NAD: Steavens Poundcake Mk2

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gybe!

gybe!

Well-known member
It’s times like these that you really have to appreciate this forum/community. @Yehuda knew I was on the lookout for one of these and was kind enough to point this one out to me when it hit the market. Within a few minutes of the ad going live I was in conversations with the seller in Italy and it was on its way to me the next day. Very awesome on multiple fronts.

Clips will be necessary but I am in a massive state of disassembly with my entire rig at the moment so my DAW isn’t even functional. Might be able to get some iPhone captures this weekend.

First impressions of this amp are pretty simple: why the hell wasn’t this one of the biggest amps on the market in its time?!?!!! How are these so under the radar? I really don’t get it. I guess there was never that association with a singular artist to push these into the limelight, but I am astonished these never really “made” it the way so many of the contemporaries did. General tone is I would call Marshall with some Bogner or Naylor thrown in. In standard tuning there is a definitive low mid emphasis that can get wooly/overwhelming if not balanced between the mid/bass/resonance settings. It is not super razor tight, but holds together and is definitely no slouch. Have run standard tuning through a baritone in drop A and it excelled at all of them. In fact, kind of like the Naylors/Naked it really is nicely composed (but very raw) and clear with the lower tunings. Seems to love v30s, Redbacks, and Scumbacks…my fane f70 cab is a bit more hit and miss and comes down to which guitar is in use. That one is a surprise to me as I generally find the F70 cab to honestly be the best match for anything.

Other stand out is how much the guitar shines through even with gobs of gain. Sadly it doesn’t seem to gel quite as well with one of my top three fiddles (a Dunable R2 custom with Grizzly pickups) but really shined with everything else. That particular combination seems to double up on that low mid emphasis in a way that is tricky to dial out. But, the inherent character and emphasis of each guitar really comes through in an identifiable way.

Still very early in the process with this amp, but I am very glad I took the plunge. I have been intrigued by these since the original harmony central amp reviews page (pre HCAF) from ~1996 and glad to check this one off the list nearly 30 years later. Per @SQUAREHEAD suggestion, I’ll do some tube rolling this weekend, but either way it’ll be a fun time with this. I plan to do some herd thinning in the coming weeks so will definitely be putting this one through its paces in the meantime! IMG_1274.jpeg
 
Congrats! I had the Brick preamp maybe five-six years ago, which is similar at least to that original bright blue Poundcake, and I agree. Very mid-90s sounding, thicker and smoother than your typical Marshall.

And yeah, I remember a very small hype train back in the HCAF and JCF days, and I talked to Bernard a bit back then but didn´t end up ordering anything.
 
I think for amp hounds, they were known back in the day. From what I remember they were as boutique as you could get and they had the price "back" then to match. Again, correct me if I'm wrong but they were viewed as Germany's Soldano level of stuff. Granted they're aren't huge numbers of them out there but again, to the amp hounds we all knew about them.
 
Congrats on the NAD!
I've owned a Poundcake 100 MK-I from 2005 till 2017.
One of the few amps I regret letting go.
Very underrated amps!
 
So glad you were able to get this! Steavens made some insanely good stuff that people just didn’t know about
 
Congrats! I’ve tried almost everything at this point lol and the poundcake mk2 is one of my top 10. Really punchy too. I find the last channel is pretty tight on mine, but I just use the meat channel (sorta like how the orange is better than the red ch on Recto’s. Better, more growly tone despite the red being tighter, but more bland/smooth sounding). Tube rolling is worth trying. I liked it with both 6L6’s and EL34’s

I think they might be so underrated because like Naylor’s being underrated for a while, they were mistakenly described as dark and smooth, which is super misleading and turns off those of us that prefer a more raw, gritty, aggressive sound, which both amps really have in spades as one of their actual main fortes. Same with Cornford

We had Friedman-itis I think (wanting to avoid smooth, polite sounds), so we hear “dark” and “smooth” and expect something like that, which is thankfully the exact opposite of all these amps. They’re just dark relative to many ‘70’s/‘80’s Marshall’s. In the bigger picture these are far from the darkest amps and have aggression and teeth when needed. Guys just need to be better about their descriptions is really all it is
 
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This is one of those amps from a boutique builder that got popular during the HCAF days. I never heard any clips of it back then, just hushed whispers about how awesome they were but that was about the extent of it.

It was only in the last few years that I’ve heard the talk about them pick back up.
 
braintheory said:
Congrats! I’ve tried almost everything at this point lol and the poundcake mk2 in one of my top 10. Really punchy too. I find the last channel is pretty tight on mine, but I just use the meat channel (sorta like how the orange is better than the red ch on Recto’s. Better, more growly tone despite the red being tighter, but more bland/smooth sounding). Tube rolling is worth trying. I liked it with both 6L6’s and EL34’s

I think they might be so underrated because like Naylor’s being underrated for a while, they were mistakenly described as dark and smooth, which is super misleading and turns off those of us that prefer a more raw, gritty, aggressive sound, which both amps really have in spades as one of their actual main fortes. Same with Cornford

We had Friedman-itis I think (wanting to avoid smooth, polite sounds), so we hear “dark” and “smooth” and expect something like that, which is thankfully the exact opposite of all these amps. They’re just dark relative to many ‘70’s/‘80’s Marshall’s. In the bigger picture these are far from the darkest amps and have aggression and teeth when needed. Guys just need to be better about their descriptions is really all it is
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I have a Lenz Octane due in soon as well and admittedly after that….beyond a full bells and whistles Dino, not much else left on my list. Some lower gain stuff, but can’t really say there is much left that I have any lust after. Which is a strange place to be after 30 years of gear whoring
 
gybe! said:
I have a Lenz Octane due in soon as well and admittedly after that….beyond a full bells and whistles Dino, not much else left on my list. Some lower gain stuff, but can’t really say there is much left that I have any lust after. Which is a strange place to be after 30 years of gear whoring
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I have an Octane. Another great German made amp. I guess most other worthwhile stuff is stupid priced or unobtaniaum these days. The Hell Razor though is also incredible. I also only have a few amps left on my list I’d want now
 
braintheory said:
Congrats! I’ve tried almost everything at this point lol and the poundcake mk2 in one of my top 10. Really punchy too. I find the last channel is pretty tight on mine, but I just use the meat channel (sorta like how the orange is better than the red ch on Recto’s. Better, more growly tone despite the red being tighter, but more bland/smooth sounding). Tube rolling is worth trying. I liked it with both 6L6’s and EL34’s

I think they might be so underrated because like Naylor’s being underrated for a while, they were mistakenly described as dark and smooth, which is super misleading and turns off those of us that prefer a more raw, gritty, aggressive sound, which both amps really have in spades as one of their actual main fortes. Same with Cornford

We had Friedman-itis I think (wanting to avoid smooth, polite sounds), so we hear “dark” and “smooth” and expect something like that, which is thankfully the exact opposite of all these amps. They’re just dark relative to many ‘70’s/‘80’s Marshall’s. In the bigger picture these are far from the darkest amps and have aggression and teeth when needed. Guys just need to be better about their descriptions is really all it is
Click to expand...

Maybe the Poundcake 2 is a bit different from the mark 1 stuff, but I have to disagree that dark and smooth is super misleading. On my Brick it was easily mids and treble on 10 to get a whiff of that Marshall-ish cut, but I do agree that these are not saturated smooth. The gain structure was way more raw than the voice, if that makes sense. All three gain channels were pretty low gain, and big in dynamics.
 
gybe! said:
I have a Lenz Octane due in soon as well and admittedly after that….beyond a full bells and whistles Dino, not much else left on my list. Some lower gain stuff, but can’t really say there is much left that I have any lust after. Which is a strange place to be after 30 years of gear whoring
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I’m also at the end of my list and it’s definitely strange- there’s something really fun about the chase
 
Dave L said:
Maybe the Poundcake 2 is a bit different from the mark 1 stuff, but I have to disagree that dark and smooth is super misleading. On my Brick it was easily mids and treble on 10 to get a whiff of that Marshall-ish cut, but I do agree that these are not saturated smooth. The gain structure was way more raw than the voice, if that makes sense. All three gain channels were pretty low gain, and big in dynamics.
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Poundcake 2 definitely not low gain…and it is certainly capable of getting piercing in the highs. I’ve been running treble and presence between 11 and 2 o clock with plenty of bite and cut on the high end
 
Dave L said:
Maybe the Poundcake 2 is a bit different from the mark 1 stuff, but I have to disagree that dark and smooth is super misleading. On my Brick it was easily mids and treble on 10 to get a whiff of that Marshall-ish cut, but I do agree that these are not saturated smooth. The gain structure was way more raw than the voice, if that makes sense. All three gain channels were pretty low gain, and big in dynamics.
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I haven’t tried a Brick. Maybe it’s a different animal. IME rack preamp counterparts do differ also in character/feel IME vs the full head counterparts. I heard from others that the MK1 and 3 versions are very similar to my Mk2 and have tried a 25th Anniversary version too, which is different. On mine I don’t run the mids or treble that high like that and it cuts in a similar way to my Marshall’s. Also, like you said, it seems they all have a raw, gritty, aggressive character and when guys say dark or smooth many get the implication that it would lack in those areas. As reference any Rev C Recto I’ve played is a much darker, more low mid dominant amp than Steavens, Naylor or a Cornford RK100, but again is a very raw, gritty, aggressive amp with plenty of teeth. Not at all smooth or polite. I think it just needs to be more clear to others that the following amps I mentioned don’t suffer at all from being smooth, polite, tame or rolled off like Friedman’s or most 101B XTC’s can be as references. I’m also not sure which poweramp you’re running your Brick through. That’s another big factor in the result you get
 
gybe! said:
Poundcake 2 definitely not low gain…and it is certainly capable of getting piercing in the highs. I’ve been running treble and presence between 11 and 2 o clock with plenty of bite and cut on the high end
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I found mine about as bright as the last 2 SLO’s I had when AB’ed. Maybe just a hair less, but more teeth, rough/less smooth than the SLO’s. More angry
 
Jimty said:
@Yehuda is an absolute bloodhound when it comes to hunting down rare / desirable amps. HNAD @gybe! and well played @Yehuda 🤟
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Haha I just am on my phone 24/7- I should provide a service where I just find people amps all day haha- like those people that wait on line for people for the new iPhone 😂

All jokes aside, if anyone ever needs me to find stuff for them, I genuinely enjoy it- it gives me the same rush that I get finding stuff for myself
 
gybe! said:
Poundcake 2 definitely not low gain…and it is certainly capable of getting piercing in the highs. I’ve been running treble and presence between 11 and 2 o clock with plenty of bite and cut on the high end
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Yes,
My MkII’s are identical and have no shortage in gain, clarity and nice cutting sweet, sizzle.

I have profiled the meat (3rd) channel, which has almost exactly the same amount of gain that the Larry DINO (British Hot Rod) has in its sweet spot at around 7 on the gain knob.
Both are within 4% gain reading when profiled on the kemper.

The Poundcake has lots in the lower mids, but the Dino can easily excel there with the ‘body’ toggle on.

Lotsa Marshall kerrrrang on both ! 👍
 
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