AER AlphA plus 629 AMPS

PhotograPhy by joby sessions

98 Guitarist Summer 2009

GIT319.rev_aer 98

16/7/09 4:51:40 pm

AER AlphA plus 629 AMPS

AER Alpha Plus 629

AER has upgraded its diminutive Alpha acoustic combo. We get an exclusive peek by Dave Burrluck
mall and perfectly formed, AERs excellence in the field of acoustic instrument amplification is well earned. The dual-channel Compact 60 is AERs bestselling acoustic combo, but theres one sticking point and thats the 799 price akin to a pretty good mid-priced guitar. Designed as a more affordable little brother, the singlechannel Alpha (reviewed back in issue 228) ditched any unnecessary bells and whistles, going for a lower-powered (40 watts), even more compact unit, that trimmed the price considerably. This year, as exclusively unveiled here, AER has bridged the gap between the two with the Alpha Plus. Accurately named, the Plus is exactly that. Most obviously the 12mm birch ply sealed cabinet, covered in its distinct waterbased acrylic black splatter finish, is enlarged some 70mm in width, giving it an identical footprint to the Compact 60. Theres also a 25 per cent power increase from 40 to 50 watts. The differences sound small, but our amps are dynamically controlled so that they push the limits of the accessible wattage dramatically forward, explains AERs co-founder Udo Roesner. It amounts to a substantial increase in volume and also tone. The front of the amp does away with the foam cover, revealing a very rigid steel grille, behind which you can see the dual-ported baffle and eight inch two-cone speaker, as used on the Compact 60 and Alpha. Roesner states that this is a must for us to achieve this tone at this product level. Overall weight has risen too the Alpha Plus weighs in just under 8kg, slightly heavier than the Alpha, but trimmer than the Compact 60. Its still remarkably compact and typically comes in a nicely made padded gig bag that not only has an open top, so you can still use the large grab-handle,

The Rivals
Powerful and portable acoustic amps with quality tones arent always easy to come by try before you buy. Fishmans Loudbox 100 (699) isnt quite as light and portable as the AER, but boasts 100-watt output, two channels, three-band EQ, feedback control and onboard digital effects. Rolands AC90 (599) is a stereo combo (2 x 45 watts) with guitar and mic/line inputs, feedback controls and digital effects. At nearly half the weight of these, PJBs CUB AG-100 (329) still quotes a 100W output with a single channel and no effects its compact too.

but three side pockets for accessories as well. Its a highly portable package. The top-mounted controls and rear sockets are fitted on a sturdy steel inverted L-shaped plate, which creates the rear of the combo. The electrics themselves havent changed from the Alpha a singlechannel configuration with dual parallel inputs. From the left we have Input One, an XLR/6.4mm jack combination with dedicated line/mic push switch and single rotary gain control. Input Two is a chassis jack with a -10dBV pad pushswitch and its own gain control. The clip LED indicator is global and ideally should be set so that it occasionally lights at the peak of your input to achieve the best signal-to-noise ratio. EQ-wise we have a simple, but very musical, centrenotched bass, middle and treble that affect both inputs and a colour push switch for Input Two. This colour switch is something we have on a lot of amps, clarifies Roesner. Its kind of a middle filter: it takes out the mids and increases the trebles a little bit so it lightens the tone. So, if you play fingerstyle instead of using a pick, for example, you can have a little lighter tone. Whereas the Compact 60 offers four built-in effects, the Alpha and Alpha Plus just have a single reverb with return control. We work with a single-end effects chip, an Alesis version at the moment. We use one reverb, a little hall, I believe. Its easy to use and nice sounding. Finally we have the master level control. Rear panel connections are simple: headphones, line out, FX send and return, footswitch jack and an XLR line out. If you need to use outboard FX, you can plug into the send/return jacks and use a standard two-way footswitch to switch between the onboard and outboard effects.

Sounds

Setting up a sound is dead simple on the Alpha Plus. Input Two is home for virtually all guitars we had to hand the main use we suspect for the amp. The Plus sound is typical AER: very neutral and very hi-fi, seemingly without any unnatural colouration. The better the guitar (and its pickup system) the better the sound you hear. With both a Yamaha NX and Fishman Rare Earthequipped Farida parlour, we

The Plus sound is typical AER: very neutral and very hi-, seemingly without any unnatural colouration

Summer 2009 Guitarist 99

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AER AlphA plus 629 AMPS

found it impossible to light the clip LED unless winding the EQ nearly full up. As a result theres minimal background hiss when listening in a studio environment. Systems with more output, however, like a piezo-equipped PRS Hollowbody achieved a better signal-to-noise ratio with zero hum. However, in the ambience of a bar/pub gig, even with the two aforementioned guitars, you couldnt hear any intrusion. The reverb sounds very good and is well chosen: set around 11 oclock it adds ambience to lighter played rhythm parts and a nice musical depth to harder picked solo lines. The colour function sounds a little synthetic adding noticeable highs (and a little hiss); we prefer the sound without. Theres surprising volume too, easily enough to compete with a small ensemble (double bass and another

guitarist) but wound-up you will hear some compression, although according to Roesner thats improved over the original Alpha: definitely the Alpha compresses earlier than the Compact 60, just to make the system survive. If you can understand this, its amazing the sounds you can get out of that little box. However, there is a limitation. Due to the Alphas smaller cabinet, theres a little bit of bass lacking and this is definitely compensated for in the Alpha Plus, which opens up quite dramatically and really sits nicely between the Alpha and the Compact 60. Having used the higher specd Compact Classic for a lot of gigs, the Alpha Plus holds up well. With the exception of the 2,000 Acousticube III, AER doesnt offer feedback control (Roesner believes it subtracts more than it adds) but with careful placement, weve never

had a problem. What this writer misses is a mute switch so handy when youre swapping guitars or want to silently tune.

Verdict

While the Compact 60 has to be one of the most attractive acoustic combos on the market, we reckon the Alpha Plus, with its trimmer price and plug-inand-play functionality, not only improves sound-wise on the original Alpha but may well win fans of its own. It doesnt improve your playing technique or your guitar, but if both of those are in order, the Alpha Plus delivers.

AER Alpha Plus The Bottom Line

We liked: Superb sound quality; easy-to-use; good controls; portable We dislike: No mute switch; some may miss feedback control; not the cheapest Guitarist says: A fine upgrade of a popular amp, the Alpha Plus is highly portable with excellent hi-fi tone. Its ease of use means you can focus on playing pRICE: 629 (inc padded gig bag) ORIGIN: Germany TYpE: Compact acoustic instrument amplifier with digital reverb OuTpuT: 50 watts RMS DIMENsIONs: 330 (w) x 235 (d) x 260mm (h) WEIGhT (kg/lb): 8/17.75 CABINET: 12mm birch plywood, enclosed with twin frontal ports and steel mesh grille spEAKERs: 1 x 8-inch twin-cone speaker system ChANNEls: Single-channel with two parallel inputs. Input One: XLR/6.4mm jack combi-socket (line/ mic); Input Two: 6.4mm jack (line) CONTROls: Input One line/mic push button, gain control. Input Two pad push button, gain, colour push button, bass, middle, treble, effect (level), on/off status LED. Master volume, clip LED FOOTsWITCh: Standard two-way footswitch (not included) switches between internal/external effects ADDITIONAl FEATuREs: Digital reverb; headphone socket; line out; send; return; footswitch (all 6.4mm jack); direct output (XLR) RANGE OpTIONs: The still current Alpha costs 599. The Compact 60 (60 watts, two channels, digital reverb/delay) is 799 (949 in hardwood cabinet) Westside Distribution 0141 248 4812 www.aer-amps.info

The reverb sounds very good and is well chosen: set around 11 oclock it adds ambience to rhythm parts and a nice musical depth to solo lines

Test results
Build quality Features sound Value for money
The Alpha is very easy to use, but still enables you to tweak your sound to perfection

GuITARIsT RATING

100 Guitarist Summer 2009

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