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Today, Curly and I spent the entire day at the Airtel Plaza Hotel in Van Nuys, California seeing all the great new amps at the 1st Annual LA Amp Show.

I must have worn poor Curly out, since I was like a kid in a candy store, and ran him through that place 3 times, for 7 hours! All the great amp companies rolled out their new toys, and it was an amazing event! What a great thing, to be able to hear all these boutique and new production amps side by side! They basically rented out half a hotel, and every hotel room had a different entrepreneur, distributor, or established company with all their best gear layed out. Literally, room after room of killer amps. I felt like I'd died and gone to TONE heaven!!!

The amazing standouts were the Siegmund Amps, the new 65 Amps, the new Matchless amps, Fargen's VOS, the highgain Orange Rocker series, and surprisingly, the new Vox's produced in China!!! Those are gonna be HUGE sellers, because they blow away the 90's reissues with great features and tone. Also, the Z.Vex and Menatone pedals made a big splash! I hung out in the Z.Vex room for awhile and demoed his pedals.....Zachary is a friggin genious!!! The greatest FX creator of our time! Those Probe pedals blew me away! I never realized how great they were till today.

Honestly ALL of the stuff there today was amazing. GT's Aspen Pitman unleashed a new revolutionary stereo cab that's beyond words! You could be 2 blocks away, and the amp would still sound like it's in front of you! AMAZING!!! Mesa had thier best amps rolled out, and they all sounded nice!
HiWatt's White halfstack was gorgeous! I saw the greatest lap steels ever made....Asher Lap Steels.....there won't ever be a better lap steel...sorry!!!

Winner's of the Day? 65Amps! So killer they're beyond words...Nashville and LA studio players will soon be ordering these!!!! 2 EL-84 amps that sound HUGE! People were practically standing on chairs to witness the tone that came out of these beautiful amps!!! Same with all the gorgeous Siegmunds and Fargens. Z. Vex was the standout pedal maker.
Also, Menatone's new Fish Factory is the most killer OD/Dist out there!
I'm getting one soon!! The BEST from Menatone!ENJOY THE PICTURES! Don't forget to click on page 2 Scoot the URL over, to see the pic description.

from : localhost/photobucket.com/albums/y247/Gearjoneser/

Here's a few of my favorites from the show.
65 Amps, co-owned by Pete Stroud from Cheryl Crow. These amps are 2 EL-84 amps that sound tight like 100 watters. Just AMAZING amps, and you'll soon see them in the hands of NY, LA, and Nashville session players.Siegmund got my vote for most beautiful amps and most unique tube designs. He's really a revolutionary amp builder!Zachary Vex is the greatest pedal innovator of our time! I need to own a couple of those probe pedals like the Trem Probe and Fuzz Probe. His new Machine pedal would have given Hendrix a big smile! It uglifies any other pedal you use it with by adding odd order harmonics....in a good way!The surprisingly young Ben Fargen OWNS an entire crop of other amp builders with his new VOS, as well as all his others. Great amps!Matchless owner, Phil Jamison, demoing his new highgain Matchless amps, the Avenger, and his new channel switching highgain amp, The Independence.
The lights above the knobs are red, white, and blue, displaying the clean, edgy clean, or highgain selections. Lookout Bad Cat Hotcat!!!umf.. for the next time.. why dont you shift that amp show somewhere nearer? ... like..my living room

man.. all that cool stuff. i'm envyous

Yeah, I purposely went there with empty pockets. I knew I'd be tempted, so I removed the possibility of spending money I don't have to spend!

Damn GJ, you're a lucky man. I'd kill to hear all of those amps in one huge side by side. Thx for the sweet pics.

It was a cool event. I played on a few amps and pedals, but the real fun was hearing a lot of different players using all the stuff. Also, seeing all these entrepreneurs who've spent their lives reverse engineering classics, and reinventing them into something better. Some of these guys have broken tone down to an exact science. It's mind boggling to hear someone like Zachary Vex talk about what each of his pedals is doing, electronically! I was surprised to see how young Ben Fargen was. He just looks like another dude, yet he's becoming one of the most respected names in high end amps. It was also cool to see Aspen Pitman talking about some of their innovations. Really some forward thinking tube amp afficionados there!

Funky stuff......... All that was missing was one terrorist conveniently showing up so that the building had to be evacuated, and then upon re-entering the building, some amps and pedals would have been found to have disappeared straight into GJ's house, where he would then proceed to send me half of the loot.

But I suppose it was a cool event, anyway.

Thanks for sharing ! I like how they did that show in seperate rooms instead of just 1 huge hall. Great pics to !! I love the one with the Amp Guitar and Case in matching snake skin very very kinky lol.

cool GJ!!
can u tell us more abt the Fish Factory please?


Originally Posted by pac112cool GJ!!
can u tell us more abt the Fish Factory please?

I want to know about the fish factory also bro.

the Fish Factory is a combination of two overdrives, the Red Snapper - a tubescreamer type, and the Blue Collar - a TS type with more balls

here's a couple links:
MusicToyz

Menatone

Cool, thanks for the recap and pics.

I have to get my ears onto some of those new oranges!!!!

we had a blast!

yes, The Joneser wore me out, but the fact is, I love amps as much as he does, so this was a great show for both of us.

they had a panel discussion with some of the top amp builders in the morning that I just missed, and about 40 exhibitors in motel rooms, so you had a little better privacy than at NAMM or a vintage show

Truetone music from Santa Monica had quite a few different amps set up, and I tried out a couple Dr Zs. They also had some Victorias, Oranges, HiWatts, Bad Cats, Reverends, a Divided by 13, and a Speedster.

it was great for me, ' cause Joe's a good player, and sometimes it's nice to play, but other times, it's good to sit back and listen to someone else, and really listen to the amps. Joe has a real good feel for pedals too ... we were looking at the Z Vex stuff, and Joe was playing with several pedals, and Mr. Vex said, quot;that's cool, you actually GET IT!!! Not everyone does!quot; His pedals are so quirky - in a genius way, that you have to approach them differently from other pedals, so pedals like his Seek Wah and Tremelo Probe require a good feel, good coordination, and the right tempo.

anyway, I think the Joneser could be a demo player for Z Vex
from : localhost/of my favorites was Asher Guitars
Bill Asher makes some beautiful lap steels:

just incredible craftsmanship, down to all the details .... there was a good player trying out a white quot;Jrquot; model, and I bought some strings and vowed to pull my Post War Ricky Bakelite out of the closet and dedicate myself to lap steel

anyway, Joe and I saw Myles Rose outside the venue as we were leaving, and talked to him a bit about our best picks of the show...

We agreed ..
the new Vox AC 30s were the best bang for the buck amp we heard. They will sell a ton of those things!

The Fargen VOS was awesome, and pretty incredible for it's small 1x12 cab

the 65 Amps were just killer. It helps that the owners are great players .. we listened to one of the guys demo the amp for a good half an hour
I swear you would not believe that it was an 18 watt amp ... well, they said 24 watts, although I don't know how he gets that out of two EL 84s. Serious bottom end and harmonics. These are $3K amps, but they already have quite a few orders from Fat Sounds and other dealers. Check 'em out if you get a chance.
they also had some cool James Trussart Guitars in the same room. Cool all metal construction. Joe made the mistake of picking up a tele model, which you can see in his pics.

Matchless amps ... the Independence model that we liked had a patriotic red white and blue theme for the colored lights on the three separate channels, one of which was high gain.

Menatone pedals ... several models sounded pretty good. The Fish Factory that Joe liked, but also the others like the Howie, Kar Krash, and King of the Brits were all tasty.

I also tested a Mesa Lonestar Special 4x10 amp. It's a 4/ EL 84 amp with 30 watts class A, with a half power switch, 2 channels, reverb, and a pedal for channel switching and quot;soloquot; boost. It used a combination of two Jensen alnico speakers up top with two Mesa designed Eminence ceramic speakers below. It's a fairly compact package that looks great in the stock blonde and tan. A pretty nice gig pack, although at $1750 I might take the Joneser's advice, be patient, and wait for a used one.

so that's a quick run down of the quot;first annualquot; LA Amp Show

I know Jolly will be disappointed to hear that, despite Joe's gracious invitation to stick around for some of Anna's Famous Flautas, I had to hit the road for the 3 hour trip back home

cheers

i am REALLY interested in those menatone pedals, plus all those zvex pedals there made me wanna drool. What can you tell us about the menatone's GJ?


Originally Posted by CurlyI know Jolly will be disappointed to hear that, despite Joe's gracious invitation to stick around for some of Anna's Famous Flautas, I had to hit the road for the 3 hour trip back home

cheers

Curly, those Flautas would have been the icing on the cake, combined with Anna's out of this world pico and Joe's guac. That is a damn fine meal. Hell, the couch is fairly comfy too, for the 3 hours I actually slept on it.

haha, Jeff ..
GJ said Jolly had tears in his eyes, 'cause the flautas were so good. I thought maybe it was the hot sauce.

Wow, if we had not just had the UGD, I'd have been there. Maybe next year.

Was Two Rock anywhere to be found? How about Fuchs? Anyone have a list of who was there?

Wait, I'll go check the Gear Page. Those amp ho's will have 250,000 words up by now.

Scott,
no Fuchs or Two Rocks
no Bad Cat company, although Truetone Music had several of their amps

here's the Amp Show page, with a list of exhibitors:
from : localhost/www.ampshow.com/

Joneser and Curly-thnx for the great update, info, pictures, reviews, and websites. you guys are awsome!-hopefully nextyear I can make it to the next show and hook up with you guys.

We didn't see Bogner, Diezel, Fuchs, Two Rock, Soldano, or Komet, which was surprising, but Miles Rose told Curly and I that a lot of amp companies didn't even know about the event!.....probably too busy making amps, and not reading FAXes.

I sat at the Menatone pedalboard, and switched from one pedal to the next. I'm pretty decisive with OD pedals, so I just pointed at the Fish Factory and said quot;that's the one.quot;

Those new Vox amps are the answer to all Vox fan's requests for more features. Take my word for it, the Vox's will be the amp of the year next year. When you can buy a new AC-30 for $1000 and the head for $850, and they sound better than the Marshall Handwired's.......yes, they're gonna sell!! I feel guilty saying it, since I'd hate to see other amp companies outsourcing to China, but the fact is, they're the coolest Vox's to date, and have updated features on the back panel! Also, the new Vox overdrive and Dist was pretty killer too.

The Orange 'Rocker' series amps have a great gain channel, so you'll be seeing a lot more of these amongst rock/metal players.

The Stilletto is the best sounding highgain Mesa, IMO. Much tighter and better sustain than Rectos. Those will be a big hit this year! Same with the updated Lone Stars, which come with EL-84's or 6L6's.

The most interesting piece of gear at the show was Aspen Pitman of GT's new stereo cab! Engineering genious! It looked kinda like a Leslie speaker with two bottom speakers facing directly into each other, and a top speaker facing outward. I think a separate motor moves them in and out, and side to side. The effect is a stereo spread that still sounds stereo, even though you could be 50 feet away!!! That was the most mind boggling piece I saw all day. I wish I'd gotten a good picture of it, but I'm sure you can see it on the GT site.

Can someone tell me how many amp companies Matchless founder, Mark Sampson, is going to create in his life??? He started Matchless, Bad Cat, Speedster?, and now Star. One funny story is that Curly and I were standing there watching a guy demo these expensive little Star amps, and some dufus puts his foot up on the amp while he was playing. I woulda had a stroke if it were my amp!! Mark got a nervous look on his face, but didn't say anything......the man obviously has patience with potential customers!!! LOL