I like to every now and then come across something that looks simple, but has more to it than meets the eye. A bit like a Transformer really. Having said that, I don’t want an amp head that turns into a small robot with a mind of its own. That would be too much to deal with when you wanted to play guitar.
“Get back here and sit on the cabinet! Stop trying to save the world!”
Luckily the DV Mark Galileo 15 doesn’t appear to turn into anything other than the all-tube packed amplifier it starts off as. But it does have a lot more tube action than I’d have expected for a small amplifier head. That’s exactly the level of surprise I’m comfortable with.
So how many tubes are in this head exactly? Five it seems. Two for the preamps and three for the power amps. That’s a fair amount. I like that. Another surprise—for me at least—was that this amplifier is made in Italy. An amp not made in the USA or UK. It seems countries that don’t start their name with a U can also make amplifiers. Good to know.
Anyhow, official list of features time!
- 15 watts
- 2 x ECC83 preamp tubes
- 2 x EL84 and 1 x ECC83 power amp tubes
- Gain and Master knobs
- Bass, Middle and High knobs
- Boost control (on/off push button)
- Speaker outputs for 4 ohm and 8 ohm
What’s missing is an effect loop. That’s a shame. Not a shame, shame, shame though (because there’s no loop). You get where I’m going there I hope.
Of course, there’s the sound quality component of any good amp. Videos online seem to suggest this amp sounds pretty good. There’s this good little demo video that showcases the different tones you can get from one setting on the amplifier just using the different pickups on your guitar. Not that I do that a lot. Guitar Interactive Magazine also did a very good video review of the DV Mark Galileo 15. In that video you’ll hear a lot of tonal variety from this amp head.
It sounds cool right? I think it looks cool also. It’s all black and it has an awesome metal grill design. 15 watts, plenty of tubes and a heap of tone. I like!
Disclaimer: I’ve not played through this head. I have not experienced the sound or tone of this head other than through video. That doesn’t matter. It looks awesome, it’s obviously played by winners and I want one.