New York Amp Show

[midwayfair]

This was my third trip to the New York Amp Show, and I thought some people might be interested in hearing about some stuff I saw.

-Celestion Room: I'm not a speaker geek by any means, and this was my first time actually going into this room. Turns out they always bring a few world-class amps with them to run through their cabs. This was the first room we went into, and there's a little wooden box on one of them. Yup, they brought a Trainwreck. I played through it. He said he thought the model was "Sarah," and it had a more Fender-ish feel than I expected. Very clean. Very loud. VERY bright, too, which I did not expect. Almost no compression, which was kind of interesting (even less bend than my Imperial). Since I expected a Wreck to be designed to produce a massive amount of breakup, it was weird to play one so clean. Also, friend of mine played through a Cowtipper amp they had set up that had a really good jazz sound even with his Strat.

-VVT: We hit up the VVT room whenever they're there, because they're from Maryland and a couple of my friends have been to their workshop a few times. They always sound great, but they continue to have some problems with aesthetics, and they weigh a ton. He did, however, have a little handwired tweed Champ with an excellent Tolex job and a big output transformer. It was shocking big sounding for a 1x8, and I almost bought it (the price was almost too good, but I really can't justify the purchase after spending $3.5K to get the house painted). The only thing that held me back really was that it wasn't quite bright enough for me and the extra volume was kind of a turnoff as far as buying a tiny amp.

Brian Wampler stopped by while I was running my little pedal board through the champ and complimented the Hamlet. That felt good.

-Red Plate: One of my friends basically went to the amp show with the intention of buying one of their amps. Turns out they "weren't set up to do commerce" and wouldn't even take his deposit money. These amps are astounding, though. The one I played through was a very small profile, but 40 Watts and enough switches and knobs to make it basically every Fender ever made, and less than $2K retail. I was really, really, really impressed with their amps, and I'd have to say they were the best things at the amp show based purely on sound. I do think it's possible to get lost in the options, but there wasn't a bad setting on the amp that I could find. Took pedals extremely well. The drive side was good but not spectacular when pushed, but I didn't mess with it enough to make an informed decision, and it sounded great for edge of breakup stuff voiced a bit like a bassman.

-Milbert Amps: I saw these guys last year and didn't have a chance to actually play them. This is easily the most innovative thing I've seen in amps: It's a 9-pound head with power scaling (and not just plate starving) that takes any tube compliment you can throw at it. The amps have a really nice feel and the distortion is as good as the cleans. The amp also is capable of a kind of self-repair if a connection is blown. Insanity. They also bring a drum kit (the amp designer is a drummer, not a guitarist!) and bass player with them, so they usually have a jam session. They also have a pedal system that powers a pedalboard via a 9v connection in the amp, carried by TRS cables. Again, really thinking outside the box. They almost seem out of place at the Amp Show, which is usually populated by kind of stodgy old circuits.

-Wampler Pedals: Tweed 57 is great - I'd heard one but never gotten the chance to actually play through it. Wampler's Belton-based reverb is also particularly great sounding, but no one ever talks about it. It has a very useful tone control. I think most people here know the Wampler stuff, so not too much to say.

-EQD: Got to play with an Organizer. Not entirely what I expected, and very fun. It's almost like a chorus pedal, but with octaves instead of modulated copies.

[irmcdermott]

-Wampler Pedals: Tweed 57 is great - I'd heard one but never gotten the chance to actually play through it. Wampler's Belton-based reverb is also particularly great sounding, but no one ever talks about it. It has a very useful tone control. I think most people here know the Wampler stuff, so not too much to say.

Sounds like an awesome time. I'm going to check out that Red Plate Amps.

Are you talking about the Wampler Faux Spring? I've got one on my bench that I'm tying to finish tracing. It's a fantastic sounding verb.

[midwayfair]

Are you talking about the Wampler Faux Spring? I've got one on my bench that I'm tying to finish tracing. It's a fantastic sounding verb.

Yes.

BW did say he was working on an FV-1-based verb to replace it.

[eldanko]

Thanks for the excellent report, and congrats on the Wampler compliment! Can't wait to put together a Hamlet myself...

I go to the Nashville Amp Expo every year (and will continue that trend since I'm moving there in a month and a half), and I must concur that the Celestion room is always a good stop. Last time I showed up, they had a very sparkly Jackson Ampworks Britain (was fantastic enough that I eventually bought one) and a few other things. The best part was that it was one of the least crowded rooms at the show... I guess folks were either booteek snobs or just not interested in speakers. I jammed their amps for 30 minutes or so and they gave us t shirts and free beer.

Oh, I'm on the Milbert site now. They make a vacuum tube-driven car amp. 

[alanp]

I've always wanted to build a Trainwreck clone... either an Express, or a Rocket. The Express is the super gainy 2xEL34, the Rocket is the tweaked, gainy AC30 4xEL84.

Jon, the T'wrecks didn't have serial numbers, Fischer gave them each individual names instead of numbers (so the Celestion one's serial is 'Sarah', Glen K's Express' serial is 'Annie'). Nice change up.

It must be so nice to be surrounded by great gear like in North America. The most you see over here as far as vintage gear goes is old Jansen amps (and if they're valve, they disappear fast!)

[jubal81]

Thanks for the report. Love hearing stuff like this. Hadn't heard of Milbert, but I'm gonna go look 'em up.

Big grats on getting noticed by Wampler for your Hamlet. Great story.

[idgit]

Did you happen to see Jaded Faith Mods?  they mod the Randall/ Egnater MTS preamp modules.  I have two of them and they are so good.  I have a Deluxe/Vibrolux mod and a Hiwatt mod.  both are incredibly accurate

I was wanting to get down there to see them but....

[G.G.]

how much are the Milbert amps going for anyway? I can't seem to find a price on their web site.

[ChrisM]

Henry of Redplate makes some damn fine amps, and reasonably priced to boot!

He posts at the Amp Garage from time to time, very cool guy.

[midwayfair]

how much are the Milbert amps going for anyway? I can't seem to find a price on their web site.

A LOT -- like 2500 on the low end. For the technology and versatility involve, it's not absurd, but still way out of most peoples' price range (certainly way out of mine).

[G.G.]

how much are the Milbert amps going for anyway? I can't seem to find a price on their web site.

A LOT -- like 2500 on the low end. For the technology and versatility involve, it's not absurd, but still way out of most peoples' price range (certainly way out of mine).

that's about what I figured, and I've seen amps with conventional designs going for that much so it's not that out of line. But the extra zero puts it out of my range for sure. :-/  Pretty cool design though, thanks for the report!