Boo Teak Amps

Bill Cutright · From: Akron, OH

What is it about teak that makes these so expensive??

All seriousness aside, tho...
I know Buddy has had a re-issue Standel for a while, but I'm wondering if he'd mind sharing a quick 12,000 mile review with us.

Also would like to hear from any who have tried some of the other hi-end pups and how they stack up against the, tried and tru, WebbEvansPeavey PSA militia.

I never have, but, I sorta been wondering how these 15 or 30 watt class A mega-buckers hold up against a full throttled, pedal 8 employed, C6th, power chord sequence.

(of, course, not much will...)

Greg Derksen · From: Alberta, Canada

Bill most of the class A amps are designed
more for guitar players, and generally are
after Voxish (AC30) type tones, I have played
alot of them, having hosted 4 or 5 ( Amp Shootouts), They are mostly called Class A,
but alot of tech's refer to them as Cathode
Biased, Not true Single ended Class A ,
Anyways amps like Matchless, DR Z, Badcat,
are IMHO much better suited for Tele or Strat work,unless a specific semi distorted tone is
your liking, or for a specific sound.
Brad Paisley uses DR Z and has an old Vox,
and its a nice change from the Standard
Tele/Fender tone that everbody and their dog
plays, A big part of the ( Vox Style Tone)
lies with the old Vox Blue or Silver Speakers
that came with the old Vox's,
I quite enjoy the look on guitar players
faces when they first play a healthy old
AC30 from the 60's, after playing Fender's
for years, Usually their Jaw drops, surprisingly many never have,
As far as steel amps I can think of a few that would work well, Tophat makes a model
called the Ambassador that comes in a 100 watt version, its voiced alot like the BF
amps of the 60's,
Bruno makes a model called the Cowtipper 100, which is similar, each of these would be more flexable and have features that the OLD BF fenders don't have, The tone would be in the Ballpark, much better than RE Isue amps
IMHO, more complex and rich.
The other is Standel, which would sound more
like a Standel,
Are they worth it? Well in 1958 my Fender
Tweed Super Sold for around 335.00, So every 12 years things double give or take, which
puts my tweed well into the 3000.00 plus zone
which is actually a little less than some Booteek builders today,
One thing to keep in mind is most of the booteek builders today in one way or another
are copying some of the classic designs,
What you get however is a new Point to Point
wired amp, with newer features, kinda best of both worlds,
As far as Solid state amps go, I would condider WEBB and Evens kinda Booteek for steelers, Although I still prefer tubes
anyday, these amps provide lots of Volumn
and are usually lighter per watt.
A steeler plugging into a Vox derived Booteek amp and not liking it wouldn't
surprise me, however if he plugged into
a Blackface inspired Booteek amp he would probably love it, this would be in context
of the Classic " Nashville Tone" not dirtier
tones, for that he may love the Voxish type Booteeks,
Tone comes mostly from the players ability
so even a Booteek amp is only gonna do so much, but it does make a differnce, Greg

James Quackenbush · From: Pomona, New York, USA

Greg,
Excellent explaination !!....I would also like to emphasize that when you are getting a boutique amp, you are getting point to point wiring which Greg pointed out, so that if there is a problem down the road, you can repair it a lot easier.. The older Fenders and some of the other older amps are point to point wired... The PC board amps of today are mass produced...Buying a boutique amp allows you to talk to the builder of the amp also, and have your amp custom tailored to the tone that you are looking for ... You tell the builder what you are looking for , and they "voice" the amp according to your specifications....When you buy an assembly line amp, you are basically stuck with whatever EQ it has , or with whatever gain characteristics it has, and other things also..This is not always a bad thing if there is an amp that is made that has all the settings that you like ... You will ALWAYS pay more for a tube amp that is point to point wired , because it's hand wired, and less for a Solid State amp put together on a PC board because it's NOT hand wired ...It's faster and cheaper to do PC board wiring , and since the cost is kept down , the savings to you is very noticeable... They are a lot harder to repair, and also a lot harder to change the values of the various parts if you decide you want to change the tone of your amp also .. It also has a lot to do with Supply and Demand ...If there is a large supply of an amp, the price goes down...If there are fewer amps made , which is the case also for these boutique amps, the price goes up ... I would say also that 90% of the time , there is a noticeable improvement on tone when you plug into a boutiqe amp... There are a few guys right here on the forum that are VERY knowlegeable about the workings of an amplifier, and could easily make you an amp that would be KILLER and very boutique like that would sound better than most steel amps out there, but you're gonna pay for it too !!...How much is your tone worth to you ??.... Would you be happy with a $700 Peavey ??..Or would you go to an over $1,000 Evan's or a Webb ??...You may not be happy with either ...You may want someone to build you a boutique amp, or even buy yourself a Standel and spend over $2,000 !!..

Greg Derksen · From: Alberta, Canada

This saturday, a friend is bringing over a
interesting Booteek amp, The unique thing about is along with a very extensive front tone shaping panel, the usual Treble, Bass,
Mid, you can actually go inside the chassis
as a laymen, and tweek the amps voicing, to your sound or guitar, it has internal knobs
that really extend the amps capabilities.
The amp is called a Two Rock, I have played it before its very much in the Dumble vein,
its clean tone is Blackface , but it really
can get some great overdrive tones, I mean
great tones, I am curious however about the tweaks and what makes them different than the front panel Knobs, I will run my steel through it for sure, Greg

James Quackenbush · From: Pomona, New York, USA

Greg,
I had a Two Rock Opal with their "wireless technology....While it was a nice amp, I couldn't justify the cost of it...I was getting tones as good from my early 60's brown Fender Concert , with a pedal ... The Opal was 3 times the value of the Fender !!...I sold it
Andy Fuch's in N.J. does some really nice mod's for various amps, that gives you a Dumble tone..Better bang for the buck than the Two Rock, and for my ears they have just as good a tone ....Check them out....Jim

Here's the link...
http://www.fuchsaudiotechnology.com/index.html

[This message was edited by James Quackenbush on 19 January 2004 at 04:56 PM.]

Bobby Lee · From: Cloverdale, California, USA

Two Rock is local here - they're in Cotati, about 35 miles south of Cloverdale. My old friend Steve Kimock uses a Two Rock amp, and nobody gets a better guitar tone. He also plays a Fender D-6, but I'm not sure which amp he uses for it.

There's a good clip of Steve playing guitar through his Two Rock on this page.

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

Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (C6add9),
Sierra Laptop 8 (E6add9), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6),
Roland Handsonic, Line 6 Variax

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