It’s not often major manufacturers skip an iteration of a product entirely (imagine if Apple skipped the next iPhone?), but this is exactly what happened with the Mesa/Boogie Mark VII 1x12 Combo. You’ll notice that the Mark VI simply doesn’t exist, and that’s because Mesa spent so long developing it that they opted to skip version 6 and head straight for number 7. It’s also the first Mesa guitar amp to be released during the era of Gibson ownership, making it a standout for many reasons.

The Mark VII includes many nods to the storied history of Mesa amps, and it’s a far cry from the origins of hot-rodded Fender Princetons that gave Randall Smith the platform to start building his own amps. It’s got three channels, and each channel has three different modes, offering what’s essentially a highlight reel of Mesa amps over the years.

Channel 1, based on the classic modded Fender amps, offers a clean, fat, and crunch operation, paying homage to the roots of these classic tube amps. Channel 2 has fat, crunch, and MKVII modes for classic rock crunch. Channel 3 has the rare MKIIB mode, the first of the Mesa amps with a buffered effects loop, the holy grail IIC+ mode, and a MKIV option.

Each channel has the ability to switch in the onboard 5-band EQ section, so you can drastically or subtly alter the tone of your current channel at will. There are also power modes for each channel, with 90W, 45W, and 25W operation available. The EQ section features separate reverb controls for each channel, so you can drench your clean tone while keeping your high gains tight. The FX loop is also switchable per channel.

Moving to the back panel, it’s just as busy as the front with a myriad of options to select from. Each channel has its own option for selecting cabinet simulations, with seven for each channel available via a rotary knob. There’s a DI line output, headphone out, XLR direct out with CabClone impulse response, ground lift switch, and a USB output. Dual 8 and 4ohm speaker outputs sit alongside FX loop send and returns, with a MIDI input for the footswitch, and MIDI Thru/Out and separate MIDI in connectors.

In the preamp section, we have 5x Mesa 12AX7 tubes with 4x Mesa 6L6 tubes in the power amp section, although these can be swapped for EL84 tubes if you prefer. It’s got a 1x12 Celestion Custom 90 speaker, known as the ‘Black Shadow’, with a 50 oz ceramic magnet to help deliver the headroom needed to handle channel 3. The whole thing is housed in a marine-grade, Baltic birch cabinet.

Pulling it out of the box, the Mark VII 1x12 may be comparatively small, but it weighs an absolute ton. It takes quite some effort just to lift it out by the handle, and at nearly 60 lbs, this isn’t an amp you’ll enjoy lifting into the trunk of your car. All of the additional extras are packed into the back of the amp, so to get them out, I have to unscrew the panel. Alongside the footswitch, packed inside are four heavy-duty casters, which are a necessity to install thanks to the heavy weight of the amp.

The cabinet itself is reassuringly solid, with the Black Shadow speaker rear-mounted to the baffle in the center of the frame. The tubes drop down a good portion of the open part of the back panel, shielded by a black cage. On the opposite side, the gigantic transformer takes up a lot of real estate, and on my review model, there’s some leftover transformer varnish that’s dripped down and hasn't been wiped off.

Everything feels well applied on the front panel, with the innumerable knobs and switches reacting nicely to my inputs. The corners of the amp all feature robust protectors, and it includes a good-quality amp cover to keep it safe during travel. I took the Mesa to several recording sessions from home, and although the weight is really something, I don’t doubt its ruggedness when it comes to touring.

When I first switched it on to start dialing in some sounds, I have to admit to feeling a little bit overwhelmed with the options. With three channels that each have three different voices, three power modes, and their own 3-band EQs, it’s hard to know where to start. Thankfully, Mesa includes a handy setup laminate on the top of the amp that gives users a good starting point.

Essentially, what we have here are three different channels: clean, crunch, and lead. Of course, with three amp modes per channel, there’s a lot more to it than that, but that’s the easiest way to break it down. Each channel has an individual EQ, so you can dial in very precise tones for each and switch between them. The reverb is also channel-specific, so you can crank it for the clean stuff, then pull it back for high gain, which is handy.

There’s also a footswitchable additional EQ, which you can sculpt via the sliders at the far end of the front panel. This might be just to change the tone of the core sound, or you can use it to boost certain frequencies. With 5 bands, it’s very flexible, although once you set it, it’s the same for every channel. The FX loop is also switchable for each channel so that you can bring your time-based effects in and out at the push of a button.

Moving to the back panel, there are some very useful options for using the amp at home. I start with the direct XLR out into my audio interface to record some direct tones. You can unplug the speaker here (make sure it’s fully unplugged), and the amp automatically engages the built-in reactive load so that silent recording is possible.

Each channel has a selection of 8 built-in cabinet IRs, and you can load your own into the amp too when connecting it via the USB slot to your laptop or PC. You can also use it in this way with headphones if you just want to practice silently; just remember to unplug the speaker, as the headphone out doesn’t defeat it automatically.

It feels like Mesa has really thought of any use case, making what is a very loud tube amp usable at home, in the studio, or onstage. The footswitch is excellent, giving you complete control over every aspect of the front panel, and the options for recording and silent practice make it probably the most flexible amp I’ve ever played. If you value simplicity, though, this definitely isn’t the amp for you.

I took the Mesa Mark VII Combo to my local recording studio for a bunch of sessions, and boy, is this thing capable. Using it as a clean pedal platform, the tones are very Fender-esque, and I didn’t need to do any tweaking to my pedalboard’s gain staging to get it sounding how I wanted. It took a multitude of pedals with ease, whether I was laying on phase-shifted distortion, modulated delays, or soaring shimmer reverbs.

I was also taken aback by the speaker's sound when played clean. There’s no boxiness at all, and it sounds incredibly full for what is a relatively small 1x12 combo amp. With the three power modes, you can get as much headroom as you like, and with the 90-watt mode, there’s a lot of clean headroom available. It also makes it usable at lower volumes, although the 25-watt mode is still deafeningly loud.

The built-in, tube-driven spring reverb is a really nice touch. It’s very similar to what you’d get on a vintage Fender amp, although to my ear the tail was a little smoother sounding. You can set it individually for each channel, so I used plenty of the clean sound but dialed it back for the rhythm and lead tones.

Moving to crunch tones, these are a bit rounder and smoother than your classic Plexi sounds, but it’s not a million miles away. For playing power-chord heavy rhythms with plenty of palm muting, it works great though, delivering a super satisfying rhythm tone that works great in a full band setup. It goes from a nice crunch all the way to a thrashy rhythm sound, so there’s plenty of flexibility just in this channel.

Moving to the high-gain channel, I’m greeted by a searing tone that works perfectly with a drop-tuned baritone guitar. It’s tight in the low end with plenty of midrange punch and a lovely smooth top. Here you can get a whole range of heavy guitar tones, whether it’s 80s-style lead sounds or chugging metal rhythms.

With it set to 90 watts and cranked, it makes more sound than any 1x12 combo has any right to, whilst still managing to sound controlled. When I used it this way in a recording session for a metal band, there were many a riff face in the control room as I chugged my way through some Meshuggah-inspired riffs.

There are no two ways about it, this is a guitar amp that is probably too expensive for a lot of guitar players. But when it’s capable of pretty much any guitar tone you can think of, the price suddenly doesn’t seem like such a huge barrier. If you want one tube amp that can genuinely do it all, then the Mesa/Boogie Mark VII 1x12 Combo is an investment you won’t regret.

The only real downside I found with it is the weight, which is really quite excessive. It’s a necessary evil due to the amount of electronic wizardry that’s packed into the unit, but it would definitely make me think twice about gigging it, even with the included heavy-duty casters attached.

It’s an inspired guitar amp, though. With such a plethora of tones at your fingertips, I found myself coming back to the Mesa again and again, despite having a couple of Fender and Orange tube amps at my disposal. The sheer flexibility of it enabled it to work just as well for some metal recordings I did as it worked on country guitar playing, and the option to use it silently at home sealed the deal.

Specifications

• Launch price: $3,849 | £3,999 | €4,137
• Type: Tube combo
• Origin: USA, UK-made speaker
• Output: 90 Watts RMS, switchable to 45 or 25W
• Speaker: 1x12 Celestion Custom 90
• Channels: 3
• Controls: Bass, Mid, Treble, Presence, Gain, Volume, 3x Reverb, plus extra modes and switchable Graphic EQ
• Connectivity: 1 x 1/4" input, 4 x 1/4" (4/8/16 ohm), 1 x 1/4" (line out), 1 x XLR (cabinet simulator), FX loop, 2 x 5-pin DIN (In, Out/Thru), 1 x Type B USB (IR loading), 1 x 1/4" headphones,
• Footswitch: 6-button footswitch included
• Weight: 58 lbs, 26.3 kg
• Dimensions: 18.25 x 18.75 x 11.5"
• Contact: Mesa/Boogie

Geddy Lee says his first real bass amp was a dream come true — until he and Alex Lifeson realized they had no idea how they were going to get the massive thing home.

Long before he was playing arenas and writing progressive-rock epics with the power trio Rush, Lee was a teenager with big ideas about the sound he wanted as a bass guitar player. Those ambitions led him to a hulking Traynor tube head with a twin 15-inch cabinet.

“When I could afford enough, I could afford a Traynor amp,” Lee tells Rick Beato in a new interview.

Made in Canada, Traynor built amps using circuitry inspired by Marshall and Fender designs, but at a lower price point, making them accessible to young players like Lee.

“I was probably 15 or 16,” Lee says. “I was working in my mother’s discount variety store on the weekends, and she advanced me a few Saturdays’ worth of money.

“I went down to a local shop in Toronto on a cold winter night with my best pal at the time, Alex Živojinović” — better known today as Alex Lifeson — “and I bought this Traynor head that had a twin 15-inch cabinet.”

But once the deal was done, reality set in: they had no plan for how to get it home.

“We kind of looked at each other,” Lee chuckles. “It was like, ‘How the fuck are we going to get this home?!’ We never even thought of that. We had to take the subway and the bus. It was quite a scene.”

The situation didn’t get any easier when they reached their stop.

“We got off at the bus stop, and it was really icy. And thank goodness it was icy because we pushed the amp — and the head.”

“How much were you guys laughing?” Beato interjects.

“We were not laughing,” Lee replies. “We were freezing. And we were pushing this fucking amp three blocks to my house.”

When they finally got it home, Lee set the amp up in his bedroom and discovered a different kind of excitement — the sound and smell of real gear coming to life.

“I remember the fantastic aroma when you turn on an amp for the first time, as the tubes heat up,” he says. “I couldn't sleep all night. I was so excited just looking at the light on the amp.”

At the time, Lee was playing a Fender Precision Bass and chasing the tone of his early heroes, including Chris Squire of Yes, as well as Jack Bruce and John Entwistle.

“I always dreamed of being able to play like Chris Squire,” Lee says. “He was one of my first bass heroes. But there was something about his playing — his facility, his tone — that just moved me and made me want that sound.”

Like many young players, Lee tried to copy his heroes at first. Eventually he realized the process doesn’t quite work that way.

“I never got his tone,” he says. “Only he sounds like Chris Squire. But I did my approximation of it. And when you add your version of your hero's sound, your experience, your particular idiosyncratic style of play and your heart, hopefully you end up with your own sound. I think that’s how a musician becomes themselves.”

Lee would later modify that original Precision Bass into his famous “Space Bass,” reshaping it into the distinctive teardrop-style instrument that became one of his trademarks onstage.

“I kinda destroyed the P Bass,” he says with a smile, “but it's still with us.”

Lee and Lifeson are currently preparing to return to the road with Rush for the first time since the death of drummer Neil Peart, with Anika Nilles on drums and Loren Gold on keyboards. The tour opens June 7 at the Kia Forum, the same venue where the band made what appeared to be its final bow in 2015. The band has not ruled out new music once the tour is completed.

The Fender Blues Junior IV is one of the most popular tube combo amplifiers the world has ever seen, positioning itself as a compact and easily transportable unit that boasts enough power for live playing and recording scenarios. Its fourth iteration, originally released in 2018, was about evolution, not revolution for Fender, looking to make incremental gains on predecessors, rather than reinventing the wheel.

The Blues Junior IV has always faced pretty stiff competition, namely from cross-Atlantic contemporary, the Vox AC15 – an amp that goes almost beat-for-beat with the Blues Junior in terms of specifications, and is one of only a handful of amplifiers in this category that can claim to come close to matching the pedigree of the Blues Junior.

Alongside the Vox, there are amps from Marshall (DSL and Origin series), Orange (the Rocker 15), and plenty of others that sit at comparable price points and have similar power. Despite all of this, the Blues Junior has regularly sat at the top of the pile in terms of sales figures in its class, regardless of the competition. It is the amp to beat.

The Blues Junior IV comes loaded with 15 watts of all-tube power courtesy of three 12AX7 preamp tubes and two EL84 power amp tubes. It puts this power down through a single channel, with a narrow set of controls: volume, treble, bass, middle, master volume, reverb, plus a FAT switch.

The reverb is a genuine spring tank, rather than the digital emulations that have become ever more common in small tube amplifiers due to space, reliability, and the quality of digital reverbs nowadays.

All of these sounds are projected through a 12” Celestion Type A speaker, a ceramic magnet design that boasts 50 watts (RMS) of power – more than enough for the Blues Junior – and is designed for "modern American" tones, with a punchy low end and articulate midrange, designed for achieving those classic Fender clean amp sounds.

My first impression when taking the amp out of the box was that it was a serious piece of kit. Some amps I have played over the past few years – even some that would position themselves as competitors to the Blues Junior – feel as though they are made to a price point, rather than to a specific standard, but this is not at all the case here.

The Tolex used feels suitably rugged, ready to take on any kind of environment, and I could find no noticeable areas where it was loose or sagging. If I had to nitpick, the fact you can see the joins where a couple of different pieces of Tolex panels have been used means it’s not as totally sleek as it could be, and in the back cavity there are a couple of areas where you can see the staples used to hold the vinyl down, but this is looking for faults and not something that anybody would notice unless actively hunting for issues.

The grille cloth is the classic Fender silver, with a tight weave that you are unlikely to pierce. It’s timeless, having first appeared on their amps in the late 60s, and it still holds up today. The same can be said of the aesthetic of the Blues Junior in general, and if you were to put an original Mk I Blues Junior next to the IV, there’s a good chance you wouldn’t be able to tell which one was which. Personally, I have no problem with this at all, and appreciate that Fender has found a functional and handsome design and stuck with it.

The steel-reinforced carry handle self-recesses down against the amp when not in use, but is easy to access when you do want to grab it. On handles like these on cheaper amps, I have found that the plastic coating around the handle can split over time as the material begins to become brittle with age, but this feels suitably durable, and there are no signs of a seam that could split after significant use.

The chicken-head style, pointed knobs are timeless, and have a solid travel to them. Comparing directly to those on my Vox AC4, which has almost identical-looking knobs, the Fender is fractionally firmer in operation, which I generally like, though not by any significant margin.

While it’s not strictly a budget amp, it sits towards the bottom of the tube amp market, so accessories aren’t necessarily something to be expected, which makes the addition of a footswitch as standard welcome. The footswitch itself is vintage-inspired, and it has a build that can take a serious stomping. I’m not a particularly small guy, and it dealt with my boots crashing down on it with no issues whatsoever.

The only potential negative is the shape, which is circular and not optimized for slotting onto a pedalboard. If this is something you’d like to do, there are a number of aftermarket switches that can be swapped in and are more pedalboard-friendly. There’s also no cover included as standard, but you can purchase one from Fender or find 3rd party option easily online.

While I haven’t had the opportunity to gig the Blues Junior IV, I’ve done my best to replicate the gigging experience by loading it in and out of the car and on short drives. I live around a number of country roads with potholes aplenty – the Blues Junior has not been treated to smooth rides. In my testing, it came out entirely unscathed and worked perfectly, which is not something I can say for other tube amplifiers I have used.

One of the first things that struck me upon the amp's arrival at my door was just how small it is. When I think of 1x12 combos, I tend to think of amps like the Blues Junior’s big brother, the Hot Rod Deluxe, or a Marshall DSL40 combo – both of which are significantly larger – and, maybe it’s purely down to the space in my home, but I absolutely loved having a compact amp.

When I wasn’t using it, it was easy to find space to stow it away, or a corner of a room that was actually improved by having this little amp positioned in it. It’s only 16 inches high, 18 inches wide, and between 9-10 inches deep, and comes in at around 30lbs/14kg, which means it is light enough to carry for most players, particularly if you’re just moving it around the home.

The Blues Junior IV is extremely simple, so if you’re expecting modern features, you’re definitely looking in the wrong place. The FAT switch is footswitchable, and I like that the labels face you as you approach the amp from the front, which was not the case on earlier iterations of the Blues Junior.

For home use it does edge towards being too loud, at least if you want to get it properly singing. I live in a semi-detached property with a young family next door, and I was acutely aware that pushing the master volume knob past the 3 or 4 mark would make their walls vibrate. If your home is detached, or you are lucky enough to have a sound-insulated home studio, you can probably make it work, but for those in apartments or with shared walls, I’d look at something like the Marshall DSL1CR or the Blackstar HT-1R.

While it would feel criminal to start lumbering it with things like a USB output or a headphone jack, an effects loop wouldn’t go amiss. The one thing I found it seriously lacked was switchable wattage, something many of its rivals have. 15W may not sound like a lot on paper but this is still a tube amp. For home use, switching it down to half, or 10% power, would be so useful, without negatively impacting the amp or spoiling its character at all.

To start with, I plugged in sans pedals to get the pure, natural tones of the Blues Junior IV. My immediate take was how instantly dynamic it feels to play, with an organic response to subtle changes in my playing. Dialling up the preamp volume, I can get a bit more dirt, but when I roll back my volume knob, things go from warm overdrive back to bright and clean.

On my Les Paul, which has a volume knob for each pickup, I found I could set the neck pickup volume to around halfway and get warm rhythm tones, and then switch to the bridge, on full volume, and have some crunchy lead tones ready to go. Unsurprisingly, with the pokey humbuckers in the Ibanez, the amp was even more grunty, and the natural tube breakup was particularly delightful.

When I used my Fulltone OCD overdrive pedal, it helped push that overdrive into cascading, harmonic distortion even on subtle settings. As I took things further down the dirt road, I wasn’t surprised to find that when I started stacking fuzzes, I quickly reached the ‘fart-out’ zone, where the amp struggled to cope with anything more. While stacking an EHX Big Muff and Dunlop Gypsy Fuzz isn’t really something I’d regularly do, it was more about pushing the limits of the Blues Junior IV, so I can’t hold that against it too much.

The ‘FAT’ switch, which is operated on top of the amp or via a foot switch, engages a boost in the midrange, which results in a more pronounced thick tone, ideal for soloing. It’s not quite like switching in a Tube Screamer-type pedal, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a noticeable and effective way to get a tone boost.

The integrated spring reverb in the amp is classic Fender, and just delightful. It has just the right amount of that trademark ‘drip’, and is a noticeable upgrade on the previous generation’s spring reverb, which had a slightly harsh quality. Personally, I prefer the voicing of the reverb on the IV versus the prior iterations. If you’re looking for cavernous ambience, that’s not quite what’s on offer here. It is more subtle, particularly between one and six on the knob, although it can go into a more swampy, drenched style as you go beyond this point.

Next, I used an MXR double team of a Carbon Copy analog delay pedal and an MXR M300 reverb pedal, with a Boss chorus pedal thrown in for good measure, to push the Junior IV into larger, more spacious tones. The Blues Junior held up well to this, particularly when playing with my Gold Foil-equipped Supro, though the inherently warm nature of the Carbon Copy did mean the amp felt a little dark, which I quickly remedied with a few EQ tweaks.

The lack of an effects loop means your time-based effects can get muddy when you start going for more overdriven sounds from the amp itself, as your entire signal chain is being subject to preamp gain. This went into shoegaze territory for me, which I rather liked. I can see this being more of a problem if you use a lot of overdrive/distortion pedals in tandem with ambient time-based effects, as things could get a little muddy when that kind of signal chain collides with a hot preamp section, though, for my style of playing, it really wasn’t a problem.

Having lived with the Blues Junior for a decent period, I still think it’s a great amp for anybody likely to find themselves regularly gigging, offering just the right combination of volume and transportability for the vast majority of shows. It’s also a simply phenomenal studio workhorse, taking up minimal space, but producing maximum tone at a very reasonable price.

In an ideal world, it would be a little bit lighter, but some extra weight is a tradeoff I am more than happy to make for the Celestion Type A Speaker, the spring reverb tank, and a robust wooden frame. While the Blues Junior is designed to be a simple, stripped-back, and authentic tube amp affair, I can’t help but feel that there are simply some things that the Blues Junior IV is falling behind on. Cab-emulated DIs and an effects loop are now staples in the modern era of small combo guitar amps, and the Junior IV shows its age here.

I’ve gone back and forth asking whether $789 is a reasonable asking price for the Blues Junior, particularly when you compare it to the likes of the Supro Delta King 12, which has similar features but comes in over $100 cheaper. Something like the Vox AC15 – an amp most definitely in the same class as the Blues Junior – is even more expensive. It’s not an insignificant investment, but in the context of modern tube amp prices, it’s worth it, and when compared to the competition, it’s competitively priced.

Guitar Player verdict: If you want classic Fender tube tones, the Blues Junior IV remains among the cheapest ways of achieving them. Some may wish for a few more mod-cons, but you have to respect that Fender has stayed true to the recipe that made the Blues Junior a fan favorite since its release. In a few years, maybe this will change, but right now, and as has been the case since it launched, the Blues Junior is best in class, even if that class has a lot of competition.

Specifications

• Price: $789.99 | £749.00 | €755
• Type: Combo
• Origin: Mexico
• Output: 15 Watts RMS
• Speaker: 1x12” Celestion A-Type speaker, 8 ohms
• Channels: 1
• Controls: Reverb, Master, Middle, Bass, Treble, Fat Switch, Volume
• Connectivity: 1x 1/4" Input
• Footswitch: 1-button footswitch (included)
• Weight: 31.5 lbs (14.3 kg)
• Dimensions: 457.2 x 406 x 249mm
• Contact: Fender

The Supro name may be synonymous with vintage guitar tone, but the company’s newest amplifier embraces cutting-edge technology. Its new Airwave is a tube-powered 1x12 combo equipped with onboard Two Notes cab-simulation.

Supro’s story stretches back nearly a century. The brand emerged in 1935 as the house line of Chicago manufacturer Valco, whose roots trace to the resonator-guitar pioneers National and Dobro in the 1920s—an era when amplification itself was still in its infancy and electric guitars were a still a few years away.

By the late 1960s, Supro amps were already part of blues-rock lore, heard in the hands of players like Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix, as well as numerous Chicago blues greats. The new Airwave neatly closes that historical loop, pairing Supro’s vintage tube lineage with modern digital cabinet simulation.

Certainly, Supro isn’t the first to embed IRs in an otherwise tube-driven guitar amp. Suhr, Engl, Blackstar and others have all covered this ground in one way or another. But the company’s merging of the retro and modern comes across a bit differently.

Outwardly, the Airwave is a straightforward 1x12 combo with two 6V6GT output tubes and two 12AX7s in the preamp, for an output that Supro rates at 25 watts. Reverb and tremolo are both analog, with a genuine spring pan for the former. Controls following the single input include volume, treble, mids, bass, reverb, tremolo speed and depth, and master volume. There are also switches for boost and drive, each of which is foot-switchable, as are the reverb and tremolo.

It’s not until you reach the far-right end of the control panel that anything hints at 21st tech. There beneath a logo that reads “Two Notes DynIR Cab Simulation” sits a six-position rotary preset selector, a pushbutton group A/B switch, and a pushbutton pre/post switch that determines whether you send the amp’s signal to the IR processing before or after the output stage.

Round back is a knob for cab sim level and a USB-C input for connecting to a Mac or Windows computer to access the Two Notes Torpedo software for preset editing and loading (also available over Bluetooth to iOS or Android). Here too are stereo cab sim XLR outputs with a ground-lift switch; 1/4-inch TRS jacks for headphones; foot-switch jacks for reverb, tremolo, boost and drive; a speaker mute/on switch, and an eight-ohm extension-speaker output.

Keen readers will deduce that these features tell us the cab sim signal is processed in stereo, and also that it can be used through the XLR outs or headphones with the speaker muted for quite home playing or silent-stage gig situations. And it’s all squeezed into a stylish and portable combo measuring 20.5 by 18.5 by 9 inches and weighing 37 pounds.

Although it’s a relatively simple package, the Airwave provides everything you need to record the direct to your DAW or run the amp to front-of-house without a microphone either in mono or stereo. And you can do it while achieving the tones of almost any conceivable classic or modern speaker cab.

Onboard simulated speaker cabs are presented in two groups: Vintage and Modern. The former includes Super 1x8, Comet 1x10, Oahu 1x10, Modded Coronado 1x12, Dual Tone 1x12, and Thunderbolt 1x15; the latter offers Phil X ’64 Super 1x8, Amulet 1x10, Delegate 1x12, Keeley 1x12, Airwave 1x12, and Reissue Thunderbolt 1x15. Upon completing the product registration, the user can also download six further boutique Supro-based cabs.

As you can see, all of these offerings are IRs of Supro or Valco amp cabs, and all single-speaker cabs at that. I’ve used Two Notes IR technology on and off since the early 2010s and I’ve always felt one of the advantages of running a small combo into cab-sim processor was the ability to ram it through a classic Marshall 4x12 with pre-Rola Greenbacks, a Vox 2x12 with Alnico Blues, a Twin with JBLs, or whatever iconic (and possibly heavy) cab you’d love to be heard through but are unlikely to actually carry with you to the gig.

But that’s where the Torpedo Remote software comes in. Use it to load any other Two Notes or compatible third-party cabs you already own, and you’re there. Still, it might have been cool to have one or two 4x12s and 2x12s among the factory options for easy access.

Tested with a Fender Telecaster and a Gibson ES-335, the Airwave proved itself an able mid-sized combo in stand-alone mode, even before I added the Two Notes IRs. With boost and drive switched off, the amp’s clean and edge-of-breakup settings display that subtle marriage of grit and warmth that many players of Supro (and other vintage Valco) amps will recognize. It holds together surprisingly well in the low frequencies and up to pretty punchy volume level in the room.

These characteristics suit it beautifully to low-string twang from the Telecaster, which gets just the right be snarly and nasty with the boost engaged and the volume up beyond noon, yet it doesn’t fart out when introduced to the ES-335’s neck pickup, either.

Switch on Drive mode and a certain hairiness reveals itself, when pushed, which does indeed remind me of some snarly granularity of cranked Valco-made amps of the past, particularly those with the 6973 output tubes often used in place of the 6V6GTs found here.

Obviously the drive setting is affected greatly by where you set the amp’s volume control, but it enables a broad range of juicy lead tones, all of which lean vintage rather than modern, yet could easily apply to the latter in more alt- and indie-rock settings.

While boost and drive are handy bonus features, they might be tricky to apply even with the foot switch, considering both are pre-set and the increase in output-level they induce can’t be adjusted. Even so, they offer further ways to open up this combo and getting it screaming.

Reverb does what most will want from it, with well-balanced depth. The tremolo also sounds good and nails a certain breed of Valco’s off-balance wobble extremely well. The taper on the speed control will take some getting used to since it goes from the slower side of medium to all-out gallop through only about a 10 percent portion of its range around the two-thirty mark, but so it goes.

As it stands, the Supro Airwave offers pretty good value for the price. Add in the Two Notes IRs and the massive preset-editing capabilities of the Torpedo Remote software, however, and the combo’s versatility increases exponentially. The 12 factory presets and six further downloads offer impressive variation in sounds and responses. What’s more, the sound quality through stereo headphones straight into the amp or, for example, or studio monitors via the Universal Audio Apollo interface I also tested it through was excellent.

While the factory presets are set pretty dry, a significant amount of room or ambient reverb and stereo dimension can be dialed in via the Torpedo Remote app, where mic selections and placement and several other parameters can also be deeply edited. As mentioned above, I really enjoyed patching the Airwave through a couple of my favorite third-part 4x12 and 2x12 IRs from Ownhammer, and the ability to load any such changes into the Airwave’s banks and tap that kind of tone live opens up its potentially immensely.

All in all, Supro did a great job of cobbling the Airwave into a simple and portable package that still offers boatloads of versatility both for recording and live performance, on stages both big and small.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT Suprousa.com

PRICE $1,499 list

CHANNELS 1

CONTROLS Volume, Treb, Mids, Bass, Verb, Speed, Depth, Master, Preset selector; switches for Boost, Drive, Pre/Post, and preset Group A/B

POWER 25 watts

TUBES Three 12AX7s, two 6V6GTs

EXTRAS Cab Sim Level; a USB-C input, L and R Cab Sim XLR outputs with Ground Lift switch; ¼" Headphones jack, Verb/Trem Ftsw jack, Boost/Drive Ftsw jack, Speaker Mute/On switch,8-Ohm extension speaker output

SPEAKERS One 12" Celestion BD12

WEIGHT 37 lbs

MADE IN Indonesia

PRO A good-sounding tube combo in its own right, the Airwave’s versatility is greatly expanded by excellent-sounding Two Notes IRs.

CON Although the tremolo sounds good its speed can be finicky to dial in, and a 2x12 and 4x12 cab preset would have been nice.

Long a sleeper in Fender’s original tweed amplifier lineup of the 1950s, the 5G9 Tremolux didn’t officially exist until a handful of players, collectors, and vintage-amp aficionados finally put the pieces together. No one, to my knowledge, has ever reported seeing this model of the 1x12 Tremolux combo from 1959–’60 with a “5G9” tube chart, although a schematic for the model exists. Perusing that diagram reveals that this circuit has quite a few significant differences from the 5E9-A Tremolux that preceded it.

And I should know, having owned two great original 5G9s in the past, both of which had 5E9-A tube charts pasted inside their finger-jointed solid-pine cabinets.

Its elusive nature aside, the 5G9 Tremolux was discovered in a big way several years ago, having been declared the “best-sounding tweed Fender” by many players (although that’s a subject guaranteed to drum up some debate).

So with prices for originals soaring, Ron Westwood of Cutthroat Audio decided to put his own passion for this late-era tweed wonder to work by creating the Fullerton 5G9 Tremolux combo.

For several years before segueing into hand-wired amp manufacturing, Cutthroat Audio specialized in high-end instrument, speaker and patch cables, and Westwood has taken a similar obsession with the minutiae of tone-enhancing components into this homage to the 5G9.

The Fullerton closely replicates all the essentials of the design while adding some conveniences for the contemporary player that nevertheless shouldn’t detract from the overall vintage vibe and performance. It’s all wrapped into a classic 18-watt, dual-6V6 combo that’s housed, in this case, in the option of a lightly aged lacquered tweed cabinet.

In addition to its stealth nature, the 5G9 Tremolux was something of an anomaly in Fender’s amp lineup, and one we can refer to variously as “the biggest small Fender tweed amp” or “the smallest big Fender tweed amp,” depending on how you slice it. The original iteration of 1955, the 5E9 Tremolux, was Fender’s first amp to carry tremolo and wasn’t far off from being a 5E3 Deluxe with the effect built in. In a few years, however, that would change dramatically.

The amp earned a larger cabinet first, moving into the same one used by the dual-6L6 Pro Amp. Next, the circuit was heavily updated to include many features seen in Fender’s larger amps.

While the 5G9 still has the simple dual-volume preamp with shared tone control of the tweed Deluxe, that was coupled to the same long-tailed-pair phase inverter and fixed-bias output stage used by the legendary 5F6-A Bassman, making the Tremolux Fender’s only 6V6-equipped amp of the ’50s to carry these features. It also used a stouter 5U4GB rectifier tube than the Deluxe’s relatively soft 5Y3.

And while the change of phase-inverter circuit robbed the 5G9 of the 5E3’s extra gain stage, the deletion gave the Tremolux a lot more clean headroom, which couples with the higher voltages to enable a tight low end and plenty of clean punching power.

In addition to adopting these traits, Cutthroat has added several of the clever twists seen in its Down Brownie and Francene combos previously reviewed in GP. While it includes the lower-gain 12AY7 in the Bright channel — a preamp tube that was original equipment in the vintage Tremolux — there’s also a higher-gain 12AX7 that can be swapped into the circuit via a push-pull switch on that channel’s volume control.

The generally redundant Normal channel has been revoiced with a Marshall JMP50 Lead spec–inspired circuit, and the otherwise unused half of the 12AY7 in V1 is tapped to add the extra gain stage the original 5G9 is otherwise missing, accessed via a push-pull on the tone control when you need extra grind. The popular tweak of jumpering the two channels together with a short cable is made easier thanks to a third push-pull on the Normal channel’s volume pot that internally couples Bright and Normal.

The amp’s namesake tremolo effect is of the bias-modulating variety, which acts on the output tubes’ bias point and is known for its lush, warm throb, given a slight revamp here to enable even slower speeds.

Cutthroat has added further modifications in the form of a post-phase-inverter master volume control (housed in the hole where the standby switch would go, with standby mode achieved via a three-way power switch); a three-position negative-feedback-loop switch that offers standard, less, and none, for three further degrees of gain; and a tube/solid-state rectifier switch.

Finally, there’s a switch to select four-, eight- or 16-ohm speaker output. Unlike the 5E3 Deluxe, the 5G9 requires re-biasing when output tubes are changed — something made more convenient with a bias pot on the underside of the chassis.

Removing the upper back panel reveals a meticulously hand-wired circuit using Jupiter yellow and “Red Astron” signal capacitors, carbon-comp resistors, and other high-end components. Custom-wound Heyboer power and output transformers and a Hammond choke populate the other side of the chassis, and the cabinet carries a 12-inch Weber Alnico 12A125 30-watt speaker, a reproduction of the original Jensen P12Q.

Tested with a Fender Telecaster and a Gibson ES-335 electric, the Fullerton 5G9 quickly reminded me of the originals I’d owned in the past, with a robust clean tone that takes some hammering before it starts to break up, and that rich, thick tweed sound that so beautifully complements single coils and lower-wind humbuckers alike.

With the master volume maxed (and therefore ostensibly out of the circuit), you have to push the Bright channel with the 12AY7 engaged pretty hard to elicit any breakup, but it’s tactile and dynamic when it comes. By then, the amp is reasonably loud for an 18-watter, although it shouldn’t be overpowering in venues of 100 seats or more.

For smaller rooms, or for more tolerable grind with the volume all the way up, the PPI master volume does a great job of taming the decibels without impeding the amp’s voice, and proves a fantastic addition as a result.

From here, of course, there are several other avenues of gain to tap — either individually or layered up — via the 12AX7 setting (a notable jump in volume and breakup, if not excessive), the extra gain stage on the tone control’s push-pull, the Marshall-voiced Normal channel, or indeed the two jumpered together with all of the above. Get the latter setting cooking and dial the master to taste, and there’s no end of singing, touch-sensitive overdrive to be had — plus endless fun along with it.

To my tastes, the tremolo functions best on cleaner, edge-of-breakup, or just-over-the-edge gain settings, where it’s sweetly rounded, rich, and atmospheric. It’s a great example of why so many players hail tube-driven bias-modulated trem as the crème de la crème of this effect. Applying it to heavier drive settings still yields some wild and evocative sounds, though, and boatloads of expression in the swamp-blues arena.

Add in the versatility of the negative-feedback switch and switchable rectifier, and there’s a deceptive number of voices lurking within this unassuming tweed combo. All in all, it greatly honors an underappreciated original that has only recently found the spotlight, and proves a toneful and portable combo that myriad players are likely to dig immensely.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT Cutthroataudio.com

PRICE $3,195 street

CHANNELS 2

CONTROLS Bright Volume, Normal Volume, Tone, Tremolo Speed and Depth, Master Volume; switches for 12AY7/12AX7 Ch1, channel jumpering, added gain stage

POWER 18 watts

TUBES One 12AY7, three 12AX7s, two 6V6GTs, one 5AU4GB rectifier

EXTRAS Footswitch for tremolo, solid-state/tube-rectified switch, three-way negative feedback switch, switch for 4/8/16Ω speaker output

SPEAKERS One 12" Weber Alnico 12A125

WEIGHT 35 lbs

MADE IN USA

PRO A great sounding homage to the originally last-iteration of the tweed Tremolux, with several clever mods increasing its versatility exponentially.

CON It comes at a high price, although not an unreasonable one for the quality of components and workmanship.

Laney Amplification founder Lyndon Laney has died aged 77, following a battle with cancer. Tony Iommi, a man who helped turn Laney’s valve amp passion into a global force, has led the tributes.

The news has led to an outpouring of love for a man who, alongside Jim Marshall, was one of Britain’s finest amp builders.

“It is with deep sadness that we acknowledge the passing of Lyndon Laney, founder of Laney Amplification,” Laney’s statement reads.

“Lyndon established Laney Amplification in 1967 and, through vision, dedication, and an uncompromising commitment to quality, built the company from modest beginnings into an internationally respected and successful brand. His work helped shape the sound of generations of musicians, most notably that of his long-term friend Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath.

“Lyndon’s influence extended far beyond business success; he was admired for his warmth, integrity, humor, and quiet determination.”

Like Black Sabbath, Laney emerged from Birmingham in the late 1960s, and is set to celebrate its 60th anniversary next year. In true rags-to-riches fashion, Lyndon Laney crafted his first amp in his dad's garden shed, with the business born after friends started requesting more builds for themselves.

The tube amp fanatic very quickly established a relationship with Black Sabbath guitarist Iommi. That would prove to be the cornerstone of the Laney legacy. It was his 1970 creation, the Laney LA 100 BL, made specifically for Iommi, that powered the first two Black Sabbath records alongside Iommi's trusted Gibson SG, Monkey, after fate intervened to stop him from launching Sabbath with a Stratocaster.

Iommi has remained fiercely loyal to Laney's tones over the following decades, with a special edition of his signature amp and a slew of reissues and other signature models following since, including last year's Laney Black Country Customs Tony Iommi TI100.

“I’m so sad to say that I lost my very dear friend Lyndon Laney to cancer on Friday,” he writes on Instagram. “I am absolutely devastated. We go back to the late 60s, when I first met him and started using his Laney amps.

“He was a really lovely guy, and his great passion was building valve amps. He also loved his cars, as I did, and we had so much in common. We’d sit down and talk about ideas and what to build into my amplifiers.

“I am so honored to have known him and his family,” he continues. “James, his son, has been running the company for some years now, and he has carried on the business and has pushed it forward with some brilliant ideas.”

Today, Laney boasts a roster of high-flying artists, including Billy Corgan, Nathan East, Vernon Reid, and Guthrie Govan. It has continued to push forward with fresh ideas and innovations. The 1972 KLIPP amp, the first of its kind to feature a boost channel, and the DP Range, which, in 1988, emboldened bass amps with graphic EQs for the first time, are shining examples of that.

In 2024, it released the world’s most powerful FRFR cabinet as it continues to adapt to the changing needs of guitar players. The 4x12 cab is nearly as loud as a jet plane taking off.

Reflecting on the “privilege” of knowing and working with Iommi during an interview last year, Laney said, “We've had some fun on the way.”

“We've worked bloody hard, haven't we?” Iommi returned. “You used to be in there night and day, dedicated to it. I'm not going to use anything else, and without you, we wouldn't be here.”

With a smile, Laney returned the compliment: “It goes both ways,” he said. That it does.

Marshall’s DSL series, or Dual Super Lead to give it its Sunday name, has been around for the best part of two decades. Sitting somewhere between the affordable MG series and the more expensive UK-made JVM amplifiers, the DSL range has long been a popular choice for guitarists chasing authentic Marshall grit, complete with plenty of mid-range bite whilst not leaving your wallet sore.

Boasting not only the title of the smallest combo in the DSL range, but in Marshall’s entire catalog, the DSL1CR is a 1-watt, all-tube combo designed with home use in mind. It’s also the most affordable tube amp in Marshall’s lineup, making it an accessible entry point for players looking to get into tube amps without it hurting their bank account.

Marshall isn’t alone in this space. Its most obvious competitor is the Blackstar HT series, which also includes a 1-watt tube amp, the HT-1R. During my time working in a guitar store, the HT-1R was consistently one of the best sellers, and I demoed it more times than I can count, making it a natural point of comparison here.

The DSL1CR is equipped with two ECC83 preamp valves and an ECC82 power amp valve, paired with an 8-inch Celestion Eight 15 speaker. On paper, it shares some familiar DNA with larger Marshall designs. As someone who owns a Marshall 1987x Reissue head, which also runs ECC83s in the preamp, I was particularly interested in how that translates into a much smaller, home-friendly format.

When my long-suffering courier turned up with the parcel, there were no words of complaint about how heavy the box was, being used to many cumbersome boxes (and letting me know). This was a good sign in a home-friendly amplifier, as decent portability and dimensions are looked on more favorably, particularly with tube amps that typically weigh a tonne.

It’s compact as well as lightweight and much smaller than my Peavy Classic 30 I placed beside it. At 7.9kg, this isn’t a heavy tube amp. If you’re used to carrying something like an AC30 to gigs, it will feel featherweight.

For most of my testing, I had the DSL1CR on my desktop for ease of access to controls. It’s not quite in the traditional desktop amp dimensions, nor would I call it a mini amp, but certainly the right size for a practice amp. Although you’ll be unlikely to take it out of the house much, it feels very durable. It’s instantly recognizable as a Marshall, with the iconic gold panel and script logo.

Although only a little detail, the on/off switch provides a satisfying click each time you reach for it, whilst the control knobs are large enough for proper control. The white piping is a small but effective touch that gives Marshall vibes in its entirety. When added up altogether, it certainly looks the part.

Like any tube amp worth its salt, the DSL1CR is incredibly easy to use, and even easier to dial in a decent tone. Starting off with the Classic Gain channel, there’s simply a volume control, easy-peasy. The channel switch comes in the form of a button, and when pressed, a red light (red for danger) indicates you’re on the Ultra Gain channel, which has both volume and gain controls.

Both channels share a 3-band EQ, covering treble, middle, and bass. There’s also a global digital reverb that works across both channels, although it can’t be set independently. The tone shift switch reshapes the mids for a more scooped sound, and I found, works particularly well with the Ultra Gain channel.

Around the back reveals a few more modern options. There’s an FX loop and footswitch input, with the included footswitch letting you switch between channels on the fly. You also get a Softube emulated output, allowing you to plug straight into a computer for recording while still using the amp’s tone.

On that topic, there is absolutely zero lag when switching from one channel to another. Although you're not going to be gigging this Marshall, that’s a big positive if you ever plan on recording with it whilst switching between channels. The footswitch’s cable is also incredibly long, which allowed me to position the amp at a further distance than I usually would, whilst taking into account its dispersion.

Although 1 watt doesn’t sound like much, this is still a valve amp, and it can get surprisingly loud. That’s why the power reduction switch ended up being my (and my partner’s) favourite feature. Anyone who lives in an apartment will know the struggle, so when I was testing this at 8 pm, dropping it down to 0.1W meant I could play to my heart’s content without annoying anyone. Although the cleaner Classic Gain channel was less aggressive, anything past the 3 o’clock mark on either channel was just too much for home practice.

There’s also a 3.5mm aux input for playing along to backing tracks. It’s not something I used a great deal, but it’s a handy addition if you want to practice with backing tracks or play along to songs.

Out of habit, and perhaps reading habits, I plugged in my Fender Modern Player Starcaster and started from left to right. This guitar is equipped with a pair of The Creamery humbuckers and I was surprised at the warm, clean tone of the Classic Gain channel. I think letting the amp warm up was a good shout and it worked equally well with the single coils of my American Standard Stratocaster.

Hooking up my pedalboard, I opted to go into the front of the amp, instead of the FX loop and my MXR Carbon Copy delay alongside Walrus Audio Slo Reverb was getting plenty of ethereal tones. I was genuinely having a fun time getting lost on the clean side of the DSL1CR.

However, when it turned around midday, and my partner had vacated the building, I started to see what it could do when pushed. It started breaking up around the 4 or 5 mark with the volume, right to the edge of breakup, but when I dug in, there were plenty of creamy tube tones on display. Although I did hear my upstairs neighbors shuffling about after my third rendition of Ain’t Talking About Love – this amp is pretty darn loud – so I decided to switch over to the Ultra Gain Channel.

That may seem counterintuitive when trying to keep it down, but with a gain control, this channel can get very saturated at low volumes. Even more so when the 0.1W low power mode is on. I was having fun playing heavier riffs, and checked out the tone shift a bit more. This switch worked well on the Ultra Gain channel, scooping out the mid-range. It worked very well whilst I was messing around with Sum 41 riffs, but overall, I preferred the natural EQ of the amp; it sounded fuller to my ears.

Also, to my ears, there was a bit of a boxier tone, rather unsurprising considering this amplifier is exactly that, a little box. The 8-inch speaker struggled slightly with low-end, so I was constantly adjusting the bass knob for that added depth. Plus, when I kicked on my Earthquaker Devices Plumes overdrive pedal (which is cranked itself), the speaker did struggle with handling the low-end. However, there are a few compromises you have to make if you want an amplifier this size, and the DSL1CR has plenty of positives that convince me it’s worth it.

Lastly, although Marshall doesn’t state what the digital reverb is emulating, it's got hall characteristics to me. It doesn’t blow me away, but it does the job. Plus, it covers just a touch of ‘verb, to full on cascading waves of lushness, so breadth is certainly something it boasts.

Considering the DSL1CR has one pretty clear mission statement, to make tube tones achievable at home, it certainly earns a pass mark. Having not one, not two, but three genuinely usable tones, clean, overdriven, and distorted, in a tube amp this size and at this price point is a commendable achievement. For players who want tube amps or nothing, it’s a clear winner.

If, like me, you use a 50-watt Marshall head or any other valve amp for gigs, and don’t have something for home, this is a brilliant option. With an accompanying footswitch, FX loop, and emulated out, it blends classic tube simplicity with a few modern features that genuinely add value, without overwhelming you with options.

That said, the tone can sit slightly on the boxy side, with a noticeable lack of low-end. It’s not a deal breaker given the quality of tones on offer, but it may leave some players wanting a little more depth.

Guitar Player verdict: The DSL1CR nails its mission of delivering genuine tube tones at home, with impressive versatility and smart modern features. While the compact speaker brings a slightly boxy character and limited low-end, it remains a compelling option for players wanting an authentic Marshall feel without excessive volume or cost.

Specifications

• Price: £239/$399/€275
• Type: Tube combo amplifier
• Tubes: 2x ECC83, 1x ECC82
• Origin: Vietnam
• Output: 1W (with 0.1W reduction switch)
• Speaker: 1x8" Celestion Eight 15
• Channels: 2, Classic Gain and Ultra Gain
• Controls: Classic gain channel volume, channel select button, ultra gain channel volume and gain, tone shift switch, low power mode button, treble, middle, bass and reverb
• Connectivity: 1/4-inch input, FX loop, footswitch input, 3.5mm emulated out, 3.5mm audio input
• Footswitch: Yes, included
• Weight: 7.9kg/17lbs
• Dimensions: 360x340x215mm
• Contact: Marshall

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Considering he owns more amps than most players have lost guitar picks down the back of their couch, Joe Bonamassa is quite rightly something of an authority on amplifiers. And he believes too many players get one major thing wrong.

He knows the highs and lows of his tube-amp obsession all too well. Recently, he was left with acute hearing loss after an incident on the road, and says he has been forced to rethink the sheer scale of his vintage gear collection in the wake of the L.A. wildfire.

But then there’s the joy of tracking down Lowell George’s famed Dumble Super Overdrive after 15 years of searching, and the thrill of gigging with “the world’s most expensive three-channel amp.”

What all that amounts to is experience — and with it, the besuited bluesman has begun questioning why so many players take the same approach when it comes to mic’ing amplifiers.

“I have this thing — and here comes the clickbait — called the Full Sail flashlight,” he says during a recent appearance on the No Cover Charge podcast, referencing Full Sail University. “Tell me you went to Full Sail without telling me you went to Full Sail.

“Every time I see the flashlight coming out when someone's mic’ing the cab, I go [shakes head],” he continues. “Because whoever said that the best sound coming out of any speaker is dead center?”

Instead of a cut-and-paste formula, he believes players should break with tradition and trust their ears to “season to taste.”

“If the amp’s dark, you move it more inside,” he says. “But to start dead center is rough.”

As ever, Bonamassa’s analytical brain whirs away. He sees the value in understanding speaker cabinets on a practical, nuts-and-bolts level.

“All the high end’s coming out of there,” he says, referring to the center of the speaker cone. “So none of the bass response is coming out of the cone. You're not really hearing what this cabinet [itself] is doing, because that’s part of the bottom end.

“It’s about finding where the amp and the mic meet and represent the sound in your head. Putting a mic dead center of the cone is like plugging one ear and putting that ear to the middle of the cone.”

“There are so many links in the chain,” he adds as he winds toward his conclusion. “It starts with the guitar and the amp, and you get a good sound. But there are a lot of ways for that sound to go south if you don’t understand these little details. It shouldn’t be an accident. It should be a well-executed plan.”

Elsewhere, Bonamassa has reflected on the overlooked aspect of B.B. King’s playing, arguing that the blues legend was a true virtuoso, as he promotes his tribute album to the late great.

He has also spoken about the blues giant who made him the guitarist he is today, and says players should learn to read the room when it comes to standing out at jam sessions.

Jack White’s penchant for oddball gear is no mystery. He wrote and recorded some of the White Stripes’ biggest songs on a 1964 Montgomery Ward Airline Res-O-Glas guitar. Last year, he enlisted Eddie Van Halen’s longtime luthier to create a custom build that blurs the line between guitar and bass.

But how he tracks down some of his strangest gear choices has been less clear.

Now we have an answer. The recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee sat down with Reverb to discuss his approach, revealing the lengths he’s gone to realize the sounds he hears in his head.

Most strikingly, he recalled embarking on an eight-year search for an amplifier he wasn’t even sure existed.

“My favorite thing to do — if I see an old clip of a musician and some equipment behind them — is to try to find out what that equipment is, if I don't know already,” Jack White explains.

“And that can lead to a lot of amazing things, because sometimes you'll find that amp and it's this one company, but this company also made a reverb unit or an echo unit, and then it’s like, ‘Oh, wow, this is a whole new world.’

“The shocking thing to me, having done that since I was a teenager — for 30-plus years — is still finding things that I’ve never heard of.”

White’s discoveries over that three-decade span have been vast and varied. Just the day before the interview was filmed, he stumbled across “some guitar synthesizer from the ’70s” he had never seen before.

“All the shops I've been in, all the bands I've played with, all the studios I've been in, and I have never, ever heard of this. And it's just amazing how often that happens.”

On other occasions, he has pursued gear that was only rumored to exist — searches that could prove long and maddening, as he discovered during his quest for a fabled amplifier.

“In the early days of the White Stripes, I had a 50-watt Silvertone amp,” he continues. “I was speaking to Danny Kroha from [blues-punk band] the Gories, who was in the Demolition Doll Rods at the time. I said, ‘Yes, it's got that crunch, but I don't have reverb on it, so I guess I'm using a Twin Reverb with this Silvertone so I get the crunch and the reverb.’

“And he goes, ‘Well, you should just get a 100-watt Silvertone.’ I was like, ‘They made 100-watt Silvertones?’ I didn't know that, and he goes, ‘Yeah, I think they did.’

“I looked for eight years before I finally walked into a shop and they fucking had a 100-watt Silvertone. I'm like, ‘It's actually real!’ I never saw a drawing or a photograph or an old catalog picture, or someone who had one. Nothing. Everyone just said, ‘I don't know if there is one or not.’”

Today, however, White could have discovered the amp in no time at all.

“Now that's a Google search in two seconds,” he says laughing. “Then at least I know it exists. That would have saved me a lot of stress.”

To prove his point, a quick Google search did indeed reveal that a number of those amps were built in the 1960s, typically with a 12AX7 preamp and 6V6 or 6L6 power tubes. Silvertone made 100-watt heads and combos, and some featured built-in reverb. They were very much modeled off the Fender amps of the time, but distinguished themselves with a dirty, lo-fi sound compared to Blackface Fenders.

Elsewhere, White has shared the advice Prince gave him and outlined the difference between rock and blues guitar players.

Ever since establishing his former Tone King brand with the release of the first Imperial combo in 1993, Maryland-based amp designer and manufacturer Mark Bartel has done things somewhat differently. His distinct path was always obvious in both the retro looks of his creations and the original circuits, which cleverly blended versatile classic American and British voicings without directly copying anything that had gone before.

And while Tone King amps were always highly regarded for their quality, that aspect of his work has clicked up a notch over the past several years in the amps he now builds under the Bartel Amplifiers name. Like the Roseland, Starwood and Sugarland models before it, the new Swingland is based on a design so individual the word “original” barely covers it. Add the hand-wired circuit and artisan-grade cabinet, and it’s a creation entirely unto itself.

And beyond all that, the new model’s entire M.O. centers on it being what Bartel feels is the first low-wattage guitar amp with genuine high-wattage tone, feel and body—if not volume. More than two and a half years in development, he feels the Swingland is ideally suited to today’s lower-output environments, while keeping the response and dynamics of a tube amp front and center in what is otherwise a rapidly evolving amplification landscape. Let’s bring in its creator for his own summation of the objective at hand.

“A lot of customers for my three legacy models use them exclusively for playing at home or in the studio,” Bartel says. “These amps have an excellent master volume circuit but are ultimately designed to accommodate both home/studio use and live playing in clubs. The Swingland amp is designed specifically for studio/home use and has a more sophisticated architecture for greater control over the harmonic content and dynamics to better deliver the sound and feel of a cranked vintage amp, but at low volume.

“I realize it’s an unusual product in this market because, in spite of its low output power, it’s a proper master-built amp loaded with innovative design work and useful features. As a home player myself, this is my ideal amp. I can’t play loudly at home, but I don’t want to compromise on tone, features or quality. If anything, sound quality is even more important when playing at home, where you can hear everything more clearly. Based on conversations with customers over the years, it seems like this may be a popular view, but time will tell.”

Specs-wise, the Swingland puts out three watts RMS using one octal-based 6SN7 tube driving a custom-made output transformer by US company Lenco Electronics, into a single 12-inch Celestion Alnico Blue speaker. The use of this dual-triode — more commonly seen in the preamp positions of some amps from the ’50s — allows for a proper push-pull output stage.

That gets Bartel part way to the “big-amp feel” versus the single-ended configurations generally used in low-wattage amps in the Fender Champ and Vox AC4 mold. One 12AX7, two 12AT7s and one 12AU7 populate the rest of the preamp and reverb stages, with controls for preamp volume, midrange, tone, reverb mix, dwell, master volume and presence.

Readers might first notice that the midrange control signals something different, and in fact both that and the tone knob operate quite differently than on traditional amps. The former is neutral when set at noon and boosts midrange frequencies above that point, while cutting them below, with the degrees of boost and cut set to different response curves to best dial in classic amp voicings. The tone control does make things brighter when turned up and darker when turned down, but is designed as more of a “tilt EQ,” which reduces bass as treble is increased, and vice versa.

Augmenting these six top-panel knobs is a harmonic balance control on the back panel, a subtle but effective feature that fine-tunes the harmonic content of the overdriven part of the signal, taking it from bright and edgy to thick and creamy. Also round back is an enigmatic five-pin XLR jack labeled LOI (for Line Out Interface).

Still awaiting Bartel’s development of the devices that will partner with it (expected mid 2026), it’s intended to connect to three interfaces that will offer deluxe features that wouldn’t fit into the Swingland’s compact chassis. These include fully analog mic and cab simulation, an amp driver voiced to relay the Swingland’s output to a traditional guitar amp, and an unprocessed line out for use with third-party IRs.

Add it up, and it reinforces the uniqueness of the Swingland. But for all the original elements, Bartel tells us he likely put the most design effort into the core tone of the amplifier, and its overdrive content in particular.

“The overdrive stage required a lot of creative engineering and analysis, then final tuning by ear. It’s responsible for creating all of the harmonic and dynamic behavior that usually happens as a combined effort of the output tubes, phase inverter, and also a few prior stages in a conventional vintage amp. It’s far from a simple clipping circuit — it combines three concurrent strategies in a unique circuit architecture developed specifically for this model. I cycled through 27 different variations of this circuit architecture in the design process.”

Bartel is also famous for the intense effort he puts into cabinet design, and the Swingland’s 19 by 16 by 11–inch box is no exception. It took the maker a year and about a dozen test cabs to achieve a compact combo that sounded full and deep, and which avoided the congested or “boxy” sound so often heard in smaller combos. Ultimately, he says, “I found a way to make the cabinet create an intimate, focused presentation that also fills the room with sound and creates an oversized sonic image.”

The Swingland chassis are constructed by the other two members of Bartel’s three-person team, Mike York and Nate White, with Malory 150 signal caps, carbon comp and carbon film resistors and other quality components hand-wired across rugged turret strips. It will come as no surprise to those familiar with Bartel’s builds to hear it’s among the highest-level work I’ve encountered.

Tested with a Fender Telecaster and a Gibson ES-335 semihollow, the Swingland immediately lived up to every bit of Bartel’s premise for the design, and proved one of the most rewarding sub–10 watt amps I’ve ever played. From somewhat more quantifiable qualities such as its clarity and low noise floor, to more esoteric characteristics like the texture of its overdriven sounds and the fluidity of its transition into clipping, it’s simply a delectable performer through and through.

Despite the relatively simple control complement, the Swingland can be dialed through myriad shades of clean-to-scream that enable it to emulate many of the acknowledged classics. But what I really enjoyed was how it presented such a strong personality of its own. Mix and match the broad EQ range and versatile gain staging, and there’s likely a sound in here for any player short of the metal genres, with the edge-of-breakup demands of blues, classic rock and roots rock arguably being its forte.

And while it sounds great at lower master volume settings, I’d say it could keep up with many moderate drummers in a smaller club setting with the master maxed and the preamp volume relatively high.

Amid all that, this amp’s dynamics are off the charts. When set up for heavily overdriven sounds, it achieves a gradual and varied transition into overdrive like few amps I’ve played before, revealing nuances and shades all along the spectrum as you gradually roll up your electric guitar’s volume control. And while many amps will reveal a usable clean sound from a lower guitar-knob setting when maxed out for overdrive otherwise, it’s rarely as rich, full and convincing as that delivered by the Swingland in this scenario.

Increasing midrange also adds a little gain to the signal, or is at least perceived as such, as the core of the guitar’s frequency range punches harder, making this a doubly powerful control. And after all that, let’s not forget the reverb: Roomy and enveloping for a spring-based effect, it also tolerates maxing-out like few amps I’ve played, without odd oscillation or artifacts setting in.

All in all, then, a job well done from Bartel Amplifiers. And if it’s undoubtedly an expensive acquisition, the Swingland should also provide endless satisfaction and creative inspiration to those whose playing situations demand it.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT Bartelamps.com

PRICE $4,195 street

CHANNELS 1

CONTROLS Volume, midrange, tone; reverb mix and dwell; master volume, presence, harmonic balance

POWER 3 watts

TUBES One 12AX7, two 12AT7, one 12AU7, one 6SN7

EXTRAS Tube-driven spring reverb, 5-pin XLR for Line Out Interface (LOI)

SPEAKER 12" Celestion Alnico Blue

DIMENSIONS 19"x16"x11"

WEIGHT 32 lbs

MADE IN USA

KUDOS A cleverly designed and extremely well-built combo, offering surprising sonic versatility and engaging dynamics for its low-wattage output

CONCERNS It comes with a high price tag, but so it goes in this market these days

Steve Vai was still building his résumé when David Lee Roth handpicked him to front the former Van Halen singer’s band in 1985. But as Vai now explains, it took the intervention of a seasoned pro to bail him out when his lack of experience put him in a pinch.

The gig came after some prophetic encouragement from Frank Zappa, who had promoted Vai from transcriber to full-time band member over the course of three years. Vai followed up his Zappa stint with a head-turning debut solo album, Flex-Able, in 1984.

But when he stepped into the role as Diamond Dave’s foil, he quickly realized his gear was better suited to experimental rock than the high-gloss bombast of Roth’s arena-ready world.

“When I joined Dave, I was embarrassingly inexperienced with what people would call ‘big rock guitar tone,’” the guitarist says in the new issue of Guitar World.

At that point, Vai was playing Jackson Soloists, which he paired with a Carvin X-100B tube amp. The 100-watt head was more commonly associated with bands like Jefferson Starship and Warrant than the high-gain antics of EVH’s Marshalls.

“The Carvins weren't cutting through for the more aggressive tracks,” Vai says. “Luckily, Steve Stevens was recording across the hall. I mentioned my tone troubles, and he lent me one of his favorite Marshall heads and cabs.”

Stevens, best known as Billy Idol’s guitarist and the mad genius who used toy ray guns to create an iconic guitar solo, was also a session musician. He was working with Ric Ocasek and contributing to the Top Gun soundtrack around the time DLR’s Eat ‘Em and Smile was tracked.

“Boom! Instant magic,” Vai adds. “I ended up using his rig for most of the album. He saved my bacon!”

Although Vai knew his time with Roth would be brief, it was a valuable launchpad for his career.

By 1989, Vai was walking out the exit, with a blossoming solo career and a stint in Whitesnake ahead of him. He became the first in a long line of future superstar shredders to be employed by Roth.

Elsewhere, Vai has recalled his hilarious full-circle moment with Brian May and named the guitarist he believes was more revolutionary than Jimi Hendrix.

Steve Vai’s full interview features in the new issue of Guitar World. Copies can be ordered from Magazines Direct.

In the history of guitar amplifiers, few inspire as much awe as those bearing the name Dumble.

Trevor Boone has just unearthed one of the maker's most mythical builds, and it has a new owner: actor Jason Momoa, who's using it to record his new album.

Each Dumble was hand-built by Howard "Alexander" Dumble. Only around 300 are believed to be in existence and have been owned and played by guitarists that include Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robben Ford, Carlos Santana, Ben Harper, Joe Bonamassa and John Mayer.

Lowell's George's long-lost Super Overdrive Special is currently in Bonamassa's possession after a 15-year search, and there are parallels of that story here. However, it took Boone, of Seattle’s Emerald City Guitars, a slightly shorter but no less exhausting 10-year wait to get his hands on this particular Dumble.

It's one of three tube amps built for the Beach Boys. The trio of combos was assembled circa 1982, with this amp finished in white tolex to match the band's color scheme. The band’s roadies later covered it with carpeting, possibly to make it more roadworthy.

The amp was found, fittingly for a Beach Boys amp, in Hawaii.

“I’ve had to keep this long lost Beach Boys amp under wraps for a decade until the owner was ready to let this go,” writes Boone on Instagram, "and when the call came in I rounded up the shop to head to Kauai to pick this and 20 more amazing items up.

“The amp is a 100 per cent original ‘grail-era’ ODS and includes the original receipts and Beach Boys Road case.

“There are videos where you can see this amp live in original white, as well as carpeted shortly after. I had this photo of The Beach Boys Dumble ON A BEACH in my head for 10 years and it was a special moment to finally get it.”

The carpeted amp was used at Live Aid in 1985, among other historic events. Soon afterward, it appeared onstage when the Beach Boys filmed their 25th anniversary concert in Kauai in 1986 —which is how it Dumble ended up on the island for the past 35 years.

Momoa, a Hawaii-born actor and long-time guitar nerd, seems happy with his undoubtedly pricey purchase, considering his recent post on Instagram.

And considering that Howard Dumble died in 2022, Momoa won’t have to get special permission to call it his own, unlike previous owners who bought their Dumbles second-hand.

“There was a code of honor and ethics when it came to procuring a Dumble that didn't come from Dumble directly,” he explains. In short, you had to ask for the man's blessing.

“There’s a special kind of magic in certain pieces of gear that connects the past to the future,” he muses. “Trevor Boone has been part of my guitar journey since my very first instrument, and over the years we’ve tracked down more holy grails than we can count [including the first Martin D-28 ever made].

“But this amplifier carried a different kind of history — one we couldn’t let drift away. Too much heart. Too much story. We had to keep it in the family — and now it’s right where it belongs, ready to keep making music.”

In related news, Joe Bonamassa sold all his Dumbles in 2014 before asking himself why he did a dumb thing like that. Today, he owns more than ever, with Lowell George's ODS sitting proudly as part of “the world's most expensive three-channel amp”.

Another of the three Beach Boys Dumbles showed up, of all places, at a yard sale, with Ben Harper snapping it up before learning of its prestigious heritage.

Now this is what I call a Black Friday deal: a mini guitar amp from one of the top names in the game for only $99?!

The Friedman BE Mini is down from $249.99 over at Sweetwater. And at 30 watts it's still packing enough output to annoy the neighbours. This one is surely going to sell out.

This modded Plexi-inspired mini head pairs a 30-watt power section with amp designer Dave Friedman’s acclaimed BE preamp circuit. Plexi tones are revered for their harmonic detail and high-gain glory, and now you can enjoy them at home-friendly levels with this solid-state option. It could also make a great option for recording or gigs once you've paired it with your own choice of cabs.

The BE-mini features a 3-band EQ, plus Cut and Tight switches to shape your sound. It features a series effects loop for your time-based pedals and dual speaker outputs allow you to expand it for the stage.

It's currently sold out over at Friedman's own site at full price but at just $99 on Sweetwater's site here it's proved so popular that it's currently out of immediately available stock too. However, luckily you can still order it there for delivery soon. I'd move fast on this one!

Check out more Sweetwater Black Friday deals.

• Amazon: Black Friday instrument deals
• B&H Photo: Early Bird Holiday deals
• Fender store: Player II Strat lowest price ever
• Gear4Music: Early Black Friday deals are live
• Guitar Center: Up to 40% Black Friday sale
• Guitar Tricks: $899 $99 annual sub
• IK Multimedia: Up to $300 off Tonex hardware
• Musician's Friend: Early Black Friday 50% sale
• Native Instruments: Over 50% off UA bundle
• Plugin Boutique: 100s of software savings
• Positive Grid: Up to $50 Spark savings
• Reverb: Black Friday early access
• Sweetwater: Up to 80% off Black Friday sale
• Thomann: Up to 70% off Cyber Week sale
• Universal Audio: 12 Days of UAD software sale
• Waves: Huge plugin bundle deals up to 95% off

If you’re looking for a powerful but portable combo that packs shimmering cleans and a versatile lead channel voice for ’70s and ’80s rock tones, the PRS Archon 50 1x12 tube combo would be my first recommendation. And right now you can grab it for $200 off during Sweetwater’s Black Friday sale, making it just $1,149. And if you prefer an amp to a combo, you get all the features in the Archon 50 head for $170 off, making it a cool $979.

Esteemed Guitar Player reviewer Art Thompson was thrilled with the Archon 50 head when he reviewed it, praising it “a solid deal that keeps things simple and delivers great clean and overdriven tones.” It was versatile enough to use on live gigs for everything from rock to world music to backing a singer/songwriter, making it a solid choice for guitar players across the genre spectrum.

Check out our guide to the best guitar deals this Black Friday. Other amps in the Archon line are also on sale during Black Friday, so check them all out to find the perfect amp for you.

Check out more Sweetwater Black Friday deals.

• Amazon: Black Friday instrument deals
• B&H Photo: Early Bird Holiday deals
• Fender store: Player II Strat lowest price ever
• Gear4Music: Early Black Friday deals are live
• Guitar Center: Up to 40% Black Friday sale
• Guitar Tricks: $899 $99 annual sub
• IK Multimedia: Up to $300 off Tonex hardware
• Musician's Friend: Early Black Friday 50% sale
• Native Instruments: Over 50% off UA bundle
• Plugin Boutique: 100s of software savings
• Positive Grid: Up to $50 Spark savings
• Reverb: Black Friday early access
• Sweetwater: Up to 80% off Black Friday sale
• Thomann: Up to 70% off Cyber Week sale
• Universal Audio: 12 Days of UAD software sale
• Waves: Huge plugin bundle deals up to 95% off

You probably don't need me to tell you that Black Friday is tomorrow, right? Chances are, your social media feeds have been filled with a colossal amount of Black Friday guitar deals. From affordable guitar accessories and dirt-cheap pedals, there's been plenty of fantastic deals to check out this week, but I'm particularly stoked to see one of Guitar Player's favorite guitar tech brands in the mix, too.

Positive Grid's range of Spark smart amps has revolutionized the practice amp world, and they've always been reviewed well on Guitar Player. Now, they are on sale for Black Friday, along with a tasty deal on the new Bias X software.

At the core of the Positive Grid stable is the Spark amp line-up. They all offer the same core functionality - with the Spark app giving players access to tones, with 33 amp models and 43 effects to choose from, alongside other features like Smart Jam and Auto Chords - but in 3 different form factors, from ultra compact to desktop.

Nearly all of PG's smart amps and accessories are on sale, so it's well worth a browse if you're in the market for something new. Below are a few of our standouts.

Shop more Black Friday sale

• Amazon: Black Friday instrument bargains
• B&H Photo: Early Bird Holiday deals
• Fender store: Player II Strat lowest price ever
• Guitar Center: Up to 40% Black Friday sale
• Guitar Tricks: $899 $99 annual sub
• IK Multimedia: Up to $300 off Tonex hardware
• Musician's Friend: Early Black Friday 50% sale
• Native Instruments: Over 50% off UA bundle
• Plugin Boutique: 100s of software savings
• Reverb: Black Friday early access
• Sweetwater: Up to 80% off Black Friday sale
• Universal Audio: 12 Days of UAD software sale
• Waves: Huge plugin bundle deals up to 95% off

My mind was blown a decade ago by the original ToneWoodAmp, the trailblazing device that sparked a resonance-based effects revolution in the acoustic-electric arena. The homegrown multi-effects unit, D.I. and iOS interface concocted and kickstarted from an Arizona garage influenced everything from Yamaha’s TransAcoustic to Lâg’s HyVibe series to Lava Music’s ME models. All put their own spin on advanced technology resulting in effects pumping through the sound hole.

Yet the ToneWoodAmp remains unique. Unlike all the others that come installed in their guitar or require permanent installation, the TWA allows players to use their favorite instruments. Mike Dawes, Andy McKee and this reviewer were early adopters and remain enthusiasts.

The eagerly anticipated ToneWoodAmp2 is now available, and it’s packed with a bevy of next-level updates that improve upon everything from sound and functionality to size and power. There’s even a free companion app, the ToneWoodAmp Remote for Apple and Android products.

Like its discontinued predecessor, the TWA2 magnetically attaches to practically any acoustic guitar and transforms the body into its own amplifier with effects. The TWA2 clamps onto the back magnetically once you’ve installed its magnetic X-Brace counterpart inside the instrument.

The TWA2 accepts the signal from practically any type of acoustic guitar pickup (except microphones). It digitally processes the signal with effects and uses an actuator, which is similar to a transducer in reverse, to vibrate the back of the guitar, generating effects that emanate through the sound hole.

The original TWA was downright transformational in my world, and the device still functions pretty well for having been used a ton. But it’s not quite as reliable as it once was and the technology has advanced, so I was itching to get my hands on the TWA2.

While the original ran on three AAA batteries, the TWA2 runs on a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. While that might not be the sexiest feature to highlight, it may be the most important. The AAA batteries ran down quickly with frequent use, and clunky and a pain to manage — not to mention a constant expense.

The TWA2 is slightly lighter, significantly sleeker and sturdier than its predecessor, and its battery lasts about 10 hours per charge, saving a ton of cash over the long haul. I’d upgrade to the new unit for this reason alone, even if it does cost significantly more at first than it did years ago (what doesn’t?).

The most immediately noticeable sonic development is the new unit's sheer power and volume. You can hear it much better right out of the box. When the original TWA debuted, everyone was knocked out to hear effects, such as delay and reverb, emanating from the sound hole of an acoustic guitar. But unless you were in a rather quiet environment, they might not have been overtly noticeable. The effects from the TWA2 come blaring out by comparison and can be heard from much further away.

The programmable effects include delay, reverb, tremolo, chorus, flanger and vibrato. Variations abound. You can run up to four effects simultaneously (compared to one previously) and now there are parallel and serial routing options. Parallel offers greater individual control of each, while serial serves them up one into the other for greater effects interaction.

There are also new dynamic effects, including compression, which is super handy for increased sustain on an acoustic. Lead playing can approach David Gilmour territory, and fingerpicking becomes more pronounced.

The new unit is about the same size as an iPhone and about twice as deep. It fit nice and snugly on the back of a Taylor Grand Auditorium. One handy new physical attribute is the lift kit, a.k.a. LifKit, that pops out almost like a little kick stand and can accommodate for the curvature of most arch-back acoustics. I needed it on the 3/4-sized instrument I took to Burning Man, a KLOS Grand Cutaway Mini. If you use the TWA2 on multiple guitars, you can purchase extra X-Braces for each and simply swap the TWA2 from one onto another guitar.

The TWA2’s functionality is more intuitive than the original’s, but there’s also more underneath the hood. Without first checking the manual, I found my way around easily enough to get the basic effects going, but there are plenty of hidden functions that require the manual to understand.

In short, there are three main menus: Effects Editor, Output Editor and Settings, and the Home button toggles between them. Use the three number buttons next door to it to turn an effect or function on or off. Hold it to make parameter adjustments, and click the +/- toggles at far right to adjust values up or down. As before, the onboard display is text-based and contains four lines of visible text: a title, and three lines below indicating which effects are engaged and at what level.

For expanded programmability, the free ToneWoodAmp Remote app is a significant upgrade that offers a straightforward graphic display. While I wasn’t super enthusiastic about using my phone any more than I already do, the app truly does make a huge difference for editing parameters and saving presets.

After a simple download and pairing process, I found it was easy to embrace the app. Instead of going back and forth between playing and flipping the guitar over to adjust presets and parameters on the TWA2, I could simply set my phone next to me on the couch and find my favorite settings with it on the fly. Then I went deeper, and wow. Having tap tempo on the delay with options such as a dotted quarter note is powerful.

I used to spend lots of time getting the timing just right. Ditto with reverb types and tremolo rates. Tremolo even offers the option to choose between a sine wave or a triangular one, and the difference is clear to hear. I’ve never enjoyed the sound of effects on an acoustic guitar as much as I do with the ToneWoodAmp2. Its combination of organic sound with full digital sculpture is the best of both worlds. As it turns out, the Remote app is a game changer

And here's a hip tip! Guitars with ’90s-era preamp controls embedded in the top side are also great when using the ToneWoodAmp2. Having all those old-school sliders and dials right at your fingertips is handy for on-the-fly adjustments. I like to use the volume control on my old Taylor’s Fishman Prefix unit as the wet/dry mixer when playing acoustically, and on occasion I’ll even blend in some mic signal to produce amp-like feedback!

You can also use the TWA2 as a D.I. and send the signal to outside amplification, and the mixer on this v2 offers expanded stage tools, including a wet/dry mixer. The effects sound much more pronounced through amplification, so dial them back or decrease the wet signal for that application. The new EQ tools are powerful and make profound tonal differences, both acoustically and when amplified.

When using it as a D.I., the effects sound similar but come at the obvious sacrifice of the gloriously holistically tone resulting from organic interaction with the guitar. What’s so cool about the acoustic application is that you primarily hear the natural guitar tone, which is then enhanced by the processing. It’s almost like running a dry signal and mixing in a wet one signal except in this instance the former is truly pure acoustic guitar tone.

I’ve been eagerly anticipating a v2 of the ToneWoodAmp for years, and it does not disappoint! I’d recommend the TWA2 to any player interested in expanding their acoustic-electric horizons. It changes your entire relationship to the instrument in a most positive way.

The TWA2 inspires you to play more often but using less notes, giving the effects time to decay. All that adds up to increased creativity. I can honestly say that there are oodles of songs I never would have written, at least in that way, if it weren’t for the original TWA, including “WhiteOut” from my band Spirit Hustler's album.

It’s a fab studio tool too. We tried to re-create the ToneWoodAmp’s sound by recording a pure acoustic track and adding effects on later, but it wasn’t the same, so we simply cut it live with the TWA, using a mic on the sound hole. I took the TWA2 to Yosemite and it was an incredible addition to the campfire jam.

The coolest acoustic-electric guitar gadget of the past decade is now better than ever. I hope for increasingly fabulous incarnations in the future, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be good with the TWA2 until around 2035!

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT tonewoodamp.com

PRICE $310 street

CONTROLS Home/Back button, Page Up, Page Down, Mute, level up and down

EFFECTS Reverb (Hall, Plate and Room), Delay (five subdivisions), Modulation (Chorus, Phaser, Flanger, Vibrato), Tremolo (Sine and Wave); up to four simultaneous effects can be routed parallel or series

FEATURES Feedback Assassin, Three-band EQ, compression, boost, wet-dry mixer, notch filters, phase inversion, adjustable gain, onboard presets, integrated LiftKit for fitting to curved back acoustics, left-handed mode

EXTRAS Companion app for iOS and Android,

CONNECTIONS 1/4" input, 1/4" output, Bluetooth for Remote app, USB-C (battery charge connection)

POWER Rechargeable lithium-ion battery lasts 10+ hours

SIZE 14.9 cm long x 7cm wide x 2.65 cm deep

WEIGHT 10oz

BUILT U.S.A.

PROS Fantastic upgrade to the best acoustic-electric accessory of the past decade. DSP effects sounds super natural coming through sound hole, while the app offers expanded control. Works with most acoustic-electric guitars, so you can use your favorites

CONS None, but note that strong magnets like the one that holds the TWA2 to your guitar may interfere with medical implants, credit cards, electronic devices, and recording media, including hard drives and tape electronic devices

A rethink on the original Archon that PRS Guitars introduced in 2013 and named after the Greek word for “ruler” or “lord,” the PRS Archon Classic features an all new circuit design with a Lead channel voiced for ’70s and ’80s rock tones, and a Clean channel that delivers pristine sounds as well as plenty of grind without the need for a boost or overdrive pedal.

Weighing in at 32 pounds and measuring 21.5 by 10 by 10 inches, the head features a birch-ply cabinet covered in black textured vinyl with black embossed-welt piping and a stitched, faux-leather handle. The black front panel has white graphics and carries independent volume, treble, middle, bass and master controls for the Clean and Lead channels along with shared (global) presence and depth controls. There are three mini toggle switches: one next to the input jack for selecting channels, and a bright switch for each channel.

Around back are five speaker jacks (two four ohm, two eight ohm and one 16 ohm), a tube-driven series effect loop and a DIN jack for the included single-button foot switch for channel selection. There are two bias test points for measuring power-tube bias voltage with a digital voltmeter (not included) and a screwdriver adjustable pot for setting the voltage as specified in the manual.

The amp develops 50 watts from two 6CA7 (EL34) power tubes and can also use 6L6GC tubes if you prefer. There are six JJ ECC83S (12AX7) tubes for the preamp stages and the phase inverter. The steel chassis houses a main PCB for the circuit components and the preamp tubes while the rear-panel jacks reside on a smaller sub-board. The ceramic sockets for the power tubes are mounted directly to the chassis for extra strength and better heat transfer.

I tested the Archon 50 Classic through a Bogner 1x12 semi-open-back cab loaded with a 12-inch Celestion Vintage 30 and an early ’70s Marshall 4x12. It delivered great tones with a variety of electric guitars, including a Buzz Feiten T-style, a PRS SE Studio Standard with a 58/15 LT “S” humbucker and two Narrowfield DD “S” pickups, and a vintage Gibson Les Paul Junior with a single P90.

The Archon Classic 50 is rich and ballsy sounding in the mids, which suits single-coils well, and the Clean channel’s abundant gain range allows you to get just the right amount of grind while keeping a backbone of crisp presence that makes everything shimmer with harmonic complexity.

I like how you can use the Clean channel for rhythm and lead playing by putting the volume knob at two o’clock or so and just roll up the guitar’s volume knob when you want more dirt. The whole premise of this channel is to allows you to get boosted tones without a pedal, and it does that very well.

I did use a Fulltone OCD distortion for a high-gain option, but it’s not really necessary because the Lead channel takes off in a JCM800 inspired direction and provides all the distortion needed for rock and metal. It also gives abundant control over the midrange, so it’s easy to dial in classic or retro-modern scooped-mid tones. Not all amps offer this much EQ power from a passive tone stack.

The Archon 50 is very dynamic and responds well to picking strength and guitar-volume settings. And it’s loud! There’s no power-reduction feature here, but the master volume controls let you throttle the amp way down without losing punch, and the presence and depth controls really help maintain low-end chunk and that Marshall-style “in your face” delivery when playing at lower levels.

I didn’t try the amp with 6L6 power tubes (which might be good if you want maximum headroom), but the ease of monitoring and adjusting the bias voltage is a real plus for players who want to able to try different tubes without having to take the amp to a shop for re-biasing.

I’ve had the pleasure of using the Archon 50 Classic for several weeks and it’s one of the most capable two-channel amps around. Used on live gigs covering everything from rock to world music to backing a singer-songwriter I was inspired by its sound and only needed to add reverb and delay from my UAFX pedals to get exact what was needed for different situations.

For all it offers, the Archon 50 Classic is a solid deal that keeps things simple and delivers great clean and overdriven tones. If that's your aim, it’s an amp to try.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT prsguitars.com

PRICE $1, 149

CHANNELS 2

CONTROLS Channel select switch. [Lead channel] volume, bright switch, treble, middle, bass, master. [Clean channel] volume, treble, middle bass, master. Global presence and depth controls

REAR PANEL Bias jacks and pot, five speaker jacks (2x4Ω, 2x8Ω, 1x16Ω), series effect loop, foot-switch jack

POWER 50 watts

TUBES Six JJ 12AX7s, two JJ 6CA7/6L6GC power tubes

EXTRAS Single-button foot switch for channel switching. Bias jacks and adjustment pot on the rear panel

WEIGHT 32.4 lbs (tested)

DIMENSIONS 21.5 x 10 x 10 (LxWxH)

BUILT Indonesia

PRO Excellent clean and overdriven tones. Plenty of power. Handy biasing feature makes tube swapping a breeze

CON No standby switch may be a concern for some

Colin Decker started down the road of amp making while working as a touring musician in the 1990s, where having the ability to repair amps on the road was a real plus. Over the next three decades years he says he took advantage of playing the many amps that recording studios had on offer and learning all he could about amplifiers — especially the tube-powered combos that captured his imagination and eventually inspired him to build amplifiers under his own name.

Hand built in Northern California, the Decker line currently consists of the Hummingbird 15, a compact and easy-to-carry 1x12 combo that’s inspired by iconic British and American combo amps from the ’50s and ’60s that embody what Colin calls the “three pillars of the Decker sound — punch, chime and bloom.” As such, it features a cathode-bias circuit with a complement of two JJ 12AX7s, two TAD Redbase 6V6 power tubes and a TAD GZ34 rectifier, all of which plug into chassis-mounted, rubber-isolated phenolic sockets. The circuit is hand-wired on tag strips using high-grade components that include carbon-comp resistors, Jupiter and Mallory capacitors and Sprague and F&T electrolytic caps.

Other details include Carling switches and jacks, Mercury Magnetics transformers and cloth insulation on the speaker lead, which is nice vintage touch. It’s all packed into a 16-gauge aluminum chassis with welded corner-seams that is topped with a polished steel faceplate carrying the volume, low and high controls and the on/off switch. There’s no standby function, which isn’t an issue because of the slow warm-up of the tube rectifier.

Measuring 22 by 18 by 10 inches (WxHxD), the finger-jointed cabinet is constructed of Eastern white pine, with a Baltic birch baffle and rear panel and pine/poplar interior bracing. My review sample was covered in red Valentine Tolex (one of four color options, along with Ice Cream, Indigo and Nonemore) and has a matching handle embossed with the company's name. The grille cloth is classic salt-and-pepper and highlighted with silver piping around the edges. Stainless-steel hardware is used throughout the build, with wood screws securing the lower rear cover and machine screws for all of the metal-to-wood attaching points.

The Hummingbird 15 I tested came with the stock Royal 12-inch ceramic-magnet 50-watt speaker which is based on a classic British design. For a $150 upcharge you can order it with a Jubilee 50, a Brit-voiced speaker that uses an Alnico magnet. Decker offers two other speakers: the Coronado 65, an American-style speaker for those who favor the vintage Oxford and Utah sound, and the Springfield 70, which is a replacement for the Jensen C12N and well suited for Fender blackface and silverface amps as well as players seeking to tighten up the response of their tweed amps.

I played the Hummingbird 15 using a Gibson 1963 Les Paul Junior, a Historic 1959 ’Burst, a PRS Dustie Waring and a Buzz Feiten T-style, and it delivered impressive tones with all of them. The amp sounds great clean, and it segues nicely into toothy distortion as the volume is cranked up. The low and high controls offer plenty range to accommodate single-coils or humbuckers, and I found that diming all three knobs yielded killer distortion tones from a Tele and a Les Paul alike when using the rear pickups.

The amp is very responsive to the touch, so adjusting your picking and/or riding the guitar volume knob is all it takes to morph between rhythm and lead when running straight into the amp. The Hummingbird churns out increasingly gutsy distortion as the volume is pushed past half-way, and I liked pairing it with a Fulltone tube tape echo to boost the guitar signal and enhance it all with juicy tape textures. It’s a cool setup for blues and rock, and for heavier grind I added a Fulltone OCD in tandem with a UAFX 2241 compressor pedal to take things into the soaring lead realm.

The Hummingbird 15 is plenty loud for gigs and has enough headroom to keep it all sounding tight and focused when you’re cranking. To my ears, it embodies much of what I like about low-watt tube combos — the rich clarity of a Fender Deluxe, the ballsiness of a Marshall 20 and the sparkle of a Vox AC15. The Hummingbird is a pricey affair, but if you subscribe to the less-is-more theory when it comes to guitar amps you’ll absolutely dig what it has to offer.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT decker-ampco.com

PRICE $3,249

CHANNELS 1

CONTROLS Volume, low, high

POWER 15 watts

TUBES Two 12AX7s, two 6V6s, GZ34 rectifier

EXTRAS Available colors include Indigo, Ice Cream, Nonemore Black and Valentine

SPEAKER 12” Royal Ceramic 50 8Ω, made by WGS. Also availed with Jubilee Alnico 50 for $150 extra

WEIGHT 37.3 lbs (as tested)

KUDOS Simple controls and a top-notch build yield a wide range of touch-responsive tones. Great for pedal users thanks to the abundant headroom

CONCERNS Minimal features, although that's a main point of its design

Since his passing in January 2022, boutique amp guru Alexander “Howard” Dumble’s deep mystique has morphed into legend. His precious works have become practically unobtainable. When one of the 300 or so amps he created for the likes of Carlos Santana, Eric Johnson or David Lindley comes up for sale, which is very rare, it can fetch an exorbitant sum. Later in 2022, Jason Isbell reportedly bought a 1995 Overdrive Special from producer Dennis Herring via Reverb.com for a whopping $175,000!

Iconic producer Bob Rock wasn’t interested in Dumble’s overdrive, but he was so enthralled with the pristine clean tones of Dumble-modified Fenders that he kept ordering one after another. Over the course of time, he developed a special friendship with the mythological amp whisperer, whose every creation was a unicorn personally crafted to suit the style of its master. When Phil “Philbillie” Milner — respected guitar tech to Bob Weir and Joe Satriani — said he was doing some work on Rock’s pieces at his Maui studio, I asked him to relay that if Rock ever wanted to talk turkey, we were game.

Bob was onboard. What ensued is an aloha buffet for Dumble freaks and the Dumble curious.

How did you catch Dumble fever?

I was producing Michael Bublé’s cover of Van Morrison’s “Crazy Love” with the incredible guitar player Michael Landau on the session. He gave the engineer an XLR cable to connect to the line in on his amp to the Neve console, and when he started playing we went, “Oh my god, what’s going on?” There was no EQ or anything, and it sounded amazing!

When I told him how fantastic it sounded, he said, “It’s a tweed Fender Bandmaster that Dumble tweaked for me.” That modification was called a Slidewinder. Michael mentioned that Dumble had been doing this sort of thing his whole life, and he would check if I could go see him, because that’s truly the whole story about Dumble. He’s got to meet you. Michael set it up and said, “Get a re-issue tweed Deluxe, and he’ll do a ‘Tweedle Dee’ mod.”

How did your meeting go with Dumble?

I brought my ’63 Strat to his place and we got along amazingly because he’s a total geek, like me. He said, “Before I modify your Deluxe, I want to hear you play guitar.” He had a Tweedle there. I plugged in and went, “Whoa, this is a Deluxe?” He confirmed, and as I started playing he said, “That’s what I do. I voice the amplifier to your playing, Bob.” When I came back and turned on my amp after modification, I was like, “This is the best amp I’ve ever heard in my life.”

I'm kind of a gearhead. I told him that I’ve got a warehouse full of Fenders, including a blackface Super Reverb. All the blues players where I grew up in Victoria, Canada, used Supers because nobody could afford a Marshall, and the Super Reverb was sort of the poor-man’s Marshall. Mine never sounded very good, but Dumble fixed it up and then again, “Oh my god, this is the best!” So I continued to send my Fenders to him.

You never got a Dumble model such as an Overdrive Special?

The Overdrive Special is for virtuoso players like Michael Landau. I heard him play his at the Baked Potato in Los Angeles, which was packed during a NAMM Show. He was playing with his fingers, and I could hear the articulation of his touch on every note from across the crowded room.

But the distortion channel isn’t really me. That’s simply not my kind of distortion. So I kept getting Fenders modified. I wound up with nine amps. I’d visit him every time I went to L.A., and he became an amazing friend.

How would you describe the man?

He’s hard to describe. I guess I’d call him a savant. He knew so much about everything, and his house was full of gear, everywhere. I went to the bathroom, and the bathtub was full of Celestions. He was eclectic, but just a beautiful man.

We talked about everybody that he worked with, and one thing he didn’t like was when players would sell their Overdrive Specials because they were voiced specifically for them. Nobody got that. You had to go there and spend time with him to truly understand. If you didn’t go sit down with Dumble in his place and have him go through his process, then you bought an amplifier that was voiced for some other player. You'll never have the personal touch, and that’s truly what it’s all about. And he had to like you as well. laughs

It sounds like he loved you. I mean, nine amps?

He went beyond amps, by the way. When I asked him why all the Fuzz Faces from the ’60s sound like shit, he just laughed. And when I mentioned that I had a Trem Face, he lit up saying if I’d give that to him, he’d modify my Fuzz Face. It took him a year to finish, but he made it so quiet with the most amazing transients and harmonics. It’s unbelievable. That’s why Eric Johnson’s got one.

Dumble got it all. And he would tell such stories. He was in a band called Captain Speed that warmed up for Hendrix at the Golden Bear in Huntington Beach. He became friends with Jimi, so his story goes back to Sunn amplifiers too. He knew everything about every amp.

What are the others he modded for you?

Well after the Super, I got a ’59 Bandmaster 4x10 that was all beat up. So I sent that to Dumble, and he transformed it into a head and cabinet that sounds glorious.

I played a charity New Year’s gig at [manager] Shep Gordon’s with the guys from the Doobie Brothers and Alice Cooper, and I brought the Bandmaster and the Tweedle for Richie Sambora to play. The Bandmaster’s volume was on one half, but they said it was too loud, so I turned it off and had just the Tweedle. Remember, that’s a modded tweed Deluxe, which is a low-wattage combo. But it’s got an open back and the sound was filling the stage. They said it was still too loud.

Now, understand that all the Alice Cooper players used 100-watt Marshalls. We wound up turning the Tweedle around and putting a blanket over it because it was still louder than the 100-watt Marshalls! That says it all about Dumble.

There’s something indescribable about the sound, but I can say that if you look at Dumble’s wiring, it’s a masterpiece — the soldering and everything about it. People say, “Why are Dumble’s amps so expensive?” Because he’s a craftsman. It simply doesn’t get any better.

He did my blackface Deluxe as well, and how it happened was as incredible as how wound up sounding. I was in Los Angeles and had to get to a session. There was a buzz in the amp that we thought might be attributable to the reverb. I brought it to him at nine o'clock in the morning and said, “I’ve got to be out by eleven.” He tore off the circuit board, rewired and re-soldered the whole thing in an hour and a half. The amp was suddenly so articulate. I could only shake my head and admire his genius.

He also modified my blackface Twin. Understand that the clean circuitry in the Dumble Overdrive Special is his modification of a blackface Twin, which he calls an Ultraphonix. So I’ve essentially got the Overdrive Special without the distortion, and I’ll simply say again that it’s incredible. By the way, I’ve also got one of his cabinets.

Nobody ever seems to talk about the Dumble cabinet, so would you please?

Well, the reason why nobody does is because you can’t lift it. A Dumble cabinet weights about 150 pounds. [laughs] But Stevie Ray Vaughan used two Steel String Singers loaded with E-V speakers. I can only imagine how heavy that rig was to move around.

He certainly wasn’t carrying it by himself.

No, he wasn’t. But the sound is worth it. It’s so clean!

I helped connect the great Canadian guitarist Colin James with Dumble. He bought a Steel String Singer with two cabinets, which he didn’t like because the tone wouldn’t break up. It’s 200 watts of clean power. So I lined it up for Colin to sell the amp to Kirk Hammett, and he had a similar reaction. Kirky still uses it, but remember, Dumble builds his amps to the specific touch of the player. I think David Lindley and Lowell George were among the first players to have Steel String Singers built for them.

Anyway, I also have a tweed Champ that sounds incredible because Dumble completely rebuilt it. What I watched him do is a work of art. Again, there was the impeccable soldering, and everything’s grounded. There's no noise in my Champ, just like there’s no noise or hiss in my Fuzz Face. That’s unheard of, literally. We recorded a solo for a song on Richie Sambora’s album. He played a Strat through the Champ with the volume just above three. The sound is huge and beautiful, almost like the Landau solo.

Do you remember which Sambora song?

I do, but it hasn’t been released yet, so you can’t hear it yet.

Oh, well then we’ll look forward to that. Is there perhaps a song for each of your Dumble-modded amps that you can pinpoint for sonic reference?

No. But now I’ll tell you the funniest story ever.

The tweed Bandmaster, which is a 3x10, is supposedly what Pete Townshend used on Who’s Next for songs such as “Baba O’Reilly.” I got the whole setup that he reportedly used a ’59 Gretsch Country Gentleman, a volume pedal, and that amp. When Fender reissued the tweed Bandmaster, I got like the second one. I turned it on and, no offense to Fender, but it didn’t sound great.

So that’s when I sent it to Dumble.

After he finished working on my tweed Bandmaster, he phoned me up saying, “I’ve got a great story to tell you. EC [Eric Clapton] is here. He asked about your amp. I told him it was for Bob Rock, and he asked if he could try it. I let him, and now he’s saying, ‘I want this amp.’”

Understand that Clapton is one of my idols who was such a huge influence when I was growing up. I didn’t have his fingers, but now he wants my sound? [laughs] I’m thinking, Hmm, do I give it to Eric Clapton?

Did you?

No. Dumble made two just like it for Eric and he used them on tour. So there are only three in existence: mine and the two Dumble made for Clapton.

That is a great story! Got any more?

Well, there are more amps. There is another Deluxe, a tweed Bassman, a Supro Coronado he rebuilt for me, and a low-powered tweed Twin, which was another a re-issue. Some of the Fenders Dumble modified for me are original issues, like the blackface Twin and the blackface Deluxe. But Dumble could work from a re-issue as well because he would take everything out of it except what he needed. There are still a lot of great components.

Was there a menu of mods from which to choose?

No. You get the amp. He listens to you play and makes modifications based on what he hears. He signs the amp, and then gives you a folder filled with documentation proving the modifications made to your circuitry. You can’t give that to anybody else, and I don’t.

Can you offer a more general description?

Well, Dumble met Leo Fender, and I can tell you that he knew absolutely every circuit Fender ever made by heart, which is why he could take apart and re-build a blackface Deluxe in 90 minutes. For the Tweedle Dee, he kept the transformer and the output transformer. He replaced everything else except the Celestion Greenback speaker.

Here’s the secret sauce: He’s got old stock and NOS, or “New Old Stock,” from the ’50s and ’60s of every component, from the resistors to the caps. He measures everything.

And he took the time. All my amp modifications took six months. Not consistently, because he’s working on several amps simultaneously, but that’s why they cost what they did. He’d charge a hundred dollars an hour and take a year to build an Overdrive Special. It’s worth every penny.

What do you think of Universal Audio’s Dumble-simulation pedal, the UAFX Enigmatic ’82 Overdrive Special Amp?

What that box is good for, along with Kempers and Fractals, is making demos, so you get a sound quickly. I’ve used those exact things on records when it’s about getting an idea done quickly. But when you really want to feel it, use the real thing

The last thing I bought for Dumble to work on before he passed away was a Marshall. That was something we’d meant to do but never got to do. He advised me to buy a 1973 50-watt Marshall head because that was the last year they were hand-wired.

So I bought one, but then he passed away. I got Dave Friedman to look at it and put in an overdrive channel because it was really clean. Now it blows me away! It’s one of the best amps I own.

What are your thoughts on all the Dumble clones and D-style amps such as Two-Rock and Fuchs?

In addition to Dumble’s craftsmanship and the time he spent on each amp, those clones are just copies of the circuitry. They are not custom voiced to suit a specific player, and that’s what so special about Dumble.

Now, the Burst Brothers from Guitar Center [Drew Berlin and Matt Swanson, new owners of the Dumble company], they’re going to start making Dumbles again.

What do you think about that?

Well, it’s happening through Dumble’s family, and I understand that, but I don’t know. I mean, he’s good friends with Drew. I guess he would be okay with it. But the personal touch is missing. Sure, they can copy an amp. But whose amp are they copying? Sonny Landreth’s amp, Michael Landau’s amp, or what I’m not sure.

I suppose as a potential buyer, the best one could do would pick the Dumble clone of the player you have the most in common with stylistically?

But you’ve got to remember one thing: You can buy all the gear a particular player used, and I’ve done this with various rigs used by Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and more. It all still comes down to the fucking hands. Whether you’ve got a Dumble amp or a copy, your sound still comes down to your fingers.

Amen. But I’d still love to hear you talk about those rigs!

I’d be happy to have another conversation.

As it turns out, Bob Rock is a total guitar zealot who has a treasure trove of killer vintage gear including stuff that was actually owned and played by the likes of Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, and David Gilmour. Stay tuned for more Rock On…

By his own admission, Joe Bonamassa’s live rig — a.k.a. the “amp shanty” — is “the world's most expensive three-channel amp.” It features ultra-rare amplifiers and others with great historical significance, including a 1987 Marshall Silver Jubilee head and a 50-watt Dumble Overdrive Special. It's the Holy Grail of tone.

Naturally, not every player has Bonamassa's nearly limitless budget, nor the contacts to acquire such prestigious gear.

Thankfully, he’s given his best amp-buying tips, and he reckons getting hold of the right gear needn’t be expensive or complex.

Indeed, when his astronomically pricey rig isn’t on hand, Bonamassa tells Guitarist that he isn’t too fussy about what takes its place. Decision-making should be situational.

“If I’m just sitting in, I just prefer to play through whatever’s there. The only thing that will make me bring my own amp is if they go, ‘Yeah, we’ve got a Princeton Reverb’ and it’s a live band,” he explains. “Well, you can’t really move the needle there; it’s not loud enough. You’re just peaked.

“In any situation, you just want to bring something that’s appropriate. You don’t bring a high-powered '[Fender] Tweed Twin to a small blues gig. It’s just too loud. You want something that is power appropriate but when you solo it has enough headroom to where you feel it.”

Knowing how much power is enough, and how much will blow an audience away in the wrong manner takes a little tact. Granted, transporting two 4x12 cabs and a 200-watt tube amp to jam night at your local bar will always be overkill while taking a five-watt mini amp to an arena will never cut it.

But Bonamassa says the venue isn’t the only consideration.

“It really is dependent on the drummer,” he continues. “The drummer and the rhythm section eats up a lot of the bandwidth on guitar, so if you have a loud drummer, in a small place, you need to balance the band. You need to have the power equivalent.”

In those cases, he adds that players should proceed with their power-up with caution. Think practically: If it’s a tricky-to-navigate venue with tight stairs and narrow corridors, lugging a weighty tube amp around might not be the best idea.

“You know, the older I get, the more I prioritize my general condition and the condition of my back,” he says, deep in thought. “If I'm in L.A., I have a lot of stairs. So, what goes down must come up.

“I just scale accordingly,” he advises. “It’s only one guitar, a gig bag, a protector case, and a cable. No pedalboard, no nothing.”

A more budget-friendly option here would be an amp with a switchable output, such as Boss’s Katana range, a Laney Lionheart, or a Marshall DSL 40-watt amp which can swap between 40- and 20-watts at the flick of a switch.

Bonamassa’s pick is a Fuchs ODS-50 because “it saves bringing these crazy valuable Dumble things around. And it does a really, really wonderful approximation of a Dumble,” he expands. “It's not a specific one. It's just it does that thing.

“You don’t have to spend a lot of money to get a great sound, and it doesn’t have to be overly complex,” he echoes.

“My rig is large. It’s not complex. It’s just bigger stages require more headroom. In this room, a [Fender] Tweed Champ would sound super-loud. All we have to go is 100 feet from here and you will barely hear it.”

Bonamassa has recently discussed his worst-ever gig where “not even the bartender was watching,” and how he turned a Spinal Tap moment into a driver to kickstart his solo career.

He's also named the 10 albums that changed his life, which left him ruminating on how many Les Pauls one game-changing albums on record helped sell.

For close to 60 years, the heart of Neil Young’s live rig has been a very specific tweed 1959 Fender Deluxe that he controls remotely with a bespoke device called the Whizzer, which physically turns the amp's knobs when Young hits one of the foot switches on a red box onstage.

The amp itself is a four-input 1959 tweed Fender Deluxe 5E3, a 15-watter with just two volume knobs and one tone control. Young’s Deluxe is completely stock if you ignore that he’s had to replace its two 6L6 tubes. The new tubes increased the amp’s output from 15 to 19 watts after it was rebiased, causing it to run hot. In a March 1992 column for Guitar Player, Young’s guitar and amp tech Larry Cragg said he has “fans pumping a lot of air into the back of the Deluxe” since they swapped out the old tubes.

As for the Whizzer, Young came up with the idea for it in the 1970s, and his amp tech Sal Trentino made the first, a two-preset unit Young began using in 1978 on Rust Never Sleeps. His tech Rick Davis made the four-preset Whizzer in 1991.

“Its got four presets that completely control the three knobs on the top of the amp,” Craig told us. “He locks in the preset he wants, and it will always go back to that particular spot. We find that when you have the volume and tone all the way up, by turning that second volume knob up to about 10, it starts to fade away. But right before it starts to fade away, something else happens, and that has to be in exactly the right position. You can't breathe on it, or it fucks it all up.”

Young himself detailed the subtleties of the ’59 Deluxe in that same issue, in an interview with Jas Obrecht, to coincide with the release of his live album Weld.

“That's how I get the guitar sounds to change subtly,” he said of the Whizzer. “The Deluxe goes up to 12 — not 11 — and with everything floored, if you back it down to 10 and half from 12, all of a sudden it's chunky sounding on the attack. If you have it up on 12, then it just saturates completely and opens up after the attack. But if you back it down, it'll catch the attack.

“So I've got one button just to change that one thing that much.

Young offered an example of how he uses Whizzer with his Fender Deluxe.

“On a Fender Deluxe, there's tone and two volumes,” he explains. “The volume on the channel you're not using will affect the volume of the channel you are using, even when you're not plugged into it, because of the drain on the power amp. Having the ability to bring up the channel I'm not even using — so the overload thing comes on — or to change the treble here and there, those are the things I couldn't have done without this technology. Technology hasn't affected the sound, only the control of the sound.”

And when it comes to distortion, Young said it comes entirely from volume.

“There is no amp gain. We don't use a distorted effect at all. Just the Fender Deluxe.”

While some professionals might be inclined to leave a precious vintage amp at home when they tour, Young said the Deluxe is vital to his sound. When he hits the road, it goes with him.

“I couldn't go without it,” he said. “There is no spare. I've got 10 spares, but none of them sound like it.”

He pointed out that each amp performed differently as there were fewer standards in place for components in the early days of electronics.

“All Fender amps are different, made with different amounts of metal and windings, all these things,” Young said. “The transformers are all different powered. Everything used to be loose, y'know, so every combination of specs was different.”

He recalls exactly when and where this particular Deluxe came into his life.

“I got mine for $50 at Saul Bettman's Music on Larchmont in L.A. in 1967. Took it home, plugged in this Gretsch guitar, and immediately the entire room started to vibrate.

“The guitar started vibrating, and I went, ‘Holy shit!’ I turned it halfway down before it stopped feeding back.”

By the early 1990s, Young had added a small arsenal of pedals to his setup, giving him new ways to mess with his sound.

“I do a lot of things to make the sound more distorted, like by introducing an octave divider in conjunction with an analog delay, which is before the octave divider,” he said. “The routing of these things is really important — what hits first and then gets hit by something else.

"I have a line of six effects, and I can bypass them completely or dip in and grab one without going through the one in front of it. Or I can use all six of 'em or any combination that I want. I set them up in any order so that they affect each other in a certain way, and that's how I get my sound.”

Young explained that he triggers the pedals himself. “I can't imagine anyone operating it for me offstage,” he deadpanned. “No, they'd be dead.

Among the pedals were “a digital echo that I use because it has a particular gated-echo sound. When I tried it out at the Guitar Center in Hollywood, the salesmen were demo-ing all these sounds like on a Phil Collins record or the background of a Cyndi Lauper record.

"I said, ‘Let me try it for a minute,’ turned everything all the way up, except for the mix [control], and then I started playing the guitar really staccato.

“I turned the mix up and got ‘whop, whop, whop, whop,’ like this giant popcorn machine exploding kind of a sound. I like that sound, so I use it as an effect. When I've gone just about as far as I can go, I stick that on it and just hit harmonics and choke them. It splats out all this ridiculous noise all over everything. But I don't use it in a real sense to get a sound that it was meant to get.”

His most commonly used effects, he said, were “an original tube Echoplex, an MXR analog delay, a Boss flanger, and an old white Fender reverb unit with new springs that are separate. The springs are on a microphone stand that goes on the cement floor of the building. It extends up to the bottom of the stage, and the spring stands on top of the microphone stand and the wire comes through a hole in the stage completely separate.

“I can't use it if I don't do that, because if I jump onstage, the spring rattles. It has to be isolated from the surface of anything that's vibrating.”

And what if the venue won’t allow Neil Young to drill a hole in its stage?

“No, we do it. We just put a hole in the stage,” Young insisted. “There's always a way.

"It can't be very far away, because with a long wire, you lose the fidelity, the high end where the reverb lives, so the magic is gone. You've got to keep it close and really short.”

As for guitars, Young said. “I buy guitars mainly to remember something by. If I'm enjoying a place, I will try to find an old guitar in that area, and that will always remind me of when I was there. The way it sounds is the way I sounded when I was there.

“I’ve written a lot of songs on a Martin D-18 that I really like, and I stole that out of [manager] Elliot Roberts' office. I always think of Elliot's office whenever I play it.

“And there are other reasons to buy guitars. You can buy them because they're classics. I collect 'em, so I'll buy an Explorer or a Flying V or a Black Falcon or a White Falcon just because that's what it is. But I got those now, so I don't need those anymore. Material things are becoming less and less relevant to me, so I'm not contingent to buy guitars.”

Old Black, Young's modified 1953 Gibson Les Paul, is famous for having the mini-humbucker from a 1972 Gibson Firebird, rehoused in aluminium, in its bridge position. As Young explained to Guitar Player, the original pickup went missing after he dropped it off at a store for repair when it developed a bad hum.

“I went back to get it, and the store was closed and everything was gone,” he said. “I never got the pickup back, so now there have been two or three pickups in place of the original. I guess I used the Firebird pickup on all the things I played on my black guitar since 1973.”

One other constant is the addition of a Bigsby whammy bar. Young has had no interest in more modern accessories.

“It works; it's expressive,” Young said of the Bigsby. “The wang bars they have now are not expressive; they're too tight. You can go way down and come way back up and do these metal licks and still stay in tune. Big deal — stay in tune, great. You already were in tune. I go out of tune in every song, because the thing just doesn't stay in tune.

“But when you keep moving, you never know when you're in tune. It's like hand-controlled flanging. And if you have a tape repeat on, an Echoplex, and you just ever so slightly use the Bigsby, then your sound is going up and down, but the echo is always following behind it. So it's like you really have two guitars that are not only on two different attacks, but one's in a different pitch. It's a huge sound.

“I’ve got the Bigsby worn into my hand. I can't do anything else. It has to be a Bigsby.”

They say behind every good guitarist is a good amp - but with Positive Grid slashing the price of their celebrated guitar software, is it now time to ditch the amp and embrace the cyber sorcery that is digital modeling? Practice amp titans Positive Grid has just launched their Guitar Month Sale, and it sees hearty discounts applied to a range of their most popular amps, accessories, and software - including a whopping $360 off Bias Platinum.

Now, as you'd expect, there are a plethora of deals available in the Guitar Month Sale, with money off the effortlessly cool Steve Vai signature Spark Mini and a generous $50 off the Spark Live, but it's the software discounts that have me wondering if I should finally give up my amp.

Currently, you can score an impressive $135 off both Bias FX 2 and Bias Amp 2, as well as $45 off the doom-bringing Omnyss and $153 off the FX 2 Metal Edition.

So, if you've been on the fence about going digital and swapping your amp for your laptop, then now might just be the best time to do it.

Want to dive a little deeper into what's on offer? Well, I've hand-selected what I believe to be the best deals from across the entire sale. Now, it's worth noting that this sale runs until the 13th of April, so if something takes your fancy, you better act fast, as the sale ends in only a few days.

Software deals

Amplifier deals 

Fender could see operational costs rise by up to $25 million due to new tariffs placed on goods produced overseas.

So says a new report by credit rating analyst Moody’s, which highlights an increased risk of default for the historic gear firm’s operations.

According to the report, Fender Musical Instruments Corporation’s (FMIC) has been hit by three downgrades. The musical instrument maker has had its credit rating downgraded from B2 to B3, indicating a higher risk of default. Moody’s has also downgraded the Probability of Default Rating from B2-PD to B3-PD, and its senior secured term loan rating from B3 to Caa1, indicating significant deterioration in creditworthiness.

Taken together, the three downgrades reflect a negative outlook for a financial forecast that previously looked stable. The changes are a direct result of the rising costs brought on by the Trump administration's newly imposed tariffs, which Moody's predicts could result in operational costs rising by “approximately $20 to $25 million.”

Boutique amp firm Morgan has previously spoken of the financial impact these tariffs could have on its operations.

The tariffs have come into play because of Fender’s overseas production sites, specifically its guitar production site in Ensenada, Mexico, and its China factory, where electronic products, including amplifiers and pedals, are made. Both countries fall under the crosshairs of President Trump’s new tariffs.

Moody's report notes that "a 25% tariff on products from [Fender's] Ensenada, Mexico manufacturing facility and an additional 10% tariff on products manufactured in China and imported into the U.S. would increase operating costs by approximately $20 to $25 million.”

Fender has moved to mitigate these financial pressures by increasing production in Indonesia. While Moody's has recognized that effort, the analyst believes short-term reactions, such as price increases and vendor concessions, may not be enough if the new tariffs remain.

“Prolonged imposition of tariffs,” Moody’s reports, “will likely be highly disruptive and costly for ... Fender.”

Fender's Chinese operations represent their own set of challenges.

Says Moody’s, “China remains the largest global manufacturer of guitars by unit volume, and the musical instruments industry is already facing challenges such as weakening consumer confidence in the US and an economic slowdown in China.”

Operating in a market where “competition is intense” is also challenging because “the ability to pass on costs to consumers is constrained in an already high-priced market.”

The report also notes that Fender possesses “strong brand recognition and market position in the acoustic and electric guitar categories” and “benefits from good geographic diversity and a long-standing reputation for high-quality products, supported by a well-diversified retail distribution network.

“However, these strengths are offset by the company's narrow product focus and earnings volatility, which stem from the discretionary nature of demand for musical instruments,” it continues. “This volatility is further exacerbated by the current challenging economic environment and exposure to new US tariffs.”

A reversal of fortunes, though, can be achieved. Fender would see its credit rating restored if it is able to mitigate the impact of the new tariffs to generate organic growth. Conversely, it could face further downgrades if earnings decline beyond the expected margins.

Those fearing the worst need to only look to its biggest rival, Gibson, to see that it may not necessarily mean the death knell will chime.

Gibson faced similar downgrades in 2018, which led to it filing for bankruptcy, but has since improved its economic outlook under new ownership.

Visit Moody’s to read the full rating report.

Your tone starts with your fingers and your guitar. Think about all differences that tonewood choices and pickups make to how a guitar sounds.

Now ask yourself: If you had to make a choice, would you choose a cheap guitar with an expensive amp, or an expensive guitar with a cheap amp?

For Yvette Young, the math-rock guitarist for Covet, the answer is clear. As she tells Guitarist, she sees “no point” playing a high-end instrument if the amp it goes through isn’t cut out for the job.

“It’s like ruining a really nice audio file with… I don’t know… something that’s going to degrade it a lot,” she says. “There’s no point, right? I’d rather go for the expensive amp.

Besides, she adds, "‘Cheap guitar’ doesn’t mean bad guitar. I have plenty of guitars that are cheap, but I feel like they still sound really impressive for the price point.”

Young's own setup includes a boutique Silktone amp and her P90-loaded Ibanez Talman. The electric guitar is set to get a new Ibanez signature release, which will mark her third guitar with the Japanese luthier.

“I usually play [Vox] AC30s, but I kind of love how I can get something out of the Silktone without losing definition and clarity,” she says.

“It’s so balanced. [Silktone owner] Charles Henry is the best — I’ll hype him forever; he’s an outstanding person. Those amps really sound so smooth, and I feel like they make me play better.”

As for how she recommends players choose a guitar, Young has a few tips.

“You need to make sure you try the guitar in your own rig,” she says. “Sometimes, if you’re playing out of another amp, it might be brighter than you’re used to. Try to simulate the environment that you’re going to be using the guitar in as accurately as you can.”

Young recently celebrated the release of her first soundscape-conjuring signature stompbox, the Walrus Audio Qi Etherealizer, a feature-packed modulation pedal. The guitarist, who helped design the effect over an exhaustive two-year period, tells Guitar World that she wants it to be a stompbox that sparks new ideas.

“I used to be an art teacher, so the way I talk about music is very visual,” Young explains. “The hardest part in creating, I think, is starting. We have a lot of anxiety; we put a lot of emphasis on how that first mark has to be perfect, but I know with painting that, once I have a big wash of color, that anxiety disappears because I took away that sterile white canvas.

“So for the Qi Ethereal, I wanted it to be an ambient machine and an idea generator, and I wanted you to be able to play guitar with yourself and sound really full. And hopefully make your guitar not sound very much like a guitar!”

The pedal represents the latest addition to the peculiar tone-shaping tools on Young's pedalboard. They include a DigitTech Whammy Ricochet and a Hologram Electronics Microcosm, which is a looper, granular sampler, delay, reverb, pitch modulator, and filter all in one. She says that the Swiss Army pedal is “absolutely essential for me”.

Beyond that, her setup includes two EarthQuaker Devices pedals — the Warden optical compressor and the Avalanche Run delay — which sit alongside a Meris MercuryX for chorus, vibrato and reverb, and an Electronic Audio Experiments Longsword overdrive.

Young is among the cast of next-generation talents with whom Steve Vai is “fascinated" and has featured in several editions of his yearly tuition camp, Vai Academy. She and the shredder locked horns in 2022 with a colorful 80s-inspired jam. It was a moment she described as “a gift."

Vai was clearly impressed as well.

“Yvette is just a wildly artistic person from head to toe,” he had said of her. “Her guitar playing and the things she comes up with is one aspect. It’s a particular color in her palette. She has this creative perspective that I just find so refreshing. She’s an artist, she paints, and I just really love the energy and the atmosphere that she manifests.”

I almost fell on the floor laughing the first time I grabbed my Les Paul off the wall and heard my office acoustic amp turn into a fire-breathing Marshall! That was last year when UAFX introduced the Lion ’68 Super Lead Amp. With the number of awesome emulation processors on the market growing every day, the amp game is changing at a crazy pace. Nowadays, an acoustic amp can be made to sound a heck of a lot like your favorite vintage tube amp.

The previous two Learn columns addressed maximizing an acoustic amp by utilizing both channels: first by setting up dual signal paths from an acoustic-electric guitar using piezo and magnetic pickups, and then processing those signals independently for a killer combo tone. Now let’s take acoustic-electric amplification to its ultimate realization.

DOUBLE TROUBLE, SINGULAR SOUND

Once you’ve got dual piezo/magnetic signals feeding both amp inputs, processing options abound, including the possibility of placing an amp-emulation pedal on the magnetic side. Do so and notice a huge difference in how the tone opens up. Like most pedals, the emulator is designed to accommodate the magnetic signal’s lower impedance, and then the magic of modeling produces a tube-like response complete with electric speaker emulation. You’ve essentially turned your dual-channel acoustic amplifier into a pair of individual amps with the ability to blend the two tones. This can be as simple as having a clean electric-style tone plus a true acoustic sound, or as wild as pairing the latter with a daring high-gain sound.

While players such as Alex Lifeson have been mining this territory for years, it’s mostly been done like he does, i.e., blending in a bit of a piezo along with the primary magnetic tone using a traditional tube amp. Doing so in reverse is largely uncharted territory, so there’s plenty of new ground to be found.

ACOUSTIC AS ELECTRIC

The acoustic-as-electric amp concept is also ripe with possibilities for those who prefer one signal at a time. In fact, it may just flip the script for some multifaceted players. Instead of thinking about your acoustic amp as a second option, it can become primary. If you’ve got an acoustic amp in, say, your office or teaching space, it can be electrified using a good emulation pedal to transform channel two.

Now when you want to switch from, say, a Martin to a Stratocaster, you can simply set the acoustic guitar on a stand, grab the Strat off the wall, and wail away. You can even become a bona fide lead player taking flights of improvisation if you first get a looper pedal going with the Martin. And of course, one can simply grab the Strat in the first place and focus solely on that. Using your acoustic amp as a practice amp for both saves time, money and space. And with the previously unimaginable sky-high quality of modern amp-emulation pedals, it’s completely within the realm of possibility to bring the same situation to the stage.

REALLY, HOW DOES THAT SOUND?

Some will argue than emulations don’t translate well to a live environment, and there is some truth to that. The dimensionality provided by power amp tubes pushing air via speakers onstage is real. It’s way less of a deal when using in-ear monitors, but most players are stuck with whatever monitors the venue has available, which is why having your own high-quality monitor in the form of an acoustic amp is a great idea anyway.

In the tube-amp emulation arena, the ideal stage monitor is an FRFR — Full Range, Flat Response — speaker cabinet. I’m not discouraging anyone from checking out all the cool FRFR monitor boxes, but I am pointing out that you may already have a workable situation with a decent acoustic amp. And if you’re an acoustic player first, it makes total sense to focus on your acoustic amp first. After all, an acoustic amp is essentially a little P.A. designed with a focus in the middle range suitable for a guitar. The more powerful and the larger the speaker in your acoustic amp, the more it has in common with a typical FRFR, and the happier you’ll be onstage.

I truly cannot believe the killer vintage electric guitar tones coming out of my acoustic amps and P.A. systems using one of the many convincing amp-emulation pedals available on the modern market. These range from companies that specialize in the digital realm, such as Neural DSP and Tonex, to classic companies that have gotten in on the modeling game, such as Fender.

Three truly remarkable pedals that have got me thinking about ditching my electric rig altogether come from Universal Audio’s effects division, UAFX. I’ve got the Dream ’65 Fender emulator set totally clean, the Enigmatic ’82 Overdrive Special Dumble emulator on crunch, and the Lion ’68 Super Lead Marshall model roaring with glorious gain.

Armed with a Strat Plus or a Les Paul, I can play just about any classic riff and have it sound convincing coming out of an AER Compact 60/3 Tommy Emmanuel Signature, a Circa ’74 by Taylor, or a Fender Acoustic Junior Go. Wielding a Cole Clark True Hybrid or a Martin SC-28 equipped with a Baggs magnetic pickup in the sound hole, a rainbow of glorious acoustic-electric blends lies at my feet and within arm’s reach.

Acoustic amps are almost always solid state, which makes them way more durable than most electric amps, vintage ones in particular. So, if one can achieve a convincing tube amp tone via an emulation pedal, and if you can use either channel individually or both for pioneering acoustic-electric combinations… There are lots of reasons to consider acoustic amps in a whole new light.

I continue to believe wholeheartedly that the most exciting developments in the entire guitar universe are happening on the acoustic-electronic front. Hopefully these past three Learn columns have convinced more players to come aboard and explore.

Some guitarists are inherently connected to certain guitars and amplifiers. David Gilmour has played numerous electric guitars and oddball instruments throughout his playing days, but he will always be associated with his Black Cat Fender Stratocaster. Likewise, AC/DC’s guitarists wouldn’t look right onstage without a wall of Marshall amps behind them.

For Brian May, his unique Red Special guitar and an unwavering allegiance to Vox AC30 amps have underpinned his entire career. However, he has now admitted that he did have a brief flirtation with a different kind of amplifier. But after Jimi Hendrix left him redfaced, he headed back to the safety of his familiar Vox.

The Queen guitarist’s pairing of his Red Special and a Vox AC30 is one of rock and roll’s most iconic duos. However, in a new conversation with Guitarist, he reveals that he broke that partnership up — for one night only.

Marshall stacks were commonplace in the early 1970s as the loudness wars — waged in part by the much-reported Ronnie Wood and Pete Townshend rivalry — raged on. May was well aware of these ear-splitting shenanigans and admitted that he had wanted a piece of the action. Then the perfect opportunity to experiment presented itself.

“We played one show at Olympia [in London],” May says, setting the scene. “Top of the bill was Jimi Hendrix and everybody essentially played through the same gear. So I plugged into a Marshall stack with my guitar and treble booster. I turned it all the way up, and it sounded so awful. I could hardly play.”

May isn’t the only guitarist to have struggled to hit the ground running with a new piece of gear, but this wasn’t exactly a setting with much room for error.

“I didn’t know what to do,” he continues. “It sounded like an angry wasp. It didn’t have any depth or articulation, I couldn’t play chords. It was a really hard experience for me.”

But getting a brilliant tone proved no trouble for the headline act: Jimi Hendrix.

“After we’d played,” May says, “I stayed behind backstage and I looked through between the amps as Jimi came onstage, plugged into that same amp — and it sounded like a cataclysm.” He's remained a Vox loyalist since.

May is still recovering from the stroke he suffered last summer and has now opened up on the experience, which led to inevitable questions regarding his future as a guitar player.

“It went through my mind,” he accepts. “When I suddenly couldn’t control this left arm, it was quite scary. I had no idea what was going on. I phoned my doctor and she said, ‘Okay, I think you’re having a minor stroke. Dial 999, get in the ambulance and I’ll see you there.’

“But even at the worst time,” he goes on, “although I couldn’t control where the arm was, I could control my fingers. So I thought, ‘I’m probably not really in danger.’ I’m all right now. I’m just taking it slow.”

And in the spirit of Marshall stacks, Ritchie Blackmore says he got the loudest Marshall ever made but had to keep two secrets.

How is it that a tiny guitar amp with origins that date back 76 years is still considered a monster tone machine today? It’s because Fender got so much right with the humble Champ combo from the start, with “simplicity” as the watchword both then and now.

Founded in 1946, Fender debuted its amp lineup that same year with the Princeton, Deluxe and Professional models. In 1948, the company introduced a “beginner” set that paired a Hawaiian lap-steel guitar with an amp designed to sit a rung lower than that initial trio. It was dubbed the Champion 800, a name that was soon after shortened to Champ. Some version of the diminutive combo has remained in Fender’s catalog ever since, although the narrow-panel tweed model of the mid ’50s to early ’60s is arguably the most revered of them all.

The original Champion 800 had a blonde TV-front livery and delivered four watts through a single eight-inch speaker, with a volume knob as its sole control. One year later, Fender replaced it with the Champion 600, an even smaller combo that combined the same circuit with a six-inch speaker. Fender revised the design in 1949 with a two-tone covering and a slanted, rear-mounted control panel that remained until ’55, differentiating the two Champion models from the flat, top-rear mounted panels found in the rest of Fender’s lineup.

In ’53 the Champion moved into Fender’s “wide-panel” tweed cabinet of the era, so-called for its wider upper and lower mounting panels and full-width baffle. Two years later, it began evolving toward its most iconic form: the narrow-panel 5F1 tweed combo, with an upper rear-mounted control panel and a look that matched the rest of the range. Initially, the wee ’55 model — now simply called the Champ — retained the six-inch speaker, but in ’56 it gained an eight-inch Alnico Jensen and a slightly larger cab, which maximized this small amp’s volume, such as it was.

Fender never intended the Champ as a tool for professional players, and certainly the model has never been able to keep up with any but the very lightest-hitting of drummers onstage. Nevertheless, countless pro guitarists have discovered through the years that the amp’s restricted volume means absolutely nothing once you put a studio mic in front of it, and some have taken the same principle to live performances.

When used as such, the amp’s diminutive output can be co-opted to great advantage in creative tone sculpting: Rein in the Champ’s volume control for crisp clean tones and make the signal whatever you want at the mixing desk, or crank it up for juicy, tactile overdrive without blowing the rafters off the joint or destroying an expensive studio mic.

As many noteworthy electric guitar pros have discovered, the simplicity of the Champ’s design allows a voice and playing feel that are difficult for many larger amps to capture. The circuit employs a mere three tubes — one 12AX7 preamp, one 6V6GT output and one 5Y3 rectifier — each of which performs an entirely different job.

Furthermore, there’s nothing between the input and the output transformer besides a mere two coupling capacitors, a single potentiometer and one resistor (the standard 68k-ohm grid stopper that follows the input jack on all Fender designs). That’s not a lot coming between your guitar signal and the sound that emanates from the speaker, all in a totally hand-wired circuit using the revered components of the day. This minimal path contributes mightily to the Champ’s legendary sonic veracity and touch sensitivity.

Even the use of just a single tube in the output stage, what’s called a single-ended design, adds considerable character to the tonal brew. Without a partner to couple it in a push-pull Class AB amplification circuit, the lone 6V6GT does all the work itself in what is considered a true Class A output stage. As such, the Champ provides a rare example of a term that is often mistakenly applied to many two- and four-tube designs that don’t truly fit the definition. The result can sometimes be heard as a smoother onset of distortion and richer harmonic content when the Champ gets there.

As for street cred, myriad guitar heroes have plied their trade in the studio through the little Champ. Eric Clapton famously used a tweed Champ on several songs, including, reportedly, “Layla.” Keith Richards, Billy Gibbons and Jeff Beck frequently turned to the Champ, and Joe Walsh used a tweed model on “Rocky Mountain Way” and several other noteworthy tracks. Beatle George Harrison is said to have preferred his Champ for slide parts, and in more recent years acclaimed jazz guitarist Julian Lage has used a tweed Champ in the studio as well as onstage.

Tiny though they are, original vintage tweed Champs have astronomically escalated in price in recent years. If the real thing is beyond your means, Fender currently offers the ’57 Custom Champ in the Handwired Series, and in 2011 introduced the EC Vibro Champ in its Eric Clapton Signature Series, essentially a Champ with added tube tremolo (now discontinued).

As the rest of the Fender lineup evolved into brown-panel cosmetics in ’61 and the iconic blackface styling partway through ’63, the Champ remained the last of the tweed-era amps for a few years longer. It retained the same cabinet build until a good way into ’64 and kept its tweed covering longer than any other model, although it was covered in black Tolex over a narrow-panel ’50s-style cab starting in 1963, prior to fully joining the blackface lineup in fall 1964.

I remember it like it was yesterday, when mini amplifiers were little more than toys, built with terrible speakers that produced truly awful tones - think angry wasp's nest in a tin can. However, over the last few years, manufacturers have realized there is a place for great tones in compact packages that allow guitarists to practice at home or on the move. With the modern guitar player turning away from heavy and loud tube or solid-state amps, the best mini amps can deliver all those same great tones in a more compact package, and so much more.

A mini amp is defined by being lightweight and space-saving, even when compared to the sort of practice amps that typically come bundled with starter sets. They will have much smaller speakers than standard practice amps, and many are battery-powered. The ever-improving quality of passive radiators combined with amp modeling in small guitar amps means they’re quite capable of delivering room-filling sound, all whilst taking up a tiny amount of space. This means they not only cater to the beginner market, but also to professional players looking for a compact companion to practice at home with.

Perhaps my favorite option on the market, the Positive Grid Spark Mini distills the best qualities of a mini amp by utilizing technology alongside the power of smartphones. We were so impressed with the review model that we gave it five stars after rigorous testing. If you’re looking for something similar without having to spend as much, the Positive Grid Spark Go offers a similar experience in a smaller package. It’s a fantastic, affordable option.

I’ve relied upon extensive experience demoing and recommending mini amps in my day job in a guitar store, plus my two decades of playing experience, having seen the mini amp revolution in that time span. So, if you have any further questions you need to ask, have a look at our FAQs section for more information. Also, for complete beginners, my how to choose section will outline three key considerations when purchasing your first mini amp.

Best overall

Overview

The Spark Mini may be mini by name and size, but in every other department, it is anything but. Released in 2022, we are still surprised that an amplifier this size can sound so good. Despite advancements in technology, it is hard to wrap your head around it.

Build

An area where the Spark Mini stands above rivals is its build quality. While it’s only made from glass-fibre, the Tolex on the outside adds a layer of luxury, and the mesh grill is classy. This is an amp you’d be proud to have on display in your home.

Features

It comes loaded with four presets, which are great to get you going, but to unlock the depths of its abilities, the Positive Grid Spark app is a necessity. Technophobes may be put off by having to use the app, but it is generally very intuitive to use and gives you full control over the 43 effects and full amp catalog. If you’re not interested in building your own sounds, there are over 10,000 presets to choose from—no other mini amp can compete with that.

Sounds

Lastly, its two-by-two-inch, cleverly angled speaker design produces a much larger sound than it has any right to, with good, balanced detail and enough low end for most applications. The overall low-end response is impressive for an amp of this size, though really powerful bass sounds like those from bass guitars or baritone guitars can drive the speakers into crackling when driven hard.

Best budget

Overview

The even smaller brother of the Spark Mini, the Positive Grid Spark Go is the most affordable amplifier in the Spark range, also in the smallest package. As with the rest of the Spark range, the Spark Go requires Positive Grid’s Spark app to unlock all of its features, with limited, but usable, options available via the amp itself.

Build

Aesthetically, the Go shares the hallmarks of its bigger siblings. We’re talking about the beautiful woven grille cloth with gold detailing and a custom black hardshell, with a handy carry strap attached. Although this is an affordable option, Positive Grid hasn’t skipped quality control, and the Go feels every bit as considered as the Spark Mini.

Features

When connected to the Spark app, there are pretty much limitless opportunities for sound creation, with 43 effects at your fingertips and 33 amp models to choose from. For some, this may seem overcomplicated, but it makes it extremely versatile. There are precious few physical controls

Sounds

It can’t match its bigger brother - the Spark Mini - for volume, but that is to be expected given its lower price point and smaller size, boasting a single 2” speaker, compared to the Mini’s 2x 2”. This will appeal to people looking for the smallest solution possible that still produces great sounds, or could be a nice addition if you already have one of the larger Spark amplifiers and want to take those tones on the go.

Best for metal

Overview

Bigger and better than its little brother, the Katana Mini, the Katana Mini X is a concerted attempt by BOSS to put themselves at the top of the mini amp food chain, as they have done with the rest of their full-sized Katana range. While the smaller Katana Mini feels a little cheap and hasn’t really set the mini amp world alight, the Katana Mini X is a different beast.

Build

Standout upgrades include far more effects options and more. The big one for any player who plans to use this regularly on the move is the change from disposable batteries (6x AAs) to an integrated rechargeable battery, charged via USB-C. This is so much better, and it’s a real wonder why BOSS has taken so long to upgrade to this.

Features

As always with the Katana range, there is a great selection of BOSS effects, and this is a really exciting amp to add to any player’s collection to achieve great tones on the move. As far as mini amps go, it is on the larger side, so for anybody looking for the truly tiny, it might be a little too big, but it’s still very portable and, compared to the sound it produces, it’s minuscule.

Sounds

The 5” speaker packs plenty of punch and notably a good amount of low end. Switching to the Brown channel, you get an aggressive, thick saturation that gets you comfortably into chugging territory. The speaker can handle it well, but like any mini amp, too much volume and it can get murky. However, for its size, this will appeal to metalheads of all stripes.

Best for gigging

Overview

The Micro Dark is the mini amp to beat when it comes to tiny amp heads. Other manufacturers have created their own microscopic heads to combat Orange’s Micro range - comprising the Micro Dark and Micro Terror - but they haven’t caught on in the same way.

Build

True simplicity is where the Micro Dark excels. A simple 3-knob setup gives a surprising amount of tonal control for the 20W of hybrid power—yes, the Micro Dark has a real ECC83 (12AX7) vacuum tube in the preamp. When compared to the extremely clever and powerful digital options on the mini-amp market, the Micro Dark may feel a touch simple, coming without many bells and whistles.

Features:

It has no integrated effects, but does have an effects loop, which will appeal to those with existing pedalboards. For those looking for a super versatile option with lots of features, this is one to avoid; however, if you are looking for a mini amp with the ability to gig, the Micro Dark is a great option.

Sounds

The obvious issue with the Micro Dark as a practice amp is that once you add a speaker cabinet - and it can even get a 4x12” cabinet pushing air - it’d be fair to argue that ‘the package’ would struggle to qualify as a mini amp. One that's only suitable for players looking for something compact to use at shows. The sheer capability of something this small filling up a venue is almost laughable, but it sounds big, can get aggressive, and punches well above its weight class.

Best for bass

Overview

There’s an argument that when it comes to modern mini amps, the Blackstar Fly is the king. It’s certainly one of the first that took the mini amp seriously, creating an amplifier that was supremely compact but delivered genuinely impressive tones. Blackstar hasn’t forgotten about bassists either, as this legacy series includes the Fly 3 Bass, the best option for low-end warriors.

Build

The Fly 3 Bass is reassuringly solid, and you can find plenty of the original 2014 versions kicking about now, over ten years later. It’s an amp that lasts. The bass iteration uses the exact same DNA as its electric guitar sibling, and as far as portable mini amps go, the Fly 3 Bass shouldn’t give you any durability issues.

Features

Unique to the Fly 3 Bass is a built-in compressor and a ‘Sub’ control. This adds an extra layer of thickness to the low-end, producing a surprising growl for an amplifier this size. The EQ control allows you to adjust the depth of the EQ curve, a nice change from Blackstar’s sole ISF control found on the guitar version.

Sounds

Lastly, this is an amp that can be upgraded with the Fly 103 extension cabinet available to double your wattage (to 6W) and give you a stereo speaker set for music. For beginners, in particular, this is an amp that is perfect to start with, but it will also inevitably remain in your collection for years to come.

Best for acoustic

Overview

NUX has made an effort to stake a real claim in the small guitar amp market with the Mighty Lite BT MKII. Launching a mobile app to go alongside your mini amp is bold, given the quality of those already established in the market; however, the MightyAmp Mobile App is really simple to use with a graphic interface that even technophobes will be able to get their heads around. With the use of the MightyAmp app, the Mighty Lite has lots more tonal options, plus additional effects and presets for acoustic guitar.

Features

If you’re not keen on using an app, the Mighty Lite is ready to go from the box with delay/reverb (only one at a time) with tap tempo, plus your standard gain, volume, and tone to dial in a solid sound. This, alongside a drum machine featuring nine different patterns and Bluetooth connectivity, means you’ve got a really great practice amp.

Build

In terms of features compared to the price, the Mighty Lite is up there with one of the best mini amps on the market, which makes us almost forget it requires AA batteries rather than having an integrated battery. It does have the neat trick of being able to be powered by a third-party USB power bank - the sort you’d charge your phone with - which is a nice trick.

Sounds

While acoustic guitars thrive with full-range speakers to capture their harmonic detail, the 3-inch driver in the Mighty Lite does a remarkable job. You can’t max out the volume without encountering some distortion, but if you select an acoustic preset, the included cab sim provides a surprisingly natural and usable tone for such a small unit.

Also consider

The above amps should, in our opinion, cover the bases for most guitarists out there. We appreciate there's no one size fits all solution however, so here's a selection of other options for you to consider.

How to choose

On a daily basis, guitarists would come into the guitar store I worked in and ask me to show them the best mini amp they could buy. Having done this for 10 years, I said the same thing to each player: you need to consider these three factors when selecting a mini amplifier, and more often than not, they’d walk away with the best option for them. Here are the three things you should consider.

1. Volume

Firstly, how loud do you want your mini amplifier to be? This would usually take players by surprise, as mini amps are often considered to be on the quieter side. However, that’s not exactly the case. An option like the Orange Micro Dark can fill a venue, so volume considerations are important.

2. Features

Then consider the features you would like. Some mini amps are app-controlled, can Bluetooth stream, connect to extension cabinets, and have rechargeable power packs. You name it, if it’s been thought of in the amplifier world, there will likely be a mini amp that can do it.

Of course, you may want something simpler than a mini amp with all the bells and whistles. If you do, then fear not, as an option like the Blackstar Fly 3 offers a decluttered, easy-to-use mini amp that technophobes will love.

3. Power

I’m not talking about output power with this one. Instead, do you want your mini amp to be battery-powered or not? This is an important consideration, as many assume mini amps are all battery-powered. However, that’s not always the case. It’s a point that catches a lot of players out when they first purchase.

You may want a mini amp with a rechargeable built-in battery pack, perhaps you already have rechargeable batteries to use, or maybe you’re not bothered. Regardless, it’s something to decide before buying.

FAQs

Key terms

• Attenuator: This is a device, either built-in or external, that allows you to control the power output of an amplifier.
• Boxy: Terminology used to describe a tone that sits predominantly in the lower mid-range, creating a flat sound that feels like it’s being played inside a box.
• Busking: The activity of playing music in public, typically on a high street, to earn money.
• Cab sim (cabinet simulation): Software that replicates the sound of particular cabinets, typically famous models from well-known brands. Cab sims aim to capture the response, feel, and acoustics of the cabinet they are replicating.
• Chug: A technique in metal guitar where the player repeatedly palm-mutes downstrokes to create an aggressive, percussive sound.
• Clean headroom: An amp with clean headroom is capable of playing loudly while retaining clarity without distorting.
• DAW (Digital Audio Workstation): Software that allows you to record instruments and microphones, typically via an audio interface. DAWs often include effects, amp voices, and engineering tools for optimal recording.
• DSP (Digital Signal Processing): Computer algorithms used to create effects, tones, or emulate guitar amplifiers. This is the technology found in digital modeling amplifiers.
• FRFR (Full Range, Flat Response): Speakers designed to reproduce the entire frequency range with clarity. They provide a neutral platform for amp modelers.
• Fizzy: Terminology used to describe static, buzzy distortion that doesn’t sound particularly pleasant.
• Gain: A control typically found on amplifiers that determines the amount of signal being driven into the preamp, directly affecting distortion and saturation.
• GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome): A tongue-in-cheek term guitarists use to describe the constant urge to keep buying new gear.
• Impulse response (IR): A digital file that captures the sonic characteristics of a specific speaker cabinet, microphone, and room, allowing you to recreate that exact setup in a digital environment.
• Latency: The delay between striking a note on your guitar and hearing it through headphones, an amplifier, or an audio interface.
• Line in: An input used to connect pre-amplified signals, such as a smartphone or MP3 player, allowing you to play music through a guitar amplifier.
• Modeling: A type of amplifier technology that uses digital processors, such as DSP, to emulate the sounds of famous amplifiers and effects.
• Passive radiator: A speaker component that reinforces low-end frequencies without using additional power, helping smaller amps produce a fuller bass response.
• Solid state: A type of amplifier that uses transistor-based circuits to create sound, unlike traditional guitar amps that use vacuum tube technology.

How we test

Here at Guitar Player we've been testing gear since 1967, so it's fair to say we've got a great overview of guitar gear throughout recent history. We've reviewed all kinds of guitar amps from tube classics to modern modeling amps, giving us a great overview of how best to judge a mini guitar amp for our guides. When testing a mini guitar amp we'll take the same steps as we would a full-size guitar amp.

First of all, we'll look at the build quality of the amp. We want to determine the inputs and outputs, how it's put together, what size speaker it has, how many knobs, and any other physical features we can note. This helps us determine who the mini amp is for, and what sort of use case it'll be good for.

Next, we'll take a more in-depth look at the usability of the amp. If it's a modeling amp then we'll determine how many amp models you get and how to access them. We'll look at any effects it has built-in, as well as additional functionality like Bluetooth or an auxiliary output. In using the amp we're looking to see how easy it is to get to grips with it and start dialing in tones, as well as using any extra features it might have.

Finally, and arguably most importantly, we'll test the sound. Depending on the amp type, if it's more a classic type then we'll start with all the EQ knobs at 12 o'clock and start playing to see what a neutral tone sounds like. We'll then tweak to find various tones, making notes of everything as we go.

If it's a modeling amp then we'll start with the built-in presets to see how those sound, before beginning to tweak our own sounds. We'll try building a rig from scratch, seeing how easy it is to put a signal chain together and judging how realistic the models sound versus the actual gear from our own experience.

Read more on how we test gear and services at Guitar Player.

Considering its status as “the classic British amplifier you’ve possibly never heard of,” the Elpico AC55 combo drags some serious history in its wake. Built by Lee Products Co (L-P-Co) as an affordable general-purpose amp/PA and sold largely in British department stores from the late 1940s to ’60s, the AC55 ended up in the hands of many up-and-coming electric guitar players, including 14-year-old future Beatle Paul McCartney. An original Elpico AC55 was also largely responsible for what’s often considered the first distorted guitar in a British rock and roll recording after Dave Davies plugged into one to record his iconic track on the Kinks’ 1964 hit “You Really Got Me.”

For all that, though, it’s still a relatively limited history up against those of the Marshall, Vox, and Hiwatt amps of the ’60s and ’70s. But if anyone can revive the Elpico mystique and propel it into the 21st century in appropriately legendary form, it’s Mitch Colby. Likely the most storied American figure in British amp history, Colby worked as an engineer for Marshall’s American distributor for 32 years, helped revive the Vox brand before it was handed over to Korg, and acquired and manufactured Park amps for about 10 years until 2022, when Hiwatt purchased the brand. In addition, hand-built designs under his own name have been highly respected this past decade or more, and his meticulous re-creation of Jimmy Page’s modified Marshall Super Bass from 1969 — dubbed the Sundragon — has established a new standard for classic-rock tone.

So if there’s anyone who can take an admittedly archaic circuit from the late ’40s or ’50s and make it all it should be in the perfect world where every “catalog-amp” is its best and most tonesome self… Well, you get the picture.

As seen in the accompanying photos, the original surf-green Elpico AC55 was a much smaller combo than Colby’s revamped creation, which is covered in black vinyl in this instance. The increased size of so many essential components — cabinet, speaker, transformers and a few others — is the most obvious tell in the general bigging-up of the format. Aside from that, the Colby Elpico AC55 retains all of the most characteristic quirks of the original, which help it to sound quite unlike any other familiar vintage amp.

As Colby tells us, “The original AC55 had lots of preamp gain with a lot of negative feedback in the output stage, a relatively unusual James tone stack, and an ultralinear power stage with a transformer with two four-ohm secondaries. In the new design I use both at all times—in parallel for the four-ohm setting and in series for 16-ohm.” The James tone stack Colby mentions is essentially a passive version of the active Baxandall stage occasionally used by Orange and Ampeg, and Dr. Z more recently, with wide-sweeping bass and treble controls.

Among his additions for increased versatility are a mid control, a master with bypass switch, independent three-way bright switches on each channel, a switch to cascade the two channels together for even more gain, and a line out with level control and switch for full or compensated response (a faux-cab voicing). Noting that the original’s third channel — Gram, for gramophone (record player) — was essentially useless for guitar, Colby has eliminated that one, while he’s revoiced the second of the original’s otherwise identical two Mic channels for greater tonal variety.

Otherwise, the Colby Elpico AC55 specs out like the classic British club tube amp, producing around 16 watts from a pair of EL84s, two 12AX7/ECC83s in the preamp, another in the phase inverter, and an EZ81 rectifier tube. The speaker is a Celestion G12H-25 Greenback, mounted to a birch-ply baffle in a solid-pine cab measuring 22 by 19 by nine inches and weighing 34 pounds. Which is to say, the Colby Elpico AC55 is a lot more amp than the original, while it stays true to its unusual and inspiring personality. It also looks fantastic in it black vinyl covering with white piping (other colors are available), with an expensive EC Collins Bluesbreaker-style pinstripe grille cloth filling the trapezoidal speaker cut-out, an echo of the original’s unique styling.

Inside, the circuit displays Colby’s proven knack for top-quality workmanship. The thick, welded aluminum chassis carries a rugged turret board handwired with top-shelf components, including Mallory coupling capacitors, MOD electrolytic caps, and a mix of carbon-comp and carbon-film resistors.

Tested with a Fender Telecaster and a Gibson ES-355, the Colby Elpico AC55 delivered lots of bark and no shortage of classic EL84 chime, but with quite a different voice than the usual British suspects. It has a somewhat thicker midrange than the Vox-inspired dual-EL84 designs that dominate this sector, though one that’s not outright “Marshally” either. There’s also an interesting combination of articulate attack backed by easy compression, which would seem to contradict each, yet are appealingly married in the amp’s playing response.

Even in Normal mode, there’s serious chunky grind when you drive the volume past noon, especially on channel two, which is thicker and slightly darker. Channel one, in contrast, is brighter and sparklier, while both deliver excellent headroom until you get their respective volume controls up past noon (in Normal mode) — all of which is impressively loud for a 16-watter when the master’s maxed.

Cobbled into a three-word takeaway, I’d call either channel “stout, yet clear,” which gives the AC55 more of a big-amp feel overall than that achieved by many other 16-watters. Flipped to Cascade mode to chain the first channel’s gain stage into the second, the AC55 becomes altogether fiercer. Not quite the Mesa/Boogie or Soldano we associate with cascading gain, but an aggressively rocky lead beastie that’s still inherently vintage-natured, and very enjoyable.

Compared to an original early ’60s AC55 that Colby sent along for testing, the re-creation has a lot more of everything, simply put, and is just a far more usable mid-sized amp for the modern player. But it does indeed retain the character of its 60-year-old forebearer, which delivers a juicy, rich, unique voice at far lesser volumes, and one that could still be very useful in front of a mic in the studio.

But would Dave Davies approve? I’d like to think so, and perhaps with Colby’s version on hand in the studio in 1964 he wouldn’t have had to go to such lengths to achieve his “You Really Got Me” signal chain. As he told me during a chat over tea and scones in a West London hotel many moons ago.

“I was getting really bored with this guitar sound — or lack of an interesting sound — and there was this radio-spares shop up the road, and they had a little green amplifier in there next to the radios, an Elpico. I got a single-edged Gillette razorblade and cut round the cone like this.” Here he indicated making slits from the center to the edge of the cone. “So it was all shredded but still on there, still intact. I played and I thought it was amazing, really freaky. I felt like an inventor! We just close-miked that in the studio, and also fed the same speaker output into the Vox AC30, which was kind of noisy but sounded good.”

You’ll need no such shenanigans with the Colby Elpico AC55. Simply engage the Cascade switch, crank it up and there’s thick, meaty tube overdrive aplenty, with nary a shredded speaker in sight. However you use it, this interesting new combo from a master of classic British tone is likely to prove extremely inspiring and surprisingly versatile, while also helping you stand out from the crowd sonically in the process.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT colbyamps.com

PRICE $3,350 direct

CHANNELS 2

CONTROLS Volume 1, Volume 3, Bright 1, Bright 2, Treble, Middle, Bass, Master with on/off switch, Cascade switch

POWER 16 watts

TUBES Three 12AX7 preamp/PI tubes, two EL84 output tubes, EZ81 rectifier tube

EXTRAS Dual speaker outs with switch for 4Ω/8Ω or 16Ω, ¼" direct out with level control and switch for Full or Compensated Response

SIZE 22"x19"x9"

WEIGHT 34 lbs

ASSEMBLED IN USA

KUDOS A clever and extremely well-built re-creation of an under-recognized classic, and surprisingly versatile in its own right.

CONCERNS Its high cost might limit its reach, but that’s somewhat inevitable for an amp of this quality.

Whether smashing guitars or popularizing the concept album, the Who’s Pete Townshend has always done things differently. In a newly resurfaced 1990 interview with Guitarist magazine, he sheds light on his change-making use of feedback. At the same time, Townshend takes the opportunity to point out that Jimi Hendrix wasn't doing anything with guitar that he and Eric Clapton hadn't already made part of their repertoires.

Townshend credits three factors for influencing his use of amplifier feedback during his early playing days. The most relevant force was the sheer volume of the British group's stage show, which was in part an effort to impress his art school peers.

“I'm afraid I was an arty little sod and I was actually experimenting,” he said when asked if his feedback shenanigans were calculated or a happy accident. “I was at art school, surrounded by real intellectuals, people that were experimenting all the time. I was greatly impressed by all this and wanted to please these people.

“A lot of it was posing, trying to drag something out of the band that it was resisting. As I got louder, [bassist] John Entwistle got louder by inventing the 4x12 speaker cabinet, which he did with somebody up at Marshall. Then I got a 4x12 cabinet and put it on a chair, so then he invented the 8x12 cabinet, to get louder than me, and I invented the stack by getting two 4x12s and stacking them up."

But there was more to it than a volume war. Townshend says it was also a way to drown out the loudmouths in their audience.

“Our experimentations were all to do with our irritation with the audience, who heckled if you played a rhythm-and-blues song that they didn't know," he says. "You'd get blokes in the back with their pints of beer shouting, 'What's all this rubbish? Play some Shane Fenton!' And we just got louder as a result."

The upside to it all is that Townshend and the Who became known as rock's loudest band, a label that served them well as bands moved from clubs to arenas to stadiums in the 1970s and '80s.

“It shows that radical experimentation really is worth pursuing," he says. "Because even though it might feel stupid and pretentious if you do discover something new, it's your property and you're identified with it forever.”

Townshend accepts he wasn’t the only player who found feedback worth embracing, although not all players can agree on who got there first. Some point out that John Lennon was perhaps the first to use it intentionally and creatively when he employed it on the opening of his 1964 Beatles song "I Feel Fine." But Townshend says the use of feedback was gaining popularity with bands as early as 1963, when Jeff Beck used it with the Tridents, two years before he joined the Yardbirds.

“Other people stumbled on feedback at the same time as me,” Townshend says. “Jeff Beck was using it when Roger [Daltrey] went to see the Tridents rehearsing.

“He said, 'There's a shit-hot guitar player down the road and he's making sounds like you.' Then later, when we supported the Kinks, Dave Davies was adamant: 'I invented it, it wasn't John Lennon and it wasn't you!' ”

But Townshend pours cold water on Davies’ claim.

“I believe it was something people were discovering all over London. These big amps that Marshall were turning out — you couldn't stop the guitars feeding back!”

The origin of using feedback as a tactful play is admittedly blurry. But one thing Davies and Townshend can agree on is how their use of it differed. Davies was more animalistic. Townshend’s art school background, meanwhile, saw him longing for a more musical application.

“On 'Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere,' during the solo, on the note A I would flick a harmonic, get it feeding back, and then go 'dit-dit-dit-dar-dar' with the switch. And by standing at certain angles I could get incredible sounds out of it, some of which were just characteristics of the Rickenbacker body, which I stuffed with paper.

"You could control it and it could be very musical,” he goes on. “Certainly that sort of thing where you hit an open A chord and then take your fingers off the strings... the A string is still banging away but you're hearing the finger-off harmonics in the feedback.

"Then the vibrating A starts to stimulate harmonics in other strings, and it's just an extraordinary sound, like an enormous plane. It's a wonderful, optimistic sound and that was something that happened because I was posing — I'd put my arms out, let go of the chord then find that the resulting noise was better.”

The interview also saw Townshend discussing Jimi Hendrix’s talents. His fellow feedback-loving guitarist Jeff Beck said Jimi's arrival on the scene nearly ended his career. While Townshend was impressed by his chops, he didn't find him to be an original when it came to his more blues-based guitar playing and some of his stage antics, which included destroying his instruments as Townshend had been doing for years.

“Hendrix was a great player,” he says, “but he wasn't really creative. He was dealing in other people's ideas, old blues things and tricks that were either borrowed from Eric Clapton or the pyrotechnic things that he had caught off watching me.

“He used to follow the band around, watching, and then he suddenly appeared on stage doing all this stuff. But it was something else that made it extraordinary. Talk to the women who came in contact with him — he literally enchanted them. He was a pretty unremarkable kind of gnarled-looking guy, but he was a real enchanter.”

Vox guitar amps and the Beatles' early years are as synonymous with one another as peanut butter and jelly.

In keeping with the group's gradual splintering during the late '60s, though – and simultaneous pursuit of more individual musical paths – the Fab Four experimented with a wider range of gear as the years went on.

As Paul McCartney told GP in a 1990 interview, though, his personal fondness for the Vox amps of the Beatles' early days never faded.

Asked by GP if he ever spent time at home toying with tones, Macca said, “I do that mainly in the studio, which is almost like home. I can go in and just goof, and sometimes I just work on guitar sounds. I can get a nice clean sound fairly easily.

“It's the pumped-up sounds that I like to experiment with,” McCartney continued, “I've got one of the old Vox AC30s that Jeff Beck used to call ‘the old Beatle bashers.’ I once asked him if he used them, and he said, ‘What? Those old Beatle bashers?’ Then he realized what he'd said [laughs].”

In the same interview, McCartney – typically pigeonholed as the Beatle most inclined to buttoned-up, more old school pop – expressed his personal preference for gnarlier rock tones, despite his reputation.

“I love the sound of them [Vox AC30s],” he said. “I actually love the straight sound. It's pokey. It's not too clean. I'm not a big fan of clean in rock and roll. It's funny, in a way, because I guess I've got a reputation for being a fairly clean rock and roller. But my taste doesn't extend that way.”

Just as so many guitarists were in the mid-1960s, McCartney – not to mention John Lennon and George Harrison – found himself influenced by the ferocious tones achieved by Eric Clapton in his work with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and Cream.

That aggression, in turn, influenced perhaps McCartney's finest guitar moment in the Beatles' catalog, his fiery guitar solo on the Harrison tune, Taxman.

“Turned on” – as he put it to GP in the same 1990 chat – after his exposure to the nascent British blues-rock scene, McCartney “went and bought an Epiphone. So then I could wind up with the Vox amp and get some nice feedback.”

It’s not uncommon for guitarists to chase the tones of vintage amps when it sculpting their signature creations.

When Orianthi teamed up with Orange to create her signature Oriverb 2x12 combo, her inspiration was nothing less than the best: Alexander Dumble’s amp collection. And with good reason: The Adelaide-born guitarist had personal experience with it.

“I had the honor of sitting with Alexander Dumble long ago when he was alive,” the Orianthi tells Guitarist. “I went to his home, plugged into all his amps, and he let me play the first amp that he ever made. I never forgot the sound of that amp.”

And she certainly wont now that it's part of her Oriverb's sonic fingerprint, along with other amps she's had to pleasure to use.

"It’s got a bit of the Dumble sound mixed with an old Marshall and a Fender Twin,” she says. “It’s got a sound that cuts through and has high-end when you bring up the mids and the treble. But ultimately it’s warm-sounding and well-rounded.”

Best known for her tenures as lead guitarist for Michael Jackson and Alice Cooper, the PRS signature artists says the new amplifier pays homage to her bluesy roots. And while she says some players have dismissed her amp as “just another Rockerverb combo,” she and Orange's Pat Foley spent a good deal of time making it the unique amp that it is.

“We went back and forth to dial it in,” she says. “We’ve changed a lot of things, from the speakers to the tubes to the reverb and the distortion. You can really push it like a vintage amp.”

Their experimentation, which lasted “a couple of years,” ultimately paired Celestion Neo Creamback speakers with EL34 valves as Orianthi looked to build on the “guts and clarity” of her Rockerverb.

Since the 1970s, Dumble amps have been favored by artists across the spectrum of rock and blues. When building his signature PRS amp head, Mark Tremonti had always craved a little Dumble magic for its dirt channel, while a “Fender Twin on steroids” was the aim for its clean tones.

Kenny Wayne Shepherd had 11 Dumbles built for him, believing “they elevated my playing and creativity. It freed up so much energy for me to express myself.”

Joe Bonamassa, meanwhile, spent 15 years tracking down Lowell George’s Dumble Super Overdrive, having originally sold his Dumble collection in 2014. He soon realized he couldn’t live without them.

For new PRS artist Keith Urban, he says he’s working on pickups with a “Dumble-esque range” for his signature guitar.

Grab a copy of Guitarist from Magazines Direct to read Orianthi’s interview in full. The issue also features chats with Steve Hill and Billy Morrison alongside its top gear picks of 2024.

In related news, Orange Amps has revealed why it won't enter the amp modeling market and explained why it doesn't want its products to be described as “retro”.

It’s been another bumper year for gear releases , but for Joe Bonamassa and Joe Perry, only two releases truly stand out.

In the retro corner, Gibson has reissued Jimmy Page's iconic EDS-1275 "Stairway to Heaven" double-neck and revived a forgotten '80s relic.

More forward-thinking releases have seen Fender offer trailblazing new designs for a number of its flagship electric guitars via the American Ultra II series. In addition, PRS has released its first-ever semihollow guitar, and John Mayer and Ernie Ball have teamed up for an unusual string set.

But for the two Joes, the latter camp holds the greater appeal.

Bonamassa says he’s kept returning to his Crazy Tube Circuits White Whale reverb pedal. In addition to emulating the spring reverb and tremolo effects of ‘60s Fender combo amps , the pedal re-creates the tube and output transformer saturation of those builds.

“It does a great job in front of any amp,” Bonamassa tells Guitar World. “It adds a killer authentic spring — there’s spring inside it — and a believable brown-amp circa ’62 Fender-style vibrato.”

The “hypnotic and mesmerizing” all-analog, real-spring reverb and tremolo pedal is actually a reprised version of a pedal the Greek pedal company first released several years beforehand. Key tweaks to its circuit have helped it shine second time around.

For Bonasmassa, it’s become a go-to pedal in the studio. “I’ve used it on many sessions and it has become a quiet MVP in the studio,” says Bonamassa.

Away from the studio, the bluesman has unveiled what he believes to be “the world’s most expensive three-channel live rig”. While it includes several of his recently purchased Dumble amps, he's left Lowell George’s Dumble Overdrive Special, which he bought back in the summer, at home.

Perry, meanwhile, has fallen in love with his Silktone Micronaut. The company, which started off producing guitar cables, is a relative newcomer to amp-building and introduced its eponymous debut model in 2019.

“They’re great amps to use with pedals," Perry says of his Micronaut, "meaning you can get them relatively clean to get the most out of your pedals. You can get it to crunch just by putting it to 10. I run mine at 2 o’clock."

Perry is so pleased he's recommending Silktone amps to other guitarists. “If you can get your hands on a Silktone, it’s a great piece for your arsenal," he says. "I did some recording with mine, and for what I was going for, it worked great.”

Perry, who is back in the studio after Aerosmith retired from touring, professes to be a stone-cold Gibson man but says the guitar that got away from him was a Fender Stratocaster, having revealed that much of Aerosmith's early recordings saw him playing Strats in the studio, preferring the variety it gave against Brad Whitford's Les Paul.

In the theme of lifting the lid on some of the band's best-kept recording secrets, he's also discussed the unusual technique that he used on 1980’s Let The Music Do The Talking, which essentially saw him concocting a make-shift seven-string guitar.

It’s currently unclear as to what guise Perry’s new recordings will take if/when they are released, but it's a safe bet another Bonamassa solo record is just around the corner. Either way, both guitarists have benefitted from giving new gear a chance – and it has paid them dividends.

I’ve been using the Fender Mustang Micro for years now and as far as headphones amps for guitar go, I still think it’s one of the best. Super portable, packed full of great tones, and easy to use, it’s now dirt cheap over in the Musician’s Friend Cyber Monday sale thanks to a cheeky $15 discount.

It can cover a lot of different styles with its combination of 12 amps and 12 effects, so whether you prefer cleaner tones, mid-gain crunch, or high-gain grind it’s got your back. So if you’re looking for a great Cyber Monday guitar deal on a practice amp I don’t think it gets much better than this.

I’ve played my Mustang Micro pretty much everywhere in my house whether that’s on the sofa, in bed, or the garden on a sunny day. Armed with your guitar and a pair of headphones you’ve got a travel-anywhere rig that’s perfect for impromptu songwriting sessions and practicing on the go. I love using it when I’ve got downtime on work trips, giving me great tones with a minimum of fuss or weight to carry.

There’s an excellent selection of sounds on board with EQ presets for fine-tuning the amp models giving you plenty of flexibility in your tones. With everything from the classic Fender clean sound through to 5150 tones, you can cover pretty much everything and anything with this ingenious bit of kit. I particularly enjoy the stereo delay effects, which sound fantastic through a pair of headphones.

Despite being relatively old, it has a USB-C connection which makes it well-suited for the modern world. You can charge it pretty much anywhere now and it’s also great for connecting to a smartphone to shoot videos of yourself playing. On my Pixel phone, it shows up as an external microphone and with a long USB-C cable you can make a nice content creation rig that doesn’t require loads of setup.

I've been using Universal Audio's UAD plug-ins for years, including a few of their guitar amp emulations. There's a good reason these have been the choice of professionals. UAD's plug-ins have had a transformative effect on my recordings, turning an average sounding guitar track into something that sounds like it came straight off a classic cut.

Right now, Universal Audio is giving guitarists a great opportunity to get in on the act by reducing the price of its Guitar Amp Bundle from $399 to just $99. That's a whopping 75% savings! And it runs on any computer, even without UA hardware.

While the Bundle is already a great deal, on Cyber Monday it gets even better. Buy the UAD Guitar Amp Bundle today — and only today — and you'll get UAD Spark free for one year, giving you an additional 50+ plug-ins.

First off, it should be stressed that you can run these plug-ins on any computer, whether you have UA hardware or not. Unlike some plug-ins, everything included in the Guitar Amp Bundle and Spark runs natively on your computer. There's nothing else to buy.

Second, you may be wondering just what Spark is. In short, it's an ever-evolving suite of plug-ins that model the vintage recording gear and instruments used by artists and producers. The emulations include a large range of channel strips for guitar, vocals and more, classic EQs and compressors found in major studios, tape-recorder emulations that add vintage warmth, as well as amps, keyboards, synths and more.

Spark operates as a subscription service that you pay for on a monthly or annual basis. But as part of UAD's Guitar Amp Bundle for Cyber Monday, you get an entire year's subscription to Spark — a $149.99 value — free!

The best part is that, whether you choose to continue with Spark after the year runs out, you'll still have three of the best amp emulations for keeps — and for the low price of just $99.

So what exactly is included the UAD Guitar Amp Bundle?

• UAD's Ruby '63 Top Boost Amplifier, delivering quintessential British valve amp tones beloved by bands from Queen to U2 to Radiohead, and including effects like overdrive, boost, vibrato, room ambience, and a collection of perfectly miked speaker cabs.

• The Dream '65 Reverb Amplifier is based on a 1965 U.S. tube reverb amp and offers bold cleans, sweet tube breakup, spring reverb and vibrato. This one also includes built-in boosts, famous amp mods, and a collection of miked speaker cabs.

• Lion '68 Super Lead Amp, a plug-in that delivers the sound of three distinct 100-watt Marshall "Plexi" amplifiers to provide you with the gorgeous cleans, aggressive breakup and hot-rodded roar of the originals. Here again, you get classic boost effects, room ambience and a collection of perfectly miked speaker cabs.

Honestly, this is a deal so good I'm getting in on it myself before it's gone.

Get everything you need to know about the UAD Guitar Amp Bundle and Spark, and buy it now during UAD's Cyber Monday deal.

And while you're there, be sure to check out Universal Audio's other plug-in deals.

We gave the Positive Grid Spark Go 5/5 when we reviewed it last year, with GP Editor Chris Scapelliti calling it "a pleasingly loud and toneful pint-sized version [of Positive Grid's original Spark smart-amp] that you can toss in a tote bag."

Since then, the Spark Go went on to become one of 2023’s hottest guitar mini amps and Smart speakers: perfect for practicing, for use on the road with headphones, and because of the range of tones you can access by connecting it with the Spark app on your phone and dialing into dozens of classic amp sounds and pedals. Right now, it’s $30 off.

I was so taken with Chris's review that I bought one too. My son was learning to play, and using his phone to look up guitar tabs online. Sometimes I'd check on him and using his phone to look for guitar tabs had become just using his phone. What better solution than get him a mini-amp that you control by an app?

The Spark lived up to its name: it ignited something.

But let me tell you about my first amp. Back then, in the mid-80s, it was thought of as small (though it was nowhere near as small as the Spark Go, which is literally smaller than my phone, though far chunkier). A friend of my parents had been in a country-folk band. He and his family were emigrating to New Zealand so he gave me his Marshall amp and speaker. Both were covered in white-leather. It was what you might call a 'cabaret stack'.

The speaker was tall and thin and the head could perch on top in a 'T' shape. It was 30W but it was loud: perfect, I guess, for the kind of small clubs and attentive audiences he'd been playing to.

Unfortunately, to my teenage eyes, and those of my bandmates, it was the least rock'n'roll thing we'd ever seen and it had to go. I swapped it for a couple of bass bins that we added to a PA. It's probably worth thousands today.

So I never had much luck with amps. Over the years, I played less and less electric guitar. As my family grew, so my gear got less and finally, the electric went into a wardrobe and there it sat until my son said he’d like to play. So I had a guitar, but I had no amp or effects pedals.

Unamplified, the electric guitar he held in his hands sounded nothing like the people he wanted to sound like ('classic alternative' like Nirvana and the Pixies, plus new riffs from bands like Arctic Monkeys). Enter the Spark Go. It turned a flat-sounding guitar into a world of sound. I would pass his room and hear him working out Come As You Are or the Arctic Monkeys Do I Wanna Know? and I found myself drawn in. ("Can I have a go?") With headphones on, he could practice until late and when he wasn't using it, I was.

The Spark Go was at the heart of this: portable, easy to use and far less embarrassing than a white leather cabaret stack. It is hours of fun. The app gives you a world of tone at your fingertips in a format he can understand – plus it gives you access to guitar lessons, including how to play famous songs, and backing tracks to play along with.

He went to university this year, and took it with him. So I got myself one. It sits next to my desk at home. When I have five minutes between meetings, I switch it on and have a play.

Check out the full Positive Grid sale here.

Shop more epic Black Friday deals

• Amazon: Guitar gear deals
• Fender store: 50% off guitars
• Guitar Center: Up to 50% off
• Musician's Friend: Up to 60% off sale
• Positive Grid: Save on Spark
• Sweetwater: Save up to 80% on gear
• Waves: Plugins just $19.99

Peavey’s Classic 20 combo has been called one of the great sleeper tube amps of the modern era. With two channels that delivers pristine clean and aggressive overdrive tones, a boost option on both and a lush-sounding digital reverb, the Classic 20 112 sounds great and has an attractive vintage vibe, making it an impressive working-class amp for performing guitarists. And now you can save $100 off the $999 price at Sweetwater during its Cyber Monday sales event.

Introduced in the 1970s, Peavey’s Classic series tube amps took inspiration from the celebrated amp designs of the ’50s and ’60s. Today the Classic amps have been around long enough to become classics in their own right, and the Classic 20 shows why.

Its two channels cover all the ground you need for rock, blues, jazz and more. Channel 1 is supremely clean, while channel 2’s gain rolls from overdrive crunch to sizzling distortion. Both channels have a foot-switched-controlled boost for even greater versatility. (And yes, the amp comes with a two-button foot switch.) And while the two channels share a single EQ section (bass, middle, treble), that won’t matter for players who like to dial in a clean tone, then up the ante with various levels of gain.

But where this amp really shines for modern players is in the extras. There is, of course, the lush-sounding digital reverb, which can be switched on and off with the two-button foot switch. But look around the back and you’ll find such niceties as a 1-/5-/20-watt attenuator switch that makes it perfect for stage, rehearsal and bedroom practice. There’s also USB and XLR outputs with Peavey’s Microphone Simulated Direct Interface emulation, a 1/8-inch headphone jack, a speaker defeat switch and a Ground Lift switch.

The Classic 20 houses a Peavey Sheffield 1230+ 12-inch speaker, but should you wish to add an external speaker cabinet, no problem. An 8-/16-ohm impedance switch is onboard for just that use.

In short, this is a great-sounding feature-packed tube combo — which is why it’s been around in one incarnation or another for roughly 50 years. With a vintage-style tweed cloth and an oxblood-color grille cloth, it makes a sharp-looking part of any player’s rig.

Plus, with $100 off at Sweetwater for Cyber Monday sale, it’s the perfect time to get yourself a versatile tube amp that works as well at home as it does at practice and onstage.

Joe Bonamassa’s gear obsession is so strong that his home, Nerdville, is a museum. So it’s no surprise his current live rig features some rare and valuable gear.

In a new Rig Exploration With American Musical Supply, the same outlet that had Steve Morse covering Jeff Beck with their house band, he reveals what's in his “amp shanty.”

“What we have here can probably be described as the world's most expensive three-channel amp,” he says.

“I've got an 11-piece band, including me, so I have to fit in between them. This whole frontline will really eat into the mid-bandwidth.”

Channel A pairs two 1987 Silver Marshall Jubilee heads with two custom-made blackface Fender Twin combo amps for a “straightforward rock” sound. The combos are fairly recent additions, but one of the Jubilees has been part of his rig for decades.

“I bought it at the Buffalo, New York, Musician's Flea Market in 1994 for $400,” he explains. “This guy's walking around the convention hall with this amp asking for $600. My father, who was a guitar dealer at the time, said 'That's' too much, offer him $400.'

“He walks it around again, another lap, and these things are heavy. He says 'Would you do $500?' I said 'No, my dad will only let me go to 400 bucks.' He comes back around about 20 minutes later, drops the amp in front of me and says, 'Gimme the $400.' And I've been using it ever since.”

Channel B pairs his Jubilees with two 50-watt Dumble Overdrive Special combos. They’re set to their Overdrive channels “as loud as they’ll go,” which is just past midway.

The Dumbles are from 1984 and 2003 and are hooked up to a Mesa/Boogie Revolver 1x12 rotary speaker cabinet. “It’s kept on mostly for a chorus solo tone that just spreads it out a little bit,” Bonamassa says. A fairly simple Boss RV-5 reverb pedal sits on one of the amps.

Bonamassa had sold his entire Dumble collection in 2014, but has gone on to buy eight since, three of which are out on the road with him.

The last of his Dumble trio is a 100-watt Super Overdrive Special head, paired with an original TC Electronic Chorus pedal for channel C.

“It’s set to what I can best describe as a Larry Carlton thing: clean channel, but driven,” the bluesman explains. “It's the most articulate that I get, to the point that the nights I suck, you don't hear it.”

Bonamassa switches between the channels with a 25-year-old Lehle box, similar to the one found on Mark Tremonti’s current Creed rig, with each serving “three different stages of midrange depending on the song”.

All three feed into a curious cabinet that looks like a 4x12 but is in fact two 2x12s split vertically and comprising four Electro-Voice EV12L speakers.

Asked if he likes the EV12Ls for their headroom, he responds: “Whatever the internet tells me to do, I tend to do the exact opposite.”

But with a degree of seriousness, he adds, “With Marshalls, especially high-gain preamp Marshalls like the '87 Silver Jubilee, I like the E-Vs because there's no coloration like Celestions.”

His pedalboard is a fairly simple set-up littered with classics. There’s a Boss DD- 2 digital delay, 1981 Ibanez Tube Screamer, MXR Micro Flanger, EHX Micro POG, and Fuzz Face.

Lastly, there's his special Cry Baby Wah, painted Lake Placid Blue for him by Fender, and his newly released Deep State overdrive, described as an “extremely good” Klon copy with a brighter midrange, which sits alongside an original Klon Centaur.

“As if it wasn’t bougie enough!” the guitarist adds with a laugh.

Guitar Player hasn’t crunched the numbers, but Bonamassa’s claim to the world's most expensive three-channel rig seems safe.

Before his current tour dates, the guitarist worked with Martin to reissue a “museum-grade” 1941 acoustic and has recently revealed to GP the one guitar he can't live without. He describes its tone as “dark and chewy,” but, incredibly, it isn't a Les Paul.

It’s only just come out, but Positive Grid has seen fit to give their super smart amp a $20 discount in their Black Friday sale. It’s not huge money off, but for an amp that packs in an incredible amount of features and sits on the cutting edge of tech, we think it’s one of the best Black Friday guitar deals we’ve seen so far.

Having been hands-on with the amp itself, we think it’s a brilliant choice no matter what style of music you play. Equally comfortable with metal and hard rock as it is with jazz and blues, the huge selection of tones and abundance of practice tools make it a must-have for home practice.

The sheer amount of tones available in the Spark 2 is really incredible, and they sound fantastic too. It’s brilliant at recreating that rich tube amp tone and giving you the feel of an amp on the edge of feeding back at a low volume. It sounds absolutely massive thanks to an increase in power to 50 Watts, and an upgrade to the FRFR speakers helps it deliver for both guitar and bass.

The stereo spread is really noticeable when you utilize delays and reverbs in your tones. The speakers have been angled slightly outwards versus the original Spark 40, which means you get some real multi-dimensional sounds when using stereo effects. You get a huge selection of overdrive and distortion pedals to add extra saturation, and there are plenty of modulation effects to let you build pretty much any sound you can imagine.

With the new looper function, PG has somehow managed to make it usable even if you don’t have a footswitch. Using just your smartphone, you can create endless complex loops, or just play a chord progression so you can try out some lead work over it. It is better with a footswitch - and the Spark Control X is available with a $20 discount in the sale - but it’s quite the achievement that it’s so usable without one. I really enjoyed the AI tone generator too, the results are mixed, but with the right input, you can create some really unique tones or ape the sounds of famous guitar players.

Boss’s Katana series amps have become favorites with guitarists looking for lightweight, durable and affordable amplifiers that offer the sound, feel and response of classic tube amps while delivering useful features like onboard tuners and effects.

The company's popular Katana-Mini put the best aspects of its big brothers into a compact, battery-powered mini amp designed for players of electric guitar, acoustic guitar and bass

Now comes the Katana-Mini X, the latest amp in the Boss series, providing the acclaimed Katana tones in a fun and inspiring amp for daily practice and jamming.

Katana-Mini X builds on the features of Katana-Mini with six versatile analog sound options, two simultaneous effects and a robust cabinet for a bigger and fuller guitar experience. Additional enhancements — including an onboard tuner, internal rechargeable battery and Bluetooth for streaming music from a smartphone — add convenience and greater utility.

Boss have equipped the Katana-Mini X with a multi-stage analog gain circuit that gives the amp an impressive level of detail and depth. Combined with the amp’s wood cabinet and custom five-inch speaker, the analog circuit delivers a full response and satisfying tone that belie the amp’s size.

In terms of tone, the Katana-Mini X has something for everyone. Boss’s Tube Logic replicates the tonal characteristics and feel of a tube amplifier to provide full-bodied sounds for every genre, including high-gain solo and tight metal rhythm tones imbued with saturation and harmonic complexity. The Katana-Mini X amps are all derived from the Katana series and include Clean, Crunch, and Brown, each of which is available with a tonal variation accessible from a panel switch. The variations include an uncolored clean sound that's ideal for use with acoustic-electric guitar or bass.

As an added convenience, you can also access those tones through the headphone jack, which boasts cabinet simulation and stereo effects.

The forward-facing front-panel controls include the familiar analog bass/mid/treble tone stack, and MOD/FX and REV/DLY that deliver a range of Boss effects while making fast sound tweaks possible via single-knob controls that adjust multiple parameters at once. Both sections can be used simultaneously, allowing guitarists to combine effects, such as tremolo and spring reverb, phaser and delay, and more.

The Boss Katana-Mini X will be available for purchase at authorized U.S. Boss retailers in December for $149.99. To learn more about the Katana-Mini X Guitar Amplifier, visit boss.info.

Amplifier rigs and guitarists’ attitudes toward them have come a long way since solid-state technology made an entry into the marketplace in the mid ’60s.

At the time, iffy reliability and even more disappointing tones from many products — including several by big names like Fender and Vox — confined solid-state technology to second-class citizenship pretty quickly, and the hybrid tube/solid-state creations that some makers introduced years later often suffered by association.

Today, however, countless guitarists have accepted the veracity of fully digital modeling rigs, and many get stellar results using pedalboard-based preamps into solid-state power amps.

So while a tube amp might still be the baseline for expressive, dynamic tone, droves of guitarists have dispensed with their preconceptions about how to achieve that tube-derived tone.

FUCHS’ PERSONAL QUEST

Enter Fuchs Audio Technology’s ODH Hybrid Tube/Solid-State Amp, a new take on the tube/solid-state hybrid amp. With it, acclaimed tube-amp designer and manufacturer Andy Fuchs has addressed many contemporary guitarists’ requirements for versatility and portability. And since Fuchs designed it to suit his own needs, it seems likely primed for broad acceptance.

“It started as a personal quest for my own rig,” Fuchs tells Guitar Player, “to make the smallest, lightest and loudest possible, at a minimal weight. I’m getting on in years and although I still love and appreciate those tubes, I’m now 66 and carrying around an 80 pound combo isn’t fun. I built my first hybrid into an ODS Classic mini combo shell, put in a neo speaker, and gigged it on and off since before the pandemic. It’s taken nearly 10 years to finally get it to market, but that’s because I took it apart dozens of times to tweak it.”

The result is a fully tube-powered, dual-12AX7 preamp stage based closely on Fuchs’ Dumble-inspired ODS model. It feeds a built-in Class D solid-state power amp sourced from Ice Power, capable of producing 300 watts into four ohms or 150 watts into eight ohms. Far more than a straightforward marriage of the two technologies, however, the ODH includes a boatload of features to add versatility and help the two worlds play nice together.

FRONT-LOADED

In a true D-style signal chain, the rhythm channel’s gain, high, mid and bass controls feed into a three-knob overdrive stage — in (OD gain), out (OD level) and tone — when the lead channel is engaged. For reverb, the ODH uses the same side-chain Spin semiconductor reverb circuit Fuchs has used on other amps for several years, with an internal trimmer for dwell. The master governs the overall output, and there are a trio of three-way mini-toggles that offer additional tone settings. The first selects between two EQ modes and a tone-stack-bypass boost. The amp also features accent and depth controls (on mini knobs to further tailor the tone), and the gain boost can be accessed via one of two buttons on the included foot switch. The other two mini toggles offer a choice of two mid-boost settings (it’s off in center position) and two different Brite settings (also off in center position).

In addition the front panel sports the single Input and buffered effects loop’s send and return jacks — Fuchs placed them on the front to keep them away from potential noise induced by the digital power module on the back. Here too are the 1/4-inch TRS foot-switch jack, and the buffered 1/4-inch line out with related three-way switch for amp mute, line mute or all on. Fuchs advises that the ODH can be operated in line-out mode with no speaker attached, but it’s best to switch to amp mute when doing so. Lastly, on the back panel are the on/off switch, AC power cable socket, and two speaker outputs wired in parallel for a total minimum impedance of four ohms.

It turns out that adapting the ODS preamp to the solid-state output stage didn’t require a whole lot of changes, although Fuchs did discover one ingredient essential to maintaining that “tube-amp feel” throughout the chain.

“The only real circuit changes from my prototype amp to the actual production amps is the addition of a real tube limiter,” he says. “I’m using a 6AL5, a fairly common FM radio and TV tube, which is basically a variable diode that I set to clip before the Ice module does, since you don’t really want any digital clipping and you have the potential to blow a speaker with the massive dynamics a tube preamp can produce into a power amp with so much power on tap and no limiter.

“The limiter is placed in the circuit before the master volume, so if you crank up clean or dirt levels, it kicks in. You can get actual nonlinear tube clipping from the preamp with the master down. It acts as a gentler limiter at normal gig levels, keeping you out of trouble, but letting you be as loud as you like. Then the power amp is really just being a delivery system.”

ON TEST

Tested with a Fender Telecaster and a Gibson ES-355 into a 2x12 cab with Celestion G12-65 speakers and a ported back, the ODH immediately impressed me with its ability to retain a tube-like playing feel at a range of volumes, with that authentically thick, rich D-style overdrive kicked in when desired. It’s a very musical, expressive lead tone that works with you the more you learn to work it — almost feeling more like a blown reed instrument or a throaty human voice than a guitar when you really start pushing it. Although this circuit is less known for its edge-of-breakup or crunchy classic-rock tones, they’re in there too if you look for them, mainly by dialing in the very effective In and Out controls in the OD section. And sure, most players will seek an amp like this for portable access to Robben Ford or John Mayer–like tones, but the variety will be a big plus for many.

The amp’s clean tones are also very good, especially for those seeking full-voiced, ultra-clean sonics or other overdrive textures with pedals injected at the front end, which the amp handles well. Although there was no all-tube Fuchs ODS or the like on hand for a direct A/B, I’d say the hybrid approach got pretty darn close to the overall sound and feel I recall from such amps, which are generally designed for a high-headroom output stages anyway.

With that in mind, I found Fuchs’ tube limiter into the solid-state “delivery system” acquitted itself very well. I do feel the amp could use some means of dialing down the volume even further, as once I’d set up the relative gain stages to achieve my favorite lead tones it was still difficult to get the master low enough for small-club output levels without tipping over the edge into silence. **(based on this comment/review, I’ll change the master volume taper on future units).

IN CONCLUSION

Other than the occasional challenge in finding the sweet spot for certain situations though, the Fuchs ODH is an impressive design and a quality build, resulting in a lightweight amp that’s still a real gig-worthy tone machine at a very approachable price. Add in other features like good reverb and a no-fuss FX loop, plus the ability to plug it into any mains power source around the world without monkeying with the transformer or even changing a setting, and the amp earns an Editors’ Pick Award for its achievements.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT fuchsaudiotechnology.com

PRICE $1,299 street

CHANNELS 2

CONTROLS Gain, High, Mid, Low; Overdrive In, Out, Tone; Reverb, Master; Boost mode Accent, Depth; three-way switches for EQ, Mid, Brite, Amp/Line Mute; internal trimmers for Gain, HFOD, Reverb Decay

POWER 300 watts at 4 ohms, 150 watts at 8 ohms

TUBES Two 12AX7 preamp tubes, one 6AL5 dual-diode (as pre-output-stage tube limiter)

EXTRAS Series FX Loop, onboard digital reverb, Line Out, foot-switch jack (two-button FS included), dual speaker outputs

WEIGHT 5 lbs

MADE IN USA

KUDOS A clever design yielding a great-sounding D-style amp that’s incredibly portable, and nicely priced

CONCERNS Might be tricky to achieve low enough output levels for some venues

It’s the most wonderful time of year if you’re on the hunt for cut-price guitar gear. While browsing sales pages in the run up to Black Friday can sometimes be underwhelming, there’s usually gold to be found if you know where to look. For us, Sweetwater’s early Black Friday sale has delivered the goods with up to $150 off a selection of Boss Katana amps, including the new Gen 3 models.

Nowadays, the Katana range is comprehensive. It made its debut in 2016 with the Katana 50 MK1, but now includes options for bassists, gigging musicians and at-home practice alike. This year saw the launch of Generation 3 models, but thankfully the range’s hallmarks are ever-present – the new amps are packed with Boss effects, incredible amp voices, and USB recording. We’ve also been treated to new features like Bluetooth capability, more dynamic response thanks to functions like Bloom, and even contour controls.

So, which are the amps to check out first in this sale?

Starting with Sweetwater’s biggest saving, the giggable Katana-210 has been reduced by $150, something for bassists to smile about. The thing we love about the 210 is its flexibility. There’s a remarkable number of tones you get from the three onboard amp voices, each with different tone shape variations. Throw in a 4-band EQ, contour switches and three different compressors and there is everything you need in one shell. Want to practice at home? No problem, the power control can knock the output down to 1 watt.

For guitarists, the options are even more plentiful. One of the standout deals for us is a $100 discount on the Katana-AIR EX, Boss’s flagship desktop amplifier. An improvement on the standard Katana-Air, the EX is a brilliant choice for players seeking a more mature tone. The wooden cabinet and larger 5-inch speakers give it a more traditional amp head appearance and provide a much cleaner sound. It’s also a lot of fun, as you can leave the guitar cable behind thanks to the included WL-T transmitter. With Bluetooth built-in, it’s incredibly versatile.

Lastly, it’s rare to see such a popular (and new) model reduced, but that’s exactly what Sweetwater is doing with the Katana 50 Gen 3, offering $30 off. This amp remains one of the best on the market, particularly for budget-conscious players. The new ‘Pushed’ amp voice provides a captivating edge-of-break-up tone that can elevate your sound. The Gen 3 is incredibly user-friendly, offering a much more dynamic response than its predecessors. Now Bluetooth-ready, it enhances versatility significantly, although the adapter is an optional extra. Whether you’re a beginner seeking a brilliant practice amp or an experienced player wanting to discover what the fuss is about, there’s no better time to explore it than while it’s on sale.

Keep your eyes trained on our Black Friday guitar deals page for even more gear bargains.

Shop more early Black Friday sales

• Guitar Center: Up to 40% off through 13 November
• Musician's Friend: It's the up to 50% off Holiday Kick-Off sale!
• Positive Grid: Massive Spark deals during Black November

How unique is the tone of a mighty Dumble amp? Just ask Mark Tremonti. The guitarist says his three Dumbles served as the model for his lead tone when he went on the road for Creed's reunion tour.

“I’m an amp fanatic; I’ve bought, sold, and traded a lot over the years and kept the best ones,” he says. “When I go on the road, I miss some of them, so I wanted to make an amp that does it all, and that’s the MT 100.”

The MT 100, of course, is his signature PRS amplifier. And versatility, he says, was crucial for it to meet his demands.

“It has a big high-gain channel that does the heavy Mesa/Boogie thing that I’ve always loved,” he explains. “It’s a great balance between the percussive heavy, high-gain rhythm stuff that I do and the lead at the same time.

“Sometimes you can get a great rhythm tone, but then your lead tone suffers. So I had to find that perfect balance between the two.”

While he talks up the amp’s “ high headroom, Fender Twin–on-steroids” clean channel, he says its dirt draws inspiration from Dumble amps.

“There’s a million Dumble clones out there. I’ve played almost all of them and own three,” the PRS signature artist says. “I love the expressiveness of those amps. So I took one of my favorites up to the factory and said, ‘Let’s not try to do a Dumble — let’s try to capture what it feels like when the pick hits the string on a Dumble, because that’s what I really love.’

“So we just tweaked and tweaked and tweaked until we came up with this overdrive channel, which, to me, is very inspiring.”

Over the years, Dumble amps have built a mystical reputation akin to Klon Centaur. The amps have been beloved by greats like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robben Ford, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Joe Bonamassa, and Tremonti believes their magic lies in their ability to bridge dirty, driven tones and crystalline cleans. As such, he’s had to double up on his MT 100s to achieve both sides of Dumble’s tonal coin.

“It’s a sound that blooms,” he says. “You can have that half-dirty thing, where you can dial the gain back and strum through a chord, and it can just be a little overdriven and sweet. So if you’re playing a clean, fingerpicked part, that middle channel is perfect.

“On this tour, it’s going to be two MT 100s, and they’re going to be dialed in the same way. For some reason, to me, that’s the best-sounding rig.”

As for his pedalboard, simplicity reigns supreme, with the guitarist saying, “I’m all about the big, straight-ahead meat-and-potatoes sound.”

“I usually set my delay consistently for the entire set; I don’t set it per song,” he reveals. “And then, on the floor, I’ll have a wah and an overdrive for leads, some kind of Uni-Vibe-style modulation pedal, and an octave pedal for any time I hit a big single-string riff and want it to jump out and be bigger.”

Pedals on his board include a Boss OctaveOC-5, a Mark Tremonti signature Morley wah, a Little Lehle AB box, and an Ibanez tube screamer.

Creed’s tour begins in Oklahoma City on November 2, with the spirit of his favorite Dumble amp living on in his twin MT 100 setup.

In related news, Tremonti’s Alter Bridge bandmate Myles Kennedy has revealed how an onstage disaster forced him to buy a PRS guitar he couldn't afford.

Jimmy Page used a number of combos and heads during his time with Led Zeppelin. They include his Marshall Plexi 1959SLP and the modified two-channel 1959 Supro Coronado 1690T combo that fuels the fury on Led Zeppelin’s 1968 debut album.

But as Page tells Guitar Player in the December 2024 issue, one amp stands above the rest for him. That’s his 1969 Marshall JMP Super Bass 100, Page’s principal amp for recording and live work from 1969, which he’d had heavily modified by amp tech and Unicord/Marshall man Tony Frank in the late ’60s. (Frank is often credited as being the inventor of the master volume control in the 1970s, as well.)

Page describes his original Super Bass as, “a really hot-wired Marshall, the main one that I would play all the way through my career. It was just the best amp that I’d ever had in my collection. And it was so roadworthy. It did all those Led Zeppelin tours, and all the recordings. It did flippin’ everything, y’know?”

Since the ’80s heyday of Soldano and Marshall Silver Jubilees, many of us likely think of a “hot-wired” Marshall as one that boasts more gain and onboard saturation — and perhaps even features diode clipping. What Page means by the term — or at least what Tony Frank’s mods would produce for him — is an appreciably cleaner amp than either a classic Super Bass or a Super Lead. It’s worth noting that in 1970, it was less common to mic guitar amps onstage, and monitor systems were still in their infancy as late as 1969. Page’s impetus then with the changes he wanted made to his Super Bass — including swapping out the stock EL34 power tubes for much cleaner 6550s — was to increase volume, clarity and dynamic range, choices that speak as much to his distinctive playing style as they do to the audio demands of the time.

Throw on your vinyl copy of Zeppelin’s 1977 dusky jewel Presence (you do own a vinyl copy of Presence, don’t you?). Listen to the glistening phased minor-chord slashes of “Achilles Last Stand,” the popping Leo Nocentelli–style funk stabs of the majestic “Royal Orleans” or the syncopated rockabilly double-stops of “Hots on for Nowhere.” Presence is a master class in the art of how to make “clean” sound “heavy.”

Page describes Presence as “the best example of the sound of my Marshall Super Bass, because it was an album we made in about three weeks, in Munich, Germany. So I wanted to work very efficiently, and that entire album is all Super Bass, along with mostly my Number One 1959 Les Paul.”

Both the Super Bass and Page’s Supro Coronado combo were the basis for new Page-approved amplifiers from Sundragon, the boutique amp company he founded in 2017 with former Marshall/Vox executive VP and Park Amps chief Mitch Colby, and noted producer and vintage gear collector/curator Perry Margouleff. It was Margouleff who, among other things, famously rescued Page’s long-missing 1960 Gibson Les Paul “Black Beauty” from obscurity back in 2014.

The resulting signed, limited-edition models — the Sundragon 12-inch combo and Super Dragon 100-watt head and 4x12 cabinet — not only passed what Page calls his own “acid test” for authenticity but also quickly sold out despite their hefty list price of $12,500 and $22,500, respectively. Adding to Page’s current enthusiasm is the imminent release of Sundragon’s brand-new Nymph, a more compact, low-wattage take on the Sundragon in a one-watt (switchable to ¼-watt) single eight-inch combo with two 12AX7s, which will be widely available in 2025

Pick up Guitar Player’s December 2024 issue, the last in the magazine’s 58-year history, to learn more.

Ten years ago, Joe Bonamassa did a surprising thing. His trio of Dumble guitar amps had been vital tools in sculpting his tone — along with Marshall and Van Weelden amplifiers — but he felt it was time to switch things up with his tube amps.

“Two years ago, I mothballed that whole cliché of the rig I’m most associated with,” he explained to Total Guitar in 2016. “The two Marshalls and the two Van Weeldens and the Dumbles and the effects board and everything.

“I sold all my Dumbles. I had three at one point and I sold them all. One I traded for a ’59 Les Paul, which I get way more joy from.”

Bonamassa filled the vacancies with a collection of Fender Tweeds, and that seemed to be the end of his lust for Dumbles.

Except for one.

For 15 years, Bonamassa had searched high and low for the Dumble Overdrive Special Reverb owned by Little Feat guitarist Lowell George. The amp hadn't been played since the night before George's death in June 1979, when he used it for a performance at Lisner Auditorium in Washington.

Bonamassa's search famously came to an end earlier this year when he found and purchased the coveted piece of gear, which he calls “the crown jewel” of his amp collection.

But as it turns out, the allure of Alexander Dumble’s creations had returned to him much sooner.

“I got into the Tweeds for a long time,” he tells The Zak Kuhn Show, “and I got tired of using too complicated of a rig to achieve the same result as plugging straight in.”

Bonamassa says he began buying Dumbles once again in 2020. “I repurchased a couple at that point,” he says. “I built this three-piece rig for when we were going to do those shows that could only have 25 percent of people.”

It didn’t long before he added more.

“I brought back the old amp shanty from years ago,” he continues, “and I plugged them all in — same wiring, same pedalboard, same everything. I said, ‘Man, I've been missing the boat.’ So they're back, and now I have eight of them.”

It’s a mystery why he ever sold them. After all, Bonamassa’s home, Nerdville, is so full of vintage gear that it can rightly be called a museum. It wouldn’t have been unusual for him to keep the Dumbles in his collection.

But as he explains, those amps represented “a lot of money sitting around.”

“It’s an expensive hobby,” the guitarist says, noting that the ’59 Les Paul he purchased with the funds from those Dumble sales more than justifies his decision.

And besides, he says with a sigh, “Collectors do weird things.”

Whatever the case, he has no regrets about his purchase of Lowell George’s amp head and matching cab. Watch for that “pretty special piece of rock and roll history” to be featured on his fall tour dates.

Bonamassa isn’t the only electric guitarist still stuck on Dumbles. Fellow blues guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd tells Total Guitar in its November 2024 issue he can’t live without the 11 amps Alexander Dumble custom-built for him.

“From the first amplifier to the last, they elevated my playing and creativity,” he says. “It freed up so much energy for me to express myself. I didn't realize how much energy I was using with my previous amplifiers to try and get them to do the things I wanted them to do.”

In related news, Joe Bonamassa has unveiled his 12th Epiphone signature guitar, with his latest Les Paul sporting a rare colorway and an unlikely pickup choice.

It’s fair to say that amp modelers are on the rise. Thanks to the success of Neural DSP’s game-changing Quad Cortex and Positive Grid’s Spark amps – and recently released Spark II – Fender has recently thrown its hat in the ring, and Marshall has hinted at its intentions to do likewise.

It’s no surprise to see big-name brands jump on the bandwagon and try their hand in a fast-rising market, but not every brand feels the same. British amp builder Orange, for instance, has no intention of jumping on the bandwagon.

Speaking on YouTube channel Lonely Rocker, Charlie Cooper, Orange's Marketing Director and the son of its founder Cliff, has distanced the firm from the modeling world and equally wants to shrug off any “retro” tags that people banner the company under.

“My dad's not a fan of Orange being called ‘retro,’ when someone thinks like, ‘Oh, you've got an Orange amp. Oh, that's so retro,’” he says. “Because I guess, from our perspective, it's not even tradition. It's what we know.”

And so Orange will stick to its expertise, believing it is in a stronger position as a result.

“We're not even going to pretend or try to dabble in digital amplifiers or digital modeling. Everyone else is essentially. They can do it better. We can't beat them at that. So we just keep evolving amplifier technology.”

That’s a world, the junior Cooper underlines, that’s ever-changing. Hence his father’s resistance to the retro tag.

“The thing that's consistent is the tubes,” he adds. “That's probably the oldest thing. But the design and how they're pushed changes, and how the circuit works changes.”

From Charlie Cooper’s standpoint, amp owners and modeler users represent two distinct and different demographics. His way of thinking isn’t unfounded either. It comes after a lengthy period of monitoring the market and its reaction to Orange’s OPC amplifier, described as a “musician’s personal computer.”

“I think it was 2010. I had officially joined Orange,” he explains of the OPC’s genesis. “I was showing everyone at the company, ‘Look, this modeling stuff can be really cool, and we can be part of it. We can accept that we can't do the software – we're way too late in the game. But we can do hardware around it and we can just do a cool computer.’

“Around that time, we partnered with IK Multimedia. They got a really good tone and nailed it,” he continues. “We're like, ‘This is great!’ And then, over time, it's been getting more and more convenient with modeling amplifiers that you don't even need the operating system or an iPhone or anything,” thus Orange’s short foray into the modeling world came to an end.

“But I kind of see it as different audiences. Now it's evolved to the point where it's not just a race to get the identical tone. The conversation has changed to be more about, ‘It's kind of convenient to get an idea of what all these different sounds sound like.’

“Sometimes you're just doing a small gig [and] you don't really care too much to lug a class A amplifier around with you. So now you’ve got these different ecosystems, and they're cohabiting.”

Ultimately he sees this coexistence and the separate audience streams as positive things for the industry. Indeed, many players will have tube amps and more compact digital modelers in their tone arsenals to call upon depending on different circumstances.

Just like the rise of MP3s, and later streaming services, had some industry experts and consumers ringing the death knell for CDs and vinyl, the two listening experiences have both proved successful in the contemporary market.

Although there are some overlaps, with amp-in-a-box pedals like Orange’s Terror Stamp offering tube-like tones without the need to carry big amps around. It’s been listed as one of GP’s favorite amp pedals and is itself part of a fairly dense market.

Still, with the amp and modeling worlds viewed as different beasts, Cooper says that early “concern in the industry [is] kind of not there anymore.”

And so Orange doesn’t feel it has to enter the modeling game to survive. Instead, it wants to stay ahead of the curve in the separate amp market stream and continue to make waves there rather than split its energy into streams

Ashdown has diversified its guitar amp range with the mid-priced SX series, giving classically styled valve amps a fresh, modern twist.

Dubbed by the Britsh amp builder as “cost-effective gems,” they combine ECC83 and EL34 tubes to “pay homage to vintage legends,” while adding modern features to make them more than nostalgic re-creations.

Thus the new SX collection, headlined by its 50-watt head, the SX-50H, melds together “classic elegance and modern innovation” thanks to a range of output options and an in-built digital reverb.

A five-watt offering is available in head and combo formats, with the 50-watt version a head exclusive. There are also Celestion 70/80 Speaker-bolstered 1x12, 2x12, and 4x12 partner guitar cabs tailored to work perfectly with its trio of new amps.

The SX-50H is powered by three EXCC83 and two EL34 tubes for a three-channel, footswitch-compatible amp. Its clean channel comes with dedicated bass and treble controls, while its two overdrive channels each have their own gain knobs.

There’s also a universal three-band EQ, and a digital Digilog by Belton reverb for “lush, immersive ambiance.”

The “pure valve-drive power” of these amps can be used with eight- and 16 Ohms cabs, “allowing you to experience rich, warm, and dynamic tones,” that remain “authentically classic” at all times.

It’s worth noting that the five-watt models are single channel-only and are powered by just one ECC83 and EL84. That same Celestion 12" 70/80 speaker sits in the combo, while a recording out socket simulates the response of a Celestion Alnico speaker.

The digital reverb and series effects loops are present across all three amps, with Ashdown placing a lot of time and energy into their connectivity to meet the needs of the gigging musician.

A standout feature found on all three amps can be found on the rear panel. A toggle Stage/Studio switch can reduce its output volume without damaging its tones… or not, if you want to rack up the decibels in a live environment.

Advancing their connectivity features, the SX-50H also has two recording out jacks, labeled Live and Dead for recording with the cab, or for silent recording directly into a DAW.

Ashdown may be best known for its innovations in the world of bass guitar amplification, but it has been strengthening its guitar amp roster in recent weeks. The SX follows the launch of its budget-friendly Killer Tone digital combo amps.

“Whether it’s huge British crunch or fully saturated American-styled tones, the SX Heads and Combo will not disappoint,” Ashdown says.

The five-watt head (SX-5H) is the cheapest option of the bunch at $617. This rises to $729 for the Celestion-packed combo. The SX-50H is priced at $839 with the sister cabs starting at $333.

Head to Ashdown to learn more.

Fender has given its much-praised Mustang Micro amp some key quality-of-life upgrades with the Fender Mustang Micro Plus.

The pocket-sized amp plugs directly into guitars and provides a host of tones and effects from the Mustang series modeling amps, and presumably its flagship floor modeler, the Fender Tone Master Pro, too.

These new upgrades increase its tonal diversity and improve its usability, which Fender has managed to do without hiking its price. The Mustang Micro Plus is available from $149, with its older brother currently going for around $99.

Its in-built bank of amp and effect models has more than doubled from 12 to 25 to give the gadget far greater milage. “Unparalleled customization,” Fender says, “allows players to experiment and tailor their sound for any genre or style.”

Now able to store 100 editable presets, with the Mustang Micro Plus coming with a score of factory-made presets as standard, drastic tone changes can easily be executed on the fly.

There are a variety of clean and dirty amps baked in, ranging from classic Fender amp cleans and twangs to full-boar distortions – Fender doesn’t want to limit its application.

A variety of overdrives, phasers, tremolos, reverbs, and delays – including mono and tape varieties – have also been squeezed in, and its heightened tweakability is bolstered by its compatibility with the Fender Tone app.

Available on iOS and Android, it offers a more intuitive way to sculpt tones and build the perfect rigs. Further still, the Fender Tone app allows for Bluetooth audio streaming with audio and video sync.

The app also allows presets to be stored if users take up its 100 save slots, as well as download and share yet more presets with the Fender community.

The user experience has been upgraded too, with the mini amp now featuring an OLED screen, and bestowed with an onboard chromatic tuner.

The same, albeit limited, parameter controls, EQ, and master volume controls return, meaning its operation will be familiar to Mustang Micro users, as is a headphone port for hearing what this small but powerful amp can do.

Away from the headphone experience, it can be connected to DAWs via USB, which Michael Ross found to be the best way of enjoying the Mustang Micro in his Guitar Player review.

“The latest evolution of our widely-acclaimed Mustang amplifier series represents a significant leap forward in both technology and user experience, offering unparalleled versatility and tone in an incredibly portable package,” enthuses Fender's Justin Norvell.

“The Mustang Micro Plus is designed to inspire musicians at every level, providing a powerful, intuitive, and accessible way to create and explore new sounds.”

The Fender Mustang Micro Plus is available now and is priced at $149.

Visit Fender to learn more.

French gearmaker Two Notes is best known for creating hardware that processes digital simulations of speaker cabinets and, more recently, full guitar amplifiers. But the company is also a long-time developer of software editors that maximize these units’ functions and their users’ abilities to create their own presets. So it makes sense that it has now put these capabilities together in Genome, a totally in-the-box modeling plug-in for use with the most popular DAWs in Mac and Windows. 

As Two Notes describes it, Genome is an “ecosystem” designed “to deliver the pinnacle in end-to-end tone shaping.” Being entirely plug-in based, it’s clearly designed for home and studio use, placing it on par with Line 6’s Helix Native, IK Multimedia’s AmpliTube, Native Instruments’ Guitar Rig, Positive Grid’s Bias FX 2, Waves’ Voltage, and several options from Neural DSP, Universal Audio and others. 

Part of what makes Genome more than a software-based amp modeler is that it can generate the amp portion of your tone in two ways. The first is via Tube Stage Modeling (TSM), Two Notes’ own relatively traditional approach to digital tube-amp emulation.

TSM amp models in Genome include Foundry (a.k.a. Fender), Albion (Marshall), Foxy (Vox), Nifty Fifty (Boogie-esque high-gain) and Peggy (an Ampeg sim for bass). Within each of these, the dedicated preamp circuits can be mixed with any output-stage available to the others, including both push-pull and single-ended 6L6, EL34, EL84 and KT88.

The second way to dial up an amp sound – or an effect, for that matter – involves the Codex Unification Engine, a piece of software within Genome that can host “captures” created by Two Notes or the third-party suppliers Neural Amp Modeler (NAM), Proteus and Aida-X.

Rather than a software model that digitally re-creates all stages of a classic amplifier, a capture is essentially a sonic imprint of the characteristics of an actual amplifier, which can then be adapted by its host to reproduce that sound. (Kemper, a pioneer in this tech, refers to these as “profiles.”)

The benefit is that you can, with the right capturing/profiling system, re-create the sound of any amplifier you have access to, or acquire a near-endless library from third- party suppliers. And since Codex is more than just a neutral host for amp captures, it lets you mix-and-match tone stacks and position them before or after the captures’ gain stages. It also provides a graphic EQ and Enhancer for considerable tone tweaking.

Genome includes an extensive suite of classic pedals that can be placed before or after the amp block. In addition, the DynIR Cab engine offers more than 700 cab models, with eight options for two mics per cab (with near-infinite positioning), as well as studio-style post-amp processing for dynamics, reverb, delay, stereo width, enhancement and other effects. 

Genome’s computer interface will largely be familiar to those who have used this type of software before. Even so, Two Notes has applied some thoughtful twists to the user experience and neatly tidied up the workflow in the process with a simple lane-based signal flow that makes it extremely easy to edit complete rigs and create presets.

Simply click on the relevant block in the lane at the top of the plug-in window to activate a pedal, amp, DynIR cab, or other processor; a visual rendering will fill the center of the screen, allowing analog-style controls for that block that you can adjust and save.

The process makes it extremely easy to set up relatively complicated signal chains, either series or parallel paths, and save them as user presets.

As for presets, Genome includes eight banks of 100 rigs per bank, with easy import and export functions for saving and recalling even more. Diving deeper into creative functions within the plug-in reveals nifty tools, such as selective parameter automation within your DAW when used as a plug-in to process recorded tracks.

For example, you can create an automated increase in the drive setting of a Tube Screamer pedal model for a particular guitar passage, or turn up the feedback on an analog delay pedal model in the song’s bridge. 

I tested Genome as a plug-in within Pro Tools on my Apple iMac, running a Gibson ES-355 and a Fender Telecaster through a Universal Audio Apollo Twin Duo’s Hi-Z input. After a few minor adjustments for optimal latency and oversampling settings, I found it ran smoothly, and was quick and easy to get up and running with. Sound quality and playing feel were excellent. 

Genome includes a plethora of factory presets to get you started. Some are generic, like Cali Cleans and Brit Pack, while others are along the lines of thinly veiled artist-based tones, like Ode to Angus, Note in a Bottle and Sandman. As with most capable modelers today, you get out of it what you put into it, and I believe most players will find themselves more at home and creatively rewarded once they have moved beyond these foundations to compose their own presets. 

And once you’re there, this thing flies! Genome is close to a sky’s-the-limit modeling environment, with sound quality that sits well among other leading systems on the market. The more you dive into its potential, the more it delivers.

In addition to Genome’s in-the-box capabilities, you can create hybrid rigs by connecting preamps and/or analog pedals to the front end and disabling the preamp block, or introducing traditional tube amps via Torpedo Captor X, Suhr Reactive Load, Mesa CabClone or another load box and disabling the amp block.

However you cut it, Genome is an Editors’ Pick Award winner given its price, ease of use and massive suite of high-quality features. It’s certain to turn up on countless guitarists’ workstations.

Specifications

• Contact two-notes.com
• Price $79 for direct download (free to Two notes hardware owners)
• Features Plug-in software featuring TSM amp modeling, DynIR cabinet sims, CODEX Unification Engine (capture processor/player), and pedal and studio effects sims
• Built Developed in France
• Formats All main plug-in formats, including VST3, AAX and AU 

Blackstar has added to its celebrated line-up of affordable combo amps with the Debut 30E.

Its feature-loaded Debut series launched in 2020 with the 10E and 15E, and the line's newest addition builds on that same successful template, albeit with a more powerful 30-wattage output.

The newcomer also features two amp channels, a Clean and an Overdrive, tweakable via a three-band EQ and controls for Gain and Volume.

The inbuilt tape echo also makes the jump across to the Debut line's newest addition, with its delay time adjustable on the amp's control panel.

Unlike its smaller counterparts, however, the Debut 30E is compatible with any of Blackstar’s two-button footswitch units, allowing users to change channels on the fly – especially useful for the gigging musician.

The catch, though, is that these are sold separately, and cost upwards of $49.99.

As is the standard for Blackstar amps, its patented ISF – Infinite Shape Feature – setting is also included. Turned to 10, a British flavor reigns, with an American setting – said to be “tighter, more focused, and percussive” than the British tones – coming out of the 30E's 1x10" custom-designed speaker when the dial is at zero. Sweet spots can be found anywhere in between.

The amp’s speaker can also be used as part of home entertainment systems, says Blackstar, for music playback, and improving film and gaming audio.

Other features include a series effects loop, line in, and headphone/emulated line outs for listening to music and silent practice and recording, respectively.

The 30-watt analog amplifier delivers a speaker-emulated output for “true Blackstar tones” crafted by the same R&D team in charge of concocting the firm's most high-end valve and tube amps. Their expertise has been stuffed into this much smaller and cheaper unit, priced at a humble $209.

“The features of the Debut 30E have been carefully selected to cover all the needs of an aspiring guitarist,” its creators say. “The Debut 30E delivers the ultimate playing experience for any guitarist wanting an easy-to-use amp that delivers great tone. Simple in use, dynamic in practice, and classically analog.”

The amp is available in two finishes – cream covering with oxblood fret, or black and ‘biscuit’ basketweave – and both are bestowed vintage aesthetic appointments.

The Blackstar Debut 30E costs $209, and is available now.

Head over to Blackstar for the full lowdown.