Palomino V16 Review

The Palomino V16 is a little 15W Class A tube screamer loaded with toneful soul and wrapped in Sunday's best. The V16 combo amplifier delivers instant response with great touch sensitivity. The vintage-style cream Tolex cab has gold hardware and houses a 15W Class A tube circuit, a 12" Celestion speaker, and spring reverb. The Palomino V16 amp's single channel has a Boost function that kicks in driving, rich tone and it has Gain, 3-band EQ, Level, and Reverb knobs.

Features:	7.5
Sound:	9.5
Reliability:	9
Impression:	9.5
Overall rating:	8.9
Users rating:	9.5

overall: 8.8

Reviewed by: MichaelOfCanton, on august 11, 2008

Price paid: $ 350

Purchased from: Musiciansfriend.com

Features: It was made in america in '06 and came equipped with groove tubes (three 12ax7s with two el84s). Single channel with gain, volume, reverb, three band EQ, and a boost Switch for more bass. Single input. Boost is pretty useless if you can work the EQ knobs. Spring reverb is average at best but bearable. Plenty loud enough to play with a drummer and bassist. // 7

Sound: I'd describe the sound as the bastard child of an AC15 and a Blues Junior. Not very high gain but plenty enough for classic rock if you don't mind turning the volume up as necessary. It gravitates towards semi-clean jazz to moderately aggressive blues type tone but is pretty versatile for classic rock and some hard rock. If you want metal, you can use a pedal to get close but it's in foriegn territory. You can get an excellent imitation of that AC15 rude upper mid chime by maxing the treble and mid and turning low to zero. The speaker is pretty bass heavy and gets worse with incresing volume (another reason the boost switch is useless) and can get a plain sloppy if the bass is high when it's pushed hard. IMO the center frequencies of the EQs aren't the most helpful and I would suggest a 6-10 band EQ if you're picky. It's very touch sensitive. It's almost like you can have two channels by picking hard or lightly. This might not be the most versatile amp for jumping genres but in it's comfort zone you can dial up the most mellow jazz to a blaring take no prisoners scream to salute those Who are about to rock. Personally, I love it. // 10

Reliability & Durability: No problems whatsoever so far. Well I did have to buy a little 4 inch fan to put behind it to cool the power tubes so they last a little while (class A is wide open all the time, gets pretty hot). Construction is solid as are the electronics. No standby Switch which is annoying. I have to turn down volume and gain all the way before turning it on than leave it there for 30 seconds or so to try to be easy on it but I feel like I'm abusing it anyway. The tubes have lasted 6 months of daily use so far so it can't be too bad. // 8

Impression: I love this amp to death. Since I've had it every ohter amp I've plugged into is dissapointing. I find it to be the perfect Tool to get the sounds I like out of my guitar. Keep in mind that I lean towards classic rock and blues in my sound prefrences. If you want extreme distortion this amp can maybe do a decent impression but that's not what it's built for. If you want ballsy class A tube sound and not a tube distortion pedal or an amp simulator mulitFX that's never quite right this is the perfect medicine. Plus, looking down the chrome grate on the top and seeing those 2 little EL84s glowing oarnge will put a smile on any guitarists face. // 10

overall: 9

Reviewed by: SSL27, on february 25, 2008

Price paid: $ 300

Purchased from: Guitar Center

Features: This amp would have to be made in either late '06 or early '07 considering this is not a very old model. I play mostly jazz, blues, modern rock, classic rock, and a bit of older metal like Black Sabbath, and this amp can handle all of those except some of Sabbath's heavier stuff, but it'd be more than able to with an overdrive. There is only one channel, which is unfortunate because I could really benefit from separate clean and overdrive channels. The only other feature that I wish it had is an effects loop, but that's not much of a problem considering my pedal setup is pretty small. It's only 15 watts, but that is more than enough for what I do. I mostly play in the bedroom, but I will wander out to jam with my drummer friend and a couple of friends' bands. Overall it's a pretty straight forward amp to use. // 8

Sound: I run a Danelectro 56 U2 Re-Issue with single coil lipstick pickups through a Boss DS-1, Dunlop GCB-95, EHX Little Big Muff, and a Zoom 2100 into this amp. Most of the time I'll leave everything except the Muff out, because I like the tone I get from this amp so much. This amp would suit any Classic Rock or Blues player perfectly, and at a good price. I've only ever had one problem with noise, but that was because I was using a bad power supply for my Zoom. It is more than capable of both classic and modern rock sounds, and at about 9 o'clock on the gain knob you can get a nice AC/DC'esque crunch. The EQ isn't as responsive as I'd like, but it works well, and like stated earlier, the amp is capable of getting up to older metal sounds distortion-wise. // 9

Reliability & Durability: I've had no problems with the reliability of it, and I can safely say that'd I could definitely use it for a gig without a backup. The only thing I've done to it was replace two of the preamp tubes with a couple of Vintage RCA 12AX7's I had around, and I have to say it greatly improved my tone. // 10

Impression: The amp fits my playing styles perfectly. I've been playing for about a year and a half, but I'm very knowledgeable gear-wise. If it were lost or stolen I wouldn't buy another one, but instead buy a higher end amp, because quite frankly, this isn't the amp that is going to end all amps. I had to decide between this an a Fender Blues Junior, and I'm really glad I ended up with this one. The only thing I wish it had is a second channel, but overall it is a great amp for the price. // 9