The long and winding road to a new Custom Shop 50

[tremolo arm]

Ever since it came out, I’ve been salivating over the Custom Shop 50. Not literally as I didn’t own one, but by watching YouTube videos and reading forums / opinions, not least being mesmerised by the damned thing every time I saw one in a music shop. It almost had a visible aureole around it. I just love the size and its looks, the no frills controls, the big knobs – the thing just oozes rock heaven.

Well, frankly I didn’t think I’d ever own one. I came close to being tempted several times upon stumbling on listings on eBay, but never had the balls to pull the trigger.

Just before Xmas I decided to simplify my gear. I sold a PRS 305 for good money, got rid of 2-3 drive pedals and decided to get a ballsy second hand Orange. I obviously looked at the Custom Shop but the only one at a humanly feasible price was in a shop going for £1300 (typically these are £1700, but apparently this one did not have the original box). It was still outside my budget but I sent the shop a speculative email and cheekily suggested I’d buy it for £1000, almost as a fate tempting attempt to convince myself that this is really not for me and expecting a response resembling a long laughter.

At the same time I saw an OR50 on eBay, with the listing ending that night and a Buy Now for £750. I got excited. I had heard this amp before, but had a quick sound check on YouTube to remind myself how amazing this thing sounds (at least through headphones). I figured it’s similar to the Custom Shop (at least based on what I read), it looks as ballsy and it’s a fraction of the price.

Well, it’s Xmas! I had bought presents for the kids, wife and mum. I owe it to myself. Good things happen at Xmas, right!
I put a speculative offer for the OR50 for £600 and went out. Whilst having dinner, my phone vibrates and an eBay message informs me that my offer has been accepted for the OR50. Great! I am the proud owner of a great amp! I went to bed happy, dreaming I’m Scott Holiday of Rival Sons.

In the morning I get a response from the shop I had mailed regarding the Custom Shop 50. They are happy to accept my offer for £1000! Damn! Now I think I made a mistake with the OR50. But £400 difference is a lot of money. I cast aside any doubts and focus on the beautiful OR50 coming my way. But is it really coming?

This is the 22nd of December. I am already formulating my holiday plans. My family is visiting relatives between Xmas and New Year. The neighbours are out of town. I would get to play the thing for three consecutive days. I feel like a teenager organizing the visit of a new girlfriend whilst the parents are out. Only I am 43 year and I am getting excited about playing a new amp. And boy, was I excited.

Only to be told by the seller 2 days later that he had not managed to post the amp and, seeing as it was Xmas, the first possibility to post would be the 29th! Danm! That sucks. I suspect providence has intervened and has instructed me to bond with the Custom Shop after all. But is the Custom Shop still available and are they still willing to sell for £1000? A quick call returned a yes to both these question. Now, evidently the seller of the OR50 was embarrassed about not being able to post the amp prior to Xmas, because he accepted my proposal to cancel the transaction.

A second call to the shop and I had given my credit card number quicker than they could say “how can we help”.

The amp arrived on the 28th. I had the opportunity to play it at home and also have a band practice on the 3rd of January. But this is the subject for another post…

[bclaire]

Wow... what a crazy story but it sure has a happy ending! Sorry you had all those twists and turns but in the end I think you're going to be very happy!

[MikeD]

Probably a good thing all in all that he couldn´t ship on time. My guess is that you would of always been thinking of the "what if´s" of the dream amp you surpassed.

Hope it lives up to your expectations and it brings you years of hassle free pleasure !!

/Mike

[thejay]

That's a story! Pics please

[ironlung40]

did you misspell "areola"? !!

[tremolo arm]

So here is my initial review (and I also intend to post photos and clips when I've had time to record them).

The first impression was the overall looks and aesthetics. I thought I’d be longer, but it’s basically that compact size of the Rocker / AD30. It’s comfortable to carry (I imagined it to be heavier). But it’s the looks which absolutely blow me away. It’s simply a stunning piece of craft. Even the handle has a quality feel to it – soft yet sturdy. The pics only controls are what attracted me to it in the first place. You can understand people tattooing that sequence of symbols on their bodies.

Sound
The set up I tried it with was:
Les Paul – with humbucker and coil split
Orange 2x12 open back cabinet loaded with Vintage 30s
Marshall 2x12 closed back cabinet loaded with G12Cs
Amp settings 30W

Something which I noticed immediately is how little clean room there is. Unless the gain is turned way down, the amp always retains an element of hair. But you need to turn the gain to about 9 o’clock to have a usable jam volume (coupled with generous amounts of master volume). And already at this gain setting, you can feel a slight break up.
Another thing which is quite evident is how different the amp sounds with relatively small alterations of the gain control. With single coils at around 10 o’clock, the amp sound very bouncy, very articulate and expressive. You can hear the above mentioned hair, but it’s not fizzy or distracting. It’s also very dynamic under your fingers so depending on how hard you hit the strings, it produces various elements of break up. You turn the gain control to 12 o’clock and there’s a big difference in the feel. It’s almost like another channel has been engaged. The compression is much more evident, the tone assumes a much bassier, much ballsier, less clear character. You still have definition but the difference with just a couple notches is huge. With the gain at 3 o’clock and humbuckers this amps is basically a classic rock monster.

The punch / presence control has a very subtle effect. It cannot be compared to OR50’s HF filter, because it does not add any gain, it just make the tone… well… more present, but very subtly so. I like it maxed to be honest, but I imagine jazz players may prefer it in the lower registers (though I wouldn’t think a jazz player would be buying this amp).

I experimented with the EQ lift, but I am not sure I am going to find a practical use for it – the way I understand it, it basically flattens the 3 EQ controls to their 12 o’clock positions when engaged.
In terms of the EQ itself, it sounds great when all three controls are set at 12 o’ clock anyway. The amp has tons of bass, which you can reduce. I think you may want to turn the bass down if playing an open back cabinet and humbuckers. That’s what I found myself doing anyway.

In terms of cabinets, the Orange 2x12 sounds much bassier than the Marshall 2x12. In fairness, the Marshall is on castors, whereas the Orange is on the floor, picking up additional bass from the coupling effect. At gain levels below 12 o’clock I prefer the sound through the Orange cab, but as the gain is increased past 12 o’clock, the Marshall cab returns a crispier, more defined sound.

Pedals
One of the main reason for choosing this amp was because I wanted to simplify my setup and use the guitar volume control to drive nuances of gain. In this I think I have succeeded, because my Lovepedal Kalamazoo OD pedal sounds great with this amp. But the caveat is that with this amp I am more aware of the treble drop when rolling off the volume. So much so that I have decided to do a treble bleed mod on my guitars (I had intended to do that anyway, so now seems the right time).
Modulation effects also sound good, but you always need to keep in mind that there is that breakup in the background, so your clean tone is not as clean. This affects how the flanger and phaser sounds. Particularly the flanger that I have (TC Electronic mini) is not very clear through this amp. The phaser is more pleasing. As it has not effect loop, everything must be plugged in in the front of the amp.

At band practice the amp was great. Often with my Dual Terror, I would get lost in the mix a little. As I had already shared on this forum, I was running the Dual Terror's tone control at maximum and still finding it a bit muddy with Humbuckers. No such worries with the CS50. It just sings. I have to admit I prefer it with single coils but even with humbuckers, as long as the gain control is below 3 o'clock, the amp is very articulate and responsive. But I played the entire jam with the coils split and it just sounded epic at gain controls of 12 o'clock and volume at 11 o'clock, EQ at 12.

Well, that is it for now. I will post more thoughts as I gather them. Based on looks and feel alone, I think I made the right choice. If I have to be honest, I would have preferred a little more clean room, but the style I play I don't really needed it anyway and I have a new Fender 68 Vibrolux Reverb which is great for that anyway. I still need to experiment with the guitar controls and I am especially curious how it would feel when I have the treble bleed circuit installed. I think that will make it a much more versatile amp, because it will open up more sound options.

Is this a do-it-all amp? I don't think so. Is this an amp where you can plug any guitar straight in and get a big grin on your face if you play classic rock and blues? Hell, yes!

[ironlung40]

try different lower gain preamp tubes in it for sure.

I know what the hair is that you are talking about when trying to play it cleaner....if it is like the retro 50 it almost seems to have an unmusical artifact that is audible when trying to play it clean, like a rattle or something.

The AD50 custom shop does not have this and is better for cleans in my experience, but on both the retro and the ad50 they don't have much clean headroom and the master volume is very linear so you have to have it turn up way way further for the amp to get loud than most any other amp you will play, including other orange models. That will make you feel like the amp is faulty at first until you get used to that. The AD140's are kinda like that too, just not as bad.

I also would like to have a custom shop 50 for many of the reasons you stated. I am glad you like it.

If you do some forum searching, msmith4432 has or did own both a CS 50 and an OR50 and talked about the comparisons in some threads.

[tremolo arm]

try different lower gain preamp tubes in it for sure.

I know what the hair is that you are talking about when trying to play it cleaner....if it is like the retro 50 it almost seems to have an unmusical artifact that is audible when trying to play it clean, like a rattle or something.

The AD50 custom shop does not have this and is better for cleans in my experience, but on both the retro and the ad50 they don't have much clean headroom and the master volume is very linear so you have to have it turn up way way further for the amp to get loud than most any other amp you will play, including other orange models. That will make you feel like the amp is faulty at first until you get used to that. The AD140's are kinda like that too, just not as bad.

I also would like to have a custom shop 50 for many of the reasons you stated. I am glad you like it.

If you do some forum searching, msmith4432 has or did own both a CS 50 and an OR50 and talked about the comparisons in some threads.

Thanks. I might try some other tubes (valves) in future, but given it's a brand new amp I'm not looking to change tubes just yet. Like I said the hairiness does not distract me, I was just surprised it was present at such low settings.

Today I played some more, this time using my Strat. As it was late, I couldn't really push the master volume much past bedroom level. I must admit I didn't like the tone at this volume level with any gain setting. With the gain below 9 o'clock it sounded thin and harsh. With the gain past 12 it was just harsh and muddy without the definition and the bounciness.
Granted no serious amp should be judged at bedroom level, it just didn't wow me at low volume. My Vibrolux sounds so much better at low volume but of course I need to use pedals for gain.

More tests at the weekend!

[Les Paul Lover]

I believe the EQ lift can be used as a boost function.
You may have noticed that the 3 EQ control are essentially individual volume controls for the bass, mids and treble.

If you set them all reasonably low, say 9 or 10 or 11 o'clock, when you step on the EQ lift, you should get a good volume and gain boost.

That said, I have no idea how it will work in real life.

I've heard it once (I wasn't playing) with a Strat, and it did sound very nice!!!!