cuits.A word pro­ces­sing: On the in­si­de of the am­pli­fier we see that the tra­di­tio­nal way the in­di­vi­du­al com­po­n­ents ha­ve be­en fre­e­ly and na­tu­ral­ly wired by hand with fa­bric si­li­co­ne wires. A good dy­na­mics and a plush to­ne is main­ly achie­ved by all the ma­jor com­po­n­ents as clo­se as pos­si­ble - are built - he­re on an area of ​​about 10 x 10 cm. For this re­a­son, the in­ter­nal amp co­mes al­so com­ple­te­ly wi­thout shiel­ded ca­bles, which would cau­se their hig­her ca­pa­ci­ti­ve dam­ping high fre­quen­cy loss and a dul­ler sound, and still has a high si­gnal to noi­se ra­tio, ie, he roars no mo­re than other am­pli­fiers too. All other com­po­n­ents such as po­ten­tio­me­ters, jacks and swit­ches are pro­ven, ro­bust parts that lea­ve a re­lia­ble im­pres­si­on.

Controls:

The am­pli­fier used in the 112 Leo cor­re­sponds to the top amplifier of the Reu-o-Gran­de series, the Chi­ca­go Model No 2.  Si­mi­lar to an AC-30, the am­pli­fier is in­stal­led han­ging in the hou­sing, the con­trols are ali­gned to the top.Above the in­put jack ac­tive Sound­po­ti si­mi­lar to the cut-re­gu­la­tor of AC-30, the hi­d­den va­ria­ble from over treb­le / midran­ge do­mi­nant to bass / low mids-em­pha­si­zed sounds. With the pre and mas­ter pots, the in­put and out­put vo­lu­mes are set, an ad­di­tio­nal pre­sence con­trol - what a lu­xu­ry! - Acts di­rect­ly on the dri­ver part of the sta­ge and, if ne­cessa­ry, gi­ve the sound, a cle­ar height boost.As men­tio­ned above, a switch lo­wers the no­mi­nal fi­nal vo­lu­me from 100 to 50 watts - he­re two power tu­bes are swit­ched off - or to 25 watts, which are achie­ved by ad­di­tio­nal dam­ping load re­sis­tors. Two hea­vy-du­ty togg­le switch press the On/Off- and stand­by func­tions - that's about it as well.The con­nec­tion pe­ri­phe­ry of the re­ar or un­der­si­de is de­si­gned si­mi­lar­ly spar­tan. Be­si­des the two spea­ker ter­mi­nals are one of which is oc­cu­p­ied by the built-in spea­ker, we find the so­cket for the Eu­ro power plug, two fu­se hol­ders and two mo­re, la­be­led with send and re­turn jacks, which are a se­ri­al loop.The sup­p­lied vo­lu­me pe­dal is con­nec­ted, the con­trols di­rect­ly and ex­clu­si­ve­ly the out­put sta­ge of the am­pli­fier and not as an upstream vo­lu­me pe­dal ad­justs the in­put vo­lu­me of the pre­cur­sor.In this way it can al­so be an ef­fect unit "hung", the ma­nu­fac­tu­rer has but ne­ces­sa­ri­ly in­di­ca­te to use good equip­ment with the pre­scri­bed stan­dard le­vel, other­wi­se the­re is a dan­ger that the sound of the am­pli­fier gets stuck in the ef­fects unit ...As a spea­ker Reu­ßen­zehn used a 12 "Emi­nence ag­gre­ga­te of the com­pa­ny, who­se mem­bra­ne it has har­de­ned in a spe­cial pro­ce­du­re sche­ming.

Practice:

The hand­ling of this Le­os seems sim­ple - and re­al­ly, what can you do al­re­a­dy wrong, the­re are al­most no con­trol­ler the­re? Con­nect the ca­ble and off you go!If both re­gu­la­tors for pre and power amp tur­ned up half­way, ma­kes its­elf at my equip­ped with sin­gle-coil pick­ups fa­vo­ri­te gui­tar (ful­ly up vo­lu­me con­trol of the gui­tar) a rich, cle­ar crunch sound wi­de, which is very dy­na­mic and ali­ve.The sound is down­right fat and round; a gre­at so­lo sound in a blues con­text. If the vo­lu­me con­trol of the gui­tar now tur­ned back about half­way, the sound is al­most com­ple­te­ly cle­an and still has not be­co­me much quie­ter.He­re, for the first ti­me cle­ar why the ma­nu­fac­tu­rer be­lie­ves that a chan­nel swit­ching is not ne­cessa­ry in a Reu-o-Gran­de. When the gui­tar is tur­ned up, it gets just the right boost in vo­lu­me to oc­cur ac­com­pany­ing en­vi­ron­ment in­to the sun­light of a so­lo­ing from the rhythm and can. Prac­tical!With a hum­bu­cker equip­ped gui­tar a whop­ping dis­tor­ti­on is achie­ved at half cran­ked gain and power amp con­trols on the amp. He­re, the gui­tar is al­so not qui­te cle­an, if their vo­lu­me is wi­th­drawn - be­cau­se we would ha­ve the ex­tra gain fur­ther turn back.But we want mo­re! Is the gain knob about 3/4 of his way tur­ned up, we get the hum­bu­cker gui­tar a won­der­ful­ly rich so­lo sound that so­mehow re­minds me of the end­less so­los of jazz-rock for­ma­ti­ons from days go­ne by.Or is it just the joy of play­ing, which is me­dia­ted by the dy­na­mism and vi­ta­li­ty of this am­pli­fier? My band­ma­tes ha­ve cer­tain­ly gi­ven me to un­der­stand cle­ar­ly that we are not jazz-rock band with eter­nal gui­tar nood­ling we­re fi­nal­ly, and that I should hold back a litt­le ...The sin­gle coil pick­ups de­li­vers in this 3/4-Ein­stel­lung the amp a al­ways trans­pa­rent and pres­sing "board", whe­re in­di­vi­du­al no­tes play­ed unusual­ly well fed and ap­pe­ar sin­ging. Wan­ted feed­back and tar­ge­ted up­set in over­to­nes are one of the ea­siest ex­er­ci­ses with this com­bo.The chan­ge from 100 to 50 watts no­mi­nal ma­kes its­elf sub­jec­tive­ly no­ti­ce­able on­ly at high vo­lu­me. Howe­ver, if the 25 - watt po­si­ti­on enab­led, then the out­put sta­ge ear­lier in your sa­tu­ra­ti­on, the com­pres­sor ef­fect de­scri­bed above is achie­ved and de­si­gned the sound soft and "crea­my".Ul­ti­mate­ly, all sounds that can be set with the­se few knobs, shaped by their fresh­ness and vi­bran­cy, no mat­ter what gui­tar is being used.Even ful­ly up-down gain with a hum­bu­cker gui­tar is ren­de­red trans­pa­rent, not­hing crus­hes and ma­kes tight.

Summary:

With a good gui­tar that is best equip­ped in the bridge po­si­ti­on with a (split­ta­ble) hum­bu­ckers and has the cor­rect ca­pa­ci­tor on the vo­lu­me pot, which prevents the lo­wer­ing of heights when run­ter­re­geln, has an a gui­ta­rist with this Reu o Gran­de 112 Leo ul­ti­ma­te sound tool at hand, who ga­ve him an unusu­al sound and band­width - pro­vi­des qua­li­ty pai­red with a pu­re tu­be sound.The tra­di­tio­nal de­sign-hand­ma­de in Ger­ma­ny - and un­com­pro­mi­sing de­sign are a pre­re­qui­si­te for an im­pres­si­ve­ly ex­pres­si­ve sound that en­han­ces any gui­tar and his fo­cus is cer­tain­ly in the broad field bet­ween ROCK AND BLUES.In­ter­na­tio­nal sound - and pri­ce com­pa­ri­sons nee­ds of Reu o Gran­de Com­bo do not fe­ar, and in the ca­se of ser­vices, mo­di­fi­ca­ti­ons, etc., it is cer­tain­ly en­ough for the ma­nu­fac­tu­rer of ad­van­ta­ge not so­mew­he­re on the Rio Gran­de, but - be as in this ca­se-the mur­ky Main ho­me has. Leo F. is dead-long li­ve this Leo!

PLUS:

+ Ex­tre­me­ly dy­na­mic blues / rock sound re­a­son 
+ Ver­sa­ti­li­ty (see text) 
+ Un­com­pro­mi­sing de­sign

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