Hot _Grits
Buttery Toneologist
My friend had a combined shipment come in today so I hurried over to try everything before some of it flew out the door to preorders.
First up, the two new 65 amps:
The 'lil Elvis combo with a G12H30 was the first thing I plugged into. I can see this becoming a big fave of anyone going after voxy tone in a low volume package. It's supposedly based off a design that Vox never made, and it's certainly in that camp tonally, brighter than the non-top boost kind of tone that the London's ef86 channel gets, though you can get quite close to London territory if you ratchet back the tone knob.
Pushed to breakup the lil Elvis has a cool old school Voxy raunch that isn't as tight and glassy as many modern Vox-derived amps. A more medium gain, old school sound than a small badcat or the Night train. All in all a killer little amp with fantastic cleans and low-medium drive tones, all at a very polite volume. Ideal for modern low volume stage requirements, as well as studio and home. Interestingly it has more clean headroom than the higher wattage london...
The Stone Pony (low wattage head version) is really neat, a genuine new sound. It's the SoHo bump front end with 7591s in the power section, a tip of the hat to certain smaller ampeg designs from the 60s. Played clean it has a certain amount of that wide, detailed clean tone that the Soho has, though a touch earthier.
Pushed to overdrive on the bump side it has a fantastic tone that is really unlike anything out there right now. It retains the high end but adds a throaty lower mid to the tone, so you get a sound that has sparkle and ring to it in a very unique way, but also is warm and ballsy. It can also push out a decent amount of gain when cranked, and the new master voltage control works very well at allowing you to get there at lesser volumes. though like any attenuation or power scaling it won't take you to true home volumes without losing some tone.
Hats off to 65 for making something that sounds genuinely new and really comfortable and familiar at the same time.
Next up, I tried a Reinhardt 18, which is a derivation of the classic Marshall18w head. This version had power scaling, two non switchable channels (one TMB) and a vintage/modern switch.
If you know the 18w marshall tone then you'll know what this amp does. I'd say it's a superior amp to the marshall reissues, and I think it's what many people would expect or hope for and not actually find when they plug into a marshall 18 for the first time.
The tone is thicker than a regular 18, with more bottom, which makes it a very comfortable amp to listen to and negates some of the EL84 glassiness when pushed to crunch. Using a Les Paul Custom with high output bare knuckles the heavy rock (think roughly JCM800 gain) were killer and more authentically 'big marshall' than an 18 can usually give you.
Plus the modern switch takes a little of the old school rawness out for anyone who in reality is tuned to more modern amps than the 60s/early 70s marshalls. A great switch for dudes who think they are into old-school tones but find out the aren't when they actually use one. To sum up, one KILLER low volume Marshall 18, with more balls than I've heard from this type of amp. Great lowish volume rock'n'roll tones.
After that, two small fender-derived amps from headstrong: a 'lil king reverb and a 'lil King S.
The 'lil King reverb is Headstrong's replica of the '64 Princeton reverb. Having heard the fender reissue I've gotta say that this is the amp that reissue wishes it was. A more detailed, pleasing clean tone that nails the small blackface thing right through to surprisingly cool upper-medium gain tones. I really enjoyed the cranked tones from this little guy, which is something I've found recently with blackface-style amps. Plus great reverb.
The 'lil King S is just what I like in a clean fender: more brownface in tone, which is warmer than blackface, but not tweed-thick. The cleans on this amp reminded me of my old vibrolux but better. Pushed to overdrive the tone is thicker in the mids than the other headstrong, more of a typical overdriven fender tone, and a great one at that. There's a hint of looseness due to the uprated (2x6l6) power section being shackled by the less efficient princeton phase inverter, and this gives this amp a great character that sets it apart from amps like the vibrolux or deluxe reverb. I LOVED this amp.
...cont...
First up, the two new 65 amps:
The 'lil Elvis combo with a G12H30 was the first thing I plugged into. I can see this becoming a big fave of anyone going after voxy tone in a low volume package. It's supposedly based off a design that Vox never made, and it's certainly in that camp tonally, brighter than the non-top boost kind of tone that the London's ef86 channel gets, though you can get quite close to London territory if you ratchet back the tone knob.
Pushed to breakup the lil Elvis has a cool old school Voxy raunch that isn't as tight and glassy as many modern Vox-derived amps. A more medium gain, old school sound than a small badcat or the Night train. All in all a killer little amp with fantastic cleans and low-medium drive tones, all at a very polite volume. Ideal for modern low volume stage requirements, as well as studio and home. Interestingly it has more clean headroom than the higher wattage london...
The Stone Pony (low wattage head version) is really neat, a genuine new sound. It's the SoHo bump front end with 7591s in the power section, a tip of the hat to certain smaller ampeg designs from the 60s. Played clean it has a certain amount of that wide, detailed clean tone that the Soho has, though a touch earthier.
Pushed to overdrive on the bump side it has a fantastic tone that is really unlike anything out there right now. It retains the high end but adds a throaty lower mid to the tone, so you get a sound that has sparkle and ring to it in a very unique way, but also is warm and ballsy. It can also push out a decent amount of gain when cranked, and the new master voltage control works very well at allowing you to get there at lesser volumes. though like any attenuation or power scaling it won't take you to true home volumes without losing some tone.
Hats off to 65 for making something that sounds genuinely new and really comfortable and familiar at the same time.
Next up, I tried a Reinhardt 18, which is a derivation of the classic Marshall18w head. This version had power scaling, two non switchable channels (one TMB) and a vintage/modern switch.
If you know the 18w marshall tone then you'll know what this amp does. I'd say it's a superior amp to the marshall reissues, and I think it's what many people would expect or hope for and not actually find when they plug into a marshall 18 for the first time.
The tone is thicker than a regular 18, with more bottom, which makes it a very comfortable amp to listen to and negates some of the EL84 glassiness when pushed to crunch. Using a Les Paul Custom with high output bare knuckles the heavy rock (think roughly JCM800 gain) were killer and more authentically 'big marshall' than an 18 can usually give you.
Plus the modern switch takes a little of the old school rawness out for anyone who in reality is tuned to more modern amps than the 60s/early 70s marshalls. A great switch for dudes who think they are into old-school tones but find out the aren't when they actually use one. To sum up, one KILLER low volume Marshall 18, with more balls than I've heard from this type of amp. Great lowish volume rock'n'roll tones.
After that, two small fender-derived amps from headstrong: a 'lil king reverb and a 'lil King S.
The 'lil King reverb is Headstrong's replica of the '64 Princeton reverb. Having heard the fender reissue I've gotta say that this is the amp that reissue wishes it was. A more detailed, pleasing clean tone that nails the small blackface thing right through to surprisingly cool upper-medium gain tones. I really enjoyed the cranked tones from this little guy, which is something I've found recently with blackface-style amps. Plus great reverb.
The 'lil King S is just what I like in a clean fender: more brownface in tone, which is warmer than blackface, but not tweed-thick. The cleans on this amp reminded me of my old vibrolux but better. Pushed to overdrive the tone is thicker in the mids than the other headstrong, more of a typical overdriven fender tone, and a great one at that. There's a hint of looseness due to the uprated (2x6l6) power section being shackled by the less efficient princeton phase inverter, and this gives this amp a great character that sets it apart from amps like the vibrolux or deluxe reverb. I LOVED this amp.
...cont...
