Is this the coolest small tube amp ever?!

[@patrickroedl100]

This is a great review, It is nice too hear a variation of tones rather than the standard youtube amp reviews that only have the gain cranked.

[@Bob.Silverstein]

Thanks. Yes it seems like the big audience for speaker shootouts is the metal crowd, leaving the rest of us to scratch our heads. What I thought was interesting is that, for clean tones, all good speakers sound good (meaning, if you've paid $100 for a 12" I doubt it will sound bad on cleans). It's just a question of whether you like a little more sparkle or less, and whether you prefer the inherent tone of ceramic versus alnicos. Though the neodymiums are a wildcard. For crunchier tones it really really depends on the specific crunch, as well as the guitar. So I would say it's highly amp dependent. For the Tramp the Nighthawk was my winner. But for my Tweed Deluxe I really liked the Tornado and Blackbird.

[@Kiviat]

Incredibly useful video as I built one of these over the winter and am still searching for my favorite tones. I’ll be screen grabbing a few of yours knob setups and working from there. The amp is the perfect at-home practice amp and can also carry its own in small band settings.

[@Bob.Silverstein]

Feel free to share any good ideas for settings that you come up with.

[@pablodevera3278]

Hey! Nice tones! Using the amp clean with drive pedal, is it still loud enough for small stages? Like a Princetone would I guess?

[@Bob.Silverstein]

Hi. Thanks for writing. The amp can indeed get pretty loud. And if you use the higher wattage tube options that it supports, that can provide even more output. That said, I'm not sure how it would be with a full band if not mic'ing. Probably depends on the drummer. It absolutely does not compare in output to the blisteringly loud 12 watts of a Tweed Deluxe, for example, because of how that particular amp is voiced. If you're running it completely clean, you'd probably have the master all the way up and need to keep the gain at like 6-7 or lower. It's hard to say. I should probably do some testing and get back to you. My gut tells me that it would be fine for gigging if the drummer isn't a super heavy hitter.

[@stevefranczuz3982]

Wow! Awesome tones and great playing. Did the sound in the room sound like the recorded version?

[@Bob.Silverstein]

That's a good question! Every room is different of course. And for the tones that were on the harsher side there's definitely a different feeling because of how loud I was playing. Whereas after capturing it with mic you can listen quietly and it's not slamming your eardrums. I have another video where I go through a bunch of different speakers with a Tweed Deluxe and a few audio samples.

[@garygratzer9670]

That was pretty amazing. I take it that this amp has little to offer for great clean/jazz tones since you were on the bridge ninety percent of the time. Correct?

[@Bob.Silverstein]

Actually I would say it's more of a "me problem" :) I don't play much of that style so I focused more on the range of rock tones. For sure you can get very clean and warm tones from the amp. I would probably put a 6L6 in it for the cleanest tone and just keep all the boosts in the lower gain settings.

[@patrickroedl100]

How would this amp do in a home practice situation? Not super quiet but not ear splitting loud either. I already have big amps and am looking to build something more manageable for at home.

[@Bob.Silverstein]

This is actually a fantastic amp for home settings. The Master Volume is really linear and doesn't seem to color the tone much at all. It's also quite versatile from clean to crunch. Contrast that with my Tweed Deluxe, which is really hard to play without bothering everyone. For the Deluxe I built an attenuator. For the Tramp, no attenuator needed. It's a pretty fun kit too. I like that they pretty much included a lot of common mods in the core design.