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You probably know them for their cabs, but Port City has been making amps for a little while now. I was introduced to Port City amps when browsing through used gear at Guitar Center. I saw a Pearl head sitting cool on top of a slick looking oversized 1x12. Its look was intriguing so I plugged into it with a Mexican HSS strat. The volume was very low and the cleans were kind of good but nothing impressive. I played with the knobs a bit and then realized that the amp was totally clean. I figured I'd give it a little volume to see how much it breaks up. At first I was playing at a volume suitable for late night recording at home. Then I turned the volume up just a little bit more than that and the cleans started to come alive a bit. I wasn't sure what it was that grabbed me, but I knew there was something special about that amp.
I pulled a salesman over so I could have an excuse to crank it up to see how much breakup it could get. I never got it cranked near full volume, but loud enough for a small venue and it remained clean like a 100w Hiwatt. Come to think of it, I felt the same electric charge when I first played a Hiwatt. I just knew there was something really cool about it. The Pearl is different from Hiwatt sounds though. It has a dual 6L6 power section with a tube rectifier. It sounds absolutely beautiful and with a feel that would make Fender affectionados pause for consideration. Turn it up loud enough to play to a recorded accompaniment in a small coffee shop and there you have some of the most beautiful clean sounds out there.
It seemed slightly thin at first, but then I realized that I wasn't hearing the familiar midrange of EL34 tubes. Once my ears adjusted a bit, it wasn't thin at all. In fact, the EQ is so good that you can pull the mids back and balance it out or fatten it up by feeding it more mids. The EQ controls are very effective. Every control of the amp worked exactly the way you would want it to. When you play one, you will know that you're not dealing with some average quality amp. You will know that whoever is building them does not compromise on quality at all.
While I was sitting there trying to understand why the amp was priced at $1500 used, I got on my phone and looked up some info. People raved about the Pearl, but I wasn't getting it. It obviously had an amazing clean channel, if you fed it just a little volume (their amps have fantastic master volumes by the way), but I just wasn't getting the hype. It was a very simple amp - nothing but a single clean channel with basic 3 band EQ and volume. No FX loop or anything.
I then went up to the pedal display and got them to let me demo a few pedals. I tried a good old Maxon OD808, Xotic BB Plus, and a GNI Xtreme Distortion (all pedals that I use at home). Right off the bat, the OD808 sounded phenomenal. Oh man, switched over to neck position and freaking soloed all day. Next was the BB Plus which is capable of quite a bit more overdrive, but much trickier to dial in. It took me a little while to find just the right amount of gain and other settings but boy did I stumble upon some holy grail kind of tone. If Andy Timmons was walking around the store and heard it, he would have come up to me and said "man you're playing is amateur but I want to know how you're getting your tone." Freaking sweet overdrive.
At that point, I was starting to get it, but I had to see just how capable the Pearl was. In comes the GNI Xtreme Distortion. Given the name "Xtreme Distortion," that pedal actually produces fantastic, warm overdrive and distortion sounds. There is one mode which gives up the scooped goods. First I trie the first two modes and got all kinds of great, great sounds from classic rock to 80's rock and metal, to thrash. Then I flipped the switch to the scooped mode and whew! I was thrashing with thunderous low end. By the way, the 1x12 cab freaking rocks!
After that, I went back to classic distortion mode and adjusted the EQ a bit on the amp to give it a little more bass, raised the treble, and scooped out 3/4 of the mids. A little more fine adjustment from there and boom, there it was. I was thrashing with very, very respectable metal tone.
At this point, I was getting it. However, the last test was to put some FX pedals in there. I'm a minimalist so I stick to basically delay, chorus and flanger mostly. I put those 3 FX pedals in my chain with the BB Plus overdrive and used good quality connector cables. Clicked on the delay and overdrive and magic arpeggios flowed out of the cab like a cascading waterfall of gorgeous tone. Then I went and clicked on the EVH flanger too in order to see how it handled two FX + overdrive and it proved that there is no need for an FX loop.
Since then, I began to turn around my thinking about tone and what I want to hear when I play through an amp. I used to be a high gain channel switcher guy, and still love all those amps, but the amazing things you can do with such a capable clean amp is just outstanding. My XTC 101B does a hell of a lot, but no matter what you plug into it, you're still going to sound like you're playing through a 101B. A really good clean amp that it built to be a pedal platform (+ stand alone clean amp like the Pear of course) + a variety of overdrives and distortions can give you a wide array of very different sounding tones. The Pearl has such a great tone and feel that makes you want it for a clean amp even if you rarely play anything clean. That's how good it is. However, when they say that it's a pedal platform, I'm 100% convinced that it's one of the absolute best out there.
AS A BONUS: I can also tell you a bit about a little monster 12w amp called the Port City Twelve. All of the great things the Pearl Offers, the Twelve does at lower volumes with a lot of class. It takes pedals equally well. It's very clean overall, but gives up some of the most beautiful 6V6 breakup you will ever hear. I never though a lot of extremely simple amps like the Twelve. It only has a volume and a tone knob, and a mini toggle that switches from regular to "thick." It sounded to me like the thick switch didn't have an extreme effect at all. In fact, it's probably just enough difference to thicken up single coils or something. It seemed to add slightly more grit with moderate volume levels which is very cool.
I played the crap out of a Twelve a few days ago and put it through a similar test with pedals and it shined. For 12 watts, it's definitely gigable. You won't be playing large venues without micing it up to a PA, but it can be a pretty powerful amp. I don't know this for a fact, but judging by how good the master volume works, it seems like they designed it to produce ideal sound at any volume level. This amp has a truly classic sound, but very clear and pretty tight so with the right pedals, it really can go into lower wattage thrash territory. I don't know how to convey this any better than that it's just such a great sounding amp that it really puts some more expensive boutique amps to shame.
Well I hope you guys enjoyed my Port City amps reviews. I would like some people to go out and give them a go and report back to this thread. I would literally be surprised if anyone had anything remotely negative to say about them. My whole approach to tone has changed in the last few months and although I'm keeping my 101B, I have made the switch to Port City from all of my other amps. I hope to post some quality audio samples in the next couple of months. I'll keep you posted. Meanwhile, I'd love to hear some Port City amp owners chime in.
I pulled a salesman over so I could have an excuse to crank it up to see how much breakup it could get. I never got it cranked near full volume, but loud enough for a small venue and it remained clean like a 100w Hiwatt. Come to think of it, I felt the same electric charge when I first played a Hiwatt. I just knew there was something really cool about it. The Pearl is different from Hiwatt sounds though. It has a dual 6L6 power section with a tube rectifier. It sounds absolutely beautiful and with a feel that would make Fender affectionados pause for consideration. Turn it up loud enough to play to a recorded accompaniment in a small coffee shop and there you have some of the most beautiful clean sounds out there.
It seemed slightly thin at first, but then I realized that I wasn't hearing the familiar midrange of EL34 tubes. Once my ears adjusted a bit, it wasn't thin at all. In fact, the EQ is so good that you can pull the mids back and balance it out or fatten it up by feeding it more mids. The EQ controls are very effective. Every control of the amp worked exactly the way you would want it to. When you play one, you will know that you're not dealing with some average quality amp. You will know that whoever is building them does not compromise on quality at all.
While I was sitting there trying to understand why the amp was priced at $1500 used, I got on my phone and looked up some info. People raved about the Pearl, but I wasn't getting it. It obviously had an amazing clean channel, if you fed it just a little volume (their amps have fantastic master volumes by the way), but I just wasn't getting the hype. It was a very simple amp - nothing but a single clean channel with basic 3 band EQ and volume. No FX loop or anything.
I then went up to the pedal display and got them to let me demo a few pedals. I tried a good old Maxon OD808, Xotic BB Plus, and a GNI Xtreme Distortion (all pedals that I use at home). Right off the bat, the OD808 sounded phenomenal. Oh man, switched over to neck position and freaking soloed all day. Next was the BB Plus which is capable of quite a bit more overdrive, but much trickier to dial in. It took me a little while to find just the right amount of gain and other settings but boy did I stumble upon some holy grail kind of tone. If Andy Timmons was walking around the store and heard it, he would have come up to me and said "man you're playing is amateur but I want to know how you're getting your tone." Freaking sweet overdrive.
At that point, I was starting to get it, but I had to see just how capable the Pearl was. In comes the GNI Xtreme Distortion. Given the name "Xtreme Distortion," that pedal actually produces fantastic, warm overdrive and distortion sounds. There is one mode which gives up the scooped goods. First I trie the first two modes and got all kinds of great, great sounds from classic rock to 80's rock and metal, to thrash. Then I flipped the switch to the scooped mode and whew! I was thrashing with thunderous low end. By the way, the 1x12 cab freaking rocks!
After that, I went back to classic distortion mode and adjusted the EQ a bit on the amp to give it a little more bass, raised the treble, and scooped out 3/4 of the mids. A little more fine adjustment from there and boom, there it was. I was thrashing with very, very respectable metal tone.
At this point, I was getting it. However, the last test was to put some FX pedals in there. I'm a minimalist so I stick to basically delay, chorus and flanger mostly. I put those 3 FX pedals in my chain with the BB Plus overdrive and used good quality connector cables. Clicked on the delay and overdrive and magic arpeggios flowed out of the cab like a cascading waterfall of gorgeous tone. Then I went and clicked on the EVH flanger too in order to see how it handled two FX + overdrive and it proved that there is no need for an FX loop.
Since then, I began to turn around my thinking about tone and what I want to hear when I play through an amp. I used to be a high gain channel switcher guy, and still love all those amps, but the amazing things you can do with such a capable clean amp is just outstanding. My XTC 101B does a hell of a lot, but no matter what you plug into it, you're still going to sound like you're playing through a 101B. A really good clean amp that it built to be a pedal platform (+ stand alone clean amp like the Pear of course) + a variety of overdrives and distortions can give you a wide array of very different sounding tones. The Pearl has such a great tone and feel that makes you want it for a clean amp even if you rarely play anything clean. That's how good it is. However, when they say that it's a pedal platform, I'm 100% convinced that it's one of the absolute best out there.
AS A BONUS: I can also tell you a bit about a little monster 12w amp called the Port City Twelve. All of the great things the Pearl Offers, the Twelve does at lower volumes with a lot of class. It takes pedals equally well. It's very clean overall, but gives up some of the most beautiful 6V6 breakup you will ever hear. I never though a lot of extremely simple amps like the Twelve. It only has a volume and a tone knob, and a mini toggle that switches from regular to "thick." It sounded to me like the thick switch didn't have an extreme effect at all. In fact, it's probably just enough difference to thicken up single coils or something. It seemed to add slightly more grit with moderate volume levels which is very cool.
I played the crap out of a Twelve a few days ago and put it through a similar test with pedals and it shined. For 12 watts, it's definitely gigable. You won't be playing large venues without micing it up to a PA, but it can be a pretty powerful amp. I don't know this for a fact, but judging by how good the master volume works, it seems like they designed it to produce ideal sound at any volume level. This amp has a truly classic sound, but very clear and pretty tight so with the right pedals, it really can go into lower wattage thrash territory. I don't know how to convey this any better than that it's just such a great sounding amp that it really puts some more expensive boutique amps to shame.
Well I hope you guys enjoyed my Port City amps reviews. I would like some people to go out and give them a go and report back to this thread. I would literally be surprised if anyone had anything remotely negative to say about them. My whole approach to tone has changed in the last few months and although I'm keeping my 101B, I have made the switch to Port City from all of my other amps. I hope to post some quality audio samples in the next couple of months. I'll keep you posted. Meanwhile, I'd love to hear some Port City amp owners chime in.
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