FAQs

Info/FAQS

Why no reverb and/or Tremolo?

There are a few reasons why I do not add reverb and/or tremolo in my amps. When these effects were first added to amps, it made a lot of sense. No one really had pedal boards as a standard and having some onboard effects was very useful. These days most players have a pedal board, and there are a lot of options for reverb, delay, tremolo, boost, overdrive, etc., making the on board effects a bit obsolete in my opinion. Players have a lot more to choose from these days. There is also the cost associated with adding the extra circuity to the amp. It takes longer to build the amp, and it costs more to add this extra circuity to the amp. This cost gets passed on to the consumer, making the overall price of the amp higher. My thought is that money could go to better use by buying some great pedals. Finally, the more things you add to an amp, the higher the probability that these circuits can develop a problem over time. Think about an amp with channel switching, extra switch foot pedals, reverb, etc., there is just simply more possibly of those things developing an issue. I prefer to keep the signal path straight forward and allow the tube tone to blossom.

When choosing an amp, I believe you need to consider a few key things. What will be the main use cases for the amp, practice, band, studio, live, etc.? Or perhaps, all of the above? The amps I offer, I found to be the most useful for me, and for colleagues I’ve worked with. I like to combine the smaller amps with the larger ones when possible. Or I’ll choose one for the given application. I offer five basic amps to choose from, SA7, SA14, SA21, SA28, and SA35. The numbers in the name identify the power rating into 8 ohms. The SA7 and SA14 are based off Tweed era amps from the 50’s, so they are smaller, lower power and break up earlier. The tweed type amps can be great for the studio, small band setup, or combined with a higher-powered amp. They are more specialized for the decerning player. The SA21 is a mid-powered amp and similar to brownface era circuits. The SA21 is probably the most all around amp in terms of size, weight, performance and power. The SA28 and SA35 are the higher power options I offer these days. Both have plenty of power for guitar amps and can hold up in a full bad situation with a loud drummer. The SA28 uses a split load phase inverter and has slightly different character than the SA35. The SA35 is the highest power amp I offer; it uses a long tail phase inverter and will have the highest headroom of my amp offerings. You can read more details about each amp in the amp description sections.