software

I visited my friend, Todd at today, after his invitation to check out his favorite new amp, the Fargen VOS. Todd has an Ebay warehouse/recording studio in West Los Angeles, and also has a nice collection of amps...a ton of killer Marshalls. I brought over my LP Prem Plus with 50th Anniversary Seth Lovers.

My impression of the amp is this....imagine a 50W PTP Plexi with a tube rectifier, and the absolute perfect volume level....70% of a reissue plexi. It's a single channel dual EL-34 amp that has a mastervolume, gain, bass, mid, treble, presence, and reverb that's bypassable. My first thoughts were 'this thing is Billy Gibbons soul.' There's no way you can play blues/bluesrock on the amp without hearing every ZZ Top album from the First Album to Mescalero...it does it all. Thick, growly, wide, greasy, and just badass! Even when dimed, it keeps it's composure, and the higher the gain is, the more it moves toward the VH Unchained tone. If you consider a Splawn to be the VH tone because of it's tightness, then the VOS is the ZZ Top tone, due to it's chewy goodness at highgain settings. It also cleans up very nice with the guitar's volume, but has a nice clean Hendrixy voice with the master high and the gain low.

All in all, it's an amp for a serious tone connoisseur, who goes for Gary Moore to Billy Gibbons tones, and it doesn't come cheap. Ben Fargen is a believer in stripped down tone machines, not bells'n'whistles, so you've got to know that the $2150 price tag is for supreme bluesrock tone for the guy who wants something better than Marshall has ever produced.....and I mean ever!
Most Marshall-style amps that are PTP don't come with reverb, because it's difficult to design into those circuits. Fargen did it, and it's a mastervolume amp that doesn't sound like one....it's really that good. It's a little bit saggier than you'd want for a metal amp, but for EL-34 blues to the best ZZ Top, Black Crowes, early VH, and Warren Haynes tones, it's the Cadillac!
from : localhost/fargenamps.com/vos.html

I heard the clips on the Fargen site a few weeks ago and was sold, unfortunately I'm afraid the dutch Fargen dealer asks a bit more than they're going for in the US

This looks to be pretty, Fargen awesome!

Thanks GJ, you're making it harder for me to wait for my Epic 30 DC to be repaired and upgraded thanks to UPS wrecking it Only consolation I have is that I have a feeling I'll be one very happy person when it does arrive.

What really sold me on Fargen amps was not only the clarity, response and vibe, but the customer service is pretty top notch. Ben's an absolute great guy to deal with! He's nailed quite a few key vintage tones out there with his amps and from what I've gathered, if you can dream it, he can pretty much do it.

Lotta dough, but one bada$$ amp!

Look forward to your reviews Chris...........

Jonesy, you live a semi-charmed kinda life my friend

I remember that amp from the L A Amp Show. Very impressive.

here's another pic from that thread, with Ben Fargen playing the VOS:
$2k is not a lot for an amp. Consider what we spend on a guitar, or a half dozen effects pedals...whatever. How about selling a 57' RI like someone recently did to purchase a camera?

For the tone we are all after, $2k is not an unreasonable investment.

And considerring what you're getting, you're right......it's still a lot of dough though

There was a guy selling a VOS over on The Gear Page that looks just like the one in the picture Curly posted***EDIT: Sale pending on that one....$2000 shipping for the head amp; matching 1x12 cab !!!!!!!!!!!Who are we kidding? Jonesy will find one at a yard sale for a buck-fitty

You have just described an amp that would suit me perfectly.

I saw that on the website a couple weeks back..looks bad@$$

I can say Fargen has got THE classic marshall tones down-pat. The Mini-PLex I played was just incredible.

Sorta OT re: the SPlawn...yeah it does the later (1984-ish) VH tones very, very well..i.e., tight...but VH1 isn't tight sounding to me at all?...it's def late 60's plexi...a little flubby on the bottom and top end...(nothing wrong with that, just making an observation). Not sure what the diff is really..cos I was under the impressiion it was the same amp..but something DEF changed as he progressed past VH1...pickups perhaps..or the addition of the Floyd..or both...who knows with Eddie

Two words are haunting me....quot;Chewy Goodnessquot;Joe, you have a way with tone words.


Originally Posted by Scott_FTwo words are haunting me....

quot;Chewy Goodnessquot;

Joe, you have a way with tone words.

quot;Jones knows tones.quot;

GearJoneser: quot;Amplifier Motivational Speaker!quot; I gotta bit of a tone problem, but Iquot;M WORKING ON IT!





I swear, if I knew how to build amps, I would name them funny names that describe the sound.

Wallbreaker 100
Nutkicker 50
B!tchslap 30


Joe, maybe I should ask permission to use your name ideas!

I want a Joneser B!tchslap 30 !!!!

Comes with a complimentary quot;wife beaterquot;

hahaha, the The Wife Beater should be an OD pedal that's got a white sleevless undershirt painted on it, with gravy stains! Now we're talkin!!!

I'll name the amp company 'White Trash Amps' hahaha

Can I call my JTM 45 clone, the Nutkicker 45?


Originally Posted by Scott_FCan I call my JTM 45 clone, the Nutkicker 45?

certainly no one will get it confused with anything else out there

It's all yours. You're way ahead of me, when it comes to the nutz and bolts of amps, so I'd be honored! haha