Leaderboard

I love old amps, I own some really nice vintage amps, and I have access to many great old ones. But I don't think they sound any better than a well built modern amp. I have a TopHat Club Deluxe that pretty much can hang with any amp that I've ever played. I'm in the middle of an extended recording project with my band, and we've recorded about 20 songs and not once did I turn on a vintage amp. It's mostly my TopHat, because to me, the TopHat sounds as a good as an amp can sound. The combination of my Telecaster (a partscaster that I built) and that TopHat is the sound that I've always chased, but could never get... till now that is. And my handbuilt (handwired) Marshall style amp that my buddy Ryan built beats the pants of off of any vintage Marshall I've played. It's the only other amp I've used besides my TopHat on the project. I've owned a few vintage Marshalls, but I got rid of them all. I will never sell the one I have now. Most everytime I plug into it I come up with something musical. Also my buddy owns two perfectly maintained tweed 5E3 Deluxes and another pre 5E3 Deluxe and they all sound great and a bit different, yet my Clark Beauford amp to me sounds as good as any of these tweeds, I think we are in a amp renaissance with many builders building some of the best amps ever made. I think there are amp builders out there now that have cracked the code of the originals, but you'll pay through the nose for some of the best ones:) Now I'm not saying there aren't any great vintage amps out there, because I've heard and played through a bunch of great ones. Recently I heard an early 60'd VOX AC10 that was just magic and had a sound I've never heard in a modern amp, but I don't know many of the modern Vox style builders.