New Amp: VHT Pittbull 50CL with Graphic EQ

This is actually my second Pittbull 50CL from nearly the same time frame - this is a 2005 model, and I already had a 2003. However my 2003 has a spring reverb tank, and no graphic EQ - the classic early Pittbull CL voicing, a bit dark, but just a killer sound. Easily one of my all time favorite amps. So when the opportunity to buy what is essentially the same amp, but trading the spring reverb for a built-in 6-band graphic EQ, I jumped on it.

I’ve already done some extensive A/B testing between the two, and they definitely have the same core tone and feel. However I do feel the GEQ model has a bit less gain, and a little more brightness as well. The EQ is exactly as I’d expect - it can take the dryer, tighter feel of the amp from reserved to extremely aggressive and it works fantastically. I do occasionally miss the spring reverb, but I’m also perfectly happy to use a reverb pedal in the effects loop.

The interesting thing about the non-EQ Pittbull is that the feel of the amp is a little bit sloshier, a little more saturated. I love the way lead lines and gainy palm mutes jump out of that amp, and the “voicing” switch adds a little more highs and lows to fill out the spectrum more without sounding too aggressive - something about it still really speaks to me. The EQ model needs the gain up a little higher to achieve the same effect, although I suppose the tubes are a factor here too, but the ability to customize the tone with the EQ adds far more versatility than the on/off voicing switch. The EQ is also footswitchable, and there's not a huge volume difference on or off which is perfect the way I use it. It’d be impossible to pick a favorite between the two, that’s for sure.

New Amp: 3rd Power HLH100

I’ve heard great things about the Third Power Amplification line, and had eyes for a “Kitchen Sink” for a while - but it’s a bit out of my usual spending range. The Citizen Gain seems to be highly regarded as well, maybe I’ll find one of those someday - but today, I’ve added a very early 3rd Power amp to my collection: the HLH100.

The HLH100 is a hand wired, point to point on turret board, British style amp, complete with a full set of Mercury Magnetics transformers and choke and the top of the line components. The front panel has a little bit of a Silver Jubilee appearance - an LED light over a lead master, another volume, and a preamp gain control. However, it’s not like a Jubilee at all - either in tone or function. Instead, you have a single channel - no rhythm or clean modes, and the two volumes are simply different levels so you can footswitch to a louder or quieter sound for leads or rhythm - gain remains the same as you set on the preamp gain control.

It’s pretty light on features, but definitely not on sound - the single channel design has tons of touch sensitivity at lower gain settings, and it can be dialed from near clean to fully saturated distortion with ease. A player who isn’t much of a tweaker would love this amp - dial in a great tone, set and forget.

Of course, there is one switch on the amp to add some versatility, the “Smooth” or “Bold” switch near the guitar input jack. The smooth mode is modeled after the 60s Marshall Plexi sound, and I actually prefer this voicing even with the gain turned up well past what a Plexi can do. The bold setting is a bit more direct feeling, dryer, punchier, but a little less fluid feeling to me. The amp also has a series preamp out and in jack - effectively an effects loop.

According to the previous owner, this particular amp was used on tours with Katy Perry, Janelle Monáe, and even played live on the 2011 Grammy Awards with Bruno Mars. Back then, it was paired with its trademark triangular guitar cabinets - you can actually spot it in the background of this video clip, stage right:

This model evolved later into the RPO100 Head, which has the same basic look but with a few additional features such as dual mids voicing switches and a “push” control which affects the low end in the power amp.

New Amp: Mesa Dual Rectifier Rev G

Yep - another one. I couldn’t resist the price, plus the opportunity to compare the Dual vs my old Triple Rev G. It’s in really great condition as well, unlike my Triple which is on the rough side visually.

This one is from roughly the same year as well, only a few hundred away in serial number, and equipped with the tell-tale knobs with the pointers. It sounds like it should - crushing on the red channel, super smooth and articulate on Orange variable high gain, and even the clean channel on these is endearing to me. I can’t wait to do some more comparisons with it, Rev F vs Rev G Dual for example.

I’ve since cleaned off the previous owner’s settings marks, but it is interesting to see that they ran this amp on the red channel with the mids and gain absolutely maxed out. I tried these settings and it was pretty good, although not how I normally use it.

New Guitar: 1987 Kramer Baretta CAR

Another no-pictures purchase from GC, but at the price it was listed, I didn’t have time to wait for the store to open to call and ask about it. Luckily, the risk paid off, and a super minty ‘87 Kramer Baretta arrived in beautiful candy apple red metallic finish.

Most of the original hardware is present, but the original zebra seymour duncan JB is missing - too bad. However, it has an old EMG 81 in the bridge, but no extra holes or modifications since the battery fits just fine, and I actually like EMG’s so I’m perfectly fine with this. It also lacked a case, which is always a bit scary when shipping a guitar with a pointy headstock like this, but it arrived just fine and I immediately put it into a nice hard shell case.

It’s a pretty simple guitar, and I do like this one a bit more than the other solid black ‘87 Baretta I had, both in sound and feel, so I plan to keep this one around for longer. It has a very interesting serial number as well - E09872 - and on these plates the leading zero is actually printed - not something that was done for the Fxxxx plates or earlier plates. I actually have two of these odd E0xxxx serial number guitars now, the other being a champagne Pacer Imperial.

New Guitar: Gary Kramer Guitars RR-2 Violex

This is a fairly rare guitar, and one that I remember a lot of buzz about within Kramer collector circles but basically forgotten anywhere else. When Gary Kramer returned to the guitar making scene, a number of models were made, many in the more traditional stratocaster style, but quite a few very uniquely shaped guitars like the Turbulence.

Sales seemed pretty good at the time, and with Gibson/Musicyo Kramer starting a line of USA made guitars around 2004, and arguably reaching peak form with the 2008 Pacer Imperial Reissue, Gary Kramer Guitars launched a factory direct, USA made guitar, called the “Russian Roulette.” This was a limited run model, introduced in 2009 and shown at the 2010 NAMM show (check out the Kasha Rockmod half stack in the background haha!) and made in the USA, treated like a custom shop model including a packet with specifications and the name of the person it was built for - see here. These came with Seymour Duncan pickups (Alternative 8 and ‘59) and were available in four colors (black, white, red, blue). Sadly with the old KramerForum going offline, a lot of good information about these guitars was lost.

Skipping forward a year or two, GKG released the “RR-2,” or essentially “Russian Roulette 2.” This time, the guitar is Korean made like many of the other GKG guitars, more of a regular production line model and priced very aggressively at $899 brand new, factory direct. A few differences between the RR-2 and the previous USA Russian Roulette:

• RR2 has an ebony fretboard, original RR was rosewood

• RR2 has Korean OEM pickups, original RR had Seymour Duncans

• RR2 has a plain black neck plate, original RR had a unique revolver cylinder plate

• RR2 has 24 frets with the last few scalloped, original RR had 22 frets

• RR2 has white GKG headstock logo with matte finish, original RR had a gold logo and gloss black, like an 80s era Kramer

• RR2 has an R2 nut, original RR had R3

• RR2 has 3-ply binding, original RR has standard binding

• RR2 has “GKG” 12th fret inlay, original RR has a large “saber tooth” 12th fret inlay

• RR2 body shape is slighty different, lacking the rear lower horn cutaway that the original RR’s had. This is very similar to very late model Kramer Pacers and Proaxes, which had a rear horn cutout while the Japanese/Korean models never got this feature.

• RR2 came in two colors, original RR had four

Personally, I think the original Russian Roulette is the better looking guitar - I’m partial to the gold headstock logo and I find the 3-ply neck and headstock binding on the RR2 to be a bit cheap looking. It’s all academic anyway though, as now almost 15 years later, you’ll probably never see one of these for sale, let alone two at the same time.

One other thing, the RR2 colors are pretty great looking. This example is called “Violex,” which is a bright purple with a very interesting texture, almost like the holoflash of 80s Kramers, but without the reflectivity or prism light effect. There is also another color called “Meltdown” which is yellow, with the same textured effect.

New Amp: Stephenson Lead 30R

This Canadian made amp is a very unique, point to point wired… Plexi-ish head. I’d hesitate to call it a Marshall clone of any kind, despite the visual appearance.

It’s equipped with both a pair of 6V6 and a pair of EL84 power tubes, and each tube can be individually switched on and off from the rear panel - including down to running the amp on a single EL84 or a single 6V6, or asymmetrically with one half of the waveform being say, a 6V6+EL84 and the other half a 6V6 alone.

Going further, the phase inverter utilizes a 6SN7 tube, and the spring reverb is driven/buffered by a 6SN7 tube as well. This amp has no effects loop, although there are other similar Stephenson amps that do.This tube has a gain of “20” when compared to a regular “100” 12AX7, and has an octal base - that’s one less pin than a 12AX7, more similar to octal power tubes like a 6L6, 6V6, or EL34. How this affects the sound exactly… it’s hard to say without knowing more about the circuit. Either way, it’s very unique - I can’t think of any other guitar amps that use this tube type, especially in a phase inverter position. It also has some very unique looking transformers - this one has one large round cylinder, a “toroidal” transformer. More recent Stephenson designs feature two of these, for both the power and output positions.

The front panel has some other quirks. The gain control is self explanatory, but the EQ section has the mids control 3rd in line, after treble and bass - like a Hiwatt (well, sort of, a DR103 goes Bass>Treble>Middle). Maybe I’m reading into the control positions too much, but I wonder what the reason for that is, or if there’s something unique about the EQ circuit.

Going further, there is a Reverb mix control, which works as expected, but then a Drive, Fat, and Powerscale knob. These three controls are very interactive, the power scale works as an overall amp volume and can get down to whisper quiet, or crushingly loud. The Drive control is meant to retain the full volume tone at lower settings, and the Stephenson website recommends matching your drive setting to the same as the power scale control. However I’ve enjoyed tweaking this a bit, higher drive settings add a bit more of a saturated, elastic feel for solos which I really enjoy, although it can get muddy if turned too high while at lower volumes.The FAT control stands for Feedback Attenuation, which is just a way to control the power amp negative feedback circuit, to increase tightness in the low end, which works great alongside the drive control.

There are also a few switches, such as a 3-way gain, 3-way bright, and a 2-way cut switch. The gain control takes the amp from more polite, nearly clean plexi tones, up to what I’d call “classic high gain” sounds, and plenty saturated depending on the gain, drive, and FAT controls. The bright switch has an “off” setting (center), as well as two different values in the up or down position, which change the frequency that is most prominent in the gain - likely great for cutting through depending on the rest of the band, or the room you’re in, or the cabinet you are using. The cut control chops off some of the upper mids and highs, pushing the low end and low mids forward in the mix a bit - useful for low volume playing, but I find the amp sounds its best with this switch off (down position).

On the rear panel, there is an EQ bypass switch, but this doesn’t have as big of an effect on either tone or volume compared to the EQ bypass of the Hook Captain 34 I acquired a few months ago. It’s more subtle on this amp, adding a little bit more grit and punch but preventing some fine tuning of the core tone. Also on the rear is an Ultralinear power mode - I’d love to know what this actually does, it sounds a bit like the Class A/AB switch on some other amps, so I suspect it is doing something similar in the power amp section.

This amp is no longer offered, but it’s a great sound. I suspect the current Deluxe is the most similar to this, and I’m intrigued by the Dual-Plexi, which is similar but with separate “Normal” and “Bright” volumes, like a jumpered 4-hole Marshall. Neither has Reverb, and they’ve all gone down to 3 power tubes instead of 4 - considering how much I like the all-four-on sounds from this model, I feel lucky to have it.

See https://stephensonamps.com/ for more information about current offerings.

New Video: Marshall JCM800 2203X

Here’s a video where I demonstrate some tones from my 2005 Marshall JCM800 2203X. I’m trying a slightly new format with this one, starting off playing the amp and talking about dialing it in right off the bat. I still get into the technical details, schematic, and some of the differences between 2203’s over the years (1975-present) such as the HT Voltage and Filter Capacitor changes, but that’s a little later in the video, so stick around if that interests you.

New Amp: Bogner Ecstasy 101B with Mercury transformers

This one is a wild ride - I was sitting in the airport to kick off a work trip when I spotted this 101B on the Guitar Center used listings for a just, totally absurd price. I’ve been on the hunt for an Ecstasy for a long time now, waiting for the right one to pop up - I really wanted an early model with Mercury transformers, but I also wasn’t willing to pay $3k for one - a unicorn really. Anyway, I called the store, who put me on hold for almost an hour when I asked if they could tell me if the serial was numbers, or symbols (and I even described the symbols and where it was on the panel). Finally I’m on the phone, boarding the plane, and I end up in an exit row somehow - I can’t stay on the call, so I get frustrated and hang up and figure I won’t get it.

A few hours later, I land, and I call again. Another 45 minute long hold, but at least I get the info I want - it’s a serial sign, not number. Then I get put on hold again… I’m not waiting, so I hang up and go to buy the amp online (even though I specifically offered to pay over the phone so the sales person would get commission). Too late - it’s no longer listed online. So I’m definitely a bit upset, but that’s just how it goes sometimes, back to the hunt. I tried to call back, but got put on hold immediately again - just an exercise in frustration, so I headed to my hotel to get ready for work the next day.

The next day, the amp pops up again, and this time I don’t hesitate - immediately purchased.

So I anxiously await the arrival, praying the amp isn’t damaged in transit. It arrives but I’m not home yet, so I have my girlfriend open it and send me a picture… it’s a Shiva. They sent the wrong amp! So I immediately call the store, and they say I have to send back this amp and once they receive it, they’ll ship the Ecstasy out, luckily they still have it in the back. I can’t ship until Monday anyway, so I get home and spend the weekend with the Shiva - nice amp, extremely nice amp actually. But it’s still wrong, and extremely overpriced for a Shiva, so I ship it back.

Another long wait, and finally the correct amp arrives.

And yes, it’s everything I ever dreamed of. Amazing tone, tons of customizability. The blue channel for which these amps are so well known is amazing sounding, but I even enjoy the red channel quite a bit. The red channel introduces a cold clipping gain stage (total of 4, compared to the blue channel’s 3) and I could see an argument for this being Soldano-like, but a bit smoother, less bright and aggressive - but still plenty capable. The Plexi Mode can be engaged on either the blue or red channels, which cuts it down to just two gain stages - like a real plexi - so you can also use either channel as a lower gain crunch. Very nice!

A few interesting bits about this amp. It has the Class A/AB switch, and I really love Class A mode. The strangest thing is the serial number, which is dash-triangle-triangle. This is their way of saying “033,” which is a very low serial number, and the amp has Mercury Magnetics transformers just like the earliest 95-96 era Ecstasys. However, everything inside this amp, including the transformers, dates from 2001-2002. This is a bit confusing, because usually amps from this era are much higher in serial number, and do not have the Mercury equipment. Not long after this, the serial signs disappeared and went to more standard alphanumeric serial numbers (2004 and later). I suppose it is possible that the transformers were upgraded, or special ordered, but that doesn’t explain the serial number - very strange. I did quite a bit of digging through old sales listings and pictures and this isn’t the only amp like this either, but most have numbers in the 800ish range by 2002.

One stroke of luck throughout this whole painful process, a local player was selling an Ecstasy with two footswitches, one more modern sparkly one, and one old black one. I was able to buy just the old black footswitch, so now I have that missing component and it should be roughly period correct.

New Amp: Egnater Vengeance

This amp has been at the back of mind for a while - I’m a bit slow on videos, but in my mind I’m always working on ideas and one of them was “good budget amps” and this was one I wanted to compare with the Peavey XXX and Blackstar HT-100. I remember playing one of these in a store a decade ago and thinking it was pretty good, so when one popped up online for $395, I couldn’t resist.

It’s the little brother of another 120w Egnater head, the “Armageddon,” which shares the same basic design and tone, but that amp has an extra set of gain/volume controls for a 3rd channel, a built in ISP noise gate, and critically a “mid cut” feature with two knobs (level and depth) - much like a Diezel Herbert. The Armageddon lacks the “mids” switches that this Vengeance has, ostensibly because the mid cut already handles that.

The tone is darker, smooth, and another amp in a long line of recent amp acquisitions I’d argue are not quite aggressive enough for bright metal chugga-chugga tones out of the box. That said, it’s a really great sounding amp for smooth leads, and the various switches make it quite versatile - channel 1 can even do a solid crunch tone very well. It contrasts a little with the appearance of the amp, which has “gothic” looking font and a murdered appearance - all black - which gives me the impression of an amp aimed at metal players. I think it would disappoint the most aggressive metal enthusiasts, but would really please classic rock players sonically - but not aesthetically.

Both channels have tight, bright, gain, and the 3-way mids switches. The amp also has two master volumes, presence, and depth controls, as well as the usual host of modern features (effects loop, XLR output, etc). These switches are integral to getting the tone you want out of the amp - even without adjusting the EQ section, getting a good base tone to work with by adjusting them seems to be the way to go. The mids switch especially is quite useful, going from scooped, “flat,” and boosted settings. I actually praise the designer here, the mids switch is usable at all 3 settings, and since either channel can be set differently, it covers a lot of ground. Too often these mid shift/contour/scoop switches are completely unusable because the effect on the sound is too extreme - not the case here. On this amp, it’s noticeable, but doesn’t fracture the core tone of the amp to achieve it - which also means some of the best sounds are interactive, such as setting the switch to scooped mode, but boosting the mids in the tone stack, or vice versa.

I’d still like to try the Armageddon and compare it, but considering this amp runs about half the price, it’s hard to justify. Maybe if the right deal pops up.

New Amp: Blackstar Series One 104-6L6 and Carvin Legacy II

Guitar Center is having a 5% off sale for all used items, and I also get 5% cashback on my credit card this month, so I’m taking advantage of the situation by picking up these two amps I’ve wanted to try out for quite a while.

First up, the Blackstar. The HT series came out when I was in college and still new to guitar, and they were very popular - inexpensive amps that we kids could afford, and it seems like I saw an HT20 or HT40 everywhere I went. The Series One was the premium offering and thus out of our price range, but we always lusted after them - I remember when one of the guys at my local guitar shop got the S1-200 and we were all pumped to hear it, but I never got to play through it.

The original Series One line contained the quad KT88 200 watter, which had 4 separate channels sharing 2 EQ sections, along with the usual Blackstar ISF control. The 100w and 50w Series One models originally just had a single EQ section, but two channels - more like a Marshall DSL than a true multi-channel amp. That changed with the release of the 104 models, which included this 104-6L6 as well a 104-EL34 version. These have the same front panel appearance as the S1-200, but the descriptions allude to some circuit differences between the three models. However, I don’t have any proof, since circuit diagrams are very difficult to find for these amps. I suspect it’s because these probably contain just as many op-amps and diodes as any other Blackstar product, but since they were being marketed as the premium model, they wanted to at least pretend they were all tube, or at the very least obfuscate that information to avoid the internet backlash. I’ll happily change my tune on this if someone can provide schematics for me, of course.

Minor complaints about construction (these are made in Korea) and technical circuit details aside, it’s a very nice sounding amp. All 4 channels are quite usable, and it’s much darker than a standard Marshall or even the HT-100 I have, with much more bass on offer. I do find the ISF control to have less effect on this amp than on the HT, but perhaps that’s because of the darker voicing. While the appearance and marketing around this amp pushes it to be a metal amp, I really don’t feel that’s its best use case. It can definitely do metal, but I don’t really like the low end for chugging palm mutes and definitely not for more modern detuned tones. As for the 6L6 power section, I do wonder if I could just put in a quad of EL34’s and rebias it - I may give that a try sometime. Overall, it’s not a bad amp, but it doesn’t blow me out of the water and I actually think I prefer the HT-100, which cost me half the price (and it was half the price back at release too).

As always, more photos are available on the Blackstar S1046L6 Details page.

---

Next up, the Carvin Legacy II. This amp followed up the original Carvin Legacy, which is generally well regarded although I suspect some of that is Steve Vai’s influence. I’m not a big Vai fan, and honestly I don’t know much about him besides his guitar parts in the Halo 2 soundtrack. Either way, I’ve played the original Legacy and felt is was a great lead tone, and I liked that amp’s built in spring reverb.

The Legacy II came out in 2009, designed by Ben Fargen (who has his own line of amps such as the Miniplex and Olde 800), but only lasted until 2011 with very few units sold. At the time, this was the most expensive Carvin amp, and the most expensive they’d every made at $1599 each. These quickly dropped to a mere $899 closeout, before being replaced by the Legacy III.

I reached out to Ben Fargen for more details, but I never got a reply - I was curious what differences (if any) were present in the design compared to the Legacy I. What I do know is that the Lead channel on this amp is either identical, or nearly identical, to the original Legacy, which means it can do all of the tones that amp can do, and with the same limitations - specifically, this is an extremely dark amp. It is not uncommon to run the presence and treble controls at 8 or higher, while cutting the bass down below half to keep the low end articulation.

The Legacy II also lacks the reverb of its predecessor, but adds a “boost” channel. This might seem like a 3-channel amp, but it really isn’t - the “boost” channel is simply an added drive section on top of the clean channel. This also means that it depends on the clean channel controls, so even while you are on “channel 2,” the channel 1 settings affect your tone. Neither of these channels have a presence control, just a presence switch, which behaves like a bright switch at a set value. My primary disappointment isn’t necessarily that this sounds bad, it’s that I feel the potential is wasted. This could’ve been a built in boost, with customizable controls like a Tubescreamer or SD-1 (volume, tone, drive), and have it footswitchable on either channel.

One of my favorite tones from the Legacy I is the lead channel with a tube screamer in front, so looking at the front panel of this amp, I expected to be able to do that type of tone straight from the amp without an external pedal, but sadly that is not the case. This might explain why these didn’t sell very well, since they didn’t really add anything and I’d say between the two, I’d rather have the spring reverb than the boost channel

Still, it’s a nicely put together amp, and mine even has a Mercury Magnetics transformer, and it still has that great Legacy lead channel tone. I also have to wonder about the white tolex, maybe a custom order option, or recovering? More photos here.