
maddnotez
Banned
Well-known member
Well the Cali arrived. Interesting amp, I really like it upon first impression but I will need a lot of time with this one. There are tons of switches and to be quite honest it is kind of hard to dial in for me.
It chugs, can get pretty brutal and TBH it sounds pretty fucking sick to me. Does not have to always be "klanky" as Fortin's can be known for which is good.
I do dislike a few things however. It is pretty finicky and hard to dial in as stated above but I literally just got it so I really need to dive in and learn the amp.
On first impressions it sounds better at low volumes. I prefer saturated tones and while this does have a SAT option (awesome), when you turn the amp up it seems to get thicker and lose the saturation. Definitely something I need to look into learning - how to keep the saturated tone at a high volume?
EDIT - This paragraph was user error........I think my biggest dislike so far is the way that the actual saturation set up. The bass knob has a pull option that engages the SAT....But then what happens to the bass? No idea, no way to control the Bass when Sat is engaged. Pretty stupid if you ask me. I guess it becomes a fixed frequency. Some of the many switches can definitely adjust the "thump" but I would prefer this instead: Instead of having THREE bright switches (what the fuck?) maybe have only 2 and then its own SAT switch or even an extra dial or something. IDK this is just foreign to me.
The white tolex looks pretty fucking awesome in person which surprised me.
The volume taper is horrible. Does not really bother me but I know a lot of players hate this kind of thing. Seems to go from 0 to 8,000 pretty quickly but on the other hand it can get LOUD for what I think is a 50w amp which is win.
I am new to Fortin amps, first one I have ever played and I have spent maybe 15 minutes with the dials so take all of this with a grain of salt.
Does it sound killer? Definitely.
Is it a perfect amp? Definitely not. (does that even exist?)
Is it worth the super mega price tag? Idk, it seems to be a pretty awesome amp and I like it, well built and I am not quite sure what I can get the amp to do just yet so that is TBD for me but it does sound really good. It also has that "rare" I will only build 200 of these amps Fortin Aura so I will sell this for $10k if anyone is interested.
Here is my obligatory cell phone clip
Keep in mind the speaker setup is garbage in this cab.
Caparison Dellinger 7 AXFM
Maxon OD 808 (thanks napalmdeath)
Peavey MS412 - 2 K85 on bottom and op top it has a K70 and a Marshall GM speaker, yikes. Need to fix my setup, was just a quick buy because I was cab-less but anyway check it out.
Give me some time with the amp and I may change my opinion on some things. Overall killer amp and I am not mad.
Edit: Disregard my sloppy playing and I wanted to add I feel this amp definitely needs a boost pedal. Doesn't bother me too much, I typically prefer a boost on 90% of the amps I have played anyway.
It chugs, can get pretty brutal and TBH it sounds pretty fucking sick to me. Does not have to always be "klanky" as Fortin's can be known for which is good.
I do dislike a few things however. It is pretty finicky and hard to dial in as stated above but I literally just got it so I really need to dive in and learn the amp.
On first impressions it sounds better at low volumes. I prefer saturated tones and while this does have a SAT option (awesome), when you turn the amp up it seems to get thicker and lose the saturation. Definitely something I need to look into learning - how to keep the saturated tone at a high volume?
EDIT - This paragraph was user error........I think my biggest dislike so far is the way that the actual saturation set up. The bass knob has a pull option that engages the SAT....But then what happens to the bass? No idea, no way to control the Bass when Sat is engaged. Pretty stupid if you ask me. I guess it becomes a fixed frequency. Some of the many switches can definitely adjust the "thump" but I would prefer this instead: Instead of having THREE bright switches (what the fuck?) maybe have only 2 and then its own SAT switch or even an extra dial or something. IDK this is just foreign to me.
The white tolex looks pretty fucking awesome in person which surprised me.
The volume taper is horrible. Does not really bother me but I know a lot of players hate this kind of thing. Seems to go from 0 to 8,000 pretty quickly but on the other hand it can get LOUD for what I think is a 50w amp which is win.
I am new to Fortin amps, first one I have ever played and I have spent maybe 15 minutes with the dials so take all of this with a grain of salt.
Does it sound killer? Definitely.
Is it a perfect amp? Definitely not. (does that even exist?)
Is it worth the super mega price tag? Idk, it seems to be a pretty awesome amp and I like it, well built and I am not quite sure what I can get the amp to do just yet so that is TBD for me but it does sound really good. It also has that "rare" I will only build 200 of these amps Fortin Aura so I will sell this for $10k if anyone is interested.
Here is my obligatory cell phone clip

Caparison Dellinger 7 AXFM
Maxon OD 808 (thanks napalmdeath)
Peavey MS412 - 2 K85 on bottom and op top it has a K70 and a Marshall GM speaker, yikes. Need to fix my setup, was just a quick buy because I was cab-less but anyway check it out.
Give me some time with the amp and I may change my opinion on some things. Overall killer amp and I am not mad.
Edit: Disregard my sloppy playing and I wanted to add I feel this amp definitely needs a boost pedal. Doesn't bother me too much, I typically prefer a boost on 90% of the amps I have played anyway.
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