If you want an amp that provides amazing tone, great distortion, and more, you want the Mack Heatseeker 18 Combo Hardwire Boutique Tube Amp. This amp features some amazing overdrive, and its preamp signal throws out some of the most natural yet complex distortion and crunch. You can get anything from amazingly clean tones to incredibly distorted sounds at full volume. The Heatseeker 18 is very flexible and features some unique features.
The most unique feature is the Character switch. This gives you even more tone options since it allows you to adjust the bass and gain output. The switch has three options. Set it to Hot and you’ll get some very warm, rich tones with a medium gain. Move to the Burn setting and you get high gain with classic distortion and crunch. The Melt mode is all about the big bottom and roaring distortions. It has the highest gain. It’s very easy to switch between these modes, and each has something to offer. Add in the overdrive and distortion pedals and you’ve gone one amazing amp.
The Mack Heatseeker 18 uses one12AX7 tube for preamp and a second for the phase inverter. Two EL84s produce the amp’s 18 watts of energy. In addition to the character switch, the amp features tone and volume controls. It’s completely hand made and hand wired, too.
Robert Keeley, the man behind the many great Keeley pedals, has once again created a great pedal with the Keeley Boss BD-2 Blues Driver Overdrive Pedal. If you’re looking for a pedal that has that great boutique quality but is available at a mass produced price, then this is the pedal for you. The secret to this amazing pedal is closely guarded by Keeley himself, and you won’t find another pedal that’s quite like it.
The Keeley Boss DB-2 provides many of the features that a fuzz pedal would give you, but it also features some very smooth overdrive tones as well. The pedal also features transparency; in fact, many say that its transparency and overdrive tones have yet to be matched by any other pedal out there! The dynamics of the pedal are integrated with your guitar’s volume knob, and this volume comes blasting out. Because it can be incredibly loud and provide big output, the Keeley handles clean boost amazingly well. The pedal covers a number of genres, including the blues (obviously, as the name implies) but also rock and country. If you want to get rid of that screamer and free up your pedal board, the Keeley Boss BD-2 Blues Driver Overdrive Pedal is exactly what you need. It retails for around $149 (if you can find one in stock), which isn’t horribly expensive. (more...)
If you’re looking for one of the rarest boutique amps around, you need look no farther than the Zinky MOFO Guitar boutique amp. This amp is very, very rare. In fact, there were only 100 of them ever made. Each Zinky MOFO amp is numbered, so you know exactly where in the production line each individual amp fell. You can also find out if the Zinky MOFO amp you have is an original or a cheap knock-off by this number, too. Bruce Zinky, the man behind this amazing amp, has stated that no more of them will ever be made. This means there are only 100 of these amps in the world, and if you have the chance to buy one, don’t even think about it—grab it.
The Zinky MOFO boutique amp uses two 6L6 tubes for power, and it uses up to 60 watts to create some amazing sounds. The mofo channel pumps out some great crunchy sounds that are very organic in character. If you switch over to the retro gain channel, you’ll get a different type of crunchy tone. In the clean channel, you’ll hear that great, full sound. The Zinky MOFO has absolutely no digital parts at all, and every inch of the amp is hand wired and hand built.
One of the great things about the Zinky MOFO is that it’s a very versatile amp. It can handle any playing style, and it’s small enough to be carried just about anywhere. However, even though it’s small and fairly light, it’s not a quiet amp at all!
The price for a Zinky isn’t cheap—you’d be lucky if you find one for around $2,000. (more...)
The Ibanez TS9DX Turbo Tube Screamer is more than just a standard tube screamer. Instead, it takes this basic concept and greatly improves on it. It features three different overdrive modes that allow you to completely control the low end. You’ll find this pedal provides warmer tones than previous pedals, and its new modes (+, Turbo, and Hot) do more than you’d ever imagine.
The TS9DX Turbo Tube Screamer hit the scene in 1998 when John Lomas created the pedal at the request of Ibanez. The company wanted a tube screamer with several different output and distortion modes. To that end, you’ll find more than just the standard tone, drive, and level knobs on this pedal. It also includes a four position switch for modes. These modes include the classic TS9 mode which is no different from older TS9 pedals. Then there’s the + mode, which provides grittier tones than the TS9. Switch over to Hot mode, and you’ve got great crunchier tones that include a boosted mid-range. Finally, the Turbo mode gives you great thick bottom sounds that modern and alternative rock players love.
The TS9DX also features several sets of clipping diodes that are activated by the mode knob and several tone capacitors. These capacitors are used on the new mini-boards that also function with the mode knob. All of these features are bundled onto a very classic-looking pedal that is really quite reasonably priced: you can pick up a TS9DX Turbo Tube Screamer for $109. (more...)
The Richter Supra-Luxe 5E3 Tweed Deluxe 30W Boutique Amp is a narrow panel, 30 watt amp that is great for gigs since it can offer a nice amount of volume. It has very clean headroom and features some modifications over the original 5E3 Deluxe model, but that doesn’t mean it’s lost any of the reasons why that amp was such a hit. Instead, this newer version builds on everything that made the original great. It uses a circuit that’s based on the 5E3 circuit that was used back in the late 1950s. Every part in this amp is top quality and rated excellent or better.
The Richter Supra-Luxe 5E3 uses four different types of tubes. It has one 12AT7, one 12AX7, one GZ34, and two SED Winged C 6L6GC tubes. As far as speakers go, it uses a twelve inch Jensen Jet Electric Lightening speaker. This gives the amp a great sound and amazing volume. As far as controls go, the 5E3 features two inputs, one for high input and one for low. Likewise, there are two bright inputs, high and low. The amp also has volume controls for normal volume and bright volume, plus a tone knob. (more...)
Looking for a pedal that has a number of different switches, a great amount of power, and more? Then check out the Homebrew Electronics Dos Mos MosFET Boost Pedal. This pedal, made at the Homebrew Electronics plant in Arizona, provides up to 30 decibels of boost for each of its channels. It’s also dual Mosfet pre-amp capable and has a few interesting functions that other pedals may not have.
The Dos Mos MosFET pedal features two different output channels: the first is the UNO channel that can be used to output your sound to an amp or can be shifted into Mode 1+2 output. The second channel, the DOS channel, also goes to the amp. A switch allows you to enable or by-pass the UNO and DOS channels completely (or enable/by-pass only one of them). You’ve also got separate controls for each channel that allows you to change the gain or boost for that channel. The UNO channel can also be set to pre-amp via a special toggle and can be used as an inverting buffer as well.
The pedal also has several different pre-amp options. In Mode ½, you have 2 differnet pre-amp channels. If you change it over to Mode 1+2, however, you get one pre-amp channel that cascades the UNO channel and the DOS channel. Note, though, that you have to be careful with the controls here. Set both to maximum and you may get some excessive noise. However, that doesn’t mean this pedal is worthless. In fact, with these unique modes, the Homebrew Electronics Dos Mos MosFET Boost Pedal has a lot to offer. (more...)
This amp features some amazing overdrive, and its preamp signal throws out some of the most natural yet complex distortion and crunch. You can get anything from amazingly clean tones to incredibly distorted sounds at full volume. The Heatseeker 18 is very flexible and features some unique features.
The secret to this amazing pedal is closely guarded by Keeley himself, and you won’t find another pedal that’s quite like it.
Each Zinky MOFO amp is numbered, so you know exactly where in the production line each individual amp fell. You can also find out if the Zinky MOFO amp you have is an original or a cheap knock-off by this number, too. Bruce Zinky, the man behind this amazing amp, has stated that no more of them will ever be made. This means there are only 100 of these amps in the world, and if you have the chance to buy one, don’t even think about it—grab it.
You’ll find this pedal provides warmer tones than previous pedals, and its new modes (+, Turbo, and Hot) do more than you’d ever imagine.
It has very clean headroom and features some modifications over the original 5E3 Deluxe model, but that doesn’t mean it’s lost any of the reasons why that amp was such a hit. Instead, this newer version builds on everything that made the original great. It uses a circuit that’s based on the 5E3 circuit that was used back in the late 1950s. Every part in this amp is top quality and rated excellent or better.
It’s also dual Mosfet pre-amp capable and has a few interesting functions that other pedals may not have.