GGE Review NY Amp Show 2008

New York Amp Show 2008

Produced by Loni Specter

Saturday, May 10th, 2008

Last week I was in New Jersey on business and I extended my visit to attend Loni Specter’s New York Amp Show. This was the 2nd annual NY Amp Show that took place at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Piscataway, NJ. Loni also produces an LA Amp show later in the year that I have attended twice now.

If you have never attended one of these events, you are missing out on a very unique exhibition. Aside from a strict focus on guitar amps and related topics (tubes, amp building, drive pedals, accessories, etc..), the exhibition is truly unique and a whole lotta fun! Basically, boutique and mainstream amp builders load in their line of guitar amps into hotel rooms on the first and second floor of the hotel. Guests (mostly guitar geeks) can then cruise the hallways to check out all the action.

A great thing about this set up is that you can bring your own guitar, walk into any room, plug in and play! If you ever wanted to test drive all the latest boutique guitar amps in one place, this is the gig.

My favorite part about this whole thing is that the amp designers are usually there with their inventions. You get a chance to meet with these amp designers, ask questions and learn about their approach to the almighty guitar amp. It’s really very cool.

Aside from that, there is some amazing guitar playing going on too. Hot players of all genres are in the rooms either testing out amps on their own or have been invited by the amp builder to show off their stuff. I saw some great playing that day which both inspired and motivated me to practice!

The opportunity to hear these amps in this environment is pretty cool. There is NO restriction on volume so players could really heat up the room if they wanted. I also loved meeting the builders and hearing what they are excited about these days. It is truly a unique experience and I commend Loni for his efforts. Job well done!

There were a few pedal builders there to like Mike Piera from AnalogMan as well as reps from Love Pedals. Andy Fuchs was also displaying his new line of Plush pedals that were very nice.

There were about 50 vendors. Most of them were boutique and unique. Included were 65 Amps, AnalogMan, Ark Amps, Atomic Amps, AXL, Behringer, Blackstar, Bit-Mo, Bludotone Amps, Bogner, Brookwood Leather, Brown Note Amps, Burgera, daab Amps, Cameron Amplification, DST Engineering, Creation Audio Labs, Club Amps, Doug's Tubes, Egnater Amps. Fane, Fender, Fractal Audio, Fuchs Amplifiers, GZ Guitar Finishes, Goodsell Amps, GoodTone Amplifiers, Guitar Jam Daily, Hermida Audio, Industrial Amps, Jensen Speakers, Line-6, Louis Electric, Mad Professor Amplification, Metro Amps, Mojo Cabs, Peavey, Pigtronix, Port City Amps, Red Iron Amps, Reason Amplifier, Reinhardt Amplification, Retro King Amps, RWS Effects, Solid Cables, Sommatone Amps, Standback, Tone Junkies, Tone Shop, VVT Amplifiers and Valvetech Amps.

I didn’t see all of them but below are a few amps that really caught my attention.

Bludotone Amps

These amps blue me away. I’m a huge “Dumble style” fan and I love to hear what these builders are creating to either reach or exceed the classic Dumble tone. This was the first time I heard the Bludotone amp. They are a small “all” custom made guitar amp shop located in Littleton, Colorado. In the room were Scott Lerner with his personal rig and Bludotone amp as well as this blue amp (shown), which was awesome. I played through it for about 20 min and you can immediately tell how well made and articulate this amp is. It has wonderful touch response, a very complex tone, a diverse timbre and it was absolute joy to play.

The builder, Brandon, was there smiling and very proud. The room was filled all day with players and listeners. I went to the website and couldn’t get in. They seem to be having trouble. But, there is plenty of commentary on The Gear Page if you search a bit. In the picture is Mitch Farber playing...just a phenomenal player!

Website: www.bludotone.com

Contact: Brandon

Brown Note amps continue to gain notoriety in the boutique amp world. Simply stated, these amps have great tone, are incredibly articulate and possess smooth warm tones. I think everything about these amps leans towards perfection! My current favorite is the D’Lite 22/33 which seems to reveal a lot more harmonic overtones than it’s big brother the Bluesmaster D’Lite44. Also in the rooms was the little Voxy18 which was just blowing everyone away.

Moss and Norm are the creators of these great little amps. Brown Note is on a mission to bring legendary tone to the professional and aspiring guitarist. There continues to be a great buzz in the industry about Brown Note amps. In the room this year supporting Brown Note was Chuck D’Aloia and John Gentry Jr. who are just superb players.

Website: www.brownnote.net

Contact: Moss or Norm

I spent some time with amp designer and builder Daniel Klein at Port City Amplification. If you haven’t played through a Port City amp yet, you should make this your mission! These are very well thought out amps with smart options and a few unique twists. I played through two amps at the show and in my opinion they simply sound great! Very warm, very powerful and articulate.

One amp in particular that impressed me was the Dual Fifty amp. As Daniel states “this amp is two amps in one box and is perfect for pedals” which I agree. The amp is based on an old Blackface Bassman A165 circuit. The channels are isolated giving two distinct voices. Different from the original, they used a tube rectifier as opposed to solid-state in the original circuit giving the amp more dynamic, compression and harmonic texture. The first channel is set for super clean (pedal mode with tube dynamics) and the second channel (Thick Channel) is more like a high-powered 18w character voicing. I plugged into a BB Preamp by Xotic Effects (which I love anyway) and then into the first channel. I know the BB Preamp well and through this amp there were more harmonics and character that really sound fantastic. The second channel….is just sweet! It’s very rich, silky and very musical to my ear.

These guys are in North Carolina but have distributors all around the country so I would definitely seek them out.

Website: www.portcityamps.com

Contact: Daniel Klein

Andy Fuchs continues to be a shining star in the boutique amp industry. Stemming from his very successful Overdrive Supreme guitar amp, he has expanded his range of amps from “Dumble” style to super heavy metal to California clean. All of his amps are well made, thought out and full of Fuchs recognizable tone. My favorite is the ODS which is a superbly designed guitar amp. It is a rich sounding amp with warm tones and cutting articulation that can be very unforgiving but inspiring.

The new Clean Machine is an all-tube clean amp that was designed specifically to work with overdrive pedal. Andy is now also making his own line of pedals call PLUSH to meet the demanding market. From what I can tell, they take on the same Fuchs character as his amps. If you get a chance, try them out. You wont’ be disappointed

Website: www.fuchsaudiotechnology.com and www.fuchsaudiotechnology.com/plush.htm

Contact: Andy Fuchs

Dan Boul and Peter Stroud have create a great line of high quality and as they put it “road worthy” amplifiers. Although Dan was feeling a little under the weather at the show, he had a nice line up of some of my favorite 65 amps. These take on some of the classic flavors but are built with modern ideas and integrity. I love the 2-10” cabinet they build. These are some of the best sound 10” speakers I’ve heard. The 18-watt London is still my favorite with its classic tone and character. There is nothing like a dual EL84 amp but this one really strikes a chord with my ear. The 22w Monterey with dual 6V6 tubes is also another one of my favorites. All these amps are also hand-wired and custom voiced to please.

Website: www.65amps.com

Contact: Dan Boul

hen….there is Mad Professor Amplifiers. Amp designer (the Mad professor himself) Bjorn Juhl is an accomplished guitarist, designer, and now amp wizard and pedal guru. These amps are gaining popularity in the US and for good reason…..TONE!

I read on their website that much attention has been paid to reduce the compression normally found in tube amplifiers as while compression is often very nice it is hard to remove once in the circuit. The Mad Professor amp was designed to be extremely dynamic as that is a very important feature in a tube amplifier. The MP therefore has a very big power supply for an amp in this power range and the reserve power allows 40 W defined as clean output, while producing 75 W full power distorted output, square wave at high slew rate.

You can get natural tube compression from MP by turning up the Master Volume to about two o’clock or more, and if you need to lower the volume use the Powersuck. Higher settings on the Boost control also increase power-amp compression. I didn’t get a chance to play through this amp yet but from what I heard, it is a very sweet sounding amp.

Website: www.mpamp.com

Contact: US Dealer - Eero Kilpi - eero@mpamp.com (914) 316-2414

In addition to the guitar amp exhibition, two events were hosted. The first was the “Tone Wizards” panel discussion which is always interesting and engaging. There was also an "AMP BIASING CLINIC" that was presented by Norm Mathews of GoodTone Amps. There was also a room for "THE PEDAL BOARD FROM HELL" demonstration. Basically, a working “double-wide” Pedaltrain board with 34 pedals was built for the show using Solid Cables. Anyone and everyone could plug in and demo the gear.

Other amp builders that caught my attention were Sammatone who’s amps sound ideal for slide guitar, Club Amplifiers which always seem to be little monsters of tone and of course Reinhardt Amp which are always screaming!

Finally, I want to congratulate Loni for his success on these shows. They are well worth his efforts (in my selfish opinion) and we all appreciate it! For more information on the show itself, check out Amp Show website here: www.ampshow.com.

Click HERE for more pics of the NY amp Show.