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<< back to reviews Divided by 13 review By Lance Keltner for UGG Divided by 13 ER33 I recently acquired a Divided by 13 ER33. It is a 4 EL84 amp with two non-switchable channels. Channel one features include volume, bass, treble, and reverb. The amp has the nicest sounding reverb that I have ever heard in a tube amp. It is a spring tank verb but sounds more like a plate reverb unit. It is nothing short of amazing. The amp sounds unique so I can only compare it to things that you might be familiar with in a general manner. 
The amp has a vintage feel. Imagine a great AC-30 with more bottom end,
beautiful top end chime and killer verb, and this is just channel one.
Channel two has only two knobs. Volume, and a click pot that is a tone
selector or sorts. To the far right you get more bottom, and as you
click the other direction the amp gets brighter.This channel to my ears sounds like the great AC-15 two twelve amps of the early 60's. Thick mids, great clear top end, and a bottom that really moves some air. Great tones. You can even get into the early ZZ Top zone with this channel, but don't expect hard rock, or metal tones from this amp at all.  
The amp has no master volume but does include a half power switch that
takes the head down to 15 watts. You can get great tones at reasonable
volumes but this is not a "Lead tone at bedroom volume" amp.The amp does not include internal channel switching but Frederic at D13 offers an optional footswitch called the Switchhazel. This switch will allow you to access channel 1, channel 2 or both, and includes a onboard boost called "lift" and a tuner output. The lift box is as transparent, or more so than the ZVex SHO and drives the amps click channel into a more gained up mode. I love this amp and could not part with it for any amount of money. If you love old Vox tones, and would like an amp that does those and goes far beyond that give the D13 ER33 a try. By the way......it is the coolest looking amp that I have ever owned. 
You have just read the review on the EL84 version of the D13 amp, then it
will come as no surprise to you that I also own and love a 6v6 version.Besides the control layout being the same the amps are different animals altogether. The Verb channel still includes the same controls as the EL84 model, bass, treble, volume, and verb, but sounds much more like a vintage black face fender amp. The reverb is still as stunning as the EL 84's but the tones are way more in the fender zone. There is a pull boost feature on this channel that takes the gain up a bit. This channel can go from warm, and dead clean, to SRV territory. Channel two: the click channel still has only two knobs. The click tone control and a volume knob. This channel sounds like a 50's Tweed Twin meets a 60's Marshall. Big Thick, and rich tones jump off of the strings when using the click channel of this amp. The response time is like lightning, and there is enough gain on tap to play lead with no pedal, or boost of any kind. The amp will clean up with just the volume control and pick attack. Very dynamic. Very alive. Killer rock amp. Put the lift control boost in front of this thing and you are in high gain solo heaven. Killer amp. More info about the Divided By 13 amps, visit: www.dividedby13.com Listen to Lance Keltner's ÷13 Clips: 6v6 strat reverb 6v6 tele 6v6 verb clean tele 6v6tele 6v6 hendrix octave 6v6 fuzz and vibe Humbucker click channel 6v6 EL 84 with strat reverb EL84 chord thing click EL84 click best EL84 click humbucker Thanx to, Lance Keltner www.lancekeltner.com << back to reviews |