Not long ago, if you were in the market for an amplifier, you essentially had two choices - tube or solid state. Today a new generation of "Hybrid" amplifiers are appearing on the market. Basically, these hybrid amplifiers combine a tube pre amp with a solid state power amp and intend to give you the best of both worlds. That is, warm tube tones backed by the reliability of solid state power. In this review, we consider the T15-R by Johnson. This amplifier is a 15 watt hybrid style amp that retails at a wallet friendly price of under $200. Johnson is a division of "The Music Link", and they were kind enough to send me the T15-R to review for you.


The Hybrid Amp

There are many companies that are now entering the hybrid market because it allows a player to get tube sound at a price level far lower than that of the coveted all-tube amplifier. Tube amplifiers have long been considered more natural in sound than the transistors of their solid state counterparts. Nevertheless, solid state amplifiers also have their advantages. Primary among these being a cleaner signal path, better reliability, and price. Tube amps are almost always considerably more expensive than solid state.

To combine the best features of both, hybrid amplifiers were designed. These amp consist of a tube preamp, but a transistor power stage. In this manner a player is able to drive the tube or tubes to get the sound, and then turn it over to the transistor power amp to drive it home. All this is done at a price that is more affordable, bringing tube sound to the masses.

The T15-R



Out of the box I was impressed by how classy this amplifier looked. It has a brown tolex covering and features a wicker grill with an overall nicely stylish appeal. The chrome corner caps and black metal dome knobs complete the presentation, giving it the appearance and feel of a much more expensive amplifier. With the durable handle, this amp is remarkably portable and weighs in at a mere 21 pounds.

The design of the T15-R is simplicity and functionality. While many guitar amp manufacturers are adding more options to amplifiers, Johnson blended the basics with a few more modern characteristics to create a very practical amplifier. The controls on this amp include on/off switch, Gain, Volume, Bass, Middle, Treble, and Reverb. There are also an input for headphones for quiet practice and a foot switch jack (foot switch not included) that turns the reverb on and off.

The T-15 includes a 12AX7WA / 7025 tube in the preamp section. It also features a mechanical spring reverb with a medium delay and an 8" Alphatone speaker rated at 8 ohm. I was also blown away by the volume of this little 15 watt powerhouse. It has more than enough power to practice at home, or play a small venue. This would be a great amp for a solo player doing an open mike at a local club.

The T15-R is backed by an outstanding 5 year limited warranty that covers defects in materials and workmanship, other than the tubes which are warranted for 90 days from the date of purchase. That is an outstanding warranty for any piece of musical gear nowadays.

The Sound Test

The manual has a list of nine settings for different styles of music. They include: Clean, Blues, Pushed Clean, Punk, Metal, Rock, Surf, Jazz, and Distorted. I ran through these suggested setups and gave each of them a whirl. I was impressed with the versatility of this amplifier and its capability to reproduce these different styles. The tube tone was very warm and convincing. Below are just a couple samples from the T15-R amplifier manual, courtesy of Johnson.





After trying out the different suggested settings, I started playing around with the controls, and finding my own sounds. Even with the simplicity of the controls there was enough adjustment opportunities to satisfy most players. The reverb settings on this amp had the most dynamic range of any amp I have ever played. However, I found that a little went a long way, and more than a little was too much for my style of playing. The only form of music that I personally have found using alot of reverb worked well with was surf music. For this kind of music the amps reverb performed awesomely. You can really dial in some cool "Ventures" type sounds by maxing out the reverb on this amp.

I was able to generate everything from warm overdriven blues to hard rock with very little effort. The T15-R also handled my external stomp box effects easily. I even ran my DigiTech 2120 Artist multi effects unit into the input and it sounded very good. For the size and the price range I found this amp to be a good value.

I enjoyed playing the T15-R, and would recommend it as a practice amp, first amp, or for small solo gigs. I think you will find it quite adequate in both sound and flexibility. I have heard that Johnson is considering a higher wattage version of this amplifier in the near future. We will have to watch for that.

Gary Allen

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