2008 LA Amp Show

[dartanion]

Hey Guys,

I just wanted to share my experiences at the LA Amp Show with you all. I had a demo room to show off my first 2 production amps called the Absinthe and Vapour. I also had a couple of prototype amps on hand and all the new Fane speaker models. I had a great time and met a lot of fun people.

Geekmacdaddy had pedals in my room, Brown Note, and Ugly Amps too. Great stuff with the British Ball Breaker (plexi in a box), the GeekDriver (fuzz), and a bunch of prototype pedals.

The Brown Note room had a lot of traffic and Moss is always a very gracious host for the after hour party. His new 2+2 amp was a big hit as well as the d'lites and the new Space Cadet. They also had a bevy of great players on hand which is always a fun scene.

Ugly Amps had a ton of 18wattish type builds that all sound great, plus a bunch of other designs. Steve is cool dude and makes some great looking and toneful amps, so don't let the name fool you.

Fuchs had a nice setup as usual and some very nice amps. Lot's of great players there too, but I only had a few minutes to pop in there. The Clean Machine seemed to be a favorite.

Simple amps had some very cool designs and were a great bunch of guys.

Anyway, it was a good time and just wanted to share this info. Here's a few photos of the event:

[dartanion]

More photos

[Normster]

Very cool show indeed! I didn't get around as much as I wanted to, but overall I liked what I heard.

Darin, as I told you at the show, I MUST have one of those 6V6 amps!!! Man, what ballsy tone! (Not sure what model it was, but you know the one I'm talking about.)

I really dug the Ugly Amps as well, but...well, they just weren't ugly. Just kidding. Great sounding amps and Steve definately knows his sh!t.

I also liked the GeekDriver pedal. (Didn't get a chance to play the British Ball Buster.) Jeff plugged it into the front of a BrownNote D44 Bluesmaster and all hell broke loose. If you ever need something more aggressive than the Dumble sound, grab one of these for sure.

The highlight of the show for me was having John Findley show up with Chuck D'Aloia. The energy between those two was contagious. I should have had them both autograph my Tele.

[dartanion]

Hey Norm,

The 6V6 amp in question is the Vapour. I do an EL84 version too, but the 6V6 version has some serious bull gonads!

Your 100W Dumble clone was STELLAR! Made the whole room shake.

Geek's BBB is really a plexi in a pedal. I've played through the prototype and now a couple production versions and it is GREAT! It would be a perfect match for my 69 Twin.

I was digging your Space Cadet a lot too. Very sweet with an unobtrusive verb. Gotta get me one of those too

Did you get a chance to check out the Simple Amps? Some Fendery type stuff but unique cab designs, and thicker than most classic Fenders. Nice guys too.

Here's a couple of shots from my room:

[ApexJr.]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I missed this one and was wondering last year they had tables for
dealers in the back in another section out of the way, the year
before they had the tables inside the hotel on the left side in
a conference room... Where were they this time ?

Steve @ Apex Jr
www.apexjr.com

[Mickey_C]

I had no idea Tonic were your amps - I would've come by and said hi!

Although I have to ask you the million dollar question, do you still believe people can build a better amp than they can buy?

Best of luck, and I'll swing by at your next show - the amps look awesome, and I'd love to hear them! Killer logo too - very Art Noveau!

~mickey

[dartanion]

Hey Mickey,

Now you know and knowing is half the battle. Are you going to be at the NY Show this coming May? We can meet up then if you plan to attend.

I still think that building your own amp can lead to a much better product than a lot of production amps. Most of the stuff from the big guys is crap, an I think you'll agree with me on that. Boutique builders like us can build a better amp as we are not tied to meeting a lofty bottom line figure like Fender, Marshall, Vox, Mesa, etc. So, yes, I still do think that a knowledgeable builder can build a better amp than most production amps. Does that make sense? I hope it does because it's completely obvious to me. Plus, even if I were not a builder, I would want to buy a quality hand built amp from a small US based builder over a Big Corporate Named amp that uses slave labor and crappy parts. For the record, I have been building and selling amps since 2000 sometime, with business taking off around 2003, so I have been at it for a while. I was doing custom builds on spec, and these amps are bomber.

Thanks for the comments on the logo. It is very art nouveau

How's business for SoulTone?

[Mickey_C]

I agree mostly that the big guys don't build the amp they could - I just still struggle with the concept that anybody could make one better. Any of the usual DIY suspects? (do a delta between the amp building sites and you'll get the list) - No question about it, especially when you factor in sites like this one with very experienced DIY'ers. But anybody off the street? Still not buying it! Anyhow, no question that Marshall and Fender, for their name and resources, aren't living up to our expectations. But heck, if they did, we'd be building radios or pedals... not amps!

Amp business is slow, as to be expected in this economy, but I am doing it for fun anyway, as I've never left that day job (and likely never will, as the money is better anyway). I was happy for the few people that did come by in LA, as I know soultone is virtually unheard of, so I can't complain. It was fun afterward to down brewskis with Reinhold Bogner, George Metropoulis, Bruce Egnater, Loni, and an incredible drunk Lollar P90 winder - it made the whole trip worthwhile for me. I look up to all of them, and they were all super cool!

I've just finished pouring over your site - VERY IMPRESSIVE LINEUP! Are these entirely handwired by you? DId you get any video clips at this show? The premier guitar video of Tonic at NY show was awesome - I found that at youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QECjdgf0Rc

I hope to be at NY show in May and look forward to meeting you there!

[dartanion]

I am a one man show right now. I run my IT Consulting business by day, amp company at night and weekends, at lunch, on my coffee break, at dinner, etc. The names of the amps and design details on my website are not accurate. It's old and about to be replaced with a professionally done site. I threw that one up in an evening.

Yes, I build every amp by hand. Lot's of hand fab too. I make the boards, install all the eyelets or turrets by hand, cut all the raw garolite, make hardwood cabinets, blah blah blah.... I'm kind of a nut that way, but may have to hire some help. Not a bad thing to create jobs in this economy

Thanks for the comments on the NY Amp Show video. That was a very heavily tweaked l'pool type build. Great amp really. It was used for all guitars in the sound clips. The one thing about all those PG Videos is that the sound is really inconsistent. They do their best, yet it's a one shot deal. They come in, brief intro about the product, they hold a mic in front of the speaker and start rolling. I got lucky that the guy playing bought the amp and was playing it when they came by. The sound was decent but not great, however a lot of guys demo's sounded like poop and they were not happy.

Gotta go work on installing a new fence!

Later