NY Amp show

[midwayfair]

Went to the amp show this weekend ...

Most innovative things I saw:
Phantom Powered Pedals -- they draw power from the amp through TRS cables, so you don't need a power source for your board. You can daisy chain 9v power from a pedal that's already got the phantom power (whether it's one they made or a modded pedal) to other pedals on your board. There's also a power brick type thing that can be first in your chain from the amp and power the rest of your pedals. It's a really cool idea, but I do worry about just how expensive the cabling is -- I personally know just how unbelievably difficult it is to get shielded 6" and 1' patch TRS cables.

In the same room was Milbert Amps with their Gaga - it's a 9lb tube amp with no transformer. It sounds amazing. The builders brought a drummer and bassist with them, and people were jamming all weekend. I think Premier Guitar filmed a lot of material from their room, so I'd look for a video from them soon.

It sounded excellent. It takes every power and preamp tube you can think of, is "unblowable," and has power scaling. http://milbert.com/gaga

I was really, really impressed with this. Almost everyone at the Amp show is chasing classic unobtainium sounds to appeal to aging tone geeks. This was much more like the kind of stuff I'd expect at NAMM.

A couple things that might be of interest to fans of Fender-y:
Erik Ruhmann of MOXIE AMPLIFICATION has a "JB-18" amp with bias-modulated trem, 6V6s, blackface tone knobs, reverb, and both master volume and tone knobs. It sounded beautiful -- it could get as bright as my imperial and the volume controls were very nice. He makes really nice looking wood cabinets, and the price ($1700 list, I think?) seemed pretty good for what you were getting.

He had a couple other neat amps - a simple Vox/Marhall hybrid with just a couple knobs and an "Uber-champ" 7-watt one-knob device with a *6L6* instead of a 6V6 (I wasn't a huge fan of this and found it a little dark even with a tele, but everyone else in the group I was with loved it).

And

VVT had a Lindy Fralin II that had sold by the time we got there, but he let me plug into it for a couple minutes. VVT's pretty close to home for me, and everything he makes is really good. I really liked this amp, but apparently the Fralin I with an upgraded larger transformer is godly, so I'd like to hear that.

Other stuff:
East Amps has a 10-inch version of his 2-watt amp. It's a lot of output and punch for its size and sounds very cool. The organizer for the NY Amp show liked it so much that, when he was doing the T shirt givaways and talking up East Amps, he ended up keeping the shirt. I think making that big of an impression on the organizer of the amp show says a lot about Jeff's engineering skills.

And finally, my friend bought a Goodsell Valpreaux while he was there. It's basically the 17-watter with an obscure output tube. A little creamier and slightly higher output (~22 watts?). Weighs 29lb. Maybe now that he's got a grab-and-go amp we can get him back out of the house and playing!

A lot of the amp builders were very up front about ways they've managed to cut some costs in the recession. There was some overseas work being done on cabinets, sourcing issues (especially reverb tanks), and some other stuff. But to my ears, the builders I was familiar with didn't have to sacrifice anything soundwise.

So that's my adventure.

Sorry I don't have clips or photos. I just didn't think to take the camera when I was heading out the door at 6:30am.

[riffmeister]

Originally Posted by midwayfair

VVT had a Lindy Fralin II that had sold by the time we got there, but he let me plug into it for a couple minutes. VVT's pretty close to home for me, and everything he makes is really good. I really liked this amp, but apparently the Fralin I with an upgraded larger transformer is godly, so I'd like to hear that.

I've had two Fralins, one with 'regular' iron and one with Big Iron. Oh man, the Big Iron amp is incredibly nice!!

[FourThirtyTwo]

Great write-up. Thanks. Really appreaciated!

[MilbertCom]

Dave G brought his Tascam and recorded pretty much all weekend. Bunch of jams/songs and clips up or coming
http://milbert.com/gaga#clips

[midwayfair]

Originally Posted by MilbertCom

Dave G brought his Tascam and recorded pretty much all weekend. Bunch of jams/songs and clips up or coming
http://milbert.com/gaga#clips

Oh! the Pigtronix guys did a demo using the Gaga. I forgot to mention in my writeup that they were very helpful explaining all the pedal functions and did very good demos. (Their new looper was very cool, too.)

Edit: Any idea were the guys playing around 3:30 on Sunday? One of them had a beard and I've seen him before, but I don't know his name.

[Structo]

Is the Gaga in production yet?

[stratovarius]

Originally Posted by midwayfair

(Their new looper was very cool, too.)

I would have liked to have seen that, but they closed shop early.

[Sirloin]

Originally Posted by midwayfair

Almost everyone at the Amp show is chasing classic unobtainium sounds to appeal to aging tone geeks.

totally sig worthy

[Sirloin]

Looked at website....uh, just put the price on the site....jeeze

[onemind]

Nice to see a positive review of the show in general.

[scottl]

Had sooo much fan playing with Andy Aledort. What a great player and person! A real honor getting to play with him.

Amp sounded great and I look forward to hearing the clip. Awesome that you guys recorded it. Any video?

Btw, my web link is scottlernermusic.com. For the clip on the link...

Again, thanks for the hospitality!

Originally Posted by MilbertCom

Dave G brought his Tascam and recorded pretty much all weekend. Bunch of jams/songs and clips up or coming
http://milbert.com/gaga#clips

[scottl]

Ooh, one more thing... sunday eve blue is me too....

Originally Posted by MilbertCom

Dave G brought his Tascam and recorded pretty much all weekend. Bunch of jams/songs and clips up or coming
http://milbert.com/gaga#clips

[FourThirtyTwo]

Originally Posted by MilbertCom

Dave G brought his Tascam and recorded pretty much all weekend. Bunch of jams/songs and clips up or coming
http://milbert.com/gaga#clips

Andy Aledort was there !? Holy effing sheeeit.

Meeting that guy would have been worth paying the $20 alone.

[scottl]

How about jamming with him for a half hour? Trading licks back and forth? He is really cool too.

What a treat! Really dug it and he can really play! He even busted out some fusiony moves.

Btw, he was so gracious that he jammed with lots of folks....

Originally Posted by FourThirtyTwo

Andy Aledort was there !? Holy effing sheeeit.

Meeting that guy would have been worth paying the $20 alone.

[midwayfair]

Originally Posted by FourThirtyTwo

Andy Aledort

Ahhh. That's who I was talking about. Dude was amazing and always looks like he's having fun.

scottl was really good, too. Straight to amp with a tele; it was awesome.