W
ith an emphasis on high-wattage
Dumble-inspired designs, there’s
a sense Two-Rock has been
kicking against the low-volume
zeitgeist. Yet when we reviewed the Classic
Reverb Signature in 2017, it was the most
player-friendly 100-watter we’ve ever tried.
Even so, how many of us really need a
100-watt amplifier these days? Recognising
this, Two-Rock introduced the Studio Pro
35 and that has now been facelifted and
updated to create the Studio Signature.
Two-Rock describe it as a lower power
version of the Classic Reverb Signature, but
it’s downsized, more portable and produces
35 watts from a pair of 6L6 output valves.The controls have been simplified, with
custom-taper potentiometers and no push/
pull switches. Instead, three frequency-
boost switches are located on the front
panel, right next to the three-band EQ.
There’s a presence control, too, along with
gain and master and both the head and
combo version (£2,899) have spring reverb.
On the rear panel, there’s a reverb send
control that sets the signal received by the
spring tank. It’s there to provide different
decay times and tonal characteristics. Next
to that is a three-way gain-structure switch
(Blackface, Traditional Two-Rock, Schofield
Signature), effects-loop connections and
three speaker outputs for four, eight and 16ohms. We pair the Studio Signature with
a Two-Rock Black Bronco open-backed
cabinet (£599) with a WGS 12-65 speaker- Warehouse’s take on a Celestion G12-65.
IN USE
Two-Rock describes this as a versatile clean
amplifier. The operative word here is ‘clean’
and as such, this amp may not conform
to everybody’s idea of versatility. Even so,
the claim has some justification, because
it offers a lot of scope for fine-tuning
frequency response and dynamic feel within
the context of a very high-end, medium-
power pedal platform.
There’s more to it, of course, because
the Studio Signature is also capable of
producing some classy overdriven tones,
even if they might come at the expense of
your hearing! In large part this is because
the gain and master controls don’t really
operate in the way you might expect. The
gain knob isn’t a wide-ranging control
that ranges from clean to crunchy and the
master isn’t intended merely to tame theTWO-ROCK
STUDIO SIGNATURE HEAD
WORDS HUW PRICEIf the big-bottle and big-iron sound is very much your thing,
but a 100-watt power stage is too much, then check out
this medium-sized solution from California...REVIEWS108