When complete, the amp has a 12AX7 preamp valve and a 6V6 power tube. The front panel has: guitar input, tone, volume, master volume, neon, standby switch, power on switch. On the rear there is: 240V mains socket, 8 ohm and 16 ohm speaker output, headphone output.
The chassis is folded aluminium with the transformers mounted through the top and the two valves also top mounted. A base plate and stick-on rubber feet are also provided to turn the chassis into a safe, fully enclosing box.
Sound Quality:
For an amp with only three controls this little box has more versatility than one may first expect. Keeping the tone, volume and master volume set between 4 and 6 the amp produces a clean sound that is both crisp and warm. For me, it brings to mind the sound of a blackface fender amp. This tone works really well with my strat. Every nuance of my playing is fed to the speaker.
Turning the tone down below 2 takes enough edge off the tone to give a warm round tone suitable for low volume jazz. Turn the tone up above 7 while the volume is set low and you get enough treble to slice through anything. Learning how the tone and volume controls interact is the key to using this amp. If the tone is set higher that the volume, the treble starts to stand out. Don¿¿¿t get me wrong this is not a criticism. I love simple single knob tone control. It is very easy to set and usable across it¿¿¿s entire range of 0 to 10.
Now hears were this amp shows it¿¿¿s muscle. If you leave the master volume set below 7 then turn the volume up above 7, preamp distortion appears. It¿¿¿s the type of distortion comes in and out smoothly relative to your pick attack. The distortion affects the upper mids and so, allows chord voicing without completely breaking up harmonies, nice. If you turn the volume back to 6 and now wind up the master volume, power amp distortion comes in. This is more compression than distortion. It¿¿¿s solid and fat, without the fizz of the preamp distortion. Of course you can blend the pre and power amp distortion to your own requirement, very neat. For me this amp produces all the low gain tones I look for in a great blues amp.
Don¿¿¿t be fooled by the 5W power rating. When is thing is putting out power amp distortion it is way too loud for bedroom use. However, the headphone socket, which is taken from the output transformer, does offer the possibility of sampling power amp distortion at a lower volume level.
Reliability/Durability:
If you do a good job of building this amp it should last as long as an original 1950¿¿¿s hand wired amp.
Ease of Use:
Customer Support:
Excellent. Any problems, you can contact the amps designer directly. Geoff replies quickly and makes you feel he is genuinely interested in your build.
As this is a new model in the range, the paper work was not completely up-together. This did not cause any big problems I could not sort out myself. If necessary, I feel sure Geoff would have quickly clarified any confusing paperwork.
Overall Rating:
This is a nice quality product at a reasonable price. It has been carefully designed based on some classic valve amp circuits. However, this amp is not just a clone. The preamp stage may be similar to that found in a JTM45 or Tweed Deluxe. The tone circuit may be based on a Fender Tweed amp and, the cathode-biased 6V6 circuit may be very similar to that found in a 1950¿¿¿s Fender Champ. However, certain resistor and capacitor values have been adjusted to make these individual elements interact together very well. I¿¿¿m very surprised just how classy this little 5W amp sounds. It¿¿¿s definitely going to be my main practice amp.
