Home Forums Review Your EHX Gear 22 Caliber

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  • #78443
    Rick S
    Member

    Amazing amp. Don’t let the size fool you. Or the fact its ss either. Very powerful with lots of headroom. 22 big watts. Probably pushing around 25 at fullbore. When cranked the od is very natural and a very class A style. Gorgeous tone. With the bright switch activated its even better. Grittier. The beauty is when you add your favorite distortion or overdrive pedal. Set the 22 Cal. at 12 noon and you have lots of clean volume. Your pedal will sound like your pedal. Start turning the 22’s volume up a little at a time and you start to blend in the amps od into the mix.

    I bought my first 22 thinking it would be great as a head for a single 10″ cab. It is. But now it sits on top of two 12″ cabs. Sort of a mini stack. And wow, what a mini stack. I liked it so much I bought another and now have twin 22 Cal mini stacks. This setup is absolutly awesome for smaller, primitive venues. Of course you could just use one cab and mike it if that is an option. I have yet to try running the 22 into a board.

    Alot of folks like the 22 for a great backup amp. It is. But I think the 22 is just a great amp period. Great tone, more flexible than what it seems to be and way to easy to lug around. The only gripe I have is that I wish EH had put an on/off switch on it. Right where a normal stompbox switch would have gone. Other than that there is nothing I would change. Excellent job EH! Maybe a future amp could have more eq options and such. Maybe something like a 44 Magnum!

    #106208

    Thanks for this review. The 22 cal seems really awesome. I have a big old 5150 half-stack, I play so infrequently I will probably be well served to get one of these as my travel amp. I live in North Carolina but my favorite group of people to jam with is all in Phildalephia, so this would allow me to fly instead of driving 600 miles with my gear.

    #104681

    we plug the 22 into all sorts of cab sizes and it is just ridiculous though a 4×12!

    #104633
    Mr.Grim
    Member

    ridicules, as in sounds good?, or seems stupid?

    #104634

    sorry for the confusion. it sounds great!

    #104635
    Mr.Grim
    Member

    thats what i thought based on the video demos Ive seen, and plan to buy one or two soon!

    i would actualy prefer or a roads special or freedom amp at least, but there hard to find these days and when you do, there expensive, so this is the next best thing, i would also love on of those EH all wood speaker cab’s.

    i also am looking to eventually get a Sovtek half stack sum day.

    c’mon guys do some amp re-issues, or sum new other new amp models!

    i love all EH and want more EH amp options to play all my EH pedals threw!

    #108691

    anyone do extensive testing with a 4ohm cab? i’ve read places that it doesn’t work at all or is significantly different that running it through an 8 or 16ohm cab. i know the manual says 8 and 16 is preferred, but if they know it doesn’t perform as well on a 4ohm cab, why even promote that.

    #108686
    electro-melx
    Moderator
    Quote:
    anyone do extensive testing with a 4ohm cab? i’ve read places that it doesn’t work at all or is significantly different that running it through an 8 or 16ohm cab. i know the manual says 8 and 16 is preferred, but if they know it doesn’t perform as well on a 4ohm cab, why even promote that.

    https://www.ehx.com/products/22-caliber

    it isn’t being promoted as working at 4 ohms any more, it was at first but as soon as EHX heard some people were having problems using it with 4ohm cabs they changed it. You could probably get away with it at low volumes but it will usually cut out if you push it above 1/2 volume so not recommended.

    #108623
    Mr.Grim
    Member

    thats what i was thinking, make the next one, in a tube zipper, black finger…ect, tube box. and call it the 44 magnum or sum thing like that!

    #107598
    Rick S
    Member

    Alrighty then. I got home early today and quickly made this crappy video. The picture sucks but the sound is good. Enjoy!
    th_E-H22Caliber.jpg

    #105692
    Rick S
    Member

    Here is a much better idea of what the 22 Caliber can do. I used a Boss Metal Zone and a Boss Phase Shifter for some texture and such. I’m having a blast with this amp!

    http://www1.indiemusicworks.com/Rick_Samson/?song=7070

    #109977
    strovachek
    Member

    I just purchased a Caliber 22 power amp.
    I have a guitar USB interface what is connected to my laptops USB port and I am using a software to play with various effects.
    When I plug the instrument cable into the Calibre 22 input coming from the output of the USB guitar interface the Caliber 22 cuts out immediately. If I plug the guitar straight into the Caliber input it works fine, but on bigger volume it cuts out. I am using a 100watt 8 ohm speaker cabinet.
    Could anybody advise me what could be the solution to connect the USB interface to the power amp? I have two USB guitar interfaces and the same thing happens with both of them, when I connect them to the power amp immediately cuts the sound off. I was trying to put the volume down to zero on both interfaces, but the same thing happens every time the Calibre 22 cuts out.
    I suppose it has some kind of overload protection but I can not imagine that the outgoing signal wold be so huge from the USB interface.
    I do not want to play with it because I might stuff it up.
    Any help would be appreciated.

    #110016

    The case where the caliber fails when you use ONLY your guitar seems the most concerning.
    As i understand, the caliber will only shutoff where there is a speaker load issue. The .pdf says “The 22 CALIBER may have trouble driving loads under 8 ohms if the output is overdriven.” The behavior you describe seems to suggest either your cab is not 8ohms or maybe one or more of the speakers are bad or not the originals.

    i would suggest trying another cab (maybe at a guitar store) with ONLY your guitar and see if the caliber shutsoff. If it does, its possible you have a bad caliber. If it works fine on other cabs, then there’s probably something wrong with your cab.

    #110065
    bassistlaw
    Participant

    Love it! I play bass and have added the 22 Caliber to my setup as the amp for effects into a 16 ohm 2×10 (bass) cab. My main rig is an Ampeg SVT & I am a full time working pro playing mostly classic rock & blues gigs, over ten per month. While the 22 Caliber won’t really work as a true thundering bass amp it is great for overdrive tones. I also use a Micro Pog into a volume pedal into a tube distortion pedal then a second volume pedal before the amp. With this setup I can control how “hard” I hit the tube distortion and also mix it with the main bass rig sound. I usually have the 22 caliber at full volume or close to it! Now if only they could shrink the SVT down to a pedal size LOL

    #111038

    preface: i know, i really need to just go test this at the store and hear for myself, but…

    im looking to join this band, and i really dont have the funds to purchase a new amp head (yet). i was wondering if anyone has experience using the 22 caliber powering a marshall 4×12 1960A 300w (or comprable). i plan to run some pedals infront of the ’22; when the fx pedal(s) are bypassed, i want to have clean sounds. When they are engaged i’d have overdriven sounds. They are mainly alice in chains songs, so full on distortion (with occational shimmery clean).

    The concern is that, as i understand, when you turn up the knob on the ’22, its gets louder, but also more dirty. if im trying to compete against another half stack, when i turn up to match distortion volumes, when switch back to clean, is it going to be clean, or will be dirty?

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