Peavey Valve King
Guitar

52 Amplifier Heads, week 29—Peavey ValveKing Micro-head

I’ll be honest. I’ve been looking forward to writing this week’s article. I know weeks in advance for the most part what the upcoming amplifier will be in this weekly series of 52 Amplifiers. Knowing that week 29 is finally here is rewarding because I finally get to write about the Peavey ValveKing Micro-head. The reason I’m excited is that I’ve wanted a Peavey amplifier for almost as long as I’ve been playing guitar. That is a long time and a lot of things happened along the way. I’ve always known however that I’d get around to purchasing a Peavey eventually. This may be that time. … 52 Amplifier Heads, week 29—Peavey ValveKing Micro-head

Traynor Darkhorse
Guitar

52 Amplifier Heads, week 28—Traynor Dark Horse 15H

As I write this week’s entry in the 52 Amplifiers article series many fellow Queenslanders will be watching the State of Origin series. If you’re unsure what any of that means, never fear. All you need to know is that the State of Origin is a sporting event that I’m not interested in. Having said that, I figured I’d try to tackle this week’s Blog post with as many football innuendos as possible. Tying in these innuendos to the Traynor DH15H shouldn’t be too hard really. You see, the DH in DH15H stands for Dark Horse which is exactly what New South Wales was before the State of Origin began. … 52 Amplifier Heads, week 28—Traynor Dark Horse 15H

Joyo Ultimate Drive pedal
Guitar

Joyo Ultimate Drive (as recorded unprofessionally by me)

Recently I accepted a challenge—foolishly most likely—set by a couple of my fellow guitar addicted Twitter friends (let’s call them Peter and the Baron). The challenge was to produce a video that showcased one of the guitar pedals we owned. We had a finite time to produce the video as well. The challenge was flawed from the start. It was flawed because I realised after accepting the challenge that I’d never miked an amp before. Plus I don’t have a great YouTube presence. That’s primarily because I have no idea how to edit video properly. Oh, I’m also not a confident guitar player/sharer. Apart from that though, the challenge was easy!

Having said all of that. I’d do it again. … Joyo Ultimate Drive (as recorded unprofessionally by me)

Dialtone Pickups Six Scary Questions
Guitar

Six scary questions—Dialtone Pickups

The six scary questions series continues with these new questions and answers that the awesome people at Dialtone Pickups agreed to make happen. Well, I made the questions happen. They made the answers happen. You know how these things work. Perhaps what you don’t know is who Dialtone Pickups is? Perhaps you don’t know what they have on offer? Perhaps you don’t know how six scary questions equates to seven questions. Many of these questions will be answered below. Enjoy the learning.

You’re welcome. … Six scary questions—Dialtone Pickups

Corso Suhr 5
Guitar

52 Amplifier Heads, week 26—Suhr Corso 5

At the halfway mark of this series of bedroom friendly all-tube amplifier heads, I thought I’d step it up a notch. I’m sure many followers have been thinking that the longer this series went on, the weaker the amplifier quality would get. I may have thought that too when I first started this series—52 amplifiers heads from 52 different manufacturers is a big ask. But not today. Not at the halfway mark. No, with a 5 watt amplifier head from Suhr, I think this series is alive and kicking. It also helps that the Corso 5 is a sexy looking amp head. … 52 Amplifier Heads, week 26—Suhr Corso 5

DV Mark Galileo 15
Guitar

52 Amplifier Heads, week 25—DV Mark Galileo 15

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. … 52 Amplifier Heads, week 25—DV Mark Galileo 15

Amplifiers

52 Amplifier Heads, week 24—Randall Diavlo RD5H

After 24 weeks of researching what will be the first tube amplifier head I am destined to purchase, I thought it was time to revisit my needs. What am I after exactly? A tube head obviously. But what are the specifics? Basically, they are this:

  • Low wattage for home use
  • Ability to produce brutal metal tones

As you can see, my needs are simple. But what I’m really after is something that provides more metal tones than anything else. I want a built-in metal tone that I can expand upon with my pedal farm. I want an amplifier head that looks metal because it is metal. Hello Randall Diavlo RD5H. … 52 Amplifier Heads, week 24—Randall Diavlo RD5H

Amplifiers

52 Amplifier Heads, week 23—Laney Cub Head

Plenty of guitar gear seems to come out of the United Kingdom (UK). A lot of it seems to be seriously good too. Must be all the hours they have to spend inside on account of the terrible weather. Whatever the reason, I’m glad. It makes my ongoing search for a tube amplifier head easier. I just search for something like guitar amplifier manufacturer UK and discover companies like Laney. Then I peruse their website and before you know it, Bam! Laney Cub head. Perfect. … 52 Amplifier Heads, week 23—Laney Cub Head

Reviews

Amaryllis release Revolt (in the most positive way)

Social media can be awesome. For example, there’s this cool website called Strumm (it’s all about guitars) that I initially came across on Twitter. I discovered this epic winning guy called Dan there. He plays guitar in a band called Amaryllis. As you can see, before I knew it I had gone from Twitter, to Strumm, back to Twitter and eventually on to the BandCamp site for Amaryllis. It was there that I discovered some truly amazing music.

Social media for the win! … Amaryllis release Revolt (in the most positive way)